I have one bedroom that I use for airbnb in my home and a rental property. I have it in the lease that the tenants are not permitted to have an airbnb in the property and if they would dare rent out any part of the place I would be absolutely furious and would start the eviction process as they would be breaking the lease. I can’t believe that a host is even admitting to doing this on this forum!
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Yes. 
right at the top in the actual Clocktower. It’s a stunning space Airbnb use it for a lot of parties
Wow - I’d love to see it and even look at staying there maybe when I’m in London (although I am sure it’s super expensive :()
Can you send me a link?
Just look up Airbnb Clocktower st Pancras on Google.
I’ve seen that, it’s stunning. Lily Cole has an apartment in that unit too, such a good location!
In my experience, if I remember correctly, there was some verbage in my mortgage contract that said it would be my residence for a minimum designated time - 18 months, 2 years, or something.
This happened when I was a young woman and I planned to refinance a dud of a townhouse, rent it out, and move out of town. I didn’t realize there was this stipulation. It was gobsmacked at the closing as my car was packed and everything was in place. Except I had to sign the mortgage saying it would be my residence. So I lied, I did. I signed the papers anyway.
But yeah, they aren’t going to come back 5 years down the road and rewrite a new mortgage if it becomes rental property - but there may be a minimum number of time that it is to be a primary residence.
They won’t usually rewrite a mortgage if the property becomes a rental property, but if the loan stipulates that it is the homeowners primary residence they have the right to or even worse to call the loan. This is most likely to happen if you fall behind in your mortgage payments. Not all mortgages have a time period after which the property can become an investment property. For many mortgages it is for the length of the loan.
Luckily for me, it never was an issue. It was a terrible feeling lying but I also was totally between a rock and a hard place. I didn’t know what to do and had not a minute to think it through.
I’m glad it didn’t turn out to be an issue for you. Yet, I am always alarmed when I see advise to fudge and/or outright lie on mortgage applications. Telling the truth is what helps to ensure that you are getting a mortgage you can pay. The blame for the mortgage crisis is by far mostly on greedy bankers and lack of regulation of the banking industry. However, some of the blame can be placed on borrowers who insisted on buying houses they couldn’t afford. Thankfully, when I bought my house in 1994 my mortgage broker told me what I could afford to pay for a house and I stuck to that amount even though it meant I had to buy a house that was owned by a hoarder.
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My mortgage broker tried to talk us into spending WAY more than the standard % of income. It was astonishing. We declined even though we were really pressured. When the recession hit, we were never in jeopardy of loosing our home even though our income declined dramatically for three years.
Some people over borrowed knowing that this was too much, but mortgage brokers also encouraged people to borrow more than they could actually afford. It was a true mess, wasn’t it?
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We were appalled at the amount of loan they wanted to give us. Well over $200k (this was awhile ago) but we purchased for $125K. I was sorely tempted for years to sell and buy ‘up’ but sat on my hands. Now we have a daughter researching colleges and a very low mortgage which isn’t sapping our resources. So glad we stayed put. It wasn’t a pretty neighborhood for many years (I posted about this elsewhere) but now things are looking up and the value is increasing. sigh of relief
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I feel extremely fortunate that I found a mortgage broker who was honest. I have a friend who is currently in escrow on a house that is way more than she can afford despite my warnings. She adores her mortgage broker because he is so “encouraging”. I have a feeling she’ll be singing a different tune in the near future.
I’m pretty sure that the sales and hotel tax in every state and county can be easily programmed into a reservation via the property address by services whose business it is to know these things. That kinda stuff is referred to as middleware because it inserts itself into the middle of a transaction. Just like the middleware that Air bought to do all the identity verification. It may be harder in less developed countries, but in the US I doubt it is an issue.
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I am not so sure this guy was asking for help so much as sympathy and I don’t think he is going to get much here. In fact, his subject said it all. It was the GUEST who was the problem. Not him, even though his guest ended up crying in the lobby. Sorry. He sounds like a jerk.
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You aren’t allowed to rent your place on Airbnb, but you do it anyway, and on top of that, you expect guests to cosign this? Well, at least you are upfront with your guests about this.
In my hosting experience, and I’ve done this for a while, it is my job to create contingencies, to have other options set in place, so that a guest who is arriving from halfway around the world has no problems getting into my place, in the event of an emergency. Or in your case, a “business dinner.”
For someone who is hoping for no more drama, it sure does look like you had a big hand in both stage design and construction. I hope that you learn from this, and that instead of taking the feedback personally and walking away feeling unsupported, you accept from the many comments here that the way you handled this hosting, and the circumstances from where you host, reflect badly upon the hosting community in general.
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There is no reason why there can’t be an tax option for hosts to choose, putting the burden on them to figure out the tax percent. At least they will have collected the tax owed. Unfortunately, many people are likely not paying taxes and getting away with it. And some are simply (willfully?) ignorant of the tax requirements in their area so not providing that option just makes it easier to ignore.
We are looking into refinancing to a 15 year fixed rate before the year is out, and did claim our $1000 of AirBnB income in 2015 when we started hosting in December, though I don’t remember what category my husband picked on the tax form. Possibly “personal property rental.” We’ll see if it affects us! May be such a small amount the credit union doesn’t inquire where it came from.
Oh yeah… Unless you went to the trouble of setting up a schedule c specifically for the Air business… You probably just did the standard rental deduction.
90% of short term - daily private party- rentals are in violation of their lease or a law or policy or rule. If you own your unit you are likely in violation of HOA, city, state or federal national law. Unless you do a lot of research or hire a local lawyer you don’t know for sure. Even if you’re legal NOW at some point most Airbnb renters weren’t. So knock off the judgemental hypocrisy.
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