Anyone ever used Sonders?

[Aiden Harris]

Hey everyone,

I was mostly considering doing standard renting out of my duplex, but I just caught wind of a third party that leases out your house in a short term rental basis. My realtor buddy said his clients make bank doing it. Is anyone familiar with “Sonders”? I have a nice property in a desirable area.

Thanks!

[Julie McCoy]

It looks like basically a corporate-level entity that wants to arbitrage your apartment.  That is, they rent it, then sublease it out AirBNB-style.  I've seen a few iterations of this format, but I don't have any first-hand experience with any of them.

If you don't mind the idea of a revolving door of guests through your duplex (which does not have to be a bad thing; people have different feelings about it) then it could be worth looking into.  There's a zillion threads on this forum about arbitrage - read through some and you'll get a decent idea of what it is, though most of those threads are written from the lessee's point of view.  

There are two main things I'd caution you about: insurance and regulations.  Your standard landlord policy is not going to cover commercial activity, which short-term rentals are categorized as, so you'll want to make sure this company is paying for insurance that has you named on the policy that will cover both their commercial activity and everything your landlord policy typically covers.  And make sure short-term rentals are permitted in your neighborhood - if they're not, you could get fined.  

If you decide to move forward with it, I'd be really interested in learning how it works out for you.  Good luck as you make your decision!