Questions for longer stays?

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I was woken up in the middle of the night last night by someone requesting to book for 2.5 months, starting next month. Guy from NY, his secretary and assistant. Having hosted one other long-term stay, (hosting Afghan refugees and they utterly trashed my place) I messaged him that I do longer stays in blocks of 29 days or he’d have to sign an extra lease intending to vacate at the end of his stay.

I searched Air this morning and I’m the only place offering three bedrooms during their timeframe. I’m assuming if they do book, they’ll unleash some fresh new hell on my building, and leave an awful review.

  1. Anyone include any extra amenities for longer-term guests? I don’t have things like nail polish remover or peroxide, but would stock things like that for longer stays. There’s a Walgreens two blocks away, but still…
  2. I told them I’d be doing weekly cleanings. Also leave them extra towels and a few extra sets of sheets.
  3. The place doesn’t list a washer/dryer, but there is one in the unfinished dry basement (one floor down) that they could use, along with an extra toilet. They’re welcome to use it, but it’s…an unfinished basement. The second floor space also has a w/d they can use during the week.
  4. Anyone have a boilerplate lease they use in this situation? The lease would vary by state, but my attorney can modify it.

I can’t imagine agreeing to “We’re taking a work trip to Iowa. It’ll be the hottest, most humid time of year. We’re all sharing a place with one bathroom.” If this is indeed the case, I want to make their stay as nice as possible. The profit would also completely cover the cost of setting up the new listing, which would ease my mind quite a bit and put me in a much better place heading into the off-season.

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If you haven’t done so, check your state and local laws regarding tenancy. Doing successive (or even interrupted) blocks of 29 days may NOT work to avoid tenancy rights for the guest. In my area, it doesn’t work.

For any stay of 29 days or longer, we require a lease and references at the beginning of the stay. We don’t book that through Airbnb. We also require a security deposit.

I suggest contacting a real estate attorney to get an appropriate lease drawn up.

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The lease I use is on the government web site for my province: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/housing-and-tenancy/residential-tenancies/forms/rtb1_chrome.pdf

I also have them sign a mutual agreement to end tenancy, also available from the website, as that’s really the only thing that scares me about longer stays.

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I wouldn’t supply these things for a longer stay. I don’t supply them for a short stay and have never had them supplied in any of the 22 Airbnbs I’ve stayed in as a guest. or a long stay I’d be supplying fewer, not more, amenities. Like a starter pack of TP and coffee with the understanding that they have to stock their own. Same with laundry detergent.

I agree with those saying you need a lease and more info from this tenant.

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I wouldn’t include anything but a ‘starter’ pack of a few rolls of toilet paper and paper towels, and say that’s what you’re doing.

Explain what this includes and does not include. Don’t let them waive this. This is required, if nothing else, to see what condition that they are keeping the property in.

It would be nice to include this. Explain that it is in an unfinished part of the house and that of course they need to provide supplies. If it requires ‘special’ supplies like HE detergent, your House Manual should say so.

Did you attorney request this?? If so, I’d be wary of the attorney. Review the lease carefully with your lawyer. Are pets permitted? How many guests can stay overnight? Do you need access to property for yard maintenance? What rules apply – like no events or parties? Other?

Your listing will need to say now that stays longer than x days will require passing a background check, a security deposit and a signed written lease with terms that go beyond the listing description.

I hope you have a security deposit AND do a background check.

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As a former professional landlord, I would treat this as a leasehold.

  1. Go to leaserunner.com . Tell prospective tenants that they need to fill out the free application. When you receive the application, google everything possible and above all, confirm the story of who they are and their business.

  2. If that checks out, they need to have at least one person go through tenant screening on leaserunner. They pay for this. If you want to be nice, you can say you’ll deduct the cost from their fee if they accept the space.

Helpful hint: Nothing matters more than credit score if you want your place maintained.

  1. Get lease and other support from leaserunner.com. Never hurts to have your attorney look things over. ALL tenants must sign. Watch out for extra people moving in.

  2. They must send you copies of government issued photo ID for ALL tenants.

  3. Forget the extra amenities, but if you can provide weekly housekeeping and still make good money, do it.

  4. They will use the washer dryer and they will use the toilet downstairs. And everything else. Bank on it. Make sure that stuff is in good shape, toilet won’t clog easily.

Do this and I think you might possibly OK. But become familiar with how landlord-tenant disputes are handled where you live and make sure you’re up to going to court if that’s what could happen.

Best of luck!

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Hosts generally provide less, not more, in the way of products for long term rentals. A starter pack, enough for a few days or a week so they don’t have to go shopping right away.

You also might want to set up a quick weekly cleaning. The point is not to do a thorough cleaning as you would for guest arrival, but to make sure they aren’t living like pigs in there and keep things at bay if they are slobs.

I’ve read of hosts getting some nasty surprises in terms of level of filth and damages when guests are left to their own devices long term.

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For amenities, I generally just include what I always include, in the same generous quantities— my minimum stay is six nights so I leave lots of everything.

Then if they say they’re out of something, I cheerfully bring another generous quantity. It doesn’t cost me much, especially considering that it’s a tax write off and that the arrangement has eliminated turnaround vacancies during their stay.

