Wow, my tenants have a 5 star "Host" rating on AirBnB! For my Property???

[David Oberlander]

Good morning, BPers.  Hope your weekend is going better than mine.  As you can see by the subject line, tenants at one of my rental properties have decided to increase their income by renting out rooms at the house they rent from us.  It's a duplex.  The tenant next door called yesterday and told me he thought they were having various people coming and staying for the past month and that he hadn't seen either of the couple living there for a week.

It took less than five minutes to find the listing for our property on AirBnb and to start reading the 31 reviews they have received (almost a 5 star average) for the "property" they "own".  LOL  (no, actually I've been doing a slow burn for about 16 hours)

So, what do we do next?  As they are in violation of their lease, various city ordinances, building codes, etc I intend to shortly ride over there and slap a 7 day vacate notice on the front door.  Then should I sign up on AirBnb as a guest and leave a "review" telling people not to try booking a room at this "hotel" and that those who have booked up already need to request a refund?  Yes they have reservations booked thru September.  I'm sure my insurance company would love handling a claim from some one getting injured there.

The thing is I kind of like the AirBnB concept.  As I intend to add vacation rental properties to our holdings and use them for bookings.  But this proves to me that AirBnb has no way of verifying owners or renters at properties listed there.

Anybody else have this situation occur? Or have any suggestions or comments as I'm open to any ideas.

[Jaago Viitkin]

Just talk to the tenant, make a deal and get more rent from them. Doing it yourself takes too much time. 

If it works out then give them your other unit also. You will get the top rent, they will never be late with your rent. Everybody wins! Just get a better insurance that covers vacation rentals also. There are many companies out there.

Good luck