Thousands of South Africans are making serious cash thanks to Airbnb, and if you add them all up it makes a pretty penny.

Of course it’s pretty crummy for those of us trying to rent in a city like Cape Town, with prices skyrocketing as more landlords go short term (HERE), but such is life.

According to their latest data, Airbnb generated around R2,4 billion in “total economic activity” in 2016, with almost 400 000 guests setting foot inside people’s homes.

More below from BusinessTech:

This is up from just 38,000 guest arrivals in 2014, and 133,000 in 2015. Airbnb said that 37% of guests in 2016 are South African, with a majority coming from Johannesburg.

As many as 16,000 people played Airbnb host in 2016 in the country. Guests meanwhile, stayed an average of 4.3 days per trip, the data found.

A quick look at where those who used Airbnb in SA come from:

Regarding the R2,4 billion “total economic activity” we mentioned earlier:

The typical host on Airbnb in South Africa shares their home for 16 days a year and earns an additional R28,000  a year.A total of R817 million was earned by Airbnb hosts, with R1.6 billion spent by guests.

The typical host is 45 years old and 40% of them are freelancers, entrepreneurs or self-employed. More than a third of hosts are aged over 50.

Half of the hosts in South Africa use the income from hosting on Airbnb to help afford to stay in their homes, the data said.

I often hear stories of people renting houses with a spare room solely for letting out on Airbnb, with or without the permission of the landlord, and I guess we can only expect rent to further increase as this trend continues.

If you think it’s only Cape Town that is kicking off then consider which cities the listings are in:

In case you haven’t seen this amazing tool yet, here’s how you can check exactly how many properties are listed in your area. It’s called AirDNA, and it’s both brilliant and scary.

[source:businesstech]