About catherine
Catherine is a CPA-turned-creative entrepreneur. She is the founder of Beginning in the Middle. an interior designer, photographer, writer, and business schemer.  She loves being cozy at home, miniature everything, and has a not-so-secret dream of living on an island one day.
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Hostlife with Airbnb

Airbnb

Over the summer, Airbnb filmed Bryan and I (Bianca made a few appearances, too!) in an episode for their #HowtoHost video series.  Our episode was geared toward helping other hosts get more 5-star reviews, and it was FUN!  We had a blast working with the Airbnb crew at our Historic Townhome for a few days, sharing info that we’re super passionate about.  If you missed it, you can catch our episode here.

We’re excited to be back to share more about how we got to where we are today and why we love hosting!

This post is sponsored by Airbnb. Click here to learn more about becoming a host!

financial freedom

You may have heard us say this before: financial freedom is at the heart of why Bryan & I got started with Airbnb hosting, and it’s still what drives us today.  We moved to Columbus from NYC in 2013 because we wanted a better quality of life, bought our first house, and started doing DIY projects in our spare time.  To make some extra cash, we listed our spare bedroom on Airbnb and were introduced to hosting.  We made enough to cover our entire mortgage payment, which allowed us pay down our personal debt and buy our first investment property.

Over the past six years, we’ve renovated over a dozen homes and kept four as Airbnb rentals. This income has helped us both to quit our day jobs, become full-time entrepreneurs, and pursue our passions.  Little by little, we’re creating a lifestyle that gives us freedom to do work that excites us, wake up each day and choose how we want to spend our time, and make enough money to live comfortably.

WHY WE HOST

Aside from the financial freedom that hosting gives us, it allows us to merge all of the things we love: interior design, renovation, real estate investment and entrepreneurship.  We enjoy every single part of the process, from buying a property and running the numbers, to creating the design plan, to construction, decorating, and ultimately sharing it with others.  It’s incredibly fun having complete creative control over our designs, and pushing the design limits to create a unique experience for our guests.

how we host

We are super intentional about designing our Airbnb spaces from the very beginning of the planning process, taking into account all of the little details like great water pressure and comfy beds and functional kitchens and locally sourced goodies.  We want our homes to be special, and leave guests feeling excited and taken care of.

A well designed Airbnb goes far beyond the pretty pictures.  Functionality and comfort are super important, too…

… and, of course, anticipating our guests’ needs from the beginning, no matter how little they may be 😉

BIG thank you to The Wonder Jam for snapping these photos for us!

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  1. pamela says:

    Beautiful job folks! Good for you and your family to lead your lives the way YOU want to! I think your idea of putting tiles under the claw foot tub is fantastic. That way your avoiding the splashes on the wooden floor. Clever! Have a merry Christmas!

  2. mike capricciuolo says:

    would like to more

  3. Diane says:

    I am your new biggest fan. The bathtub /interior on insta is amazing. Thank you for inspiring wonderful hospitality and design!

  4. Monica says:

    LOVE LOVE LOVE THE DETAILS

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About BEGINNING IN THE MIDDLE

Catherine & Bryan Williamson moved from NYC to Columbus, OH in 2013.  Beginning in the Middle is a journal of the couple's design and renovation projects, real estate investment and Airbnb hosting journey, travel, and other life happenings.

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I grew up in New Jersey and always had a dream of living in New York.  There was something about the energy of the city that drew me inOur journey started unexpectedly in 2012, when we decided to make a big move from New York to Columbus. The glamour of climbing the corporate ladder was wearing off, and we knew that renting an expensive small apartment and dealing with crowded subways everyday was not going to work forever. We wanted to start creating something for ourselves, and although we didn’t know exactly what that something was, we knew NYC wasn’t the place for it.

We decided on Columbus because Bryan grew up here, and we were intrigued by all of the development going on in the downtown area at the time. We drove through many of the neighborhoods and admired the boarded up old houses, most of which were built in the early 1900s, and started dreaming about the things we could do here.

I'm Catherine, and I'm the founder of Beginning in the Middle.

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