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It happens tomorrow. Nice to get some notice? Any folks here who are going to do longer term rentals won’t be using Air after the shutdown lifts.
He gets one star for communication. Hosts have to read tech journals to find out what the company is doing.
This has already been discussed ina couple of topics already. I’m not sure of the news source though.
If I wanted a roommate, I never would have signed up for Airbnb in the first place.
That’s NOT a notice.
I don’t have time to schedule watching corporate spin and puffer at Chesky’s convenience. It would be much better if he would simply post it or better yet send me an email. They DO have my email address.
Then watch it when ever it’s convenient for you. I’m sure it will be posted up on the site afterwards just like last week’s still is still posted on there. You can watch anytime you’d like after it’s done.
Actually, it was a link in an email that took me to the page that announced it. It was in that “Weekly Digest” email, did you get that?
Completely agree. And if I’m going to have a roommate, I’m not going to go through AirBnB! Are they going to provide leases that are region/city/town specific? I think not…
@NordlingHouse. @JJD. Thank you for sharing.
I tend to be the odd host and here I am odd again. I’m thrilled Airbnb will be promoting longer term stays. I have 2-4 stays of >30 days every year. It works for my whole home rentals. I have a lease agreement they must sign so I’m not relying on Airbnb if there are problems.
For hosts like @Brian_R170 Whose HOA requires a minimum 30 day rental, it may mean he can get “back in the game”.
Oh, I have some questions for you! Perhaps you can shed some light for me?
I use to have regular long term tenants then have been doing Airbnb for STR. Coincidentally we were considering transitioning to “mid-length” rentals (1-6 months or so) in at least one of our apartments after this summer season. However, when all of the cancellations happened in March, we jumped in early.
However, this in-between length is a new game for us. It makes sense to stay furnished and there’s a consistent need for these mid-length rentals here. And our regular home owner’s insurance covers these longer stays so that’s simpler (and safer and cheaper too) for us as well. So I feel like it is the best bet for the forseeable future.
But I haven’t felt comfortable to take such long bookings from Airbnb. We did a 5-month direct with a past guest and the a 2-month from Craigslist. Both of these were easy. They signed a lease and paid a deposit.
I know that Airbnb says you can have the guests sign a separate agreement but I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around it. Do you just send them your regular lease to sign? And are you doing it after the reservation is confirmed or when they arrive for the stay? How are you handling the absence of a real security deposit? I’m thinking to compensate for it my pricing, but does that make sense? Are you collecting their ID info or social security number or anything like that?
And the big question: how are you enforcing the terms of the lease when Airbnb has the final say and control of the money?
Sorry, it’s so long. Any advisement at all would be much appreciated.
But they don’t sign it until after they book through Airbnb, right? And you never check if they are known squatters, have fraud convictions, etc. And you can’t check if they have income to pay the next 30 days. And you don’t collect a real security deposit. Those are the things that scare me about using Airbnb for long-term rentals, and I’m concerned the risks may be higher with Airbnb guests than tenants acquired by other channels. And if a problem happens where I needed to evict a tenant after 30 days, my expectation is that Airbnb would provide zero support.
Yes, I’m watching closely, but currently remain skeptical. I had no problem keeping my rental booked 7-9 months/year for month-to-month rentals (3 months were reserved for my in-laws) before Airbnb without spending a penny on advertisement, payment processing, etc. I would need Airbnb to offer a heck of a lot more than they do today for the approximately 15% they charge (that is ultimately paid by guests). I am certain that I can hire a property manager for less than the 15% Airbnb currently charges and I could sit back and do absolutely nothing but cash the checks, and that includes evictions.
They inquire through Airbnb. Before booking confirmed confirm they are willing to sign supplemental lease. Lease for rentals >28 days requirement in house rules so if they don’t sign they violate house rules thus I can cancel.
If rental less than 6 months, I keep/pay utilities on unit as part of rent. If rental greater than 6 months I offer guest option to pay own utilities because I include a higher than expected amount as a utilities cushion.
I will pm you the rest of the info.
In the pre-Covid economy. I’m trying to not be so negative so could you please share with me the basis for your thinking. I’d like to confidently spend $10,000 remodeling my bathroom and am having a hard time pulling the trigger. (My personal master suite)
I know you’re not asking me, but I’ve been thinking on this a lot. I can say that I am feeling confident in staying booked with monthly rentals right now. We are getting a lot of response from Airbnb but also Craigslist (listed under “temporary and sublets”) and are booked since Mar 17 until Sept 1 now (and that’s as far out as I’ve opened up the calendars). Once I got my calendars clear of reservations and made a 30 day min on Airbnb, the inquiries came rolling in very quickly. I had to turn a lot of people away as I booked them up. Fortunately, most guests are sending inquiries and not requests so it hasn’t messed with my acceptance rate.
