A Dragonfly Arose from the Ashes - An Airbnb Journey

My friend is live right now selling fabulously affordable jewelry to spice up any zoom calls or lives you have scheduled. Go get some!!!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=488961575494867&id=105131811352003

Another happy guest!

All set for today's guests!

Blog post #4

When my mother passed away, we didn’t have enough money for her funeral and burial never mind enough money afterwards to renovate her apartment into an Airbnb and buy all new furnishings. I’m a single mother so living paycheck to paycheck is just a part of my story that I keep hidden from everyone. Sure, my close friends know I’m not rolling in piles of money, but I have always worked day and night to make sure my kids have everything they need. When my mom was alive I made sure that she had everything she needed too.

I had no savings, who am I kidding, I never have savings but after putting everything I did have toward funeral costs with my siblings and aunts, I really had nothing. Yet, I was determined to open The Dragonfly Airbnb in my mom’s memory.

I had just quit my job of seven years and had a three-week gap before I started another position. My new job was about 30 minutes away and I was still driving a 19-year-old truck. About two weeks after my mother died I received an offer in the mail for an auto loan. It looked completely fake but out of desperation, I called to see if I could just get a better junk car to get me to work. I was told to go to the dealer, and they would tell me what I could get, if anything at all. I left the dealer that day with a 3-year-old SUV! It was also the only red car on the lot after years of saying I wanted a red car. It was a miracle.

Still in shock over the car purchase, I couldn’t wait to start my new job so that I had income coming in again. In the meantime, a girl could dream! I went online to local department stores and imagined I had money for the bunk beds, mattresses, and dressers I needed for the Airbnb. How my guest would love the white furniture and the gray accents I picked out! I filled my cart with things I could not buy. I went online to another store and filled my cart with blankets, towels, dishes, pots, pans, utensils and imagined that they were all mine. I was determined to find a way. I went to the local hardware store and picked out the paint colors I wanted and the carpeting but could not pay for any of it.

A week later I went browsing in a local store I had never been to before. They had such cute throw pillows and a sign that would display the Wi-Fi password for our Airbnb guests. I had to have them. I got to the register to pay for two throw pillows and the sign with money I shouldn’t be spending on things I didn’t need. The girl at the register had a nice smile, then out of the blue she said these magical words to me; “would you like to apply for store credit today”? CREDIT?!?!? “Umm yes, yes I would”. I didn’t have any credit cards and never imagined I would get approved. The cashier quickly said “Congratulations, you were given a $2,000 limit”. I almost passed out. It was like she just handed me a million dollars.

I went home smiling thinking about the second miracle I had just witnessed. I thought about the carts of items I had filled online while I was dreaming of my Airbnb. Could it work? Is that possibly the answer?? One after another I applied for store credit and was approved each and every time! I technically didn’t have a job but everything I needed to open The Dragonfly was soon on its way to me. Nothing short of another miracle.

I sat silent for a moment and thought of all the times my mom wanted or needed something and I would run out to surprise her with whatever it was. This time, I was the one surprised. I know it was my mom, pulling all the strings in heaven to make sure I had everything I needed.

Getting ready for today's arrival!

COMING TO NEW YORK?

https://abnb.me/0XZ9m0E7pfb

Making it easy for large families to travel! Unforgettable trips start with Airbnb. Find adventures nearby or in faraway places and access unique homes, experiences, and places around the world.

LOVE when I get a guest that leaves the place shining the way they found it!

Another happy Dragonfly arrival!

Had our first dog stay at the Dragonfly this weekend!
This family came into town for a funeral and didn't want to leave their little dog behind. So, I made an exception for this awesome family.

My book is selling!!!!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NSB2FRQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glc_fabc_B35BE11DCSHW42B75NKS?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

So, You Want to Open an Airbnb?: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly.... My 1st Year as an Airbnb Host So, You Want to Open an Airbnb?: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly.... My 1st Year as an Airbnb Host

Blog Post 3

Every time I enter The Dragonfly Airbnb I say out loud “Hey Nan, I’m here”. In my head, she says “I’m here too”. My mom lived in the apartment for over 20 years. It has only been just over a year and a half so I can’t help but wonder how she feels about strangers coming in and out of her house. Would she love the company or hate the intrusion?

In between guests, I always imagine my mom helping me prepare the place. She would most certainly be following behind me fluffing the pillows one more time or straightening the blankets to perfection. She loved decorating the house and would love “a little job” helping me as she would say.

The guests that come don’t know that it’s her place. They don’t look around and notice the planter that says, “Irish Pub” and remember the surprise on her face when I told her I made it for her for St. Patrick’s Day. They don’t see the pictures hanging on the wall and remember her going back to the store two or three times before she settled on buying whatever she had. They don’t know how many times my mom looked out the bedroom window to see any one of her kids coming or going while she waved at them. They don’t climb the stairs and each time remember how hard they got for her in the end.

The place is already filled with our memories. But now, a little frame sits on the entryway table that says, “Your memories are now our too, leave a note to tell us what you came to do”. Airbnb guests from around the world have filled the pages of a journal with gratitude and memories from their visit. Oh, how they love this cozy place to stay! They write about where they came from, the places they saw and the things they did. My favorite note was from a guest that said his kids actually wanted to sit and play games with the family instead of spending the weekend on their electronic devices. Or another note from a single mom traveling with her kids alone saying how safe she felt with us. Many of them mention the spacious kitchen where a family of eight was able to gather for meals.

My mom loved her kitchen. Some people call that the heart of the home. For us, we always knew when someone was coming over when mom was in the kitchen with the music blasting cleaning and cooking up a storm.

