Top 7 sharing economy apps that pay you to rent your stuff

What are the best sharing economy apps that pay you to rent your stuff?

The worldwide Coronavirus pandemic is many different things for people around the world. For some it is a health crisis, for others an economic one.

For those of us who don’t always eat healthy it might be a reason to start living a life filled with fruit and vegetables.

Lastly, for those of us who only use the internet to check pictures of our ex on Facebook, it might just be a time to start making some extra money on the side. You can do thanks to the sharing economy apps that are highly popular these days.

With places of business, bars, restaurants and hotels closing worldwide, people will need some extra cash to replace lost income.

If you didn’t know it yet, the lockdowns in Europe have meant gains for only two types of businesses thus far: grocery stores and data providers.

Surfing volume in France, Spain and Italy is up by 90% over the past few days.

With that in mind, some of that sweet sweet money that you are going to be missing, might be replaced through apps called Vrbo, Neighbor, Turo, Outdoordsy or Honeygain (I admit, I also didn’t know that last one before I started researching this article). The sharing economy apps are many and they are beneficial to your wallet.

So, which of these are the best for you to make some extra money?

Airbnb

The most famous one of them all is of course Airbnb. Let’s assume you have an apartment in a place like New York or Barcelona which is overrun by tourists on a (in non-Corona times) daily basis. If these visitors are not cash rich and you have a room to spare, you can head over to Airbnb and list your property. As soon as you get a few good reviews, renters will start rolling in.

Some people have gotten so good at doing this that they’ve given up their regular job and are now solely focused on renting out rooms on this most popular of the economy apps.

Vrbo

Another of these accommodation sites which has become increasingly popular in the last few years is Vrbo (or is it pronounced Verbo? I never know). Vrbo has a smaller hosting network than Airbnb but unlike the more popular site, Vrbo only allows you to list your entire home.

Also, the reviews on Vrbo can get responses from the owners, so here at least you can see both sides of the story after a stay.

HomeAway

Do you have a tad more real estate on hand and aim to rent it out to people looking for more than just one room or a house, then head out to the luxurious HomeAway. This site features stellar apartments and villas in faraway holiday havens that are always popular. Comparing Airbnb and Vrbo to Homeaway would be like comparing Uber to Uber Black.

Neighbor

Let’s say that you have too much space in your house (the kids have just moved out or something) and you need some extra income, then Neighbor could offer a solution. For those of us that don’t feel like renting storage space with a hefty monthly payment, this app introduces people with too much space to those of us who are the hoarding type and need a place to store the stuff we don’t use. You can rent your garage, parking space, or a variety of types of extra space you may have.

Turo

San Francisco’s Silicon Valley has been the home to many of these sharing apps. One of the ideas to come out of those parts recently is Turo, a peer-to-peer carsharing company.

Thanks to Turo, you can allow others to rent your car which is otherwise simply sitting in the driveway.

When it started in 2017, some four million Americans immediately registered for the service. They were able to choose from 170,000 privately owned cars available for rental.

Venture capitalism got so interested in the highly popular app that by 2020, Turo raised $30 million in VC funding; a second follow-up to its initial $250 million round.

Are you completely stocked up for the Corona lockdown and want to make some extra money renting out your car to others who need to fill it with groceries from Costco? Signup for Turo we would advise.

Outdoordsy

Some 35 million Americans go out every year to a car rental company and ask specifically for an RV.

They’ve always wanted to see the Rockies or the Grand Canyon and the RV is the best way to do it. Interestingly enough, some 38 percent of these customers are the so-called millennials.

Problem is that there are only about 100,000 commercially owned RVs available from traditional rental services.

This is where the Outdoorsy app comes in handy. Another San Francisco-based company that started contacting owners of the 14 million privately owned RVs in the United States to rent them out to users who signed up for their service.

Given that most RVs are parked in a driveway collecting dust anyway, it has become quite popular in no time.

HoneyGain

If anyone were to ask you what changed most in human behavior during the past decade, your common answer would probably be that our necks have started tilting forwards from all the time we spend looking at the screen of our smartphones.

For monthly usage of this phone, you are probably paying your telecom operator for a certain amount of data. If anyone knows anything about our phone subscriptions and data allowances, it’s that most of us never use all data that we are given.

This is where HoneyGain comes in. This application which, when turned on, allows you to reach your unused internet’s full potential by making your device a gateway for others.

The data that you don’t use is sold via their app to others.

Others

So, do you agree with our list? Which other apps do you think we at Gigsharks should have mentioned? Leave a comment below telling us which app you think we should discuss next.