About Me — Sidney Lee
Aspiring full-time Airbnb Host
I’ve always thought that writing is this thing only highly talented people can do. In school, I was never the person who had the “gift of the gab” and who sounded very eloquent when opening their mouths. A couple of years ago I started a blog called “Live Outside The Box”, which I used as a personal diary to note down my thoughts about society, about the world, and how I would feel about life on any given day. I’m going to link some of the articles below, which I have reposted on Medium some time ago. I soon found myself looking for new topics to write about and I would spend hours trying to perfect a 700-word blog post. This is when I knew that writing is accessible to everyone and anyone can use it as a tool to organize their thoughts and make sense of the world.
Background
I come from a mixed heritage household — German and Kenyan to be exact. I grew up in a small town in Germany, with lots of friends and activities to do every day. Looking back I’m super grateful to have had the nice childhood that I did — though it did come with its challenges, like everything else in life. Being a mixed-race kid in a small town in Germany, I did get a lot of questions about my African heritage and what life in Africa is like — some of these questions seemed, well…questionable…however, I always assumed the person asking me came from a place of curiosity rather than ignorance, so I didn’t mind answering some at times weird questions here and there. I have now lived in Kenya full time for about 18 months and absolutely love it.
My Passions and Goals
I did the whole University thing in my early to mid-20s (as you normally do). I started out studying business, as this is the thing you usually study when you don’t have a clue what you want to do with your life. It ended up being quite interesting and I was on track to starting a career in marketing but I ended up making a slight turn and ended up working in the field of international development. It’s quite a broad field to be working in as there are many different areas that encompass the sector. Though, if you need to keep one thing in mind, it is that practitioners within international development aim to improve the state of developing countries, both economically and socially. I guess the career change came about wanting to have some more meaning in my work. Analyzing social media statistics daily and being in that space every single day was not going to be a long-term solution for me.
Apart from that, I also started hosting on Airbnb, which I have a great passion for. I started doing Airbnb 2 years ago and have big plans for the future — and hopefully develop this passion to a point where it can be a full-time job.
What do I write about?
I mostly write about my experience as an Airbnb host. This includes challenges, learnings, and other things I find noteworthy to share with the world. Personally, hosting on Airbnb is very rewarding for me as I get to live out my passion for creating spaces in which people can feel at home. It’s also a great feeling to be part of someone’s (first) journey to Kenya. Besides that, I’m also a lover of philosophy as I believe we should always be questioning, well…everything. I don’t want to sound nihilistic or anything, but we only have a limited amount of time on this planet, so why not do the things you like to do and take risks every now and then.
My Publications
At the moment I’ve just started one, which is called “The Hosts’ Corner”. I’d like THC to be a place where other people involved in the short-term rental market can come together and discuss experiences and ideas. It would be great to create a community where hosts can support each other and share their journey towards making a living on Airbnb.
Some of my Airbnb-related stories
- Top 3 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Out On Airbnb
- 4 Reasons Why You Should Start An Airbnb Side Hustle
- 3 Reasons Why You Should Use Scheduled Messaging On Airbnb
- A 2 Step Process Of How To Respond To A Bad Review
Some of my more reflective pieces
- 3 Ways to Stay Positive In A Negative Environment
- Why You Should Always Be Different
- Why Being True to Yourself Is The Best Thing You Can Do In Life
If you’d like to learn more or get in touch, you can reach me on Twitter.
Thanks for reading!
Sidney
