This is a bit like driving for Uber/Grab, it is good for as long as you already own the car. If you have to buy a new car to do it then its lesser of a business case.

For Airbnb, if you have to go out and buy a property for it then it is a very risky venture. IMHO buying one of those Airbnb ready places isn't a very smart idea for the simple reason that you are competing with a huge amount of other owners in addition to hotel rooms nearby. Remember it usually only makes sense to get an Airbnb when you are more than 2 to a party, else hotel rooms make better sense.

If you had bought your property 10 years ago and now having trouble to rent it out then you have a better chance to earn on Airbnb for as long as your place is fairly well kept.

My place is a condo in Bangsar, it was on airbnb for 2 years as with the oil price crash so too did the market for large high end condos especially where it wasn't accessible by public transport. It was enough to pay the maintenance fees, utility bills, my maid's OT and a small profit which certainly won't have been sufficient to pay for the mortgage even at a 30 year and 50% margin. It was alright, in the end after the 2 years, someone who had first rented it on Airbnb for 2 weeks and liked it so much that they signed a 3 year lease on it.

We pitched it as a French styled apartment as the previous tenant had left all their furniture behind and plenty of the decorations were essentially off a French chateau. I had my wife who is a Finn to be the host. Occupancy rates were around 70% and 80% of our guest came either from Finland, Sweden or Norway as we marketed it at several websites there. We never took any muslim guest as the interior is "non-halal" and we stopped taking in any locals after 3 months, too damn many no-shows or mess-makers especially those that used the place for weddings. As hosts we took on the role of a concierge, we helped our guest organise tours, advised them how and where to shop for stuff, if they were newly arriving expats then we'd advise them on how and where to establish their home, if they needed a car we'd loan them one of ours for a small fee and if they wanted some "happy" times we'd tell them where to go.

In the end, a family that had found the condo on airbnb, lived there for 2 weeks and signed a 3 year lease on it and that's when we exited this business. Thinking of going back into this but don't have any vacant places.