If you tried Airbnb hosting in Ireland in 2019-2022, you know the story. The headline rates were great. The actual experience was a part-time job — cleaning between guests, restocking, late check-ins, the occasional 2am text. Then the regulation arrived. Dublin City Council's STR rules, the 90-day annual cap on non-PPR units, the planning permission requirement for serial short-term lets. By 2024 most Irish Airbnb hosts in non-tourist areas had quietly stopped.
Storage hosting picks up roughly the same kind of household-level supplementary income, with none of the regulation, none of the cleaning, none of the hospitality work, and none of the 90-day cap. Here's the side-by-side comparison Irish hosts are doing in 2026 — and why most of them are pivoting from Airbnb to Packhood.
The Airbnb side: what was great, what got hard
The good (still true): Headline rates per night are high — €80-€150 for a Dublin spare room. At 60% occupancy that's €1,500-€2,800/month. Real money.
The bad (got worse since 2022): Dublin City Council's STR enforcement under the 2019 Planning and Development Regulations. Non-PPR (non-Principal-Private-Residence) STRs require planning permission. Even PPR STRs are capped at 90 nights/year for entire-home lets. Failure to register with the new STR Register Bill (in effect since 2024) carries fines.
The work: 3-5 hours per booking turn for cleaning + linen + restocking + check-in coordination. At 60% occupancy that's 30-40 hours/month of actual labour for the headline income.
The math at honest occupancy: €2,000/month gross at 60% occupancy → ~€1,400 net after platform fee, tax, supplies, and cleaning labour valued at €15/hr → €1,400 net for ~35 hours of work = €40/hr. Real but it's a side-job, not passive income.
The storage side: lower headline, much lower friction
Headline rate: €120-€180/mo for a Dublin garage = €1,440-€2,160/yr per listing. Far less than Airbnb headline.
Work involved: 90 minutes setup, 15 minutes per move-in, ~10 minutes of chat across a 12-month booking. ~3 hours of total work per booking cycle.
Regulation: None specific to storage hosting. No STR Register requirement (storage isn't accommodation). No 90-day cap. No planning permission. Income declared as Case IV miscellaneous on Form 12.
Math at honest annual: €1,800/yr gross → ~€1,050 net. ~3 hours of work per booking cycle. Effective hourly rate is silly to calculate; the real comparison is "stress-free annual cheque" vs "managed side-job income."
The pivot pattern Irish hosts are doing
Anecdotal but consistent: Irish homeowners who Airbnb'd a spare room from 2017-2022 and then quit are increasingly listing the same room (or the garage attached to the property) on Packhood. The income is lower but the lifestyle is recovered. They keep one weekend a month free of cleaning that they used to spend turning over the room.
For an Airbnb host who was running a 60% occupancy rate, the trade is roughly: lose ~€800/yr of income, regain ~30 hours/month of personal time, eliminate the regulatory anxiety. Most rate it as a clear net win.
When Airbnb still wins
Honest answer: tourist-area properties (West Cork, Connemara, Donegal coastal, Kerry, Clare). The 90-day cap doesn't apply to PPR partial-room lets, and the per-night premium in tourist locations during summer is huge enough to offset the work. A 90-day summer-only Airbnb in Doolin or Dingle can clear €15,000+ in a season.
For non-tourist Irish suburban property — which is where 80% of Irish homeowners live — Airbnb's economics no longer work for most. Storage hosting is the cleaner replacement.
The combined-income pattern
For tourism-area homeowners, the smart play in 2026 is BOTH:
(1) Airbnb the spare bedroom for the 90 PPR-allowed nights/year during high-season. €120/night × 90 nights = €10,800 gross, ~€8,000 net after costs.
(2) Storage host the garage year-round. €100/mo × 12 = €1,200 gross, ~€700 net.
Combined: ~€8,700/yr from one property using two complementary platforms with non-overlapping spaces. Most homeowners who run both report no friction between the two — the storage renter doesn't care about Airbnb guests, and the Airbnb guests don't visit the garage.
For everyone else: just list the storage
If you're not in a tourist area and you want supplementary income from your house with the absolute minimum lifestyle cost, storage hosting on Packhood is the obvious 2026 answer. Most Irish ex-Airbnb hosts who've made the switch do it without ever going back. The income is smaller; the time recovered is enormous; the regulatory headache is gone.
List your space. No 90-day cap. No planning permission. No cleaning. No 7am text from a guest who can't find the bins.