AIRBNB/VR investing - advice for newbie

[Dev Paul]

Greetings everyone! I discovered this forum by accident and glad to find lot of information and helpful community. I'm looking to invest in short term rental/Airbnb business as a long term potential making a living sort of thing. At present im self employed in an IT business where I make decent income, but its all dependent on contracts. There are several months gaps at times between the contracts and then i start getting worried about my future. I'm not looking at airbnb as a quick fix alternative where right away I will start making 6 figure income, but im looking at it as something which can one day make me less dependent upon income from my present occupation only and perhaps become a primary source of income. I have 100k+ worth of cash and good credit to get decent mortgage. I have always loved hospitality business and I think I have the qualities to be successful in this kind of business. In the last several months, I have been reading a lot about airbnb and other vacation rental business models and how more and more small time investors are getting into it as a viable career. I came across sites such as mashvisor and airdna which seem to be provide solid information for novice investors like myself. My first preference is southern california-including areas such as palm springs which seem to have good airbnb potential. Im also open to invest outside California, but then I have to manage semi remotely as I still need to keep primary residence in LA area. I have been reading about some places such as detroit, Tennessee, palm beach, denver etc which seem to be pretty high in the list of places to invest for short term rentals. 

Im also open to collaborate with some like-minded investors if its mutually benefecial. I'm looking for some advice on how to go about my search and any suggestions in the southern california area? I currently dont own any property and this will be my first property- possibly a multi unit property which I can run professionally as an airbnb host.