Airbnb guest is a foreign visitor, and wants to pay directly to save on all their airbnb fees. They want to stay here a few months, so airbnb would take a fairly hefty fee from them.

Guest has been here a little while now, ideal roommate/guest - clean, polite, etc.

When visitor booked, they had a debit card issue so the payment at first didn't work-- supposedly because it was a foreign transaction (they're from outside the USA). They fixed it, payment went through. Airbnb is charging them 10%+ fees., and that adds up when they're staying by the month.

My first reaction--- all levels of no, they could "easily" not pay and try to stick around. Or, it could be some sort of scam-- this would void airbnb's insurance they cover us with, blah blah.

My second reaction... Airbnb is charging them a pretty penny, and this isn't much riskier than the roommate/tenants I've gotten online from other sites-- except the fact that this person doesn't have a deposit here. I've got home insurance, and the lease I could have them sign has a solid disclaimer (for what it's worth).

I've gotten plenty of online tenants, some short-term (one month or more) before-- and never had a problem. The earlier tenants had small deposits (a few hundred or less), the difference is that this person 1) is from another country 2) no deposit at all 3) already living here (through airbnb).

This person was easily searchable online- somewhat slightly known in their career field, just from another country. Their story added up, no local evictions/felonies, etc. 

I thought about making them sign a weekly lease-- if they ever don't pay, it's a 7 day notice to leave. 

Or I thought about saying "sorry, airbnb would ban us" and making them always pay through airbnb.

They're already paying $100 more a month than our "long term" roommates, so I like the idea of extending them. Airbnb is adding fees to that for them-- and also charging us fees. 

Would you extend through airbnb or accept a "new" tenant from airbnb directly by cash?