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Of course I thought of an answer hours later… After the party broke up…
“Oh I’d love to but my insurance doesn’t allow anyone who isn’t on the reservation to be on the property.”
Filed away for the next time a SUPERHOST audaciously asks for something that’s expressly forbidden in the house rules!!! Foot stomp!!!,
My county transient homestay license literally only permits 2 guests per bedroom and 6 guests total. Also no one individual can stay more than 30 days per year – that’s cumulative, not sequential. The latter came into play when a I got an inquiry from a fellow who wanted to stay 10 days a month due to some child custody/visit arrangement he had with his ex. He was quite persistent. And very keen on my speedy internet so he could telework (for free). Also he wanted to be able to get mail at my address! After multiple exchanges explaining to him that this would not work (what part of “I could lose my license” don’t you understand?), I started thinking, jeez, no wonder she dumped him.
Hello there,
I’d like to share how it works dowunder - 
lol
I have an unheated pool at my house in Queensland Australia. It’s a big cost to have a pool so you must have strict rules. Guests love having a pool and book because of it, even though some don’t even get in. In the past 2 years I have not had anyone really abuse it. I have strict rules with no glass etc but I have a pool and kids drawer in the kitchen with plastic plates and good quality plastic wine, champagne glasses that are dishwasher safe. Strict pool times of 10pm - 7 am. My grumpy neighbour will certainly txt me if they abuse that.
BTW I did once find a condom on the pool tiles - it’s not that secluded- must have happened at night .
I would never have a hot tub for guests as young people love to have a real good time in there! I stayed many years ago, at a hotel and after going for a very early walk wanted to relax in a hot tub. When I walked around the corner to the tub, there was a couple in there (so early) having it away. So be aware! I’ve had friends tell me it does happen.
I supply separate pool towels and in my “rules” I state if you love my pool towels and they are inadvertently packed into your suitcase or left on the beach, I will deduct off the deposit bond. I have only lost one in 2 years.
I supply flowers and wine/champagne to guests that stay during the high season for 7 nights or longer.
Also for specials groups like an engagements etc etc. When I first started I did it for everyone and it cost me a fortune.
Do supply generous start up stuff and have lots of spices and necessaries in my kitchen.
My minimum stay is 3 nights as it takes 5 hours to clean the house. I have lots of glass and kids like to leave hand prints on all of them!!
We are now heading into the low season and I have found a change. People are not always booking far in advance and the Australians are looking for big discounts. Scary, - where can you find a hotel room for $28 per night. I declined and will stick to my guns.
There are lots more full homes for rent here since I first started.
We normally live 1 hour away so when the house is not booked, we come and live here. So it works well for us to live in “our little resort” too. I have computer, I can travel . lol
We also live in a different room every time we come here. It gives us an idea of what needs to be upgraded and it repaired. It’s amazing what can be missed otherwise.
Hope this helps. Sorry if I ranted on a bit.
Boy, one gets a lot of responses on this forum! About the pool: we have a pool and have been keeping it off limits. For one thing, we don’t have special insurance and I can’t imagine our insurance Company being happy about this. They don’t know we have an Airbnb. Comments on insurance? I’m also worried someone could drown while we’re not there. We haven’t had any complaints and no one has said they would not return.
I would consider rethinking our policy if the insurance part worked out. We do raise our see in the summertime, because we get very few people in the late fall and winter. Apparently people don’t want to come to western Massachusetts when it’s 20°. So we have to make our money in the summer, and we are very competitive, people think it’s a good bargain.
Regarding food, we often as a small continental breakfast, coffee and cereal basically, on weekdays. People can help themselves. . We do make pancakes or omelettes on the weekends.
Everyone has a different set up and risk tolerance. Can you afford to self insure? If your company finds out they will probably cancel you or deny any claim you make and cancel you.
My opinion is that you must have insurance. It is way too risky if you don’t. If something happens, not only will you likely get canceled, your claim will be denied, and the insurer will notify your lender and most residential mortgages do not allow you to use properties commercially.
Proper Insurance will write coverage for pools, bikes, alcohol . . . it’s not cheap but I am fond of peace of mind and being able to sleep at night. I provide some beer and wine, have a firepit and a propane grill. Not only did my (big, national) homeowner’s insurance provider NOT have a commercial product for me to switch to, they immediately started processing nonrenewal of my homeowner’s coverage just for asking them about it – before I was even listed/renting.
