JDD is flagging the likely illegal security deposit for service animals, not the listing in general.
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My opinion.
In my area arbitrage is probably violating property management regulations requiring anyone who doesnāt own the property and is managing it & collecting rents to be a licensed real estate professional.
I have no tolerance for this. Their illegal rentals reflect poorly on all Airbnb hosts. We can say, āthatās not my kind of rental.ā But to non-hosts it is further proof the STR business is corrupt.
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If I understand correctly there are a few rules in my area that apply to long term rentals that may not apply to short term rentals.
Iām getting pushback from a soon to be host about carbon monoxide detectors. She will be renting 30-150 nights in the off season. LTR code requires a carbon monoxide detector in every bedroom.
Iām suggesting hosts set up to follow the code for LTR so they are covered if they do off-season rentals >28 nights.
I need to re-read code about emotional support animals. Iām hoping I mis-interpreted the Emotional Support Animals. (Iām not a fan. Psychiatric service animals are different).
Anyway the point being, we can accidentally get in trouble if we donāt consider long term rental regulations for when renting out entire home rentals.
So many properties they are managing. Itās mind boggling. Reviews are mostly positive though. 
Chicago is a perfect example! The current regulations, registration and license procedures, municipal taxes and surcharges, make it difficult to operate a STR in the city let alone upscale to more than one unit. This was the natural outcome of unfettered Airbnb growth in 2016-17. Every developer wanted to cash in wherever they could put a bed.
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Hi @georgygirlofairbnb, I am wondering about your process. How do you go about getting a signed contract back. Do you send them a document or a docusign link? I of course have rules listed in my homeās listing, to which it seems guests have to agree on Airbnb, but donāt do anything outside that. Curious as to how you handle it.
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I used to use āSignNowā which is the easiest way to get started I think. My entire contract is in my Rules so both guest and AirBnb has it, although we know the guest does not read, but if I need to refer to itā¦there it is. My listing requires that it be signed and returned in 24 hours.
I am curious on what your contract says.
Even if you are in the ārightā unless your agreement has what some would call onerous provisions that the winner pays the legal, accounting fees of the other and I could imagine others, even if you āwinā do you win after costs? And can you collect on your judgment?
Many more provisions would likely be needed to increase your probability of breaking even on any litigation. Would a prospective guest sign it? Be deterred by it? Even read it?
And what about the unregistered guest? The visitor? Their claims? Your claims against them?
This is a worthwhile separate topic.
āā¦This is a worthwhile separate topicā¦ā
I guess then that you should start a new topic and then maybe hopefully somebody else will answer your many questions and satisfy your curiousity.
.
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Something to keep in mind about contracts: 90% of the value of the contract is scaring off people that donāt intend to follow them. My contract says weāll evict with no refund if you smoke inside the house (1st violation is a warning). I have no idea if that would hold up in court, but it scares off most of those people that were planning to smoke in our home.
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Any kind of law, contract or otherwise, operates on the same principle.
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Because my family travels a lot, we have visited tons of STRs with VRBO and AirBnB (or other sites). Just around 2019 we visited 73 STRs over 15 months. So we have been guests in many different STRs over the past 20 years. In fact, we were already renting STRs many years before VRBO, when you had to buy books to see lists of accommodations in a state or region!
As guests, we have seen long and short sets of rules. At work, I frequently work on contracts, so I pay careful attention to the conditions under which we rent. As I read these house rules, I donāt find them objectionable, nor do I think that they would stop me from renting from this person.
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