Long term suggestions

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So my husband recently retired and we’ve always wanted to get a camper and travel, but I hate to block off all summer for rentals. I’d at least like to get enough money to pay the insurance, electric, etc, even if we don’t really make any money.

I have always cleaned the guest house myself. We have a small, out of the way place, so I’d have to find someone who would come here several times to do the laundry and welcome guests, etc, so I was thinking to do a long term rental. I wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning it, letting people in and out, etc. But to do that, I’d have too mark it somehow to make sure nobody scheduled a weekend in the middle. I would give a deep discount to make it attractive.

Has anyone done this? Where do you advertise? I’d love to hear from you.

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Set it for a minimum of the 30 days or whatever you want during that period.

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Where you will advertise depends on what sort of property you have and where it is located. .

So if you have a boat in Greece you could advertise on Mediterranean boating holiday sites.

What sort of people typically come and stay with you? What sort of people would typically want a longer term stay in your area. Start with your target market and then identify where they are likely to look for summer holiday accommodation.

Have you spoken to your local tourism board - many will take ads from accommodation owners.

There are quite a few websites that owners can use to market their property but many specialise in one or two week lets

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I have 20 years experience in holiday rentals, but only 6 on airbnb (much more challenging than my past 19 years experience I must say).

In my experience long term rentals are costly and risky.

People get installed, really use the kitchen, will complain about any amenity being out. If they are there for 4 days or one week, they will probably make do, eat out, not use the laundry machines, not use the kitchen, not move the furniture.

Long term stays want extra linens, they will need perfect internet and TV during their whole stay, they will not let it go if something is not working properly. They will make themselves at home and move stuff around. They will make intensive use of your machines and appliances and stay home more than short term rentals.

My property managers INSIST on mid-stay checks when a longer term rental is in there.

The potential for filth and damage and just all around inconvenience is much higher.

Yes you save on not having the property turn over as much, but on the other hand we’ve found damage and usage much higher.

And especailly beware a long term rental at full capacity or above capacity. It’s a huge difference if you just have a retired couple or if you have a family of 5 with kids.

In my experience, longer stays want: lots of extra linens (for no extra fee), cable television service (impossible for us we have 56 nationalities and languages each guest wants TV in his language), impeccable internet if it’s down they don’t just make do, theyll stay in more go out less and use everything much more.

You also have to be very careful in your area about staying times and when the person can become a resident in your house. We had a home in France and a person wanted to stay one week more than the 3 months allowed for holiday lets. That would have enabled them to elect residence in our home and it would have been impossible for us to expulse them. I am convinced this was their plan and we didn’t fall for it. So check your local laws.

I think you might be better off paying someone to manage welcoming your clients and doing the cleans, and keep the short term rentals.

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I have had both short and long stays and the ones who live there for a month are much dirtier than the guests who stay for a few.days.
I include a weekly clean for long terms

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I would not use Airbnb for a long-term tenant. Just advertise as a normal apartment. Fee’s will add up and you likely will want a real security deposit.

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In many states you must beware that renters staying 30 days or more have a completely different set of “renters rights” than STRs. Air is NOT a good platform for LTRs. Others are right – even with a LTR you can’t just 'walk away" for 30 or 60 days. You need someone to watch over things; to be the Answer Person when things go wrong (and they will), etc…

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Thank you for the advice. I had never thought of that, but I guess the more someone gets comfortable, the more they will put their feet up on the couch, etc.

I’m glad I asked!

So how many of you have someone clean and such - do you have a property manager to do everything - mow the grass, etc, or just someone to clean and someone else to do the outside work.

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In Australia and the UK where I’ve rented and rented out my place LTR most owners arrange rentals (long and short term eg 4 weeks) through a real estate agent who arranges advertising, viewings, vetting, deposits, key exchange, cleaning and refunds of deposit. Usually for about 10% of the weekly rent. This was all before AirBnB so I don’t know if people still do it this way. I booked 2 consecutive 4 week stays in London this way (in 2002) when my flat was being renovated.

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My Husband and I have been hosting for a year now. Last year we had two LTR that were awesome guests.
No issues at all . I would ask a lot of questions as to why they want a LTR. Lots of people work contract jobs and then all the travelling nurses need a place to live.
It’s nice not to have to turn the unit over for a few months. I don’t offer any additional cleaning to a LTR.
Just show them where the laundry room is.

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I agree. I do a lot of LTRs. They are here for postgrad work, coop, or transfers. They have a lot at stake. They are very busy and out of the house every day. If they get sloppy, I am on it calmly but succinctly.

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Yes, travel nurses work on 3 month contracts, which are sometimes extended another 3 months. They usually need to sleep during the day, so blackout curtains and quiet daytimes are appreciated. If you have hospitals nearby, you might consider it. There are several facebook groups to match landlords to nurses.

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I’m a property manager and one of the places I look after we have in the past reverted it to a 6 month lease over winter and this has worked well. But we removed all linen, pot plants and anything that needed TLC. This year (oops, last year) we decided to keep it short stay and see how it went. We had an Airbnb who came in for 3 weeks in May (insurance job) and just kept extending and extending. After a few months the insurance co. wanted them off the Air platform and onto a lease so we accommodated that. When peak season arrived we said we needed access to clean and prepare the two bedroom villa. It took 3 people two days to totally clean it inside and out, top to bottom. It has a large outdoor/indoor spa area, bbq etc. This time we didn’t remove the linen and plants. The linen was fine but most of the plants were dead.

So in short, this has been successful for us. The guests were still relatively demanding but it was great not to have to do all the turnover, cleaning and down time. So it was definitely easier and the income was steady. If I was you I would try and go for the longer term as it’s definitely less hassle, and you don’t have to worry about the review! What country are you in?

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I started doing longer terms . Put minimum of one montj or however long you wish.
There is an option there to even pick dates qhwre you want your long term guests and indicate minimum, etc