Liesl Bretsch-Morrison says she makes more money now, renting on Airbnb a second home — right next door to her own, on Circle Drive in East Berne — than she used to make as a teaching assistant at Farnsworth Middle School.

She started just a few months ago, in February. “We did not expect anyone to be remotely interested until maybe the summer,” she said. “We’ve had so many bookings.”

Bretsch-Morrison has received “superhost” status on Airbnb “in record time,” she said. She explained that, to be named a superhost, a site must have at least 10 reviews, with at least 80 percent five-star ratings, respond to all comments and questions, and have no cancellations from the host’s side.

The company assesses every three months, she said.

She and her family bought the house next door and moved into it, but kept their original house as a place, potentially, for her father to live someday when he gets older or for their children to stay on visits from college.

Their guests have been varied: people from New York City who want a weekend getaway or even a one-night stay from Albany; people on their way to New York City from Montreal, Buffalo, or Boston, using East Berne as a stopover; or international travelers exploring the region.

Bretsch’s Cottage, with three bedrooms and a gas-burning stove in the living room, rents for $195 per night.

Bretsch is Liesl’s maiden name. She named the rental home after Bretsch’s Cottages, four cottages that her grandfather built and her grandmother rented on the Thousand Islands.

Bretsch-Morrison doesn’t worry too much about theft. “Anything that I’d be really devastated to lose, I’ve taken out,” she says.

The worst experience she has had so far as a host has been finding a half-eaten s’more in a kitchen drawer.

She looks forward to summer when people are outside using the waterfront and the backyard that is shared with her family.

Bretsch-Morrison has considered listing through other similar companies, in addition to Airbnb, she said, but she has been “pretty fully booked” through Airbnb, so hasn’t pursued other avenues. She already has reservations through most of the summer.

The company lets hosts know how many views their listings get, and people have looked at her listing 347 times in the last month, she said.

Duplex in Slingerlands

Kim Gismervik of Slingerlands rents out the other side of her 1880s-era Carpenter Gothic-style duplex at 127 Font Grove Rd. With three bedrooms with four beds, and one-and-a-half baths, the home sleeps six and rents for $160 per night.

Gismervik said Airbnb does a good job of ensuring that people are who they say they are; the company also asks them the purpose of their stay. Reviews on the site are a two-way street: hosts are reviewed by guests and vice versa. So if a guest has no reviews, or negative ones, Gismervik might decline.

Short-term rentals work well for her, because she doesn’t like to have the home rented all the time. Both she and husband, Michael Davis, have big families — the couple has seven children and six grandchildren between them — that they like to host, for instance, at the holidays.

The smallest percentage of their rentals comes through Airbnb, Gismervik said. More come through other services that they work with — HomeAway or VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner) — or directly, through their website. She has also had a few bookings through TripAdvisor.

Gismervik and her husband are both Realtors and both equally care for the property, she said.

“We’re here if our guests need us, but we can easily give them their privacy,” she said. “Sometimes people want to be left alone, and sometimes they want to sit on the porch and chat.”

Guests have come from Russia, Germany, Denmark, Spain, and the United Kingdom, she said. Once, the renters were three men in the area for a work meeting at Pitney Bowes, each from a different country, she said.

“Some people like to stay in hotels. But, if you’re traveling with a group, something like this can be more affordable and more comfortable,” she said.

People also come for graduations, baby showers, and funerals. This summer, she has one couple coming for five weeks while one of them works in the New York State Archives, doing research for a doctorate.

Gismervik has sometimes turned down requests that she wasn’t comfortable with: someone who wanted to bring 12 guests for one night, and someone else who was filming a movie and wanted to be allowed to move furniture around.

She lets guests bring dogs, as long as the animals are not left alone in the home.

It varies, she said, but the home might be rented out an average of about 16 days a month. She is already fully booked for the summer, though mid-August.

Bedrooms in New Scotland

The “blue-bike house” in New Scotland — Noreen Leonard’s home at 564 Altamont Road, with a blue bicycle hanging on a tree in front and the Helderberg escarpment towering behind the house — works on a different pattern. Owner Noreen Leonard rents three extra bedrooms in the home where she lives.

Often, she said, her guests are two or three rooms of people who come to the area together for events like the Old Songs Festival or the Scottish Games or for a wedding. “I’ve had several people come and stay who have relatives in the area, but there’s no room in their houses.”

Each of the bedrooms she rents has an individual lock and key. The guest bedrooms are located in one part of the house, and the master bedroom in another.

