Many people have to strive with a low salary and a lot of bills to pay, but many people also don't know that if they live in a house with a spare bedroom they can get much more money than they could earn by having a roommate. A good way to maximize the money from subletting a spare room is to rent it out to tourists. Tourists pay a price per night which is higher than what a roommate pays. Also, tourists stay for a very limited time, and therefore it is not necessary to sign a contract that binds a renter to the property. However, there are some things a landlord should be aware before renting out a room to a tourist.

There are a few websites that allow everyone to post a free profile of a spare room and give the access to the profiles of other people looking for a place for their holidays. These websites allow posting a completely free home or tenant profile without time limit either for long or for short term, making it possible to advertise spare rooms that landlords wish to rent to guests or tourists providing overnight prices per season.

A very interesting feature of private holiday room websites (PHRW) is that guests can be able to know who exactly lives in the house and what kind of people the landlords are looking for. Thus, if for instance you are in your thirties like me and wish to deal with people who are your age and have your same life-style, you can spell it out in your profile.

Another feature of PHRW is a very easy booking calendar from which landlords can manage reservations on-line. Guests or tourists don't even need to contact each others directly. Guests just have to request a reservation, which automatically generates an option for the landlord to accept or refuse such request withi

n 48 hours. As a warrant, guests have to pay a reservation fee which usually is around 5 dollars (or 5 pound sterlings) using a Paypal account. If the landlord refuses a reservation request, the reservation fee will be refunded automatically into the guests' Paypal account and the reservation is then registered as failed. If otherwise the landlord accepts a reservation request, guests will be allowed to continue the reservation process by paying the reservation deposit directly to the landlord-by choosing from several different payment methods. This process has the advantage of eliminating any language barrier between guests and landlord. After the reservation is processed, it will be possible for the guests to leave a feedback about the landlord and the property. On the other hand, even the landlord can leave a feedback to his guests, which will be connected to the guests' username. Still, guests and landlords can freely send instant messages to each others at any time, in order to make sure every problem is resolved.

Renting a spare room to tourists, however, requires making some important consideration. First of all, an independent door that connects the room to the outside would be very useful, and would permit the landlord to lock the door that connects to the rest of the house. An en suite bathroom would avoid many other problems too. However, if your guests would have to step in your "living space" of the house, it is recommended that everything valuable would be put in a secure place, at least for as long as your guests will be staying in your property. Also, access to the kitchen should be subject to some rules, which would include cleaning and re-racking pottery. Finally, it would return tremendously useful to place a hidden camera in some key areas of the house, which will give you indisputable proofs in case you will be missing something in your property.