Dual Listings for Basement Mother-in-Law Suite and 4 Bed Maine House w/ Owner on-site

[Jesse360]

Hi all,

I have a 5 bd home in the Maine Countryside that will be coming off a long term rental and onto Airbnb pretty soon. Home has a 900 sq ft full mother-in-law suite with separate entrance/kitchen/laundry etc. in the basement, that we previously rented on Airbnb when we lived in the property - and had great success with. Once the long term lease wraps up I plan to activate my previous listing for the basement unit, and also build a separate listing for either a) the entire home or b) just the 4 bedroom upstairs with an option to add on the basement for an extra fee. That way I can potentially rent the basement as a separate unit from time to time. 

The question I have is whether anyone has experience living in the basement unit (as an owner) while the larger unit being upstairs/adjacent etc...and how tenants seemed to like it? I know there are clearly alot of tenants who are perfectly fine being in an accessory unit/mother-in-law suite while the owners are there. I just wonder if a bigger group that needs 4+ bedrooms would be turned off by the idea of the owner being around while they are there. I travel back and forth to Maine for work quite a bit and gauging how possible it would be to use the basement unit for short periods of time  while there are tenants above. 

Appreciate the insight. 

[Sarah977]

@Jesse360  If guests are "turned off" of renting, just because the owner occupies the basement suite, personally, I wouldn't want them as guests. 

There are plenty of on-site host listings. Private rooms in the host's home, private self-contained suites in the host's home, backyard cottages on the property where the host lives, etc. 

It is actually good insurance for entire place properties, as guests who have nefarious intentions to throw parties, sneak in extra guests or pets, etc, are unlikely to book places clearly indicated as "owner-occupied" properties.

You using the basement suite is a better scenario than the other way around, btw, as guests in a basement suite will often have complaints about hearing footsteps and other noise from above.

[Normen0]

@Jesse360  I have cohosted for someone with this exact scenario.  She had three listings. One for the house. One for the house plus in law suite and one for the in-law suite alone.  
The house plus in law suite was poplar for larger groups but larger groups usually brought larger problems.  The people who rented just the in law suite mostly liked it. Sometimes but not often there were complaints about noise upstairs. The owner used it while in town and noise upstairs didn’t seem to bother her. 
Most people who rented the house upstairs didn’t seem to mind or have any concerns about the in-law suite rental and the majority of time they weren’t rented out at the same time anyway.  
We had one odd man who did not like the in-law suite being rented. He was a return guests a few times and on the fourth request said he would not rent if there was someone in the in-law suite. I don’t know if this was COVID related concerns or not. 
We ultimately de-listed the in-law suite after AIRBNB suspended it - one very difficult guest who lied to get refund caused this and we just opted to de-list as the host’s son is returning to live there soon anyway.  Meanwhile the listing with the house and in-law still rented out until we recently blocked any open dates. Recently another crappy guest reported having bed bugs and we had to get a full inspection and of course no bed bugs. At this time, we just decided these larger groups are just not worth it. 

Back to your question: It’s a mixed bag. Most people don’t mind. 

In my own location, we rent the upstairs unit and we live downstairs. We have done practically everything to seem invisible to the upstairs guests. We watch tv with wireless headphones, ordered a padded insulated curtain for the bottom of the stairwell that leads to an inside locked door  to the upstairs unit and we are very cautious about all noise in general. Our guests who come don’t seem to mind at all. I think it’s all in how you live when you are there. There has been the occasional guest who didn’t think staying up all night drinking and blasting music was an issue with us there. It was. 
We had one or two three-person friend groups that tend to get rowdy. We decline those now.  
There have been inquiries where they asked if we lived there and decided not to book for that reason. That probably was for the best. 

[Polly14]

One thing I have learned about Airbnb is to just be confident in my style of hosting and let the rest go. You will do great if you come from a warm and open place.