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What will you when your guests tell you they want to extend their booking？
1）tell them through Airbnb
2) ask them pay you deposit and let them pay month by month
3) ask them make a one-time payment
As my experience:
How about you?
Depends on circumstances. If a guest is good and wishes to become a monthly tenant, I would probably take them direct and have the full protection of a lease, without extra fees and the possibility of some CS agent interfering.
If the extension was short-term, I would rather they make a new booking for the additional dates, so there is no possibility they could cancel or have weird complications that have been observed with a modified booking.
Depends which country, or even which region within a country. Extending a guests stay over a certain period of time can affect their status, and the legal relationship between the host and the guest, i.e. they could then be classified as a tenant, as opposed to a STR guest, which may give them certain rights of occupancy and difficult to remove from the property.
JF
No, I would not accept a change do not want anyone longer than a couple weeks so not for me. I like guests not tenants. I have decided not to accept any change requests through air after I had a guest who wanted to add his GF to the reservation in order to cancel under EC. If a guests wants to add a person to a reservation going forward I will acknowledge, oh no worry 2 is the same as one no need to alter the res. I cannot see a circumstance where allowing an alteration would be to my advantage. Add more people? Then you are open to any one of them getting sick and cancelling EC. Ad more days? Book direct.
RR
If you don’t have dedicated short-term rental insurance, #1 might offer you some protection from damage/liability through Airbnb’s Host Guarantee and Host Protection even though they aren’t real insurance. Otherwise, yes, it makes sense to take a cash deposit and it also make sense to negotiate the rate monthly if you if you have high and low seasons.
I’m with the hosts that don’t want guests staying longer than a few days. My limit is 14 days.
I would not accept an extension of more than a few days. We run a Short Term Rental businesses, not a Long Term Rental. Frankly I don’t want a particular set of guests staying for more than a few days. I don’t want them feeling like they have any ‘stake’ in our place.
In some US states/cities/counties, a rental of more than 29 days changes the legal status of a guest from ‘visitor’ to ‘tenant’ and gives them a different set of rights. You can essential ask/demand that a visitor leave and be within your rights as a STR owner. Tenants, on the other hand, many be impossible to evict without a long drawn-out legal process that you really don’t want to even consider!
As others have said, it all depends on your situation. Some of our past guests have extended their stays a night or 2, but of course they can only do that if the room is available. Rarely am I that bothered by a guest that I would say no. if so, I will just block some dates and say another guest is coming.
If, worst case scenario, a guest has booked long enough to be considered a “tenant” but won’t leave after the mutually agreed upon contractual term of the reservation (i.e., the booking), I trust Airbnb will intervene on behalf your next guest who has booked and paid for nights for the same room the other guests is “squatting” in. You could also make it very uncomfortable for the current “guest” who won’t leave your house.
Anyway, the cancelation terms are mutually agreed upon. Unless there’s gross violation on your part, Airbnb should not refund the guest any funds, except those stated in the cancellation policy. We’ve had a handful of cancellations within 24 hours, and I think one even got rebooked, so we made double the money. I always have Airbnb guests extend their stays through the site. Sometimes they make another reservation which is mildly annoying, but worth the extra cleaning fee.
I generally avoid any negotiating, that only gets messy. Guests like rules and want clear expectations. We do offer weekly discounts just to ease the sticker-shock of our price (which is already ridiculously cheap), but that only works if they extant their current reservation, not make a separate reservation shorter than a week.
Also, are you not already booked out? How are guests able to extend their stays? Do you block dates for personal use?
I wouldn’t count on an ounce of support from Airbnb in such a situation. Getting rid of a tenant in the US is eviction, which is a lengthy and expensive legal process. I don’t see Airbnb getting involved, other than to penalize the host for not having the room available for the next booked guest.
Also, if someone is a “guest” long enough to be considered a tenant (usually 28 or 29+ days in the US), then that tenant must have a lease, not just an Airbnb reservation. Evicting a tenant with a lease is hard enough and expensive enough. Evicting a tenant who doesn’t have a lease is worse.
That seems to be a self-defeating prophecy. Well, let’s hope it nevers happens.
Although, I did hear of a situation in which local housing court considered a 2-week stay a tenancy.
I’m sorry/not sorry, but if there’s someone in my house who won’t leave, fuck that shit. I’ll move them out myself.
The threshold for tenancy varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction in the US. If a person is determined by a court to be a “tenant,” then that person has legal rights as a tenant. If you simply “move them out,” you’d be liable in court.
It’s not a simple situation.
My house, my rules. Anything more is considered trespassing. If they booked via Airbnb they’ve got a home to go back to. Pretty simple. Another reason I block locals as soon as they inquire.
Again, what about future bookings? The guests will need to settle with Airbnb.
For the record, I have had nearly a dozen guests stay past 28 nights, some almost 4 months. Absolutely no issues. All were professionals seeking semi-longer-term stays for work assignments. One woman was effectively homeless and had fled a potentially dangerous Airbnb host in another city who was making sexual advances on her. She paid and had a move-out date (partly hastened by her immigration status). I actually have no problems renting to guests longer than 28 days, unless they’re local. I draw the line for a number of reasons, one being the aforementioned “tenancy rights.”
You are in MD, correct? Perhaps you are just exercising “internet bluster”? If so, ok whatever. Don’t they have “castle law” there?
As a long-time landlord in the USA, you should get very familiar with the # of days in your state where a Guest automatically gains Tenant rights and all the protection of law that goes along with it.
This is why we have always maintained a short “max days” limit to avoid any possibility of an “air guest” becoming anything more.
Nope, Massachusetts. Sure, I may be blustering online, but should the unlikely situation arise, it will get ugly. Not to mention the awkwardness when future guests arrive.
Blah blah, blah tenant rights, without a lease I see no reason to let someone stay on my primary residence with permission. I use the rooms for personal use, too, so they can sleep with my friends.
I so miss long-neck clams (steamers). Love that New England seafood.
Just know the law. I remember reading about a case in California (San Jose, maybe?) where the owner/host and a couple of family members were arrested and criminally prosecuted for evicting an STR guest that had gained tenancy rights.