Year Long AirBNB Request

[Steve Sorensen]

I own an AirBNB in Denver and I just got a year long request and the person doesn't have any reviews. Is this an automatic no go? I usually do month long rentals (as a minimum) but committing to a full year with a tenant makes me nervous. A year of rent sounds great on the surface but I'm wondering why they wouldn't just pursue a normal year long (long term) rental...maybe they've been bad renters or have bad credit or low income. The more I'm thinking about this the more red flags I'm thinking of. Thoughts?

Only think I can think is that it’s tougher to find fully furnished long term rentals through the normal long term rental channels.

[Steve K.]

This actually happened to me in Boulder and they ended up staying several years, paying the STR premium rate the whole time. They were really great tenants and I didn't mind not having to deal with any vacancy or turns, plus the premium rent was awesome! They just wanted something furnished while they shopped for a house to buy. Because we had super low inventory and they had specific tastes, it took several years for them to find the right property.

I can see how it would be a red flag, but get the whole story because maybe they are legit and it could be a mutually beneficial situation. I had them sign a 6 month lease then M2M after that. Check references, screen well like a normal LTR tenant, if everything checks out why not?