Changing my hosting style from 1 day min.to long term

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I am on a new mode here and seriously thinking of changing my 1, now 2 day minimum to much longer stays. After my chilian cooks the idea of someone like that staying for 2 weeks terrified me. But since many alterations of my rules i have mostly no problems with my guests anymore and 99% of them are very good experience for me ,i am inclining more and more to longer terms such as months. But not for December-March period, only for low season.

Since i started giving monthly discount which comes to 1K per room a month, i had 2 bookings. One is on half of their stay. FANTASTIC. Girls are hardly home, work a lot. Very clean, quiet and with one i am almost a friend. They left for Father’s day and i am sad, believe it or not, i miss them.

Another is coming on Tuesday, Harword law graduate, just got a job here. I warned him about cooking, he said, no worries, i will be working 80 hours, i have no time for cooking at all.
SO, it can work!. There are all kind of situations, and there are some people there who dont need to spend hours on a kitchen. And i would never make these money on a one room if i rented it by day for 50$. Its so slow here.

ANother property, a separate house. SInce October when it went live, i struggled with renting it. 2 days here, 2 days there, a week mostly. With the house i had all kind of guests, its harder to control them when you are not around.
Lots of work, inquires in 100s and then no bookings. And all these inquires need to be answered.
Now, i discovered a whole new type of renters. They are seasonal worker who come here on business. They rented from me before but for a week. This time its 2 months. During summer! 4500$ a month!.
My rate was at 200$ a day for 8 people. Last month i only sold 9 days which brought it to 1800$.
Now i have only 3 guys staying and their company pays for them, we signed lease, and i am paid until mid of August. They are building cover for Dolphin stadium in Miami. This is day 2 after they moved in and i still can not believe that the struggle is over at least until mid August.

And thats only happened after i started giving monthly discounts.

So, my questions for hosts who are doing long term rentals, is it working in a long run? DO you like it more than when it was day by day? What happens if you get a guest who you cant stand? Was there a time when you interrupted guest stay because it was impossible, and how did that work?

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Have you tried listing on some of the corporate housing sites? They can provide nice, long bookings with low-maintenance guests.

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No, what are they?? i did not even know they exist

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Yes, do tell. And are these “corporate housing sites” international?

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As it happens, I was just thinking of the pros and cons of short term vs long term guests. I might start a thread about that, if one doesn’t exist. Though there may be one already. Most people here seem to incline towards short term stays, but I can see advantages and disadvantages to both sides.

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Good idea.
For me with short term stays pro was that if i don’t like someone they will be gone soon. But in fact there were only very few guests i absolutely did not like. The rest were great. Cons: more work, correspondence, people changing, draggng their luggage in and out. I was always on guard as i am on IB. The other fact is that i was booked on Saturdays ahead of time , and then the rest of the days were left not booked even in busy season. Also, i had a hard time leaving on a trip and leaving the house.
With long stays i am free to do what i want. There is no every day bed changing, room and bath cleaning. And more income. for me to get as much money that i got for the month saty means i have to rent my room 20 days out of 30 which is not realistic in a slow season now.

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The two reasons we decided on Airbnb instead of long term tenants are that you can earn more money with short term rentals and that you can end up with a squatter if you rent long term. This may not be the case in Florida as California has unusually pro-tenant laws. If a tenant rents for 30 days or longer and doesn’t pay you have to go through a legal eviction process to get rid of them which can take up to six months during which they are living on your property for free. You cannot turn off their utilities by law. If you make any mistakes in the complicated eviction process, you have to start over from the beginning. If you do evict them and they leave belongings behind you have to store the belongings for months and try to charge them the costs of storage. Google Airbnb Palm Springs California squatters for a horror story. There were also squatters in Santa Cruz.

You should also check to see if you are allowed as a long term landlord to restrict cooking in your rental.

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Well, you can earn more money if you get a ton of booking, yes. Otherwise no. My guess is that this is at least partly location dependent. Some places are just very popular. Of course if there is money to be made, other folks will want to join the party. But it is a relatively small place which is a tourist haven, then you might get plenty of bookings nonetheless.

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https://www.corporatehousing.com/
http://www.executiverentalbyowner.com/

http://www.chbo.com/

Disclaimer: I don’t have any experience with any of these, and am not recommending them.

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We are in a very toruisty area but only from December to the end of March, and then it slows down significantly.
SO for me basically to make any money i have to reduce room price to the amount that i am not willing to host for if its just for one day. But also these 1 day stays block me from renting to someone who wants to stay a week.

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Thank you very much, i will check it out.

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Not long ago, we were approached by a couple companies regarding possibly drawing a contract for an as-needed corporate rental. Whether an employee was staying or not, they would continue paying. Unfortunately, it would have meant a couple thousand dollars in cancellation fees for future bookings, so it wasn’t right at the time.

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all of them lead to managing companies

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This would be my only concern… That the long-term tenants over-stay on an Air booking.
How do you handle the lease? Once they reach 30 days and you extend?

You are right. The short term stays can be much more work and hassle!

I like your idea otherwise and think it makes perfect sense for you!

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I heard it was two weeks in Florida! Have not come across any squatter cases in Florida, but I wonder how many hosts know that?

I really believe that some hosts eventually may find Air such a burnout that they return to long term tenants. It’s very pro tenant here in Hawaii though, and doing that kind of scares me. I make more on a yearly average on Air, even if I do have seasonal gaps like right now.

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They have an option for private owners to post.

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We signed agreement that they will stay until 17th of August, and then company wired me money for 1 month, and on a 17th of July i should receive the second payment.
We did not go through AIr, it was a funny story, i went out and started talking to these 2 guys, and they told me they are here for work and staying in Extended stay hotel and its awful. So they want to find a house, and its just 3 of them ,may be will be 4. And i offered them mine. I thought they were not serious, but what do you know, they called me the next day, and 2 days later moved in. They were so happy that there is also a pool. But in a beginning i thought they only need 1 month, but when we started doing lease, this when they told me its 2 months and may be more. I still can not believe it.

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Yes, but when i click on it they still take me to all the management companies. I will try again, thanks

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Sometimes small gaps are a good thing! It means more time for your family. :slight_smile:

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My family at the moment is just my husband who is never home:) After so many years together he doesn mind having less of my time:). ALso presence of guests does not bother me. This time my husband is away for a month, guests from one room left for a weekend and i feel kind of lonely in this big house all by myself.

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