How to Rent Out Space in Your Home (Driveway to Pool)

The space you already own and never charge for

A short-term rental earns on the nights it is booked. The rest of the time — and all of the space outside the guest bedroom — earns nothing at all. The driveway sits empty. The garage stores four boxes and a bike. The backyard is used twice a year.

There is now a platform for renting out almost every one of those, by the hour, the day or the month. None of them will replace your booking income. Together they can quietly add a few hundred dollars a month for very little ongoing work.

Rates below are typical ranges and vary enormously with location — a driveway near a stadium is a different business from one in a quiet suburb. Check live listings near you before you assume a number.

Rent out your driveway or parking space

The easiest one to start with, because it needs no preparation at all. Commuters, event crowds, hospital visitors and city workers all pay for reliable parking, and a private driveway beats a multi-storey on price and hassle.

• Who pays: daily commuters near transport hubs, event attendees, hospital and university visitors
• Typical rates: $5–$25 a day casually, or $100–$350 a month on a regular commuter arrangement in a well-located city suburb
• Where to list: Parkhound and Spacer in Australia, Neighbor and SpotHero in the US, JustPark and YourParkingSpace in the UK
• Watch for: clashes with guest arrivals — block the space on your own booking days

Rent out your garage or storage space

Storage is the most genuinely passive option on this list. Someone drops off their belongings, pays monthly, and you rarely hear from them again. A single-car garage or even a dry, lockable corner of a basement is enough.

• Who pays: people between homes, small businesses storing stock, students over summer, caravan and boat owners
• Typical rates: $80–$300 a month for a garage; $30–$80 for a small lockable room or a few square metres
• Where to list: Neighbor, Spacer, Stashbee
• Watch for: damp, access arrangements, and whether your policy covers other people's belongings — usually it does not

Rent out your backyard or pool by the hour

If you have a pool, a nice garden, or a deck that photographs well, people will pay by the hour to use it — for a birthday swim, a family afternoon, a dog to run around safely. This is the highest hourly rate on the list and the highest effort.

• Who pays: families, small birthday groups, dog owners looking for a secure off-lead space
• Typical rates: $30–$80 an hour for a pool; $10–$30 an hour for a fenced yard on a dog-exercise platform
• Where to list: Swimply for pools, Sniffspot for dog yards, Peerspace for general outdoor space
• Watch for: pool fencing compliance, neighbour noise, and the fact that you need to be around at changeover

Rent your house for events and shoots

Photographers, film crews, brands and small production companies constantly need real homes. If your property has good natural light, a distinctive interior or an unusual feature, it is worth listing — a single shoot day can beat a week of bookings.

• Who pays: photo and film production, brand content shoots, small workshops, intimate events
• Typical rates: $50–$200 an hour for shoots; considerably more for full production days
• Where to list: Peerspace, Giggster, Splacer, and local location agencies
• Watch for: wear and tear, a clear damage deposit, and a written cap on crew numbers

Good listing photos matter more here than anywhere else. Production scouts choose on images alone.

Make money from a spare room

A spare room can go three ways: short stays alongside your existing listing, a mid-term let to a student or contractor, or a lodger on a longer arrangement. Income rises and flexibility falls as you move down that list.

• Short stays: highest nightly rate, most turnover, most work
• Mid-term (1–6 months): steady income from students, nurses and contractors; far less admin
• Lodger: the most stable, but the hardest to reverse if you want the room back
• Watch for: tenancy law — a longer-term occupant may acquire rights a short-stay guest does not

EV charging and other quiet earners

If you have off-street parking and a charger — or are willing to install one — you can list it for public use and charge per kilowatt-hour. It pairs naturally with driveway rental and appeals to exactly the guests who already value a home with parking.

Others in the same category: a bike or kayak stored on site and hired to guests, a trailer, a workshop bench, or wall space for a local artist. None are large. All are free money on an asset you already bought.

Insurance, council rules and your lease

This is the part that decides whether an idea is worth pursuing, so check it before you list, not after your first booking.

• Tell your insurer. Home and contents cover commonly excludes commercial use, and a platform's own cover usually sits on top of yours rather than replacing it
• Check your strata, HOA or body corporate rules — parking and short stays are the two things they most often restrict
• If you rent, your lease almost certainly forbids subletting any part of the property without written permission
• Council rules may cover events, noise, pool fencing and the number of people on site
• Use the platform's contract and payment rails rather than a private cash arrangement — that is where the protection lives

Tax, and what you actually keep

Every dollar here is assessable income in most countries, and the platforms report it. The upside is that a proportion of related costs is usually deductible, and some jurisdictions have small allowances for renting a room in your own home.

Be aware too that renting out part of your home commercially can affect a main-residence capital gains exemption. Rules differ by country and change — talk to an accountant before you scale this up. Nothing here is tax advice.

How to choose the one to start with

Rank your options by effort, not by headline rate. The highest hourly rate on this page is also the one that needs you to be home on a Saturday.

• Start with parking or storage — near-zero effort, income within a week
• Add pool, yard or shoot hire only if you can handle the changeover
• Photograph the space properly; it is the whole listing
• Block dates around your own bookings so nothing clashes with a guest arrival
• Track it all next to your nightly revenue so you can see which is actually worth keeping

Space hire is one of six income streams a single property can run. On its own it is a useful top-up; combined with upsells and direct rebookings it changes the shape of your year.