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Post by joyceb on Oct 29, 2015 3:49:05 GMT
I would love some input from hosts who offer long-term rentals (particularly off-site hosts). I have a house in the Las Vegas area that I won't be living in for a period of time and would like it to make some money for me.
I'm particularly interested in:
- pros and cons of long-term renters
- typical long-term guest demographic
- what do you include in your long-term rental? (wi-fi, linens, towels, etc.)
- how you determine pricing, security deposit and cleaning fee
- how far in advance do these types of guests usually inquire? (typically last-minute, or well-planned out in advance?)
- other stuff I should consider before making a decision (aside from the obvious county rules, etc.)
Stays of less than 30 days are illegal in my area, so that's not an option, and I'm trying to decide if the risk of damage to my home and furnishings is worth it. All perspectives welcome!
Thanks!
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Post by High Priestess on Oct 29, 2015 5:21:05 GMT
HI Joyce Take a look at this thread I wrote previously where I present some pros and cons of long term rentals vs short term ones. globalhosting.freeforums.net/thread/787/long-term-guestsI do both short term and long term rentals -- more long term ones actually. My typical long term guest is a student or researcher at the university in my area ( major university in my area). I will rarely do a long term rental to anyone who is not a student or researcher at this university. I also take some long term renters who are here for a class/workshop/work project that could be 1-2 months. I do not allow those who are moving to my area to do long term rentals, unless I am certain that the type of permanent housing they are seeking is NOT what I am offering (a room in a house) but is rather their own apartment. I just do NOT want someone coming to my house as a "landing pad " and then deciding that they like it so much that they don't want to leave. I provide linens, towels, wifi for long term renters just as for short term ones. ONly difference with long term is that I do not provide them condiments, tea and coffee. I set my prices for long term rental in the same range as standard long term rentals in my area, for what I am offering. I set my security deposit at $300-400 for a room in a house, would use higher if renting a whole apartment. I set the same cleaning fee as for short term guests, and do say that long term guests like all guests are asked to return the space in the same condition as they found it. MOst do a fairly decent job. These guests do not inquire last- minute. THey are usually inquiring at least one month in advance, sometimes 4-5 months in advance. But my area has a housing scarcity and so if they dont' plan in advance they may not find housing where they want it. COnsider what the guest will be doing during the day (if you live in the same space with the guest) because some hosts don't like guests who are around all the time. Consider limiting the amount of belongings guests can bring, since I find that those who bring more stuff, tend to cause more damage to the premises. |
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Post by joyceb on Oct 29, 2015 21:52:27 GMT
Thanks, Deborah. Excellent info, as always!
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Post by maria on Oct 30, 2015 5:15:19 GMT
We also host students in the Summer (interns) and professionals relocating into the area during the year.
Usually one of the spouses arrives first, stays with us for a month or longer, and then scouts for the right place to rent/buy to bring the family.
We make sure that the person will work at an office during the day (not from home, to avoid extra heating costs as well as having somebody all day at home).
A deposit of $400 per room is standard but we are different than other Hosts; we offer weekly cleaning of the room. Most Hosts will not do it, but our choice is
to keep an eye on the condition of the carpet, mattress, etc. of each room.
We also will take long terms in the Summer, but after that no more than one long-term renter at a time. We have moved to a smaller home and would like to enjoy more privacy.
Good Luck with your decision.
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Post by joyceb on Oct 30, 2015 14:20:44 GMT
Thanks, Maria!
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Post by Serafina on Nov 2, 2015 21:02:30 GMT
We do a mix of short-term and long-term rentals. Because we'll be living in Germany for seven months next year, I've arranged a long-term (six-month) rental of my usual furnished carriage house, as well as a three-month rental of our own home. I would have liked a longer term on our home, but agreed to the three-month rental because they were ideal for us in many other ways (a couple of physicists from Israel who know the neighborhood and have colleagues in common with us). Our other option was a family we also know, who wanted the place for six months, but they have four children under age 7 and we'd already agreed to the other guests. With us at a distance, I'm much more comfortable with fewer turnovers and don't think I'd want the task of figuring out who among many likely suspects might have appropriated a beloved book or inadvertently hidden my favorite wine opener. There's just much less overhead with the longer term renters.
Like Deborah, I'm unlikely to rent to someone who is relocating or who doesn't have a primary residence and life elsewhere.