I don’t generally clean during their stay, as I think of it as their place while they’re here. I suppose I might have a different approach if I started having trouble, but in my experience no one has left the place trashed.

I did have an inquiry from someone who wanted to bring five (!!!) cats, and I told her we would provide weekly cleaning and damage inspection. She wasn’t too happy about that, and also thought we should be cutting her a bigger long-term discount, so she ended up finding another place. (Thankfully)

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Having them do blocks of days does not change anything. You will still have a tenant and still be a landlord. However, Iowa is low risk and generally landlord-friendly. And no one leaves NY to scam a landlord unless they’re headed to California ,)

Use an Iowa-specific month-to-month rental agreement if they’ll agree to it (if it’s not already mentioned in your house rules, you can’t make them sign it if they don’t want to). But don’t use a term lease. It’s much easier to get rid of someone on a month-to-month agreement.

If they’ll agree to the weekly housekeeping (again, if it’s not in your house rules, you can’t force it but you could put it in the agreement if they’ll sign one), then make sure to give them the proper 24-hour notice every single time.

It’s preferable to give them a vacuum cleaner, a mop and a starter kit of cleaning supplies. It’s not a normal thing for a landlord to enter weekly for anything and could be seen as abuse of access. Besides, the best thing about long-term stays is that you get a break from cleaning the place.

It is allowable to give notice and access the unit specifically for an inspection in Iowa and that would be the more professional and legal way to get eyes on your unit. You can also make up something about servicing the smoke detectors, which will feel less invasive to your tenants. I suggest that you do that around 3 weeks after they’ve moved in. From that visit, you’ll know if you need to get in more often.

IA allows landlord access for inspections, repairs/improvements/alterations, necessary services (smoke detectors, etc), to show the unit and, worst case scenario, to “repair or maintain a health or safety issue at the property caused by the tenant’s failure to maintain the unit”. But you don’t want to get in a position where you could be accused of abusing access so tread carefully.

A couple of things to be aware of that is different for tenants: you can’t prohibit them from receiving mail at the address and you can’t unreasonably prohibit guests and visitors. You can put something in your agreement that only allows so many (7-14 usually) overnight stays per month. But anything beyond that would be infringing on their right to peaceful enjoyment.

And don’t forget to adjust for the tax implications. This will be rental income on schedule e.

As long as you follow the laws and act in good faith then you’ll be well-protected. Much better protected than you are from Airbnb.

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I know some hosts permit longer stays, but I’ve always found the sweet spot to be a max of 6 nights.

That said, the idea of creating a lease with a guest, either on paper or by default, is fraught during a pandemic. May cities including mine had an eviction moratorium for well over a year, and good luck to all the landlords who are in the process of trying to collect back rent. While most (all?) the moratorium have been lifted by now, what happens if there’s an uptick in covid cases and they are reinstituted? Now you have a non-paying tenant living in your STR, killing your business.

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It totally depends on the type of rental you have, the location, why guests come to your area and book your place, and the quality of guests you get. Also just the individual host’s preference.
My max is two weeks and many of my guests book for that length of time, because I am in a beach destination town. Even though I’m a homeshare host and share my kitchen with guests, I’ve never wished that I didn’t accept a 2 week booking. They have all worked out fine.

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Whereas I groan a little when I get a booking for 6 nights (my minimum). I think 6 weeks is about right.

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There is a lot of good advice already here. Comparing this party to a party of Afghan refugees, new to a country, frightened and trying to rebuild their life, is apples and oranges.

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Also it should be an Airbnb at Work booking @shinylizard

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All good advice here !

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Did they ask you: can we rent long term? Any other strange questions like how far are you from airport or how many bedrooms house has or if they are sharing house with someone else?

Lately there is a new scam going on ussualy from an asian person who inquiries for longer stays.
More than 2 months ussualy. There is always him and his assistant/ secretary/ translator. English ussualy is very broken. They inbolve you in conversation that ends up with them asking for your whatsapp number to " add " you.
Not sure whats their scam is and why they collect phome numbers…but know for sure its a scam.

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Huh…

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Thank you all so much for your wonderful advice! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I’m gonna use this to create a long-term area on my listing going forward.

@HostAirbnbVRBO - I’m always wary of my attorney, I’m married to him. He knew nothing about real estate law when I got into this, but he’s learning very quickly. I tell him it’s payback for putting up with law school.

@wonderlust, you were right. The guy wanted to communicate off platform, I told him I’d be more than happy to once the reservation had been booked. He then gave me his phone number and I just let it sit. Hell no I’m not contacting you. Air contacted me several hours later about acct security, as they had to remove him from the platform. Bullet dodged.

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O i am glad you didn’t. I report them immediately to Airbnb. Why they ask for whatsapp number is because they dont live in US so the only way they can use your number is whatsapp.
Not sure what they do with it. May be selling it to another scam company to make fake IRS or amazon cards scams.

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If your husband/attorney is not practicing real estate law his best use might be not drafting the lease but working with a real estate lawyer who is practicing real estate law and practicing in your area.

It’s not just about getting the law right in your lease, but also having experience in the kinds of things that happen AND how the courts in your area administer the law. It’s not just ‘book knowledge.’

I understand if you don’t want to spend the money now but in the long run I’d encourage you to spend the dollars to get a real estate lawyer in your area to draw up your lease and procedures.

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