COEUR d’ALENE — There was a time when Rob Frazer’s friends rented rooms in the house he purchased eight years ago in a Ramsey Road neighborhood not far from the fire hall.

As the college years became more distant and his pals moved out of the five-bedroom split level, Frazer realized paying the mortgage without their contributions would be a challenge.

He turned to an online rental company that booked rooms for travelers. As his rooms began filling with guests from coast to coast, his worries started to fall away.

“It was the only way I could make the mortgage payment,” said Frazer, a draftsman at a downtown architect firm.

For the past couple years, Frazer has used an online, short-term listing company called Airbnb, and so far, his experience with the company has been the bomb.

“It’s worked out really well,” Frazer said.

In its effort to regulate short-term rentals, the city recently adopted an ordinance and fee schedule, but Frazer said the $285 start-up cost and the annual $96 fee that kicks in a year later won’t affect his decision to keep renting.

“It’s still worth it,” he said.

According to Airbnb’s marketing arm, the hospitality company helped grow the Idaho economy by $22 million last year.

In one night alone last year — the day of the solar eclipse — 8,300 people used Airbnb to find accommodations in other people’s Idaho homes.

The people who book the downstairs bedrooms at Frazer’s home usually stay one night, he said. One-night stays are common as travelers look for a clean place to lay their head before moving on.

In 2017, according to Airbnb, 196,000 people visiting Idaho used its booking services, including 14,000 in Coeur d’Alene, which added $1.9 million in income.

“Airbnb provides an opportunity for guests to visit where traditional hotel accommodations are at capacity while also giving hosts the chance to earn important supplemental income that they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to earn,” Airbnb spokesperson Jasmine Mora said.

The company’s popularity grew more than 100 percent in Idaho over the previous year, Mora said.

More than 4,000 Airbnb hosts in Idaho rent their properties, or parts of their homes including single rooms, said Mora. That represents a 139 percent increase in Idaho’s Airbnb host community.

“This comes as Idahoans increasingly embrace the home sharing platform as an opportunity to earn supplemental income and make ends meet,” Mora said.

Guest arrivals in Boise jumped to 41,000 last year, accounting for $4.4 million in income to hosts, according to Airbnb, and the company was responsible for 6,000 guest arrivals in Sandpoint resulting in $757,000 paid to property owners there.

Frazer’s rooms in the city’s northwest section are booked half the time in the winter months, and close to 100 percent of the time between May and August, he said.

He charges $32 per night, and the reviews — one of the ways he is assured people want to stay there — are good.

“What a great find in CDA!” wrote Eva, from Kirkwood, Calif., on the company’s site. “Super comfortable and convenient place, and Robbie is a perfect host.”

It’s not always easy accommodating the many guests passing through. Frazer often rushes home during his lunch period to clean up rooms and prepare for the next guest. And he knows the guests are above board because they are vetted. The company, hosts and guests all share reviews of each other.

Mora said taxes are collected by Airbnb and remitted back to the state before they go back to local jurisdictions.