I have a current guests who would like to extend a 29 day stay to 31. I have a limit on a month-long stay. They have been lovely guests and currently rent a whole house rental. I know there has been discussion about not going beyond certain number of days because you begin to lose rights after a month, when it is no longer considered a short-term rental term, because they become long-term renters. Am I overreacting or should I just send an amended reservation for the extra few days? They asked about doing the last few days outside of the platform, in other words pay out of pocket. Would have been others experiences with this? I would prefer to have the extra days booked through Airbnb. If they wanted to extend for additional months I would do a state lease agreement for month to month rental (as we did previously before we turned this into an Airbnb rental). They are moving to another place locally that will not be âreadyâ until start of new month.
Airbnb is not going to be any help if tour guests decide to squat.
My opinion is that these incidents are very rare . When it happens its very bad and unpleasanf But . I host for 4.5 years and it never happened to me . 99.9% of my guests never ran without paying and right now I have 7 rooms all together.
I donât see anything wrong with your guests not wanting to pay directly to youâŚits only natural for them wanting to save money on Air fees.
If youâre in the USA, check your state laws. In the extreme case, the risk to you could be very high. For example, if they donât vacate and they invoke tenantsâ rights, it would likely take at least another month to evict them. During that time you would not receive rent, you would incur legal fees for the eviction, and they could do damage to and/or steal from your property.
I believe you can circumvent by not extending but instead making another reservation for the difference in added nights.
Or, depending on where you are, up to six months if youâre relying on the court system.
Not only do you not receive rent, but in a typical STR situation, youâre still paying for their utilities and theyâll make full use of the oven, or the air conditioning for example. And the law prevents you from simply switching off the power.
In the situation described by the OP though, what would happen if they extended their stay legally but them their other place wasnât ready so they wanted to extend again? And how is it possible to extend anyway? Arenât more guests coming in when the present guests leave?
In my state a stay over 29 days is considered long term. In other words if after 31st day they say âweâre not moving anywhere and we donât want to payâ good luck with kicking them out. In my state Iâd have to follow the same procedure of eviction like I would with a long term tenant. Notices of payment, then notice of eviction, police, court⌠I personally wouldnât. If they really want to stay they can book you for 2 days on Airbnb, I donât see what the problem is.
If the guest has already stayed for 29 days, having them book a separate but successive 2-day reservation probably wonât change anything. Even moving between different hotel rooms every 28 days has been ruled to allow tenants rights in some states.
I vote no. The probability of negative outcome may be low, but the cost of that unlikely negative outcome is super high â $10,000 in my neck of the woods to evict someone through court action.
âSorry, my short term rental insurance and business license will not allow an extension. Here are some local Airbnbs that have vacancies. Can I help you load your car?â
And if they say NO . I am actually not going anywhere . Police more likely are not going to do anything . I had incidents when I had to remove a guest from my driveway not from the house and when police came they said he is not doing anything illegal .
Now I host " longer term " guests who stay from a month and up. On average they stay between 1 and 3 months. I would be in big trouble if was afraid of squatting with every new guest.
Just tell them to make a separate booking for the extra days. If you want to be nice, then offer them a special price that is minus the cleaning fee.
Iâm with the other hosts here who say no. In fact, I would not even allow a 29 day stay. Our max stay is 28 days.
The extra 2 days of income is not worth the risks!
Or to avoid direct conflict & having to say no yourself, block a couple of days from their checkout date off on your AirBNB calender and tell them you have another booking due in.
do you genuinely believe they just want a couple of extra days, or do you think thereâs a risk of them hunkering down and refusing to pay. A shame to say to good guests ânoâ, after a 4 week stay.
This is from the Airbnb help website:
âIn some jurisdictions, guests may establish rights as a tenant after a month, so we encourage hosts to be knowledgeable about their local laws.
Itâs always in your best interest to vet potential guests before they book a reservation, especially a long-term booking. You may consider having these guests sign a rental agreement outlining the details in your listing description.â
I think you have four options:
- Accept the additional 2 night rental via Airbnb & recognize the risk of squatters.
I have two condos that every year I rent for 30-90 days to people wishing to play golf & escape snow. I havenât had a problem (but there is a first time for everything). If they rent 30 days via Airbnb, I donât get an additional agreement. If they want more than 30 days, I ask them to complete a long term lease form.
- Do the rental off platform for cash for the extra two days.
2.a. I donât know if this will help but you could get a written âshort term rental agreementâ and have the guest NOT currently listed as the renter on airbnb sign it. Now you donât have a 30 day lease with the same person signing as obligator.
2.b If you donât get a written agreement, there is a risk but the rental business in general has lots of risks. People can disappoint but if you have a relationship, maybe the trust for two more days will be ok.
- Decline it.
If theyâve been good guests so far, I would hate to inconvenience them. Expect a negative review for âkicking them outâ.
Itâs hard to say, and I just canât put my finger on it, but something just makes me uneasy.
thereâs your answer 
Wow. I had no idea about squatting and eviction timeline and costs. And sounds like regardless of additional bookings, they still could squat. Yes, I do have future bookings.
Well isnât that a shame that you just learned that your water and power have to be shut off at noon on their original checkout date for critical maintenance!
But the positives are that they are super clean ( weâve done weekly spot cleans/linen changes), and I know for a fact they read the house rules, as they opened their guest inquiry with a phrase requested at end of house rules. BUT, and I totally missed this point, they want to add on the extra days outside of the Airbnb platform to avoid fees, taxes, etc.
This is just another red flag for me. And itâs against the ToS so you have every reason to say no.