Meet Neo Mokhomo, the Woman Who Risked All Her Life's Savings to Invest in Airbnb, Makes Over R15k a Month
- A young South African woman spoke to Briefly News about how she found her way into the Airbnb industry
- Neo Mokhomo is an entrepreneur at heart as she started running a business while studying at university
- Neo learned all about the Airbnb business and became a successful host and mentor who has several apartments and makes more than R15K from just one
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Airbnb is a great way to make extra money by renting out your unused space. You can set your own rates and availability, and you can even choose to host guests only when you're not using your space.
Airbnb is a service that lets property owners rent out their properties to travellers looking for a place to stay. The service was launched in 2008 and has since become one of the best-known travel accommodation services.
Source: TikTok
One focused South African woman did not pass out on the opportunity to earn extra money as she took the leap of faith and used all her savings to invest in an Airbnb.
Neo Mokhomo commonly known as ‘Host Like A Pro” (@_nevaehheaven) on TikTok spoke to Briefly News about her journey into the Airbnb industry and how she has managed to make it work to her advantage, now earning more than R15K a month from just one property.
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Neo's love for business started at a very young age
Neo's business-mindedness started when she was at university. In her second year in 2019, she saw a gap in the clothing industry, motivating her to start a women’s clothing brand.
"It went well and I sold out in my first month and decided to make the business official in 2020, during Covid-19. I registered it as a company. Little did I know that the next year in 2021, I would start an internship as an analytical chemistry student, doing my WIL, Work Integrated Learning," Neo shared.
Neo stayed with her uncle and aunt from October 2021 until around May 2022, when she had saved enough to stay at my own place, which was much closer to work.
"At the time, I knew that I wanted to stay at a very affordable place and close to work that would allow me to save my money. So I found a sharing unit at Greenpark Lifestyle Estate in Boksburg, at the time. I was only paying R2,500 for rent and spending less on transport since the place was close to work."
After a few months of disciplined saving, Neo had about R14 000 in her bank account and had also opened a clothing store account at the time to build her credit score.
"I could not stop thinking about my clothing business and wanted to start selling again because I had been sitting with stock for over a year, but I was not flexible enough to reopen the business as I was working from 7:30 in the morning until 5:00 in the evening and was very tired by the time I got home."
Neo shares about her burning desire to run a profitable business
Although she had long-term investments, unable to shake the drive to be an entrepreneur, Neo went on a fast, seeking guidance from God to give her a business idea that could bring her income in the present.
"I wanted something that could generate profit every month, without draining me and didn't require much attention.
"I came across a post about starting an Airbnb but ignored it. A few hours later, a friend sent me a post on girls using their apartments up on Airbnb. I followed the account, did my research and joined a class on how to start," Neo said.
The go-getter partnered with a colleague interested in having her own Airbnb.
"Two weeks later, we had done research and devised a budget and business plan. We went apartment hunting after work and finally found a place and started turning it into an Airbnb space.
"We listed the place each on our platforms and started getting bookings. This was
in November when we started. In January 2023, we decided to split up, and I bought her out."
Neo continued with the Airbnb business and found strategies to start earning more and get a total occupancy rate. From there on, it was "uphill", as Neo puts it.
Using profits from her first Airbnb apartment, Neo could look into having more apartments.
"I started helping other hosts in the area with their listings and giving them suggestions on how to get bookings, and they would update me that they had gotten bookings after my suggestions."
After months of doing this, Neo decided to run Airbnb consultations and mentorship to teach and coach other hosts on the strategies to become profitable, and successful and get booked.
Neo recounts some of the challenges experienced as an Airbnb host
Neo has faced several challenges as an Airbnb host and mentor. These include property owners and cleaners not taking her seriously as an entrepreneur simply because she is a young, black woman.
Neo also decided to leave her day job and focus on her business as well as furthering her studies. After buying out her partner, she only had money coming in and survived on her savings once her Airbnb strategies became effective and she started getting fully booked each month.
"Finding a great cleaner in the beginning was hard, and when we first started, we would have to rush after work to go clean the place for the next guest. We even had an instance where guests checked into a dirty apartment once and had to rush to clean while the guest was there. What a disaster.
"Finding a good cleaner is one of the hardest parts of the Airbnb model, and they are literally the backbone of the business. Without them, the place is not clean; there are no reports of restocking, theft or maintenance."
Lessons learned and looking onto the future
Based on Neo's experience, the first month was the most challenging month and the month after that because she took out all her savings to start something she was not even sure would succeed.
"My success has mainly been realising that my job is to be kind and hospitable to guests and to give them an experience when they book simply.
Neo shares that most of her profit is made from guests extending their stay, repeat guests and guests referring people to book with her.
Neo believes every guest is special and should be treated with kindness and not just as money or a number.
"I would say I am a people pleaser a bit, and getting good reviews from guests satisfies that people-pleasing character I have, which in turn drives people to book with me and has generated me good profits in this business," shared a driven Neo.
Mzansi woman creates stunning DIY table for her Airbnb after refusing to pay R27k at a furniture shop
In another story, Briefly News reported that one young lady's creative thinking saved her thousands of rand.
The business owner was looking for new furniture pieces for her Airbnb and was eyeing a coffee table that was a tad too pricey.
TikTok user @LadiQue was out of her budget for a coffee table she wanted. She was dismayed to discover it would cost her a staggering R27 000. Rather than give up on her dream, she showed online users a post of how she created the table by herself.
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Source: Briefly News