One day, on a normal cleaning frenzy prepping for the next guest I turned on one of her old CD’s and just soaked in the memory of her. All of a sudden, while cleaning the white stove that I had cleaned 100 times before, I noticed a shadow of a shamrock. I have not had anything with a shamrock in the Airbnb since my mom passed away, but there it was, clear as day. It was like an impression of something that was left there too long. I tried to scrub it off, but the symbol of my Irish mother remains. I don’t know where it came from, only that it wasn’t there before. I like to think of it as a clear sign from my mother that she is very much enjoying the company.

(Pic of shamrock in comments)

Blog Post 2

The Dragonfly Airbnb was set to open on October 12, 2019, a date I pulled out of the sky thinking that once I listed it would take a few weeks to get booked. I no sooner hit the publish button and it booked the same day for my opening night! I wasn’t ready. But would I ever be? Probably not.

The night before my guests were to arrive, my brother and I were frantically trying to finish the things we could and hide the things we couldn’t. One major repair that was missed on the checklist was a pretty bad crack in one of the kitchen windows. With less than 15 hours to check in the only thing I could think of was to mask the crack with one of those self-sticking window films. My brother climbed out a different window, standing on a second-floor roof to adhere a prayer to the broken glass. He cut the piece to size and started to spray on extra adhesive just to be safe. We needed it to stick for the entire weekend booking so I could schedule to have the glass replaced when the guests checked out. Unfortunately, the window cling didn’t go as smoothly as my brother did through the window. A quick slip of his footing sent his elbow right through the small crack creating a huge triangular shaped opening.

After I made sure that my brother wasn’t going to fall off the roof and wasn’t bleeding to death, I sat down and cried. Big ugly tears. I failed, I couldn’t rent the place like this, I would have to cancel my first booking! By this point it was almost two in the morning. I was doomed to start my Airbnb business with a negative rating for cancelling a booking with no notice for the guest to find other accommodations. I was completely defeated.

My brother told me not to give up so easily, he said we had time, and that we were going to make this happen! He assessed the broken window and somehow his magical elbow took the glass off in one piece! There was hope. He carefully positioned the glass back in, taped it, glued it, and might have even used some chewed up gum. Whatever he did, it worked. After the piece dried in place he went back on the roof to mask the mess with the decorative window cling.

The next day, the guests arrived as planned. I nervously showed them around the place and pointed out some of the surprise amenities that were not mentioned in the listing. I knew they were coming with three kids, so I left out a selection of books, crafts, and board games. They were a family of five from Canada coming to see all the sights Manhattan has to offer. They seemed very happy with the accommodations.

The excitement was overwhelming. After three months of renovations there were people, strangers, paying me to stay in my second-floor apartment. While they were up there my phone alerted that another booking was set to arrive in the same week. We were really in business now!

Our first guests stayed for two nights and we earned the first of many five-star reviews. No, they did not mention the window.

A Dragonfly Arose from the Ashes - An Airbnb Journey updated their business hours.

It was July 2019…my mom had just unexpectedly passed away. For the first time in my life, I felt lost. You see, my whole identity from the age of fifteen had been that I “took care of my mother”. She was not sickly her whole life. She was just “financially challenged”. Growing up in Ireland and leaving school at a very young age to take care of other children made her eventually reliant on her husband for living expenses, my dad. When he left, it became my responsibility to make sure my mom had everything she needed in life. When I was old enough, I bought a two-family house keeping my mom close in my second apartment for more than twenty years. When she got older and was able to collect on my dad’s Social Security money she gladly paid her share towards the mortgage.

This arrangement wasn’t everything I dreamed of for my own life but there really was no other option. It came with years of wondering what I would have been able to accomplish in life without all the extra arguments, privacy infringement, and monetary obligations. I felt like I was cheating my children out of a better life because I had to share every dollar I made for choices I didn’t make.

Then, she died. And all the positive things that came with our arrangement were gone with her. When my daughter traveled home from school in the middle of the day, my mom was there to greet her. When my son was sick and needed someone to take care of him while I was at work, my mom was there. When I worked two jobs all week and was too tired to cook or do the dishes, my mom was there.

Now, I was left alone, with my mom’s apartment full of the things that made her happy in life. I couldn’t imagine having a tenant living in her apartment and no longer being able to go up stairs when I felt like it. I needed to move quickly with an idea that would replace the money my mom would contribute to the mortgage and still be able to be in her space until or if I was ready to let it go. Then the idea came to me. An Airbnb arrangement with short term rentals would give me the income needed and allow me to enter my mom’s apartment between guests to just sit in her bedroom if I felt like it.

The night my mom died, coming home from the hospital without her was beyond hard. We didn’t want to go into the house without her, so we sat in her favorite place for a while, the front porch. All of a sudden, hundreds of dragonflies surrounded the sky above my house. They were flying fiercely in circles for what seemed like an hour, and then just like her, they were gone. I have never seen anything like it. It had to be a sign from my mom that she was ok, and we would be ok too.

After three months of planning and renovations, “The Dragonfly Airbnb” was finally a reality! We incorporated a lot of my mom’s décor in the Airbnb to help keep it feeling like her apartment. I like to think that it was an instant success thanks to my mom looking over us. It was listed to open on October 12th, 2019 and was consistently booked back-to-back all the way until March when the pandemic halted travel! We had to cancel upwards of twenty bookings and wait it out with the rest of the world. But, even in uncertain times, in an uncertain world, I keep faith that this Dragonfly will once again arise from the ashes.

I am in my third year of college working towards my psychology degree. Since I am almost finished with classes and am also in the process of opening another business I try to expand my knowledge by taking one psychology class, one business class, and one just for fun. This is for my blogging class this semester. Hope you enjoy it!