Long Term Rentals - Important to Know

[Chris39]

Hello all! 

As I'm sure you're all aware, Airbnb has been promoting long-term stays to both guests and hosts.  Long term rentals may make sense for some hosts but I wanted to share these three important points:

1. The long term rental policy automatically kicks in as soon as you book a guest for longer than a month. You will not be notified of this.

2. Your normal cancellation policy will no longer apply - only the long-term rental policy applies now to this guest.

3. Guest payment and host payment are not done in the same manner as normal. Guest does not have to pay the entire amount up front prior to check in like they normally do. And your payouts are also managed differently.

I just wanted to share my experience here so others can make informed decisions.

In my case, my listing settings are: 

- strict cancellation policy is strict.

- maximum stay is 28 days.

A guest wanted to stay 81 nights. After some correspondence, I negotiated a considerably lower daily rate based on this 3 month stay.

I was unaware, and was not notified, that as soon as this 81 night stay was booked, my regular policies would no longer apply. The automatic longterm policy would override the rules I have set.

So, when the guest canceled his reservation after only 10 nights without any notice to me at all, my strict policy of no refunds did not apply. Instead, according to Airbnb policy, I am supposed to receive 30 nights at the highly discounted rate.

Just wanted to give a heads-up about how this works. For me, had I know the guest could cancel at any time and only pay 30 nights, I would either not have done the booking at all OR not offered as discounted a nightly rate. My very low rate was based on what I thought was a guarantee of 80 nights. So when making your rate, be sure to base it only on 30 nights (not longer).

I booked off my calendar for almost 1/4 of the year, and now of course am having problems rebooking these dates at the last minute.  

In addition, it is important to note that Airbnb does not collect the entire payment from the guest in advance of check-in. Immediately after my guest canceled, he also canceled his credit card charge. So I received an email from Airbnb that the guest had canceled and then another email stating that Airbnb could not collect the payment from the guest and will not liable for my payout.

Furthermore, the partial payment that WAS successfully collected has not been paid out. It shows up in my Future Payouts as multiple payments over the next 2 months.

I am still dealing with the fallout from making the mistake of allowing a long-term rental. The payment is in question now, and despite my many messages and discussions with 5 different Support Specialists, it has not been resolved after 3 days...

Again, long-term rentals may be a great option for some hosts. I highly recommend reviewing the long-term rental rules to see how they may affect you before making the decision to do a long-term rental:

 https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1361/how-do-changes-and-cancellations-work-for-longterm-reservat...

https://www.airbnb.ie/help/article/475/cancellation-policies-for-your-listing

Hope someone finds this helpful.

[Ricardo85]

@Chris39 

That´s why I don not accept +28 days stays.

If the guest wants to book 3 months, for instance, he must book each month separately and pay up front.

By doing this, I will make sure that I receive 24h after check-in for each of the 3 reservations. In addition to keeping my cancellation policy.

Ricardo

Ricardo

[Laura2592]

@Chris39 most hosts on this forum agree that LTR through ABB is a terrible idea. You are much safer with a traditional lease between landlord and tenant. Do a search on "Airbnb squatter" and find many terrible stories of "guests" who refuse to leave and hosts with little to no legal recourse. 

[Colleen253]

 @Chris39 It’s good you created this detailed post for others to see, on the pitfalls of LTR on Airbnb. Too many hosts don’t read the help pages and policies, and get caught off guard.  It’s a bit shameful that Airbnb promotes  LTR so ardently, when they don’t provide a proper framework that supports hosts who do LTR. 

Another thing to be aware of is what the laws are, particular to your region, regarding when a guest becomes a tenant, with rights. Another reason to avoid LTR. 

It sounds suspiciously like this guest knew exactly what they were doing and scammed you for a 10 night stay at a heavily discounted rate. Be aware that if you offer a guest a discounted rate for even a shorter stay, of say 14 nights, the guest can leave early and still will only have paid the discounted rate for only a few nights spent. That’s a good reason to be wary of offering discounts, period. Or offer the discount in the form of money back, after  the stay is complete. Personally, I loathe any mention of ‘discount’. 

[Ricardo85]

@Colleen253 

You are right!

In the rules of the "Strict" cancellation policy this is explicit: "If the guest cancels less than 7 days in advance or decides to leave early after check-in, the nights not spent are not refunded."

That is, the guest makes a reservation for 3 weeks (21 days) with a discount rate and after 10 days he cancels this reservation.

According to these rules, he stayed in the accommodation for 10 days, paying a discounted rate - a discount that does not exist for a 10-day stay.

We need to review our discount policy!!!

Ricardo

[Donna937]

Good to know. We are dealing with this as I type. Had a man book last year (Mar 2023) for 5 months starting this Jan 2024. After his first month and second payment was due, it did not go through. We have to wait 5 days (2 days after we are supposed to receive Feb payment) to see what happens. And we lose all the bookings we would of had, had his booking not been on the calendar. And we gave him large discounts.

What Airbnb will do is block his account for further use.. I was afraid he would do this to someone else. So I asked this question to Airbnb. 

Well, we are hoping he updates his payment info with a working method. We will see. 😞