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I have a request for a booking for early next year for 1 month.
The request seems to be genuine- they have had 1 review which was from a superhost and have 5 verifications.
They want to stay a total of 30 days, however I have heard of things in other countries whereby guests stay longer than a month and automatically have the same rights as a full time renter. Does anyone know the law around this in Melbourne, Australia?
Also, how did Airbnb calculate the cost for the 30 days? I don’t even have those periods open for next year, so what formula would it have used to calculate how much it will cost the guest?
As they will be staying for 30 days, it is by far the longest stay we have had. We don’t fully feel comfortable with someone staying that long as a lot of damage to the apartment can happen in that period. Is it reasonable to ask the guest if we can have a mid stay inspection? Or is that too much? I’m thinking its probably too much but just checking what other peoples thoughts are.
Lastly, she appears to be quite a well known lawyer (well, she has her own website at least). I have been very weary about identity verification on AirBnb… if she has connected a Facebook and done an Offline ID verification, does this mean that Airbnb have verified that the name of her AirBnb account is the same as the name on her License and Facebook?
In our town, we have to keep it under 28 days to be short term, so I can write up a contract, and then another after the 28 days.
I always require a pre-paid cleaning each week for longer staying guests, so my cleaner can lay her eyes on the place and ensure everything is going ok.
We have had quite a few long term stays in our apartment, we rent the whole unit out, ranging from 3 weeks to 3 months.
In all the cases, the renters have been really lovely people, they have always been retired or semi-retired people that are spending some time travelling and really want to get under the skin of the city. We still keep in touch with the couple that stayed for three months.
We do also find that they book well in advance, we have a couple that have booked for the whole of July 2016, they made the reservation in May 2015 - airbnb must love having all their money sitting in the bank that long in advance
We offer the option of weekly cleaning at extra cost but nobody has ever requested it. We certainly haven’t found any major damage or more wear and tear - if anything we find they are more respectful and take care of the place more as they are there for longer.
We personally like these longer booking, as they are a lot less work for us, no change overs, but we still get the higher income levels as opposed to renting it out just long term, as we used to do.
I am not sure about any laws on tenancy length - I will check this out though but we’ve never been concerned that guests would overstay.
I can’t help with the legal aspect either but we offer (strongly offer!) a weekly free clean with fresh linens and towels for guests staying for two weeks or longer. I don’t tell the guest that it’s optional, I say ‘we WILL clean…’ and not ‘we would like to…’
I don’t ask them when would be a good time for their weekly cleaning, I ask something like ‘would you prefer your weekly cleaning tomorrow or the next day?’
No-one has refused yet, in fact they like it, and it gives me the chance to check on the apartment. I have a backup plan in case anyone refuses - which is to tell them that the plumber has been working on the flat above and would like me to double check something in the guest’s bathroom.
Yes, some people might think that offering free cleaning and linens is crazy but it gives me peace of mind. Also by cleaning, I know that I’m not going to have too much of a major clean when they guests leave.I hope that there is also a psychological effect on the guests - that when they know I’ll be visiting, they are more inclined to look after the place. Mind you, I live only steps away - it would be trickier if I lived at the other side of town.
So yes, I do an ‘inspection’ during the stay but disguise it!
