Raleigh Homestays. Can it backfire?

[Chris Martin]

As the rules are today, I would say there are zero (0) "investors" running Airbnb in Raleigh. The ordinance requires that a "full-time homestay operator must live at the premises and must also be present for the entire time a homestay lodger is on property." This model doesn't scale at all as an owner/operator. However, it appears you can 'hire' an operator and require that your tenant/operator stay on site and allow BNB guests to co-occupy on your behalf. The 'hire', of course, could be your long(er) term tenant. The Owner's Affidavit form is required for each property you place in Airbnb/Homestay service and each designated person (your tenant) can have a maximum of one (1) associated residence (your leased property.)  

So as I see it, the opportunity for residential property owners who are subject to the Raleigh ordinance is this: place in your leases an addendum that allows your tenants to offer homestay rentals for whatever consideration you believe is appropriate. A 50/50 revenue share, or something along those lines, would be my first guess as a 'reasonable' suggestion. Personally I would not provide this in a lease until verifying that hazard insurance clauses wouldn't be violated, and even then this may not be an opportunity worth pursuing for many properties, like Section 8 property where the HAP contract (specifically Part C,3.d.) explicitly prohibits this kind of activity. I'd also run this by an attorney before implementing. Note, I am not advocating that you do this because there may be hidden issues that impact you that I am not aware of. 

Unless I am missing something, I think this ordinance will not achieve the kind of results the authors intended. Let me know if I've overlooked something.