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Post by apricotnelli on Nov 3, 2015 12:53:57 GMT
I have in the past done a mixture of long and shorter term and short term rentals. There is a big difference between a 3 month rental or a 6 month rental and a year of more. I wouldn't be interested in a year or more. I prefer airbnb as I can restrict access to the kitchen and the laundry facilities and you cant really do that if someone is coming longer term and making the place their home. There are drawbacks to even shorter term rentals (as in 30 days or more). People require more use of my facilities like the kitchen and laundry. They may have more stuff that I don't have room for and they may want to have friends to stay over or just to visit.
I got tips from an elderly neighbour who had rented a lot and they were good. This is what suits me. This is applicable to the city I live in in Ireland with several universities. It may not apply to other locations.
I don't do longer term open ended stays as I dont want this to be a house share. Its my home.
I prefer to take foreigners (as in not resident normally in Ireland) coming for a shorter time frame (three months ideally) . It is good if this time frame is defined by a programme or a course that they are on. People moving to Dublin who want to househunt I take through airbnb they usually stay a week or less and have one suitcase (or two).
What I provide
Wifi is just automatic people expect to have good quality wifi. they use it to Skype family and to watch tv. I would say you cant rent without it.
I prefer to give them their bed linen duvet, duvet cover, sheets and towels. This is for practical reasons, I store the sheets in the room. I clean the room or have it cleaned once a week. This is because I want standards kept up and it forces messy people to tidy up. I can also see potential problems like my furniture being mistreated or someone not using sheets at all (yes this has happened and is not good for the mattress).
I dont provide tea coffee or breakfast normally but would be open to negotiation. I don't do meals.
Pricing
Shorter term rentals in Dublin are quite pricey they can be booked through language schools and are more expensive than a years let. I try to fall somewhere in between, I include utilities (heating and electricity and water) in the price and cleaning as I dont expect anyone to clean just to clean up. I require a months deposit.
Why foreigners? They are unlikely to stay longer and want to set up home here.
1. They (this relates to the previous remark) will come with one suitcase not piles and piles of stuff. I love kitchen gadgets and my kitchen is aready overloaded. I don't want someone elses pots and pans.
2. They may have a partner who wants to visit but it shouldn't be staying over 2-3 nights a week it should be the odd weekend agreed in advance. Their other relatives I wont usually put up unless perhaps a sister or brother the same age for a few nights, staying in the same room and not if I was busy with airbnb. If I had another room available free that night I would give their guest that room.
3. I would avoid nationalities from very very cold climates as they heat their houses in the winter warmer than we do in Ireland and I cant really afford that level of heating unless they are prepared to pay more. I had to ask a Syrian girl to leave who put on an electric radiator for 12 hours having got up at 4 in the morning to study(three days in a row). I said my old house was just not suitable for her she needed to find somewhere modern. Also she woke me up getting up so early. Her heat requirements cost more than she was paying me per night.
I had a Russian girl staying she paid more and her room was a hothouse. I gave her an electric radiator and an electric blanket to supplement the heating.
I find the continental guests are generally quiet and polite and used to apartment living. They don't expect to have their friends over usually. I might offer to cook an Irish meal for them and a friend if they mentioned a friend on the course to me a few times. I am hospitable I just want to not feel pushed out of my own house by someone continually having guests here.
Ideal are Erasmus students(3 months) going to Trinity or UCD but if taking a student I would prefer post grad of 3rd or 4th year who have lived away from home before not those who are too young and need more hand holding
Vetting the people
If taking people for longer term I prefer to meet them and get to know them as I may not gel with them. I haven't done it the last few years. They have mostly come through friends, I have taken Irish people who wanted a few days a week stay and lived in other parts of the country. I took a married guy, he was lovely and we became close friends. The drawbacks- he wanted to pay little rent and to have his room exclusively for his use. It didnt really work as well with airbnb. He stayed longer than originally agreed. I also took another guy I worked with for short term. Again a great friend but he had a lot of possessions(he djed) and they spread onto the landing outside his room. He also brought his own furniture and moved mine (or some of it) to the landing. I allowed it but it was a mistake that I learned from. His girlfriend visited but I really liked her and she was always welcome.
The longest I do through airbnb is a month but that starts off with a weeks rental so I can see if I like them.
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Post by salvia on Nov 4, 2015 11:10:10 GMT
I am an onsite-host doing mainly long-term stays (1-3 months and in that case single travelers only), mixed here and there with some short-term stays.
