Question for Airbnb Co-hosts / Property Managers

[Selena Walsh]

I have recently started a short term rental management business in Minnesota and have worked with an attorney to establish our LLC as well as a property management agreement we can use with clients. We are actively using the co-host feature on Airbnb, but upon reviewing the actual Airbnb terms and conditions we found the following terms:

As a Co-Host, you may only act in an individual capacity and not on behalf of a company or other organization, unless expressly authorized by Airbnb.

If we need to act as a co-host in an individual capacity we lose the protection of the LLC. I wrote to Airbnb to inquire and received the following response:

Unfortunately, we do not currently support registration of business entities as co-hosts. You are, of course, welcome to sign up to co-host as an individual, and we hope you will still consider doing so. While your direct relationship with Airbnb will be as an individual and your interaction with other users will be in your individual capacity, this is not intended to restrict your ability to otherwise operate your business how see fit.

Definitely not seeking legal advice here as i have an attorney... just curious if other co-hosts or property managers have run into this obstacle with Airbnb?  I have seen several threads on BP members starting short term rental management companies so I've got to think you all have worked through this in some capacity.

Thanks!

[Marcia Maynard]

I'm an Airbnb host for our one of our own properties.  Super host for more than a year.

I agree with the approach that Airbnb is taking on this. I wouldn't want property management companies to enter into this realm. Just as I do not favor the strategy of those hosts who offer multiple properties for short-term rentals and scale it up into the stratosphere.

Airbnb started with the intent of home stays with hosts who provide a personal added value. Unfortunately when people scale up and take away the personal touch with having other people run their business it takes away from the uniqueness of this model.

The intention of co-hosting is for hosts to help one another out from time to time or to have additional support at times when you need it.

There are plenty of short-term rental opportunities where you could provide your services, without entering the Airbnb market.