Guest Not Paying

[Alan1386]

I have a long term property in Fontana, CA. HOA rules prevent me from renting it out for less than 30 days. Airbnb was unable to retrieve payment from my previous guest and as a result they stayed an extra 30 days for free because I trusted them to sort out their payment.

Airbnb is now unable to retrieve payment from my current guest who has stayed 21 nights of their 119 night stay. I do not know what the tenant protection laws are in my area, but I think there's an eviction protection for the tenant if they stay more than 30 days, or something? I've already contacted the guest to get their payment sorted. If they don't have it sorted by the 25th night I plan to let the guest know I will take drastic action and will get an eviction underway. I don't want a repeat of my last guest so I need to jump on this ASAP. As part of HOA rules the guest did have to sign a rental agreement. But it was very rudimentary and something I got off the internet so I'm not sure how well it will hold up as a legal document.

Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks!

[Jennifer1897]

@Alan1386 

Tenant laws can be a bit complicated, and since I don't know the terms of your signed agreement, it's hard to comment on this aspect. I will provide a link though to the Government's Page on tenant laws in CA. It might be helpful to you

California Tenants - A Guide to Residential Tenants' and Landlords' Rights and Responsibilities, Rev...

Per Airbnb related to long term guest payments

1. First-month payment: You'll be charged this up front, but we’ll hold off on releasing it to the Host until 24 hours after check-in.
2. Monthly installments: For reservations longer than a month, we will charge you 10 days in advance for each payment period after the first payment.

Regarding your first guest (and potentially the second) it sounds like Airbnb went to charge them for the second installment and the payment method they had on file did not work. Moving forward, if the guest is approaching the end of the time in which they paid for, regardless of if their reservation is longer, do not allow them to stay without payment. Hoping they "sort it out" for an entire month is never in your best interest. Upon initial notification that their payment is not going through, reach out via the platform (so it is documented) and let them know. Be polite but firm, verbalize that their payment method did not go through, and that if not sorted out, they would need to check out by XXX date.

I once had a long termer who had a similar issue with payment. Luckily, they sorted it out. Here is the basic message I sent them.  "HI XXX, I hope you are enjoying your stay thus far. It appears your payment method on file did not go through for the next portion of your stay. We are kindly requesting that you reach out to Aitbnb to resolve this, as we would like to continue your reservation. If payment is not received your new check out date would be XXX. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance in resolving this issue. "