I typically get "job-nomades" from abroad with temporary job contracts or people who attend courses or often recurrent sales men and project managers. Not familiar with the difficult house hunting and rental procedures here they "end up" with me booking 4-6 weeks in advance/before they arrive. Depending on the length of their contract they stay until they find their own housing or stay with me while working here.
I treat them the same as short-term guests regarding cleaning (every other day according to my own household routine), changing sheets & towels and providing condiments, tea or coffee. So far they tend to be very low maintenance guests which don't consume much because they are working and are out of the house most of the time. They often contribute voluntarily to their coffee consumption or bring a bottle of wine for dinner or invite me to their cooking/dinners too. So it really balances out.
The income from long-term guests is significantly lower but I prefer the planning security of income and my private life. It is sooo much less effort even factoring in the side-effects of a fully shared (small) kitchen.
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Post by High Priestess on Dec 23, 2015 22:51:52 GMT
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Post by lambada on Dec 24, 2015 16:31:48 GMT
I mostly take longer term guests now and I have to say, it does make my life much easier. I do have a separate floor in the property so I still have my privacy than those hosts who share immediate space with their guests so I don't have to see/interact with guests at every waking moment.
The best thing about these guests, surprisingly, that they follow all my house rules! No one asked me to give them an exception to invite their friends/family for dinner, for example. These guests are mostly here for internship (I'm not far from a large hospital), work assignment, etc.
And in my family home they are there for relocation. So they are mostly very busy with their daily life, looking for a permanent place to rent/buy, adjusting to their new job, etc. and I guess therefore not busy trying to gather their family/friends at MY place.
The only thing about getting long term bookings from Airbnb is, if there is any problem with payment. It happened to me recently, that my current guest's credit card was changed and he forgot to update it on his Airbnb profile. But I didn't know this. So the payment got rejected, and I got that sweet email from Airbnb saying that please reach out to your guest and if no payment collected, you are out of your luck and sorry, we can't help you, that sort of thing, although in different words.
This is after they charge hundreds of dollars monthly to both me and my guests.
And I am not understanding why they can't charge the second month's rent 2 weeks into the first month so there is no risk of not being able to collect at the last minute.
And of course I am always a tad worried about squatters. However my rent is quite high so just to get to the first month, the guests have to have enough funds to cover that, which means I attract a different market altogether, not typical squatters (no job, trying to get by, etc.).
I do wonder if it is better to get the first month thru Airbnb and then get the guests to sign another lease for the extension of their stay and run their background check, credit history etc. just as if they are long term tenants.
The other way is to get guests to book each month's reservation separately. However that would mean they will have to pay a few months in advance, which is a lot of $$. But if it is for a period of 6 months for example, I could get them to book the first month and the last month. I could then block off the calendar for the months in between and get them to sign another lease with me. If they fail to pay the second month for example, I'd know right away and could get them out before anything else happens. I wonder if anyone has feedback on doing it this way.
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Post by High Priestess on Dec 24, 2015 17:10:59 GMT
Lambada, I know what you mean about the long term guests being easier. I find that it helps me to take longer reservations because it is less work. Less time spent on communication, answering questions, checking in and out, cleaning, everything. And like you, I am located in an area where there are a fair number of these, who have a need to stay anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months or longer (I prefer not to take anyone for more than 3 months, though).
I think your proposal for first and last month's rent makes a lot of sense and I would like to see Airbnb do that. It would be fairly easy to set up the system to do that -- if someone booked 2.5 months, they could take in advance the payment for 1st month and for last month, and the middle 1/2 month they could collect 2 weeks into the first month. Or if someone booked anything of length 2 months or less, they would collect the entire amount in advance.
And regardless if Airbnb were able to do that in the system, hosts could still set up any booking over one month long, as two bookings. THese would be a booking for just the last month, and then the booking for the rest of the reservation. So if someone were wanting to stay 4 months, they would book the first 3 months separately from the last month. THen that would require they pay 2 months in advance. There are two problems with this for the guest though -- the first is that their initial payment is twice as large. The second has to do with cancellation. Normally if someone cancels a 4 month booking, they are only going to lose that first month's payment (which in some cases, the host might be willing to refund them, if host can re-book the space -- I offer that to guests). But if you set the booking up in 2 parts, they will lose two full month's payment if they cancel, which I think most guests would not be willing to risk.
So that issue indicates why it would be better for Airbnb to set up a first and last month payment for longer reservations ---- in which case only the first month payment would be nonrefundable, the rest would be 100% refundable if a guest cancels a long term booking.
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