Introduction

March 2025. The renovation that was supposed to take a month ended after several. Forty square meters in the center of Krakow quickly stopped being a "project to handle" and became something much bigger, more expensive, and more demanding than I had assumed at the beginning. Anyone who has ever done a so-called "light renovation" knows that this term has little to do with reality.

According to Excel, everything was supposed to add up: costs were closed, forecasts were positive, and the worst — at least in theory — was behind me. All I had to do was publish the listing and wait for the money to start working.

Today I know that this was my first and one of my most expensive illusions.

This guide is a story about how, over the course of one year, you can organize short-term rental so that it stops being chaos and starts working like a business. Not about quick success and not about passive income, but about decisions that have consequences, and about processes that — if well designed — provide peace instead of constant tension.

It was created with people in mind who want to understand how short-term rental really works — without shortcuts, without illusions, and without promises. If you're interested in the process, decisions, and their consequences, I invite you to continue.