New Airbnb ROCK-N-Hard Place. rent all throughout Summer to build REPUTATION or not?

[E--Kevin0]

Hi! We have a anew AIrbnb in a smaller city that I live in.  It's in a suburb, great schools, neighborhood and just plain ol' convenient.  We totally remodeled this "flip" but kept it because it turned out great. Rented to a 8 month short termer and then started doing AirBnB in March.  Only rented twice and of course 5-star reviews and have 3 lined up for the Summer and two more possibles.  

ISSUE:  A family saw my ad for a short term rental while they build a new house and want to stay during the building process, July, August and September.  Their monthly rent is going to be about $800-1000 more per month than what I could make doing Sirbnb on sporadic nights (say having 75% of the month rented out).

Do I rent it out for three months or just AirBnB during the summer month because thats when I'd get most traffic and BUILD up my reputation to help rent during slower fall winter months?

I teach and off duing the summers and have more time to devote to AirBnber's and making their stay even better.  Always looking at ways to improve and already good ecperience at our property (It's a full 3 bedroom house we rent out).  There is great satisfaction in making peoples short trips memorable and getting that three star rating.

Wife is bummer we havn't been renting alot out in the first two months but its a beginniong stage as we play with prices and other easy checkins.  I told her we are building it up great already. She wants to rent it in July-Septmeber but I don't, I want the sirbnber's because of traffic and importance of getting those 5-star reputation in the beginning of this adventure.

What do you think, feedback or suggestion on how I should look at it?

We'll have get the 3 lined up to cancel their reservations.  I'll suggest another place to try and offer a $$ if they cancel so I don't get a ding.  I told the peopple looking that I'd have to check with ones we have already booked.

I'm going to sleep on it!

[Helen56]

Take that 3 month renter and make more money!

[Sarah977]

@E--Kevin0  It's hard to say because you don't really know what this family who wants to rent for 3 months is like, right? Or are they local people who you might be able to get some information on? 

It's not all about the money or the reviews- some hosts have experienced horror shows with people who booked for months, turned out to be horrible renters, and then they felt miserably stuck with them. People can seem really nice to talk to or message with, then turn out to be total slobs who wreck your stuff, leave the place a total pig sty, whose kids scribble on the walls and destroy things, etc. Or think they can have whatever friends or family over for as long as they want, just because they rented a whole house. 

If you were going to rent to someone long-term like this, I'd advise you to pretty thoroughly vet them first in whatever ways you can. Employers, rental history, references, etc. 

[E--Kevin0]

Hi!   Yes I did meet them today. Good family.  Two adults and two retired pTents snd two young girls. Both are building homes and will be done in September.  Do I can “tell” they’d be god tenants and finaciallybhave the income level.

[Sarah977]

@E--Kevin0  That's great, then. People who are having a house built would probably be responsible, and it's good that you met them to get a face-to-face impression. 

One of the few good things Airbnb did this last year was to change the number of reservations and stays per year that hosts need to qualify for Superhost. It used to be quite unfair to hosts who took long-term bookings, but they leveled the playing field by only requiring 3 bookings per year with a minimum of 100 nights booked. So as long as you meet the other Superhost criteria, one 3 month booking and a couple more bookings which are at least 5 days each would get you there.

[Helen3]

If you are taking someone for more than a month in the US I understand you need a separate tenancy contract.

If you are taking a direct booking, I would get them to put down a deposit and one month in advance and credit check them.

Obviously a three month booking is better than an uncertain amount of short term bookings and less work. However I would only do this if you credit check the family and have a contract in place.

[Emilia42]

@E--Kevin0 

Something sort of like this happened to me last August. A traveling professional wanted to rent the space for 4 weeks. August is one of the busiest months but I thought I was getting a good price and my place was new so I didn't really know what to expect. This person ended up canceling and it quickly booked up making me triple what I would have gotten with the one reservation. I would do whatever you think will make you the most money. Maybe you will get lucky and find another 3-4 month tenant for the winter months.

[Linda108]

@E--Kevin0   If you are in the short term rental business your strategy of building a good review base during a time when you are also available to learn both the business and the platform is a good one.  Also, Air BNB does give a bit of a search boost for new listings to help you get started. If you are looking at the long term., you are in the rental business, so chase the money.  Remember the regulations are different for tenants and also the Air BNB policies for payout and cancellation are different as well.  Look up in Help Center.

Even if you get the guests to cancel the short term rental bookings, there may be repercussions in how your place will rank in the search, especially following a long term booking.

On another note, when posting on this forum, it would be appreciated if you reviewed your post before publishing it so it would not have so many typos and confusing sentences.  😛  Good luck!!!