All Forum Posts by: Bob Mueller Jr.

I will look in this again, but I'm 99% sure AirBnb does not allow rental agreements to be added to listings---you must play by AirBnb rules.  VRBO, however, does allow supplemental rental agreements.  I have my first VRBO guest moving in next week, if I have a better experience with VRBO I might just go away from AirBnb or only use AirBnb when I absolutely have to.  

@Justin Stark With the STR 30+, I think you'll find pricing is very important and you need to look at the big picture in order to stay booked. For example, my house would easily get $200-250/night if I could do 5, 7, 10 day minimums. However, for someone looking to book 30+ $200-250/night will not make sense. I started at $159/night but didn't get bookings until I got down to $129/night. It's way, way less than I would get with a 3/5/7 day minimum, yes, but it's still worth it for me. Bottomline, be prepared to get more aggressive on your nightly rate if you have to do 30+. Don't look at the 3/5/7 day properties and think you'll be able to match their nightly rate, you will likely be much lower.

@Marcus Johnson Yes, for guests staying longer than 30 days AirBnB does monthly payments. They charge the guests credit card at the beginning of the month, then they process the payment to me. To be honest, I think the way AirBnB charges is part of the problem, if AirBnB would collect more $$$ upfront they (and the host) would have more leverage on long-term stays. In this case, AirBnB was probably afraid the guest would dispute the penalty or any charges after they vacated the property.

@Lucas Carl Yes, but my HOA has a 30-day minimum so I have no choice here. My first guest was AirBnB, stayed 45 days, and was great. This is our second/winter home, so I only rent it out May-Nov while we're up north to help offset some of the holding costs. Pinellas County, FL RE taxes ain't cheap!

@Julie McCoy Yes, I am listed with VRBO too. And actually, a VRBO client has since booked this property for pretty much the same exact days the AirBnB client was allowed to bail on. That has taken away most of the salt in this situation for me, but I still feel AirBnB should have paid me some kind of early-out penalty for this guest in case I didn't get it booked again so quickly. I'm still shocked AirBnB has such a careless and idiotic policy in place, I just hope VRBO doesn't because I can only do 30-day minimums thanks to my HOA. If I was able to do under 30 days I wouldn't be so upset by one cancellation.

@Michael BaumAirBnb doesn't allow for deposits, I think even their pet deposit is very, very weak in that they don't actually collect the deposit from the guest unless a claim is made (and won).  This is very bad cancellation policy by AirBnb for long-term hosts, canceling a 3, 5, 7 day minimum property early is one thing, but us 30-day minimum hosts have enough challenges without AirBnb also letting guests walk out without paying a dime during a stay.  Several of the AirBnb employees I spoke to also couldn't believe the policy, but if you read the long term rules closely the guest can basically just "amend reservation" and leave early at anytime as long as 30 days or more remain before the check-out date.   

I am running a 30-day minimum property on AirBnb/VRBO and just had a bizarre and bad experience with AirBnb that others might want to look out for.  A guest booked my property back in April from June 15th - September 15th (90 days).  The guest was relocating from California, and moving to St. Petersburg, FL to find jobs and look at local housing.  Everything was good until July 5th, when the guest reached out to me and asked if they could cancel the reservation because they wanted to move to another property that was "closer to work" and "closer to where their kids would go to school" even though they were happy with the house.  I told them I wasn't sure, and I contacted AirBnb who told me yes they could cancel early but they would need to pay a 30-night penalty per the AirBnb long-term stay rules.  I reported that to the guest, so then the guest called AirBnb and this is where it gets interesting: 

AirBnb rules allow guests to "amend reservations, but not cancel them" as long as they are greater than 30-nights away from the check-out date and the host does not have to approve the change.  With this, the guest simply changed their check-out date from Sept 15th to July 15th in the system and they are getting to walk away from the reservation with zero penalties.  Upset at this bad policy, I have called AirBnb several times asking what is different between an "amendment" and a "cancellation" when the end result is the same for the host---the guest is walking away early.  

Booking 30-day stays isn't easy, and AirBnb has put me in a bad spot with basically 7-10 days to rebook my 30-day calendar that this guest had 100% locked down since April.  Has anyone had this happen before on a long term stay with AirBnb?  Am I overreacting?  I just feel this guest should have paid "SOMETHING" for walking away from a 90-day reservation at the 30% point, but they are literally only paying the # of nights they actually stayed and then AirBnb is leaving me holding the bag....       

@Michael Baum I don’t see where AirBnb allows a pet fee to be charged but I think maybe VRBO does. Are you just manually charging these pet fees?

Did a search for this and couldn't find a lot of discussion about pets in STR, only LTR. I am trying to rent my "winter" home in St. Pete, FL for 6 months while I'm gone (in 30-day minimum increments thanks to my HOA). I have gotten a couple inquires in two weeks on the market but not much. The lack of interest has me wondering if allowing pets would open things up for me? We have an older Golden Retriever and are dog people, but I just keep thinking about younger dogs or dogs that aren't trained well being at the property and destroying things. Do you folks generally allow pets in your STR's or not? I am open to the idea of collecting additional revenue via the NR pet deposits/pet fees and rolling the dice, but I don't want my house totally destroyed either, thanks!

Does anyone have, or know a good place to get, a lease for doing 30-day rentals at a vacation type property?  Looking for something that would restrict subleasing, possibly put a cap value on landlord-supplied utilities, and be a general short term lease for the property.  Looked on BP forms and can only locate traditional lease forms.