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I see this topic has been discussed a lot, but I don’t see this aspect of it talked about: we have a studio apartment at the back of our home and have decided to rent through Airbnb rather than as a long term rental because our neighbourhood is not zoned for multi family homes. It also does not meet the fire code criteria to register as a multiplex (would require us to gut the bathroom and laundry room to put up firewall on either side of two long walls as well as build a fireproof barrier in the attic). And then there are also the commonly discussed “protections” from Airbnb. We discussed it with the Zoning department and our insurance company and neither of those things are pertinent with less than 3 guests at a time in a short term rental.
So we do max 28 day rentals. We recently had a quest stay for a year and although he asked for a cash deal, we made him do it 28 days at a time through Airbnb. Not sure how that would stand up in a court of law with regards to tenants rights.
Just wondered if any one else has thoughts about zoning and legally registering as a rental vs going through Airbnb?
Why? What’s wrong with good old cash? You’re effectively doing an LTR so why not simply give the guy a lease and stop wasting money on Airbnb fees. As long as you have the correct insurance in place, there is no benefit to using Airbnb after the first time a guests stays with you, they’re your customer now, not Airbnb’s!
Well as I was saying, our neighbourhood is not zoned for multi dwellings and we do not conform to the city bylaws to be a legally registered duplex. I wondered if anyone else was considering those things. Doesn’t sound like they are a concern for you?
You’re going against your zoning anyway by doing consecutive monthly bookings, from the same guest, so why waste money on Airbnb fees. Your local authority may take the view that you’re trying to circumvent local legislation, and apply whatever penalties they see fit.
If you want to stay entirely legal, then don’t accept the booking.
I’m agreeing with others that just because you use Airbnb to do the payment processing doesn’t automatically make it a short-term rental. You would likely get in trouble with your local government if they found out the same guest stayed more than the minimum time for a long-term rental and penalties may be even more severe since you are deliberately trying to hide the fact that you are supporting a long-term rental.
I’ve read that some hotels will force guests to vacate , which includes removing ALL of their belongings from the property, for at least 1 full day every 28-31 days (depending on the local regulation) in order for a stay to not be counted as a long-term rental and avoid being subject to the regulations that come with it.
Skirting laws and regulations seems to be a matter of individual risk tolerance. Whatever you decide to do, be sure that you know what potential penalty or legal cost that could result.
I have no problem taking cash. Airbnb is there to ‘introduce’ potential hosts to guests and once that’s done, and they’ve taken their fees, I see absolutely no reason why they should be involved afterwards.
If your rental isn’t up to code, if you’re renting out your studio against zoning regulations, if you don’t have a business license (if required in your area) and if you don’t have proper STR insurance then you’re taking a huge risk.
Thanks for the thoughtful responses. In my little head I guess our guest really did fit the definition of a short term renter - came from another country to work a contract of unknown length, not interested in leases, first & last, giving notice (indeed he told us one morning he was leaving and was gone that night). So it was mutually beneficial to ask every 28 days whether he would be staying longer. And since we were doing a STR contract through the app I thought my position was defensible. But I guess we will have to give some thought to whether we would ever do that again.
But, to my original question, it does seem like some hosts are doing side deals of cash without having considered zoning or insurance implications of long term rentals. So I was curious why I hadn’t seen discussion about that.
Only to be challenged that I may have considered it, but not really thought it through
Getting cash for your rental isn’t a ‘side deal’, by my interpretation anyway. Cash is just one of a guest’s payment options. Other methods are fine but if the customer wants to pay cash, there’s no problem.
As regards zoning and insurance, what does that have to do with accepting cash?
In California, and in most other states, it does not matter how long the official booking is: what matters is how many consecutive nights they spend in your accommodation.
For some states, such as California, the limit at which a resident in a transient accommodation obtains tenant rights is over 30 consecutive nights. For some states, there is an actual number that is explicitly listed, but, for others, there is no explicit limit, which makes things more difficult to deal with. When there is no explicit limit in a state legal code, case law has sometimes filled the gap, and the courts may use a number that has been defined in several past decisions.
While we were abroad, we had long term tenants in our home (for several years). We were quite worried, coming back, about being able to reclaim control, and we actually consulted an attorney. We found out that it would have been easy for our tenants to make it almost impossible to regain access to our own home, even though we were going to be moving back. So we are now very careful.
We are newbies in STRs, so our opinion does not matter, but, right now, I figure that we would not accept any booking over 30 nights, regardless of incentive. We would require a guest to move out for a night before taking another booking.
