My Tenant Wants to Rent my Unit on Airbnb. Should I allow this?

[Gerry Magrini]

Hi Everyone,

I have a potential tenant who wants to rent one of my units for over asking, but he wants to list it on Airbnb. He was up front with me when he came to look at the apartment -- completely honest, fully transparent, and answered all of my questions about the whole thing. He is a general contractor who has a company set up specifically for this purpose. He plans to have a full time maintenance person and a cleaning crew (he will be solely responsible for managing the entire Airbnb process), and he has plenty of income to cover the rent himself should it stay vacant. That said, I am still quite wary of the situation -- mainly because I have never done this so I don't know who will be coming in and out of the property (and frankly don't have much say over it either), and because there is much added liability. Additionally, I have a full time tenant in the other unit in the duplex, so I am concerned about keeping her happy (conversely, it's my property and I have a right to do what I want with it). On the other hand, this might be a great opportunity to have a steady stream of rental income above market value (I could start with a short term lease and see how it goes) and it could provide me the opportunity to work with this guy on other properties as well, resulting in more rental income. He also offered to split some of the profits with me, so I am really having a hard time deciding.

Has anyone else out there done this with a tenant? What are the potential pain points or pitfalls? Would you warn me against doing this? Again, I am quite torn here so any advice is welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks in advance!