Requests for long-term residence

I highly doubt this. About 75% of my guests are first time Airbnb guests and about 50% just created their account before booking with me.

You didn’t mention the “outside of Airbnb” before. Do you mean they wanted to complete the transaction outside of Airbnb?

Yep, I get those requests. Lots of transients here or young professionals starting careers. I just quote my local permit limitation, which does not allow me to host any individual 30 or more days per year, consecutively or not. My local government did a very clear job of distinguishing landlords from short term lodging renters. I could get round it by deeming them roommates, then I have NO protection – neither landlord eviction rights nor short term lodger trespassing remedies!

I personally will never rent long term again. Besides the fact that LTR implies - if you want responsible tenant - running background checks and security deposits, you will never ever get the apartment back in the same condition you gave it to them. Plus the hassle to evict them if they don’t pay. In my state any stay longer than a month is LTR and evictions laws will apply, Airbnb or no airbnb.
If I were you I’d just ignore. There is nothing to report here. If they are new and it’s possible, they ask.
No, I don’t get that at all. I limit the time they can stay in the system to 28 days.
Nobody ever stayed for more than 8-14 days though.

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I’ve only had it a few times but we’re in a tourist location so we’re fully booked with people who are coming on holiday. I imagine those long-termers are looking for something in the very near future.

I definitely wouldn’t waste the time reporting it.

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I have a tenant who works in DC and needs a place for 3-4 nights per week in the DC/Northern VA area. He is a professional w/ a long work history, would be gone each workday and has stayed in more than a dozen different Airbnbs since June and has a 5 star guest rating. He has inquired w/ several hosts about a long term arrangement. The rate he’s offering would be equivalent to a 4 night stay + cleaning for each week and he’s OK w/ renting the room to someone else on the weekends.

Each host has refused.

Why doesn’t he just book it? If he is not asking for a discount why does he need to inquire before booking? Most hosts allow four night stays.

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I had a bunch of long term requests when I first started last spring. I was a bit overwhelmed by them.
We use our STR ourselves almost once a month, so it wasn’t something we were Interested in, so I set our maximum stay to 14 days and the inquiries have stopped.

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I had a dentist here last fall with that kind of arrangement. It was awesome.

It seems they refuse due to this stipulation in the local law:

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The Airbnb fees are adding up w/ individual bookings each week.

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So he is asking to book off platform? That may be why people are declining him.

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Yes, he’s asking for a direct annual part time rental. I’ve recommended he look for traditional FT houses to share or rooms for rent.

That’s why I was wondering what the catch is. I’d jump on this kind of arrangement.

Ah ha! :grinning: In that case I would refuse too.

I would just book it off-platform but it would be easier for me if he had stayed at least once as a legit guest. Otherwise, it’s an odd situation to be put in with someone who you know so little about if you aren’t already running your STR off-platform.

@KarenWV The best way for him to go about it may be for him to try staying places first and then initiating his offer. I think most hosts would go for it if he’d already stayed once and proven himself a good guest. Also, the conflict about him contacting them on Airbnb would be moot because the 1st booking would have gone through Airbnb.

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Everybody has their own level of risk-aversion but I would not risk breaking the law for an Airbnb rental.

The easiest way to do this is to give him a legit lease that allows for you to sublet on the weekends. It would be legal and not be a STR. This not uncommon in larger cities as there are alot of people who come for work during the week. I have friends who do this here and we don’t even have any laws or regulations for STR. They do it because it protects them best with what is ultimately a LTR but it still allows them to Airbnb on the weekends. It’s a pretty sweet deal actually.

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@JJD He has stayed at each place before making an offer - all booked through Airbnb. He’s been very disappointed in the quality of some of the places he’s stayed (not as pictured, not as described) and hasn’t made an offer unless he’s sure it’s a good fit for him.

I told him that I don’t think Airbnb is a good conversion from STR to long term guest (even part time) and that’s he’s better off looking for a FT room rental or shared house rental. Trulia seems to be a good platform for FT shared housing rentals.

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The owner of the place I manage just approved a three month rental for a single lady. Its during our slow months and since he raised the rates, I was worried that the bookings wouldn’t come through for those months. Her inquiry came thru VRBO.

Also try Craigslist.

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I can see some hosts really liking a booking like that, especially if the guy books on weekdays. There’s a lot of hosts whose weekends are their bread and butter- knowing you had a good repeat guest for 3-4 weekdays every week sounds great. I find it odd that he’s having all those requests turned down.

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Yes some people use Airbnb as appartment finder. They can actually rent through Airbnb long term and many did with me. I am not sure what you see wrong here. Some people prefer to pay through platform to reserve space and then they arrange direct payments with host .
In slow season I can’t even get more per night if I do 1-2 days anyway. My monthly rate is the exact daily rate ×30.

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