Long term rental (6-12 months), how would you handle it?

[Queta-And-Blanca0]

I have a guest who wants to rent my house for 6 to 12 months. What is better? month by month? 12 months altogether? What happens if you block the whole year waiting for the host to reserve? Does Airbnb allow you to block for a whole 12 months?

I don't want to put my house out of the Airbnb market because I don't want to deal with a "renter" and be a "landlady",  I'd rather pay Airbnb a commision to do it.

Thanks for any advice or ideas. 

[Vanja17]

Hi, I have a big dilemma. I want to move to the bigger apartment, I live in Austria. I have found an apartment with incredible conditions, very cheap, but not on airbnb site. I have send email and received odd answet: 

" ... For the transaction I picked Airbnb... You will have an agent assigned once they receive the payment for the first month of rent and the refundable deposit. Regarding the payment it must be completed before they release the keys to the renter. The payment is transferred to Airbnb ( first month and the deposit ) they will hold and insure your money until you check the apartment. The payment has to be completed in 24 hours from the moment you receive the invoice. You will be given a 2 days inspection period from the day you receive the keys and contract that you will only sign after you check the apartment. During this period you can take a decision. If you like the apartment then you will sign a contract, for how many months or years you want to stay. If you will not be satisfied with the apartment the total amount will be refunded to you that same day and all the fees are supported by me..."

I must first pay 2000e, then see apartment and if I don't like it, i got my money back? I want to stay minimum 2 years.

This is weird for me, is not this fraud?

[Sarah977]

@Vanja17  This is absolutely a scam. Do not send any personal info or money to this person. If you want a place for 2 years, you don't look for one on a short term rental site, anyway, you look through a rental agent or the newspaper, sign a lease, etc.

[Vanja17]

Thank you very much. 

[Angie288]

Hi I would like to join this conversation with a similar question. I am new to hosting and I have a request from someone who says that while they are moving if they could rent the house for 3 month. They are 4 adults which I find strange and the guest sending the request just joined Airbnb and only gave their phone number and email address. It sound strange to me and for a long term renter I would want more verification than that. Does anyone have any idea how to handle this? Thank you

[Sarah977]

@Angie288   I'd strongly advise you not to accept this booking, no matter whether they have verifications or not. As a new host, you really should start out with short term bookings until you get the hang of hosting- there can be a big learning curve as far as how to deal with guests, and how to deal with Airbnb. 

If someone books for 30 days or more, they then fall under landlord/tenant laws and you could have a nightmare situation trying to get them out if they turn out to be bad news.

You might want to set a maximum booking length of 2 weeks or less at this point.

And yes, it is definitely rather strange for 4 adults to claim they are moving for 3 months. Bad guests often look for new listings as they know the hosts are green and may not be as adept at vetting guests as more experienced hosts.

Also, when you're new, you want to get as many good reviews as you can up on your listing. That means short term guests. 

[Angie288]

Thank you,Sarah. For your advice. I took it and did not accept this booking.

[Dimitar27]

For a long-term rental it will be better if you use a real estate agency. You can choose your tenants.

[Alfred96]

My association only allows 6 months or longer rentals 

[Helen3]

Then rent through a local estate agent or similar and use a standard letting agreement, where you can vet your tenants, take up references etc. @Alfred96 

[Alfred96]

Can I make this a lease agreement 

[Andrea1879]

When you rent longterm, you must follow the laws of the state and the local government. If you don't, you're breaking the law and may be held accountable. Don't rely on Airbnb to inform you of your state and local laws or take care of it if you're violating those laws. That's your responsibility. 

Also, remember that when someone stays in your home for pay or otherwise, that's their home too. They have rights. Airbnb doesn't come to your house and make sure you're obeying the law or doing what you're supposed to do to keep it safe or maintained. That's all on you, and the guest can hold you accountable due to their legal rights. 

As for what you should charge, you should not charge as much for longterm stays as for short term stays as they are less work and more income security for you. I would ignore people who say you need to raise your rates if people want to stay longterm. That's only true if you're cleaning their room every day as though they were in a hotel. If you're letting them take care of the room and they are reliable and reasonable to live with, it's a lot less work and more money in the long term in most circumstances. If you charge the same rate for a longterm rental as for a short term stay, you may price yourself out of the longterm market and miss out on the best renters.

You're basically a landlord in that circumstance for longterm stays even if you're giving Airbnb a cut. You still have longterm renters and are required to follow the state and local laws as a landlord. 

[Georgia234]

Do not trust links to Airbnb from emails! They may put the Airbnb logo on but it doesn’t make it legit!!! You are better off renting through a proper agency, and using Airbnb for short term uses!

[Andrea6330]

I found an apartment over Facebook and they asked for my email to send more information, which I found odd. Now they want to send me a link for airbnb, where I have to pay in advance, and they're asking for my ID 😬

[Shilpa41]

Hi...I got the same message and they said they will send me a Airbnb link.. did you use that link. What happened?  Very eager to know.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Shilpa41 I suspect you are being scammed - Be very very careful.....