That being said, my location may be particulary good for these monthly rentals. And, also, we’re only renting the 2-br apartments that have full kitchens. I took our studio with kitchenette down because I don’t want the house so crowded right now due to covid. Before I took it down we had a couple of bookings at the end of Mar/first part of April for a week stay each from locals that needed a place to work from ‘home’ away from their (now) crowded houses. I had to turn a couple of inquiries away for the same thing before I closed it down. That may be a segment that you would really do well with. Your place looks perfect for that! And because it’s locals, there shouldn’t be any quarantine issues with them. Unfortunately, I think not having a full kitchen may deter monthly bookings a bit, but definitely not entirely. I know you’ve had lengthy bookings in the past in there but I can’t help but wonder how not having restaurants would effect that (assuming your restaurants are closed?). This is the same train of thought I have for our studio that doesn’t have a full kitchen. However, if we didn’t have the other 2 apartments in our house, I would open the studio for weekly stays and then hope for monthly stays on occasion. FWIW.
Well, if I post in the public part I’m asking anyone. And also talking to almost anyone who will listen. LOL>
I think I would but I’ve been closed really since 19 Mar. I’ve been waiting and also was working on the grout and really going slow. Now I’ve got to clean the room top to bottom to rent it out for anything.
I really don’t want any kind of LTR at this time. I want my space available for friends and I don’t want a roomie. If my finances require it later I could actually put a kitchenette in there and expand into the room next door fairly easily (as these things go.) Some of my buddies and I have thought of doing a modified “golden girls” thing and a long covid recession could push that along faster.
I’m actually looking for positive info on the economy in general. I’m looking for hope that I could, for example hit the road with my dogs in a year stay gone for 3 months. LOL.
I found renters simply by word of mouth and only in my neighborhood. In 2 years, I had 4 different rental periods (only 3 different sets of renters, since one set rented a few months, left for a few months, then came back a few months).
There’s never a good reason to not look for hope. There’s plenty of time spent looking for disaster. Might as well balance it out a bit 
Of course it’s necessary to stay informed and be prepared and make contingency plans. But I think once you’ve done that, it’s not pragmatic to keep going through scenarios before they even happen. Because even if they do happen, there’s no reason to go through it twice when once will surely be enough.
Personally, if everything eventually goes the way of The-Grapes-of-Wrath (or even The-Walking-Dead), I think today is better spent enjoying Spring and a good dinner than it is imagining already being there 
Maybe easier said than done but seems like a worthwhile try.
Could you plan to have that trip with your dogs for 3 months next year if you took that $10,000 for the bathroom remodel and put it away for the trip instead? Maybe it’s better to “spend” it on hope than it is to spend it on a remodel right now. Besides, you don’t need a bunch grubby contractors in your house right now.
It’s a damned if you do situation. Now is the perfect time to have contractors because I have no guest dogs or humans for the construction to disturb. But that’s partly why I’m thinking of starting it myself. Or I just go travel in a year or two and make do with the bathroom I have for another 10 years.
Oh, also, I’m a rationalist. So while I’m not really a worry-wart, I’d like to see some evidence for optimism and I’m not seeing it. Simply saying, well I’m going to avoid the news because it’s negative isn’t my style.
I’m not paying much attention to topics like this because it’ll be a long time before Virgil and I are ready to open our Airbnb rooms. We’ll see what STR and Airbnb (and others) are like then.
I missed Brian Chesky’s talk today, but I have already moved to longer stays. I have a 14 day minimum stay at two of the AirBnB houses, and a 28 day minimum stay at the other AirBnB house. They are all stand alone houses with full kitchens, full laundry facilities and everything anyone might need for a longer stay.
In addition, I’m blocking 14 days in between each stay. That way my cleaners don’t have to go in the house until 9 or 10 days after the guest leaves. Then they can disinfect and prepare the unit, and it can sit empty for 4 days after they finish before the next guest arrives.
I switched cleaners too. Normally my assistant and I do it. But we are both high risk. So I arranged for two younger people who have no risk factors to do the cleaning. Both are military vets; one was working for an industrial cleaning company and got laid off. The other is a college student who is studying to become a medical lab technician whose program has been halted because the of Coronavirus pandemic. They are responsible and understand the importance of disinfecting and cleaning.
In addition, I will be staying in touch with my guests after they depart for at least 14 days so if they develop any symptoms of the virus, I can warn my cleaners and the upcoming guest and cancel the cleaning and booking if it seems advisable.
Our state as a stay-at-home order in effect, and a 14 day self quarantine order for anyone coming here from out of state.
I am talking to guests about why they are coming and canceling them if they seem to be the kind of guest whose behavior will put others at risk.
I have reduced my booking window to 3 months.
So far I have enough bookings to cover expenses for this month and most of next month.
A local realtor probably takes about 10%. Zillow takes nothing. Why give ABB 15% + ?? What am I missing here?