30,000 Texans Shared Their Homes To Travelers Last Year: 'It's Been Good Extra Income'
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Revealing new numbers show for the first time how big the home-sharing industry has become in North Texas.
During 2018 in Dallas, the number of people using Airbnbs increased 70 percent from 2017 accordingly to San Francisco-based company.
They say it's up 110 percent in Collin County and 90 percent in both Denton and Tarrant counties.
Some cities and neighborhoods don't like them but they are having a growing impact on the North Texas economy.
Steffanie Shepherd hangs clean towels, fluffs bed pillows and wipes down counters before her guests arrive on Thursday.
Guests she's never met will in her McKinney home.
"We try to treat everyone like family that comes here," she said.
Shepherd and her husband have the most popular Airbnb in McKinney according to travel data.
"It's been good extra income," she said. "Now we're pretty much paying for our house, our mortgage payment and our utilities."
Shepherd said the couple makes between $3,000 to $4,000 a month from renting the guest house above their garage and two other bedrooms in the house where they live.
Families like the Shepherds are among 30,000 Texans sharing their homes to travelers making an average of $6,800 per year.
The first in-depth numbers released by Airbnb show $64 million generated last year in North Texas alone by 460,000 guests.
Some cities like Grapevine and Hurst have tried to ban Airbnbs while other cities like Coppell have adopted strict regulations.
There are no regulations in McKinney where the Shepherds have their home. But the city says its considering the idea.
The Shepherd's say the maintenance and cleaning takes work, but the revenue is paying their mortgage.
Airbnb says it paid $15.3 million in state taxes in 2017.
That amount is expected to be higher when the company calculates its 2018 taxes.