Guests have access to all the common areas — kitchen, family room, deck, backyard, pool — and Leonard makes herself scarce when guests want privacy or hangs out and talks with them if that’s what they prefer.

“Airbnb is built on trust,” Leonard said, when asked if she worries about quests stealing her things. “Unless you’re going to have a place that’s bare-bones, and who wants to stay there?”

She has not had one problem yet, she said, adding, “Most people are just like you and I: down-to-earth, respectful.”

Often, Leonard, who is also designated a superhost, will go out and leave the guests in her home. “I leave and say, ‘Have a nice day!’ They like it, instead of having somebody watching over them.” Usually, they leave the place spotless, she said.

The bedrooms, which share a bathroom, rent for $95 a night each. Leonard estimates she has guests about 10 times a year, mostly in summer. She calls it “a perfect kind of retirement part-time hobby.”

How it works

Would-be guests search the website for accommodations based on place, type of accommodation, and other factors.

Guests see information about the rental, the host’s first name, a map showing the neighborhood it is in, and all past reviews. They are asked who will be staying and the purpose of the trip. Guests can also see the dates that are available for booking.

They can contact the host to ask questions, but cannot find out the exact location until a booking is made.

Payment is made to Airbnb, not to a host directly.

Guests must provide the site with full name, date of birth, photo, email address, and payment information.

Airbnb checks international guests against “regulatory, terrorist, and sanctions watchlists,” according to its website. “For hosts and guests in the United States, we also conduct background checks,” the site says.

The company charges hosts a service fee each time a book is completed, generally 3 percent, and charges guests between 0 and 20 percent of the reservation subtotal, the website says.

Payment is collected by Airbnb when the booking is made, but it is not paid to the host until 24 hours after check-in, giving both parties time to make sure that everything is as expected, the company’s website says.

Town regulations

There aren’t any Airbnb rentals in Guilderland that she knows of, said Chief Building and Zoning Inspector Jacqueline Coons. They’re not allowed.

Twice, Westmere residents have complained about Airbnb sites and town officials filed charges for both, Coons said.

“One stopped before we even got to court. Another might have had one appearance and then stopped,” she said.

In Guilderland, landlords can rent properties, “but it’s supposed to be non-transient,” Coons said, explaining it’s the difference between a resident and a guest.

Renters must consider a property their address, she said.

The town would treat an Airbnb rental no differently from a bed-and-breakfast, or a hotel or motel, she said. “They would have to be in a zone for that.”

Hotels and motels are allowed only in general-business zoning districts, Coons said. Bed-and-breakfasts must be historic landmarks on a state highway, like the Rose Inn on Western Avenue, which has operated as a bed-and-breakfast in the past.

They would also need adequate parking, which is often the subject of complaints from neighbors, she said.

New Scotland does not have any special regulations regarding short-term rentals, said Building Inspector Jeremy Cramer. There has been some recent discussion at the town-board level, Cramer said, to determine if regulation should be looked into or not. “But we haven't drafted anything to date,” he said.

Town officials have received a complaint or two about residents who allow short-term rentals, Cramer said.

The neighbors who have complained say that these rentals have the potential to “change the character of our neighborhoods by disrupting the existing sense of neighborhood, comfort, safety, and current home market values,” said Cramer.

Bethlehem has no regulations about Airbnb, said Robert Leslie, the town’s director of planning, who was interested to hear about the strictness of Guilderland’s policy.

Leslie said that an upcoming New York Planning Federation conference is offering a workshop on the topic of regulating Airbnb.

He is not aware of any Airbnb-related problems in Bethlehem, he said, and has not had any complaints. Times change, and regulations have to change as well, he said, noting that in recent years planners have had to begin crafting regulations on, for instance, solar energy and cell towers.

If Bethlehem did begin to receive complaints, he said, it would look into it and “possibly consider the approach Guilderland takes.”

Altamont’s building inspector, Lance Moore, said that he has only been in the job since January but that neither he nor his predecessor had any complaints related to Airbnb.

“If there was a complaint, we’d have to follow through,” he said, noting that the village’s zoning ordinance is silent on the topic.

“I would treat each instance separately,” he said.

Berne’s Building and Zoning Administrator Chance Townsend echoed the officials from Bethlehem and Altamont, saying that he was not aware of any regulations or any complaints.

Corrected on April 30, 2018: The cottage in East Berne has a gas-burning, not a wood-burning, stove.