Draconian new anti AirBnb laws.

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John1599
Level 4
Kerry, Ireland

Draconian new anti AirBnb laws.

With effect from the 1st of July2019 my type of AirBnb listing will no longer be legal in Ireland. The government have decided to ban hosting of “ holiday lettings” where the property is located in a rent pressure area, as is the case in almost all large urban areas in Ireland, and the host does not live on site. I am aware that in different jurisdictions there are moves afoot to greatly reduce or remove access to AirBnb places, in some cases to placate the local hotels industries, and in other areas it’s to increase the availability of long term rentals to ease a housing availability problem, or maybe all of the aforementioned.

Have any of you, that have these type of restrictions placed on you, thought of changing to medium term executive/commercial lettings. In the Irish context this would mean a minimum stay of fifteen nights and a maximum of, lets say, five months, to avoid breaking the law and still have some control of the duration of the rentals. If so, would you still use the AirBnb platform to reach out to the worldwide market, and get the attention of large international companies or executive individuals who might need a medium term rental for job purposes ? Do you think that the AirBnb template lends itself to this type of market ? 

Because of the need for a more formal legal contract between the host and the responsible guest, not to mind the potential for much larger payouts and spread over months rather than days I’m not so sure. Also the commission charged by the platform to the guest for these much longer rentals would add hugely to the guests costs, in a way that typical two night to seven night stays do (not )at present.

Any experiences or opinions welcome.

john

1 Best Answer
Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@John1599 

good question and an interesting topic, I thought about the same.

 

we have a few rentals. One for STR only, we don't live there, max 15 nights.

the other is for a long term, annually lease.

 

The reasons why I decided to rent a long term outside of Airbnb are:

  1. proper contract,
  2. actually security deposit
  3. I can talk to a tenant on the phone and in person and show her the apartment and then we can decide if we are a good fit.
  4. we don't have to pay Airbnb fee

 

The reasons why I decided to rent annually and not 15 days - 4 months:

  1. they have their own bedding, dishes, small appliances etc...
  2. they pay the bills for electricity, water, etc... separately
  3. I have max 1 turnover/year ( currently  the same great tenant for 5 years ) so it is less stress, less work, less paperwork and less risky
  4. fewer gaps between two tenants

 

 

 

 

 

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6 Replies 6
Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@John1599 

good question and an interesting topic, I thought about the same.

 

we have a few rentals. One for STR only, we don't live there, max 15 nights.

the other is for a long term, annually lease.

 

The reasons why I decided to rent a long term outside of Airbnb are:

  1. proper contract,
  2. actually security deposit
  3. I can talk to a tenant on the phone and in person and show her the apartment and then we can decide if we are a good fit.
  4. we don't have to pay Airbnb fee

 

The reasons why I decided to rent annually and not 15 days - 4 months:

  1. they have their own bedding, dishes, small appliances etc...
  2. they pay the bills for electricity, water, etc... separately
  3. I have max 1 turnover/year ( currently  the same great tenant for 5 years ) so it is less stress, less work, less paperwork and less risky
  4. fewer gaps between two tenants

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your reply, and I can see all the advantages of your one year lease compared with all the work needed when guests are only staying two or three nights, then cleaning, laundry, replacing , in our case, food and bathroom necessities. Also , if you want to be a good host, the huge amount of advice and “education” of constantly changing guest parties, each group requiring different levels of guidance. 

However my situation is slightly different. Originally we bought this large four bedroom apartment near the capital city Dublin as a place to stay whenever we wanted to return to where we had lived before my retirement and a move to a cottage four hours drive away. We only started AirBnb as an afterthought, but it turned out to be a much bigger success than expected. We only allowed guests to use the bottom half of the apartment and kept our own upstairs rooms and bathroom locked except when we were there. Long term rental would mean that we couldn’t block off our own dates as before. I am hoping to attract mostly two month rentals with options for us to use it between different agreements. I would fear long term rentals as the law in Ireland seems to favor the tenant rather than the landlord and if you get a bad tenant it can be very difficult to get them out, they can drag it out for years, sometimes without paying any rents. Corporate/executive lettings are for a definite time and are normally between you and a company employer, and allow more security for the owner.

@John1599 

oh, I understand, it is completely different if you also live there from time to time and if you can lock up your bedrooms and bathroom. In this case, it makes sense to rent it on a month to month bases 🙂

 

In this case, I would hire a cleaner and make mandatory light cleaning / linen change every , or every 2nd week just to keep everything under some control.

 

 

Branka and Silvia1, you make some very useful points there and I appreciate your experience and the trouble you took in replying to my post. Yes we already have a wonderful lady who lives near the apartment and she keeps the place spotless. In our case there should be no problem in getting the kind of guest we prefer as there are literally hundreds of big international companies that have offices close by and they are always looking for suitable apartments to house their employees coming from their home countries for short to medium contracts. Ryanair have their head office only twenty minutes away and are recruiting new pilots from South Africa and other countries all of the time. These new recruits only find out how difficult, and expensive, it is to get accommodation here after they arrive to start work. I am so glad that I am the age I am now, and not starting out all over again at twenty something years of age.

john

@John1599 

 

ooo it sounds ideal 🙂 so, the only question is how to solve proper contract and set the price. And if you are in such a great location then you could count on returned guests as well.

I am beginning to think that I won’t need to use the AirBnb platform, and they couldn’t give me an answer to my particular questions regarding the change of focus to longer term lettings. I think they are , for the most part, still a vacation driven site.  I will get my solicitor to draw up a purpose made contract to cover all my concerns. I have decided to charge a similar rent as other local places do, but as I expect many of my guests will only stay for a few months, rather than years, I will include utilities in the price set, as it is too difficult changing the names of the tenant every time there is a new one, and other landlords tell me that even when they do that the tenant often leaves a big bill unpaid, which causes problems for the next person. I will supply everything needed including bedding but they will be responsible for laundry. I expect that international short stay guests would prefer it this way, and the stuff is already there anyway.

When we started doing AirBnb we thought we might only get six or seven lettings a year, we were so wrong ! Hopefully this new venture will work as well.