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We have an in-home room with private bath. We are considering a 3-6 month rental to a professional short term worker. Trying to look at the advantages/disadvantages of keeping the rental on Air.
Advantages: keeps our listing active - hopefully keeping on the first page of listings by booking one month at a time, only one person coming and going rather than closing/suspending and having no-one or opening and having multiple people increasing the risk , gives us time to see where the virus is going to decide to stay open or close.
Disadvantages - lower in-pocket overall to us due to adjustments in the rent for Airbnb fee to keep the rent affordable, (however - we have had 0 bookings since March so any $ is better than none)
Couple of other concerns:
We are in an area that Air collects Hotel/motel tax and sales tax are collected and remitted by Air for rentals of less than 29 nights. Does anyone have experience with this? Will the Airbnb system automatically not charge these taxes if the rental is 30/31 days?
We would want the guest to sign an additional agreement covering expectations in more detail and outlining safety protocols. Iâll be looking through the Air site to see if this would violate any of the TOS but does anyone know off the top of their head if this would be a problem. One work-around could be putting these items in the rules section just before they book and removing them when back to short term rentals.
Assuming you have never rented you listing for such a long term, I think the disadvantages all fall under the category of tenancy. The disadvantages are that Airbnb doesnât perform a credit check or a background check, so you will have no idea, before booking, that the guest is a risk for squatting, and you will get no help from Airbnb if the guest refuses to pay and refuses to leave after the first month, so you would need to go through a formal eviction process. You also do not have a security depositâeven if you specify a deposit in your listingâsimply due to how Airbnb security deposits work.
There also may be a risk of moratoriums on evictions in your state due to COVID-19. In my state (Arizona), it is currently August 1.
Yes. When weâve had longer bookings (month+), the taxes have not been charged. It was automatic.
No, itâs not against TOS. In fact, they specifically suggest that you do for long term stays. You do need to mention in your house rules that a contract/rental agreement is required for 28+days and you have to send it to them (e.g. disclose the terms) prior to them booking.
Weâve been landlords for nearly 12 years and would never consider LTR via Air or any other platform. Just book the guest for a single day. Now you can work out whatever arrangement you want, and Air canât do anything about it. They are a former guest.
Youâll want a rock solid lease, full deposits, etc. The last thing you need with a long term tenant is a 3rd party who is 99% Guest Centric. The person will be a Tenant. Not a Guest.
Never put Air in a position of authority and power when landlord/tenant relationships are covered by clearly defined laws by state.
Iâd ask myself why any guest looking for accommodation for several months would use Airbnb? Is it because they wouldnât pass the background checks and credit checks that a âproperâ landlord would insist on?
Clarification: He was not asking to do rent on Air - I am considering it to keep my listing active and higher up in the listings. The protections of a lease as far as rent payment/evictions are pretty much void as our state keeps extending the moratorium on evictions deadline.
If we decided to continue looking into this, the initial contact will be outside of Air and we would ask for references and possibly do a credit check and meet via Zoom to discuss issues important to both us and him.
I may be complicating things too much to do the rental through Air - just donât want to fall to the bottom of the heap if the listing is snoozed for 3 to 6 months after having always been in the top 10 to 12. With our risk factors, single day, back to back rentals will not be happening anytime soon. This could be a case of we canât have our cake and eat it too!
One thing I had not consideredâŚas a guest rather than a tenent, he could complain about any number of made up greviences and end up with money back through AirâŚwondering what is the actual risk factor in that?
I donât see how. Perhaps youâve misunderstood. You only have to divulge the contract and its terms so that the guest can book knowing what theyâre agreeing to. Thereâs no change in how much you know about the guest from that.
Yeah. By vet they mean ask questions, maybe track down their FB page, but by all means, donât dare need to actually vet them (credit check, background check, ID). Itâs a bummer system and I canât understand why home owners would take a long term tenant without actually vetting.
Yep. Exactly. Most of the time, the Air will be Guest-centric, sometimes even despite proof that contradicts their word or msg. This has been seen many times.
A clever guest can use the right phrases, get a refund, etc. Good luck fighting that. Same thing goes for damages. You can even get de-listed. A guest can accuse you of threatening them, having hidden cameras, weapons, etc. You may have little or no recourse, and some bonehead in a call center will decide your fate.
As a landlord, not host, you have rights, deposits, contract and protection of law. Even still, you need to know the applicable law for your state. Most are reasonable. A few are protective of tenants.
Book the guest for 1 or 2 nights through Air to check them out and have them then be a former guest but only afterâŚ
Book them through your listing on zillow.com and use zillow for the background and credit check BEFORE allowing them as a long term rental and BEFORE having them check in through Air.
Most of the Airbnb listings around the world are empty, so I wouldnât worry too much about yours being inactive on the platform right now. I agree with others who recommend signing a lease instead of using Airbnb for a longer term stay. You and your tenant/guest will both save money by avoiding all those fees.
Good evening
I have been following this forum for several years and obtained lots of insights.
I have rented long term , only with Airbnb, for about 4 years and I have not had any major problems.
I have not requested an extra deposit or the signing of an additional contract.
I am in the Washington DC area. I host in three whole units (small one bedrooms) and many of my guests are coming for 1 to 3 months for internships , courses , or many traveling nurses. I have also have locals who needed a place for a couple months.
I think Airbnb adds a tax, someone in the thread mentioned that that is only for less than 28 days, but in my area is more like an occupancy tax.
I like working with Airbnb in these long term contracts. I have always been paid in full and no one has tried to squat . Never had to go through an Eviction. I do not think it was just luck because I have had dozens of stays.
I can give you more details if interested but I wanted to share that Airbnbâs long term stays have worked well for me.
Thanks again to all those who contribute with their opinions and suggestions.
@Julio, Thank you for sharing your positive experience. Itâs good to hear. Do you allow your long term guests to have their mail forwarded to your address? How do you handle mail with them?
I do not provide mailbox keys and I include in the listing description information about it.
Packages are delivered to the apartment door but there are also mailboxes for rent a couple blocks away.
If by any important reason someone needs access to the mailbox, i will get the piece of mail for them, by the weekend or whenever I am available.
Our experience is similar to Julioâs. About 50% of our guests are what Air classifies as long-term stays. I think our longest stay was nearly three months. There is a very clear reason why someone would book such type of stay with AirBnB rather than a regular landlord: in the UK the shortest lease is usually 6 months. Even if landlords would allow 3 months stays, the hassle of setting up new electricity supply, internet, gas, council tax etc. is huge. So it makes absolute sense to stay in an Airbnb for 3 months or even longer.
We also allow mail forwarding to our address. It does not âcostâ us anything and requires very little extra work. But for guests itâs a potentially very important lifeline. In terms of security, you could ask guests to list you as âc/oâ rather than addressee to avoid any issues but we never had an issue. In fact, we installed a separate mailbox for our guests so that we donât have to knock on the door if mail does arrive.
