Ten years ago, I stayed in my first Airbnb. I rented a bedroom from a young couple in McKinney, Texas. My daughter lived outside of Dallas at the time, and her first day of school was on a Monday; there was no way in hell I would miss it. I didn’t want to pay over a hundred bucks for a hotel room, so I rolled the dice and booked a room in a random stranger’s house.
Airbnb was fairly new at that point, and the driving force behind the idea of the company was to provide affordable lodging for travelers. Back then, nearly all listings were for single rooms in an already inhabited home. Every so often, a listing would pop up for an entire house, but that was extremely rare. Like the suffixal acronym in the company’s name, Airbnb was simply a modern-day bed and breakfast meant to provide travelers with a comfortable atmosphere as they passed through town for a short visit. There was something charming about the idea of staying in a room in someone’s home and getting to know them during the stay.
In fact, I liked the idea of Airbnb SO MUCH that I became a host myself in 2015. I rented out one room in my house for 25 bucks and a three-night maximum stay. During that time, I also traveled to Dallas every weekend to exercise visitation with my daughter and watch her Saturday morning soccer games. There were nights I slept in my car in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Malvern, Arkansas, nights in a 35-dollar motel room in Texarkana where I had to pay a ten-dollar deposit for the remote, and one overnight trip on a Megabus from Memphis. I tried to find the most affordable way to travel on my trips as much as possible. I knew how much I would’ve appreciated an inexpensive night in a comfortable room, so I wanted to provide that option for people traveling through Jackson. With that in mind, I became the first Airbnb host in Jackson.
My first guests were a retired, elderly couple from Clarksville. They were in town for a family reunion and clearly couldn’t pass up a 25-dollar-a-night rate. While my motives were pure, my forethought was pretty damn cloudy.
The room I’d listed was right next to my bedroom, with only a door and wall separating the two. On the first night of their stay, I heard the ominous whirring of a machine in the next room just as I was closing my eyes. Then, I heard the rhythmic draw and hiss of mechanical breathing like Darth Vader himself had just laid down for a good night’s slumber. All night, the C-PAP machine of my temporary roommate ebbed and flowed with unearthly noises, keeping me awake most of that Saturday night. The next day, I looked forward to settling onto my couch and watching football all afternoon. After a quick and uninspired workout, I came home to find my living room – recliner and sofa specifically – occupied by my two dozing guests. I sighed sadly, walked to my bedroom, and stared at the ceiling for the next two hours.
After my inaugural guests left on a Monday morning, things started to settle down on the room rental front. I began to meet some fascinating people and hear stories about their lives. I met a man from San Francisco who was traveling the southern United States researching the Civil War. I hosted a musician from New York City who has gone on to have a semi-famous and self-sustaining career in the music business. Two women from Brooklyn stayed with me one night, passing through on their way to New Orleans. One was an editor for the Huffington Post; the other was a documentary filmmaker.
One Saturday afternoon in mid-December, I got a request for an “instant book.” I had attained that status as a host for being timely in my responses and receiving good reviews from guests. The request on this particular afternoon had a message attached to it. The guest would be arriving at the Greyhound station in Downtown Jackson and was asking if I could pick her up.
When I pulled up to the station, I found a woman in her early 30s visibly upset – masquera smeared, a look of panic on her face. She and her partner had traveled from Germany to tour some of the US. The trip had been okay, but they got into an argument in Nashville, and he abandoned her – left her there with nothing other than the money she had on her. This was her story.
She used some of the money to try and get to Memphis, where a family friend lived. She only made it to Jackson. Thankfully, she found an affordable room for rent in my home. She talked a little, drank a lot of my whiskey, and her friend drove up the next day to pick her up.
Not all my stories are that dramatic, but they all have a common thread – people traveling on the road and needing an affordable place to stay. I was always happy to provide that and lend an ear when necessary; the road can be a very lonely place.
As I continued to spend every other weekend in Texas, my time with my daughter was usually spent in a Hampton Inn or a Courtyard Marriott in a room with two double beds and a television. This setup was fine when she was little, but she was growing up, and everyone was needing a little more space on these weekend trips.
Through an earlier Airbnb connection I had made while traveling, I was able to strike up a friendship with a person who had previously rented me a room. She and her boyfriend both lived in the same town as my daughter and were spending most of their time at his house. This left her house open most weekends I was in town. She knew my situation and offered me her entire house for 50 dollars a night each weekend I was there. This home became a home for my daughter and me when I would exercise my parenting time in Texas.
My daughter had her own room and her own bathroom, and there were even two cats – Lucy and Ethel – that she could take care of while we were there. She invited friends over; we cooked meals in the kitchen. It was truly our home in Texas.
We lived in this Tennessee/Texas two-step for several years until we were told that the house where we had spent every other weekend was going on the market; my friend and her boyfriend were getting married and moving out of the country. On a cloudy morning in February, my daughter and I helped our friend move some heavy objects out of the house and took one last walk through it. It felt like our home, too, even though it wasn’t.
My daughter lives with me now in Jackson; she moved here in the summer of 2021. I haven’t been to Texas since then, but I think about it all the time.
I stopped renting the room in my house just before COVID hit, but things were changing even before that. And recently, Airbnb has been in the local news, illustrating just how much it has evolved since I naively started offering a 25-dollar room for a night.
Jackson is growing; there’s no denying that. And, when there is growth, there are financial advantages to be gained in the real estate market – rentals, to be specific.
Last week, a lot of people started getting upset when news broke that a committee of the City Council was discussing limiting Airbnb to only homes where the rental would be occurring within an already occupied property – basically, the way I would host an Airbnb.
Currently, in Jackson, there are over 200 Airbnb rentals available – a far cry from the total number of one in 2015. At least half of the 200 rentals are entire properties that are not adjacent to the host’s primary residence. While I’m in agreement that a property owner has the right to do what they want (within reason) with their property, I also believe there are needed parameters to rent out full residences on a short-term basis. Affordable housing and neighborhood consistency are the primary reasibs for my concerns.
I’ve never been on the Board of Directors for Airbnb; I don’t pretend to know their business model or the intent of their desired evolution when they started the company. I do know, however, that the spirit of what Airbnb was ten years ago is drastically different from what it is now.
I believe Airbnb can be an excellent asset for the community, but conversations need to be had. Neighborhoods need consistency; neighbors want to know who’s living next door to them. There’s definitely a balance waiting to be struck, but each party has to be open to that discussion. Let’s hope we can all find a way that’s equitable to every community member in Jackson.
