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Hi, knowledgeable friends. My spouse and I have decided to take 12 weeks to drive around the country to national parks. This would be in a year. We would like to rent out our lovely home and also have people take care of our two sweet cats. Obviously we would rent for very little money due to the cats.
How could we rent to one party for the whole 12 months on Airbnb?
And are there other sites or agencies that people would recommend for listing?
We are on fixed income and couldn’t afford cat care, plus we know there are people out there who would adore having this house to themselves.
There are people who do this kind of travel pet care, in fact I’ve considered doing it after my own current pets pass away. Hopefully that won’t be in the next year. Housesitters.com and trustedhousesitters.com are two of the sites you can check. Finding a fellow retiree who wants to live somewhere else awhile would be ideal.
On the Airbnb tv show Instant Hotel there was one couple that did just that with their cats and fish but it wasn’t for 12 weeks straight.
I recommend hiring someone to be your property manager that will also take care of the pets if you don’t end up with guests the whole time. Otherwise lots of good suggestions above.
Even if you do get someone for the full 12 weeks I recommend having a cat care provider on call. A guest that is willing to feed and clean litter boxes may not be willing or even ABLE to deal with getting them to the vet in an emergency.
it is 12 weeks or 12 months? You could put the cats in the kennel for 12 weeks but not for 12 months.
I’d say rent to traveling nurses as well.
Under any circumstances do not rent to people out of craiglist. You’ll get strangers who will destroy your home, won;t pay rent and upon coming home you will need to evict them and this would take time and you won;t have where to live. Alternatively you can rent it on ABB but you need someone to manage it for you (and feed the cats if you decide to let them in the house)
Since I have a farm, I’ve also looked into the Housesitters site where they have people who SPECIALIZE in taking care of animals…I would be comfortable with this type of arrangement and I’m fussy fussy!
And most of them do not charge for their services, as they also are wanting to travel, have a lovely place to stay, and to keep busy while seeing other parts of the world…Good luck!
Personally if I had an animal, I wouldn’t leave it in the care of strangers whether for 12 weeks or 12 months. Unless I went through a pet sitting agency where they properly vet the individuals who would be cat sitting.
It may be better for you to have your cat in a cattery for the time period rather than having to pay someone to stay in your home and look after them, if you want to rent your place out.
You would be able to afford cat care if you rented your place out, or ask family/friends to look after your animals.
I would not trust strangers with my pets. Take the cats with you and stay at pet friendly hotels. Rent out the house but not more than 28 days so you won’t take a chance of having someone overstay their welcome and need to evict. https://hotels.petswelcome.com
NOPE you can’t ask guests to care of the cats, you need good old fashioned house sitter and charge them a reduced rate… or contact a property management company or a competent realtor.
you do not want ABB.
If you want to rent it long term, you should make sure tenants sign a lease with an explicit termination date and time (my one year apartment leases always ended at midnight on the last day of the month the lease expired). My advice would be to either board your pets or take them with you, and superclean the house before you leave. Have a condition checklist that you walk through with tenants at move-in and move-out.
I get the message. I am going to look into either a house sitter or possibly pay and Neighbor to manage our Airbnb and take care of the cats while we are gone. Thanks, everyone who has responded to this thread.
Just to be clear…I wouldn’t have the cats remain at the Airbnb and then rent the Airbnb while you are gone. If you are going to have someone manage the Airbnb the cats can’t be there.
What is the priority here? Renting out the house and making money or making sure that the cats are well looked after?
It’s going to be hard, if not impossible, to do both at the same time.
I imagine that the welfare of the cats is more important than the “very little money” that would be charged as rent. I appreciate that the OP is on a fixed income and could definitely do with the money especially when travelling, but that small amount of money isn’t anywhere near being compensation should anything happen.
Both @KKC and I posted a link to Trusted House Sitters where people can choose the person who is going to look after their home and their pets. They have access to a 24 professional vet service, just in case. They will send you photographs of your pets when you’re away and keep you up to date with how the little guys are.
But impoerantly you are also using a service that has their reputation at stake and that will want to make sure everything goes smoothly. Truly, I’d rather use a professional service that any old Airbnb guest when it comes to caring for my own personal little sweetheart. (Sorry, getting a bit soppy now )
