The first time we tried our MTR as an STR (it didn't go great) + my thoughts

[Evan Kline]

We turned on our first MTR unit in early 2022. It's a great 900 sqft 1/1 unit in a duplex, that we've been renting for 2200/month (just bumped up to 2400 per month) with little to no vacancy.

Fast forward to a couple months ago (February 2023) I had a client who was moving into town to purchase a primary home. He knew we did mid-term rentals and wanted to stay in one of our units and the 1/1 was perfect for him. His wife just got a job and they needed to move into town so she could start and get the w2 so they could qualify for a new mortgage, so they needed a couple months of runway. We booked them off platform to save them fees and offered to be flexible on their end date. 

Fast forward again, the stay went great, we found their house, but the flexibility we offered made it so we didn't have another booking immediately after. We had bookings scheduled from May - August already but a month gap in April with no bookings. But we've been wanting to experiment with STR and Furniture Market, a huge worldwide event happens nearby in April and we knew we could jack up our prices so we did. And we booked our first STR for four nights at triple our normal rate (yay!).

And the tenant was terrible (boo!). We were asked: "Why don't you provide shower caps," "Why don't you light citronella candles outside the front door when we arrive so a bug doesn't get inside?" "Why doesn't your HVAC work, it won't heat the unit to 80 degrees." They were from Florida.

We also were told last minute: "By the way we're bringing our support animal, we have paperwork saying so so you don't have a problem with that right? It's a cat." Airbnb doesn't recognize cats as support animals by the way. I don't think anyone does except this random "doctor" in Florida. But we are pet friendly anyway so.... fine.

The tenant let us know at 3am she was running the cleaning cycle on our oven.

When she left she had taken all the shelving out of the freezer (??). And she removed everything off the counter top (coffee pot, spice rack, etc) and put them in random cabinets (???). And something peed the bed. I say something because it was genuinely unclear if it was a human or a cat. The spot was suspiciously located at crotch level right where a human might be sleeping and didn't smell like a cat. But also they had a cat. 

Anyway, bad first STR experience.

I'm sure we "won the lottery" with this tenant. Not all, if not most STR tenants are like this. But I did come away with this thought:

It seems to me it's more likely short term tenants have a higher degree of... entitlement? Expectation? They are more likely to want to be pampered, want a more white glove experience. Again, certainly not all people feel that way, just that they are MORE LIKELY to feel that way than say... a mid-term rental.

My experience with mid-term rentals is... they just want to be left alone. They are in town for a long period of time and are living their life, usually related to work or some other functional reason, not seeking out an experience. They are very easy to work with and are truly grateful for a place that can feel like home away from home. 

I had mentioned this in another post, but related to this. With a short term rental, if the tenant is there for 4 days and they have a problem on 1 day, 25% of their stay is a problem. If a tenant is there for 60 days and they have a problem on 1 day, 1.6% of their stay is a problem. Issues are smaller, more grace is given.

Anyway, had to share the "horror story" and my takeaway from it. 

What other differences have you found between STR and MTR rentals?

[Bonnie Low]

Wow, that's terrible that you experienced that. Sounds like your STR guest was a doozy. I agree with you, though. My MTR guests very much just want to be left alone. They are super low maintenance and cause very little wear and tear on the property. My theory is that they're working long hours and just use the space to sleep primarily. We just bought our first STR and I hear all the horror stories and I must admit that I'm a) a tad worried and b) also expecting something to go wrong at some point. I'm adopting the hope for the best, plan for the worst school of thought with our STR but also know that guest screening is very important in this niche. And, I truly believe that most people who are going to be a pain leave clues from the very start. So I'm prepared to turn down anyone who raises a red flag. It's jut not worth it.