I have been a host for a year-and-a-half and I’ve always hosted just short-term guests no longer than four nights. Because after that it becomes weird. Anyway, I just got a request from a woman in Seattle who asked about the four-day limit and said she has a potential six-month stay coming up in January. I’m very nervous about approving this for valid reasons. I did some research and of course Airbnb deep talks about this on their page but basically after 30 days in most states if it becomes a tenancy. And I’m much more comfortable when I have netted the person and chose them. I don’t know what she’s like or anything and just all the sudden have someone stay for 6 months is crazy. What are your success and horror stories from long-term guests?
No horror stories because I have a 7 day max. Go with your instinct and just say no.
RR
Agree. Lots of factors make long term guests, in a short term rental property, problematic.
JF
Google Palm Springs AirBnb squatter for a horror story
RR
Try to get her to book for your current max and then you can see how it goes and decide if you want to give her a lease and bet her further. I have just had a bad experience with doing that though so say in my listing that unless the guest has contacted me outside of Airbnb (not as easy unless I really am the right place for them and they have done enough research and likely have at least one contact in common) that I don’t do it anymore because if that instance.
I had one guy (and his cats) who was booked for like a week or 2 weeks and then wanted to stay longer paying cash because he was having issues with not wanting certain things in certain credit cards. He gave me a completely uneasy feeling (he needed severe help during check-in and my then boyfriend had to be the one to help him because I was out of town) although had been super nice to my face. When I turned him down he turned from “oh I love this place and I need to stay here longer, especially because of the cats” to “this place is a dump and cats shouldn’t even be allowed to stay here it’s so bad”. Bullet dodged.
Funny thing was I had found out later that my iPhone had been sitting on the back of the living room tv his whole stay…I had set it there while cleaning back there (flashlight maybe?) and forgot it…couldn’t find it for a LONG time. I was so glad then that I hadn’t let him stay because the longer he was there the greater the chance he would find it and not return it.
I assume you are a shared-space host and that definitely could become weird.
The tenancy issues might be least of your worries compared to sharing space with someone you can’t stand. So, if you’re willing to risk the tenancy issues and try long term, you could do a shorter trial period where you let her book for just a couple weeks, then if it seems like it’ll work, book the rest of the stay. Maybe even book them as multiple stays of a month each, so you can cancel any remaining stays if things start to go sour (note that multiple short but successive stays DOES NOT avoid tenancy issues unless the guest vacates completely for at least a day in between each stay).
All great ideas. I will do that. I don’t have the energy to worry about eviction and the stress of having a nightmare long term guest. She would have to bring a lot of stuff with her
I have a couple of horror stories that I can go into if you want but suffice it to say that the situation would have to be pretty desperate for me to go back to LTR.
One important thing to ask yourself is why she is using Airbnb. It’s more expensive after all and sometimes people use Airbnb to find long-term places because they have no or bad credit.
I’ve had some summer interns or traveling nurses stay with me for 2-3 months, and that’s about as much as I can handle. It just gets old having someone using my kitchen and doing laundry when I want to (which short-term guests don’t tend to do) and it’s nice to have a day off from guests every once in a while. You run the risk of squatters once you get above 28-30 days, depending on the laws in your state. It’s nice to not have to turn over the room for a few months and I don’t give long-term discounts so am not losing any money. I would never do a 6 month stay though…I’m not looking for a roommate and it can be a miserable 6 months if you don’t like the person. I fully agree with the other suggestions of a one month trial with possibility of extension.
I have a max stay of 2 weeks. If I wanted a full-time roommate I certainly wouldn’t use Airbnb to find one.
Exactly! I wonder why she is. Can’t be a good reason.
I disagree that it can’t be a good reason These days Airbnb is becoming more and more popular for STR (and is known that many are home shares) and being a roommate is exactly that. It sounds like the perfect reason, especially to the younger folks who never did it by the methods we did.
Especially for 6 months. That sounds like someone who can’t get a lease because most apartment complexes will do a 6 month lease. I’d worry that she’s had evictions in the past or has really bad credit or something.
I also agree that there could be good reasons but no one on this thread seems interested. I think there is a reason we became STR hosts, especially those of us who don’t have “vacation rentals.”
Yup, I’m a STR host but they are definitely not “vacation” rentals!
I get it. A lot of people have a criminal background or history that isn’t that great as far as finances and I’m willing to consider those but not rule out if they were stay with me. With Airbnb guess we’re short-term, it’s really none of my business but I’m just worried that I would have to go through court and spend a lot of legal money to evict them if they refuse to leave if absolutely didn’t get along or something terrible happened. And I’m used to not having someone else here all the time except my daughter. That would be hard to have stranger long term.
I too agree that there could be a good reason, but my instinct is that the guest would have explained that good reason.
It’s not unlike (though clearly less serious) than men who walk too close behind you in a dark parking lot. There’s something wrong with those men because most men will naturally, instinctively, drop back or veer off because they don’t want to creep-out the woman in front of them. Men who don’t care if they creep-out her out are a problem. Men who don’t have the instinct that they are creeping her out are a problem. And some men are creeping her out on purpose and are a problem.
The longest booking I’ve ever booked as a guest, was 2.5 months and I explained why I needed such a long-term STR because I didn’t want the host to think that I didn’t have or couldn’t have a lease if I wanted. I didn’t over-think but I remember being conscious at the time (long before I was a host) of wanting to explain myself a bit. It’s a long-time to stay in someone else’s place and I, instinctively, wanted the host to feel comfortable with me. And I’d suggest that any guest who didn’t have that feeling should at least raise a bit of a flag and require further thought before booking them.
Yes, you’re right. Mine is that I don’t particularly like “people”.
I’ve worked out out my tolerance is roughly 8/9 days. Just want them to move on after that.
JF
Interesting. I do it because I can’t find suitable candidates for LTR…lol
I’ve been doing a lot of research and I’ve determined that I can eliminate 100% of all rental issues if I don’t rent to people. If you’ve got a solution, I’m all ears…