Inayah McMillan changed her whole life by doing rental arbitrage on Airbnb. That’s, of course, when you rent a home or an apartment from a landlord, and then with their approval, you list it on Airbnb.
It’s a great way to start if you’re broke, which Inayah was back then. She’d been pouring what little money she did have into all sorts of different side hustles and internet businesses. None of which were poppin’ off. So she used her personal credit to give this Airbnb thing a shot.
Even doing arbitrage – so without owning any property – she estimates it took her somewhere between $8,000 and $12,000 to launch her Airbnb biz.
“Which I know is a lot of money,” Inayah admits. “But using credit, it wasn’t money I had saved. And I was willing to take that risk because I figured, what’s gonna happen if it does work? Instead of focusing on what would happen if it doesn’t work. For the year, that first Airbnb made me over $50,000. So in the end, it was definitely worth it.”
“Learning from that one Airbnb, I was able to scale to over 11 Airbnbs in only a year and a half. And go from $50,000 in a year to almost $400,000 in a year,” she continues.
“So it’s been a crazy journey.”
“I think Airbnb came naturally for me because I’m a pretty creative person. I love doing things hands-on. So I love interior design. I love building things, putting things together and seeing a space come alive. So when I started Airbnb, I was so excited just to be able to put my own touch on something.”
But yeah, after that first win, Inayah stopped everything else she was doing and doubled down on short-term rentals.
She and her bae, Bryson, began researching how to get more arbitrage deals. They decided they needed to look more professional. So they created Alluring Stays, LLC, and set up a company website guests could book their stays directly on. But more than anything, it looked good to the landlords they were pitching.
So that was a big reason they were able to grow so fast, especially at such a young age.
Every door they added to the Airbnb platform was good for an extra $5,000+ per month. Next thing ya know, they had their first $30,000 month. Then $50,000. Then $60,000.
“As we continued scaling, we just kept seeing the number grow,” Inayah says. “With each new Airbnb we got, the numbers just continued to multiply. After the first, second, or third Airbnb, we could’ve just been like, ‘You know what, this is enough money. Like, we’re comfortable. We’re making a lot of money.'”
“But I wanted more,” she adds. “More for myself, more for my family, and just for my future.”
“So I decided to take the money that I was making and just keep putting it back into the business to scale to more and more Airbnbs.”
“When it took off, I no longer had to stress about making rent and paying the bills. It was life-changing.”
“After our first $30k month, I found this Airbnb Facebook Group and I really just started sharing in there for inspiration. And I noticed that I got so many comments under my one post.”
People wanted help. Instead of replying to each one individually, why not create a program and serve the masses, she thought. (Although, it’s interesting. According to Bryson, they always planned on selling a course. In fact, they only went out and learned the skill of rental arbitrage so they could have a program to sell.)
Either way, they now sell an Airbnb Breakdown course, some done with you and for you services, as well as a premium mentorship you can drop five-figures on.
Inspiring story, but I don’t love the fact that most of their money already comes from coaching.