Mid Term Renters inviting guests?

[Jonathan Avellaneda]

Hi BP!

I have a short term rental in Bonney Lake Washington. I have it normally booked through the short term sites (Airbnb, VRBO, etc.) but I currently have a set of 4 travelling nurses there right now. They are there for about a 4 month stay. I had them sign a long term contract for the time they have booked.

This is my first time hosting for a few months. They are asking me about having visiting family stay at the rental for undetermined amount of time at different times throughout the stay for each of them. I advised them that if anyone is staying more than 2 nights they would need to be added to their renters policy and to the rental contract and they are asking to compromise on this.

What do you do in this type of situation with your renters?

Thanks!

[Ron Brady]

We have two mid-term rentals. We state the maximum number of people permitted in the properties up front. We do not monitor this per se, but would address it if we learn--from neighbors, others--if it is violated.  We believe that medium-term guests, particularly traveling professionals like you have, would want to feel like our residence is their home-away-from home and will want to invite their families to visit, stay as they wish, etc. We build this assumption into our up-front, all-in pricing. We try to compete on value, not pricing and thus make our price point something we're comfortable with. We then let the residents live their lives and collect our rent accordingly.  To date, it has worked. Fingers crossed.