A 32-year-old with 2 Airbnbs says his key to success was hiring a 'cohost' who takes care of all the hard work. Here's how he makes $2,000 a month in passive revenue. (2024)

In an interview with Insider, he said he started offering the apartments as short-term rentals on Airbnb after finding it difficult to make good returns through standard, longer-term rentals in a big city.

"The purchase prices are really high, but the rent there is usually too low to get a proportionate return," he said.

"With Airbnb, you can earn three times what you earn with other rental apartments in one month."

Müller's rentals make around 2,000 euros a month through renting the apartments on Airbnb.

He said he took out a loan to finance the apartments, of which he now pays off around 400 euros every month. After deducting all the costs, he ends up with about 800 euros in profit, he added.

One of the disadvantages of using Airbnb, Müller said, was that the apartments require more management.

A tenant staying for a few years is pretty simple, he said. But with Airbnb, tenants change over much more frequently, so there's a lot more to do. You have to take care of cleaning, communicate with both the outgoing and incoming tenants, and create new adverts for the apartments, he said.

"I wanted to find out if I could automate that process so that it required less effort," Müller said.

His solution was to outsource the work, hiring a "cohost" to manage the apartments and giving them 20% of the rental revenue.

Müller said it's not a small share, but it was "definitely worth it" as he doesn't have to put any work into the apartments anymore.

"The income is now completely passive, I have nothing to do with it," Müller said. But he emphasized that he did have to put in a lot of work at first to get to this point and that he made a big initial investment to get the venture going.

Unlike normal rentals, Airbnb listings need to be fully furnished and equipped with all the appropriate facilities.

"That doesn't just mean furniture, but also things like kitchens and dishes," Müller said.

He said it was important to think carefully about all the things tenants would need. He advised spending a night in the apartment yourself and cooking in the kitchen to help you realize if anything is missing.

Müller said he furnished each apartment differently so that they would appeal to different types of people.

He had one of the apartments professionally furnished, while the other property was filled with "simpler furniture," he said.

"With both apartments, I was able to reach two different target groups, even though both apartments are the same size," he added.

The professionally furnished apartment cost a high four-figure amount, he said, while the other was a low four-figure sum.

He added that it's important to hire cleaning staff that you can trust. "You can't go in every time it's been cleaned to see if the job was done well," Müller said.

At his apartments, the guests pay the 39 euro cleaning fee, he added.

He also said that achieving Airbnb's "superhost" status is one of the most important steps to succeeding on the platform.

"A lot of guests filter by that," he said.

According to Airbnb's website, to become a superhost, a host needs to have a response rate of at least 90%, a cancellation rate of 1% or lower, have had 10 completed stays or three long-term stays totaling at least 100 nights, and a minimum rating of 4.8 stars out of five.

"Good reviews and five-star ratings are really important," Müller said.

If you do get bad feedback, you should fix whatever problem the guest had as soon as possible, he added.

If someone makes a complaint that is beyond your ability to fix — such as the area being too noisy — your listing should also be open about it in the future, he said.

"I think you should always be proactive and put something like that in the listing. Don't hide it," he added.