If your spare room or granny flat is gathering dust, now is the time to turn it into a serious moneymaker. In fact, renting it out to paying guests could net you up to €3,000 extra a year, according to Airbnb.

Latest figures from the company show that the thousands of Irish people already sharing their homes are earning an average of €2,600 per year.

Dublin is the most popular destination for Airbnb guests, with hosts in the Capital welcoming over 240,000 people to the city within the past year, each one staying for an average of 3.5 nights. The summer period is one of the most opportune times to host because thousands of rooms lie empty as children head off to the Gaeltacht and students jet off on J1s to work in the US.

So, who are these canny home owners? The average host is 44 years old, 14 percent of all hosts are retired and 43 percent are freelancers, self-employed or entrepreneurs. 59 percent say hosting helped them to stay in their homes during a tricky financial period. 

Inbound visits to Ireland with Airbnb increased by almost 200 percent in the last 12 months and Tourism Ireland project that almost 10 million visitors will travel to Ireland in 2016. With this growth in visitors, Airbnb is looking for more people to realise the potential of their unused rooms and has launched a range of initiatives to encourage people to do so, including a host awards and a new partnership with Taxback to help Airbnb hosts pay income taxes on the money they earn sharing their space.

This originally appeared on Herfamily.ie