With so many ways to make money from home, earning money from your backyard could be the easiest one.
Today, we explore yet another unique side hustle—renting your backyard. Just like renting your home or room with Airbnb, you can also rent your backyard to dog owners.
Sniffspot is the company that allows you to do this without much effort. Right from listing your space to communicating with the dog owners, everything is made very easy through Sniffspot.
Here’s a little about how Sniffspot was started from its founder, David Adams:
How did you start Sniffspot? Tell us about the story behind this.
Sniffspot came from my own problem. My partner and I have two dogs. I used to take one of our dogs, Soba, to the dog park, but we always had bad experiences there with it being dirty or full of unfriendly dogs. Meanwhile my partner Rebecca traveled with our dog Toshii extensively. She said, I wish I had an app to find places to let Toshii play while I was traveling.
We looked around Seattle, and we saw all this open land and unused yards, so we thought why not try to be Airbnb for off-leash dog areas. We posted about it on Facebook and over 1,000 people interacted with it, so we put up a website, and it’s been growing ever since then!
What is the best feature of Sniffspot for hosts?
The best thing about Sniffspot for hosts is that hosts can help dogs and earn passive income at the same time. Everyone wants to help dogs. And most people wouldn’t mind passive income. The cool thing about Sniffspot is that the host doesn’t have to do any work; they can just let people use their yard and make money.
It’s a lot better than many other gigs that pay by the hour or by the task. We have some hosts earning over $1,000 per month.
In what cities is Sniffspot available now? Do you plan to extend to other places?
We are available worldwide. We have spots all over the US and Canada and in countries around the world!
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- How to Become a Home Stager – Expert Interview with Debra Gould
- Why You Need to Have a Side Hustle
Want to know more?
Here is a detailed interview about making money in your backyard from a successful Sniffspot host:
Please tell us about yourself and how you became aware of Sniffspot? How did you get started?
I’m Preston Chovanak, and I’m currently a student at EvCC. I heard about Sniffspot through some ads it was running about wanting new hosts. Over at Black Pond Farm, we have a lot of trails and access to a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reserve, so I thought why not check it out? After I looked over what was needed to start the Sniffspot, I just went ahead and signed up; it was super simple.
What is the procedure for becoming a host on Sniffspot? Are there any prerequisites?
In order to be a host with Sniffspot, all you have to do is make your listing, and then fill out the form on Sniffspot’s website. It’ll ask for some basic information on the Sniffspot, for a way to contact you, and it gives you the option to upload pictures of your Sniffspot right then.
I actually had people booking before our parking and instruction signs showed up! People were booking shortly after I put the Sniffspot up; I didn’t even have a review yet.
What are the best features of being a Sniffspot host?
Some of the best parts of being a host on Sniffspot are
1) Ability to share our property and trails with anyone who wants to use them
2) Getting feedback from the guests on what they’d like to see at our spot and what they liked
3) Just having the opportunity to make passive income easily through Sniffspot itself
How much money do you make per month as a host?
How much you make per month depends on the weather, holidays, etc. For my full month slots, it’s always been at least $530 total after Sniffspot’s portion is accounted for.
Are there any costs involved in this side hustle? Do you provide anything else to the dog owners like pet toys, water buckets, etc.?
There don’t have to be extra costs related to Sniffspot itself. However, if you are trying to make your Sniffspot more fun for the guests, you can purchase various items for them to use at your spot.
At my place, we always keep a couple of dry towels, bug sprays, a clean water bucket, and some toys, for example. We keep them in a watertight bin by the trailhead next to the water bucket we refill before each guest arrives.
Do you have any tips for someone interested in becoming a host on Sniffspot?
For prospective Sniffspot hosts, I’d have to recommend uploading some good pictures to your listing, being very precise in describing the potential “hazards” at your Sniffspot, if any, and listening to your guests’ recommendations on what to add. The guests will know what they want to find at your specific Sniffspot!
I thank David and Preston for giving such a great insight into Sniffspot.
If earning money passively is your thing, then you must try Sniffspot and make money from your backyard.