People keep saying that, but I have had about 15 mortgages and none of them had any such clause.
I see it more with FHA mortgages (which most people have). Conventional mortgages are much more lenient but they can still demand mortgage repayment in full if you do something they don’t allow. If you were applying for a refi and told them you do Airbnb, an underwriter will likely deny the refi. It happens all the time.
I know we’ve been taking a chance with regard to insurance, someone could fall on our steps. But we only make about $9000 a year and additional insurance would probably be high. Definitely something to think about though. Thanks.
A refi and an existing conventional mortgage are two completely different animals. As it happens, I have never had problems with a refi either, and we both work from home.
As to the idea that MOST people in the US have an FHA mortgage, the FHA has 4.8 million insured single family mortgages and 13,000 insured multifamily projects in its portfolio. Before the housing crisis, the FHA underwrote about 2% of the new mortgages; after the crisis FHA loans went up substantially to 33%of all mortgages, which is still not most mortgages. Given the number of mortgages that pre-date the housing crisis, estimates are that the FHA owns about 18%-20% of the mortgage debt in the US.
Hmmmm, I need to think about it.
I wasn’t trying to get into a debate over stats. I was basing my statement about “most” on my experience flipping houses on the side here in RI. Perhaps its higher in my state because RI offers 100% financing grants to first time buyers going FHA but 9 out of 10 of our previous transactions were FHA.
As for your experience with mortgages. I would love to hear which lender you use that has no problem with obtaining a residential mortgage for a commercial use property. In my experience, the only way to pull this off is to not tell the lender what your intentions for the property are which amounts to fraud. This is why interest rates are so low for home buyers using residential mortgages and I know several people who develop properties to use exclusively for Airbnb, and also for tenants, and they have to go with commercial loans as to avoid committing fraud.
If you know a lender that gives residential mortgages for Airbnb properties, and for people who run businesses from home, I would love to know who they are! The way I see it, banks should be free to do with their money as they wish (within the law), and to lend to whom they chose.
Of course we have never hidden that we work from our home. As self-employed people, we have to submit at least two years of tax returns (usually more) which clearly show that there is no W-2 income, and that all income is from our homes on a Schedule C. I use a local bank called Leader Mortgage, which is now Leader Bank. Sometimes they hold our mortgage; sometimes they sell it.
I have no idea if they would write a loan for an AirBNB property specifically. I have read my mortgage documents carefully, and there is no clause that forbids using my house as a rental, client-facing office, etc.
It sounds like the bank is a lot more easygoing than any of the ones I have experienced in the past. I did notice on our last refi, they were much lenient and then we found out its because they funded with their own money and don’t sell them off. I have seen where they restrict business and commercial rental and it was in strange terminology that I don’t remember off hand. We recently worked with someone who had a credit union mortgage with an airbnb property. Someone slipped on ice, and the insurance company wouldn’t pay, then notified the credit union about the accident, and the credit union in turn demanded the full mortgage amount paid in full. They had to refi to a commercial loan. It was not something they did on purpose. They lived in the home for 3 years and then upgraded to a larger house, but rather than sell it they decided to put it on Air and got in trouble for it. Ridiculous if you ask me.
We were initially told by our insurance company that Air “probably wouldn’t be a problem”, however, as we got closer to opening it became a “not covered activity - subject to cancellation” and finally - “probably allowed but will be dropped if you ever file a claim”. All depended on the agent and their reading of the contract.
We interviewed several different companies and found a policy that not only covers us but also costs less than the company we had been with for 25 years.
For peace of mind and being risk-adversive we chose to put the work into finding a policy that would work. Highly recommend to others! (I would share companies/results but it seems even within the same national company state specific rules apply.)
What company did you use? I’d be interested in giving them a call.
And all these comments make be glad that we’re working hard to pay our mortgage off early. Our LT rental house that we’re considering converting to an Air property should be paid off in 3-4 years.
Ended up with Safeco - but as I mentioned, policies are often state dependent. We are in Washington State.
I live in California and I also have Safeco. The agent told me (and I made her put it in an email) that our Airbnb guests would be covered for liability, but that if they had guests their guests would not be covered. Safeco gave me appreciably more tsuris over our pit bull mix.
Darn it, Safeco won’t take old houses with knob and tube wiring…