Request for 4 month booking, no reviews: would you?

…and because this is only a request all I can see is a first name and the fact that he has no reviews, thus Internet sleuthing is not possible.

What would you do?

I would never take a 4 month booking to start with, from anyone.

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This is not a guest. This is a tenant. You would not be a host. You would be a landlord.

I would not take a tenant for 4 months without a proper lease and a full security deposit as well as references, a background and credit report. If this guest doesn’t have any reviews, he’s clearly not an experienced digital nomad type.

Of course, it’s possible that he’s just started his nomading but it’s just as likely that he was recently evicted after not paying rent for two years or can’t pass a background check and thus can’t qualify for a place to live outside of the wild-west-of-tenancies that is Airbnb.

You especially need a lease in TX because the bulk of terms are established by the lease in TX.

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These are important points. Thank you for your help.

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Definitely not. Airbnb isn’t the place to get long term guests. If you’re hosting someone on a long term basis, then you really should have a proper lease in place. In addition, I’d want a hefty deposit up front, plus a damages deposit.

The other factor here to ask yourself is why he’s trying to rent long term via Airbnb. Is it to avoid a credit check? Or avoid any other kind of background check? He might be perfectly legit but I’d wonder.

A guest who has no reviews is fine by me - for a stay of around 3 days. :slight_smile:

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You folks are simply the best. I was feeling ishy about it and you’ve put words and reasoning on my, “Duh…I’m not surrrrre…” intuition.

(Note to self: do better at listening to your gut.)

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I, for one, don’t have a gut worth listening to. My gut has gotten me in trouble…

This isn’t really a gut issue, it’s pure logic. If you want to have a roomie, or a tenant, do that but don’t give Airbnb a 15% cut. Like everyone else said, Airbnb isn’t the place for month to month leases, no matter how they try to convince you they are.

If you are slightly interested tell him what information you need for a background check and see if you hear from him again.

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I don’t either. @Txjuju I don’t know how much you’ve read here but you might know that I’ve been hosting for many. many years. (Before Airbnb and even before the internet existed)

:older_woman: <Me, old lady.

But I’ve never developed an adequate gut feeling. I’m hopeless at it. As @KKC says, use logic.

And if you’re not sure, ask here. You’ll get lots of varying opinions, but we’re here to help. :slight_smile:

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I’m not sure that what some people might term as “gut feeling” isn’t based on logic, even if one can’t exactly put their finger on it. It could be something a guest said or didn’t say in a message that gives you a funny feeling, or a combination of things, but it’s usually based on something real, not some little invisible being perched on one’s shoulder saying “Decline”.

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Like the recent request for 12 adults that asked how many beds there were available.
Asked them the make up of the group and after multiple back and forth it actually turned out they wanted to bring 10 adults and 10 children 2-15 years of age. They thought it was OK to bring 8 extras…usual reason…all kids should be free…

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And they can also sleep on the hard floor with no bedding. They don’t use toilet paper, soap, eat or bathe, either. Why on earth would you charge for them? Jeez, some hosts are so inflexible. :laughing:

Teenagers should pay double. They take one hour hot showers, want to wash their jeans after wearing them for a few hours, because they don’t fit as tight anymore, and stand in front of the fridge with the door wide open for a full 5 minutes, as if some other food will magically appear in there if they stare inside long enough. They’re also usually quite messy.

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Unlike old folks like myself who do that because I can’t remember what I went to the fridge for.

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Or my friends who once told me they were so stoned and had the munchies, that they pulled up chairs in front of the open fridge.

I know that one. Do you go back and stand where you were before you had the thought to go to the fridge? I do. Then I remember. Happens with a lot of stuff. I’ll go upstairs for something, and immediately forget what it was, then have to go back downstairs to remember. Who needs a Stairmaster to stay fit? :crazy_face:

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Hey! I resemble that remark! :laughing::rofl:

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Never more than 21 days. You and AirBnb are a Short Time Rental agency, not House Swappers or a Relocation Agency. If you want to do Long Term Rentals, get a lawyer to draw up a legal-for-your-area rental contract for you and potential renters to use. Then advertise somewhere other than AirBnb.

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No. Just. No. Not through ABB.

If you do it off-platform, tell them to go to Zillow (put your place on Zillow), fill out a real rental application with credit and background check, get their reason for 4 months, get an ironclad lease.

I just did my second longer term ( 3 months) rental in over a decade of renting. I made her book a couple days first so that I could get her number, etc. We talked on the phone for quite a while. She doesn’t live that far away, is a traveling nurse, and just needed to stay close to the hospital because she works nights. Consequently she was able to come meet my husband and I in person about a week before that stay. I trust my gut and after meeting her and her mom, I told her to go ahead and book the longer stay. Two nights in and great so far. Since a visit isn’t possible, you might suggest a one night booking just to free up the information channel.

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Depends. I would, because I live in Colorado and the max liability I would face is that I’d have to give four days notice (because of four month’s rental) before evicting, and evicting is cheap and easy. Some states if they stay more than a month you have to go through a tortuous process to evict them.

I rent one month minimum (bc HOA) for three years now. All my guests are either people who are moving to the area and house shopping, visiting because their kids are expecting a baby, or travel nurses, or other corporate travelers. All have been homeowners. They’re usually great guests, no real issues. Many have no profile, but I don’t care, because everyone does a month to month lease and background check, which are required by the HOA, as per usual for an LTR. Everyone seems to accept that and comply without issues. In my experience, people who are looking for a furnished place for a few months don’t know where to start looking – it’s harder to find than a short term stay or long term unfurnished place, so they think AirBnb or VRBO might offer that option.

I consistently rent my place within a couple days of opening dates. Rentals over 30 days are legally tenants rather than hotel guests where I am, so you need to be up to speed on managing LTRs. But it’s a piece of work to get set up to do LTR, so if you don’t want to bother with that then say no. I don’t do Airbnb anymore because it’s more of a hinderance than a help; I prefer to get a deposit directly and not depend on air for reimbursement damages.

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Then try this when you’re dealing with prioritizing which of the thousands of objects in a 3 story 3000 square foot house need to be packed/prepped for sale first, while your cell rings while you were going to the basement to get the right tool for whatever it was you needed it for. Why am I looking in the basement freezer thinking about how long it will take to defrost? :wink:

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