Airbnb guests staying longer than 28 days

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Airbnb guests staying longer than 28 days

Leon Lee
Real Estate Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 286 posts · 67 votes

Hi, STR Hosts

I just set up an airbnb unit in a relatively rural area in Georgia. I noticed that a majority of guests are travel workers and interested in staying more than 28 days. As a newbie short-term rental host, I wonder:

1. what is the best approach to handle such guests?

2. Do you perform background screening and sign rental agreement with them just like you do with other long-term tenants if they stay longer than 1 month?

3. Do you charge deposits for guests staying > 28 days? If so, is it equivalent to one-month rent as well?

4. Currently, I have a group of guests asking to stay for 2months. I asked them to book only 28 days and then I blocked the second 28 days on my calendar for them. One option that I am planning to do is to ask them to live in a hotel for one night after the first 28 days and come back for their second 28 days. Is this practical?

5. If a guest stays for 2 months and I had trouble getting him to leave in the end. Do I need to go through the same procedure as evicting long-term tenants, or the process will be much faster and easier (although it is probably still more difficult than those staying less than 28 days) ? The property is located in Bartow County Georgia.  

6. For guests staying longer than a month, what is the general guideline on the profit target? Suppose a long-term unfurnished unit can rent for $1300/month. Will $2600/month be reasonable/profitable for the same unit, but short-term and furnished (including utilities, internet, supplies)?  

Thanks in advance!

Lee

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Julie McCoy
Real Estate Agent · Sevierville, TN · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
5y

Treat them like long-term tenants.  Have a lease, know the landlord laws.  Find sites that cater to travel workers and see if you can find comps in your area to base your rents on, but if they're trying to book more than 28 days at your nightly rate, keep rolling with that.  See if you can source any info about their housing stipend so you don't overprice, but aren't leaving money on the table either. 

One night at a hotel may not be sufficient to interrupt their rights at long term tenants - again, know your local laws.  The traveling worker niche can be a good one, just make sure you're set up in ways that protect yourself.  What kind of workers?  @Paul Sandhu has an incredible business housing industrial plant mechanics etc.  

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  • Paul Sandhu
    Investor · The worst town to live in, KS · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    5y

    Read my old posts.

    1. Treat them like ruffians.

    2. No

    3. No

    4. Eff no

    5. No.  Just have the utilities disconnected and tell them to gtfo.  I've done that before.

    6. $1300/month LTR = $1300/week STR

    Take all this with a grain of salt.  2 weeks ago I was drinking water from my toilet for pre-workout coffee because my pipes were frozen and my handyman had my torpedo heater.

    4Reply
  • Julie McCoy
    Real Estate Agent · Sevierville, TN · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    5y

    Treat them like long-term tenants.  Have a lease, know the landlord laws.  Find sites that cater to travel workers and see if you can find comps in your area to base your rents on, but if they're trying to book more than 28 days at your nightly rate, keep rolling with that.  See if you can source any info about their housing stipend so you don't overprice, but aren't leaving money on the table either. 

    One night at a hotel may not be sufficient to interrupt their rights at long term tenants - again, know your local laws.  The traveling worker niche can be a good one, just make sure you're set up in ways that protect yourself.  What kind of workers?  @Paul Sandhu has an incredible business housing industrial plant mechanics etc.  

    4Reply
  • Leon Lee
    OP
    Real Estate Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 286 posts · 67 votes
    5y
    Paul

    Thank you for your info!  Really? STR gross income should be FOUR TIMES or higher than the LTR rent? Is that what other hosts here targeting too?  Say, if there is a 3be/2ba SFH renting for $1500 long term, my target for short-term gross income should be $6000/month? That seems to be really high to me. Open to hear inputs from you all!


    Originally posted by @Paul Sandhu:

    Read my old posts.

    1. Treat them like ruffians.

    2. No

    3. No

    4. Eff no

    5. No.  Just have the utilities disconnected and tell them to gtfo.  I've done that before.

    6. $1300/month LTR = $1300/week STR

    Take all this with a grain of salt.  2 weeks ago I was drinking water from my toilet for pre-workout coffee because my pipes were frozen and my handyman had my torpedo heater.

    0Reply
  • Luke CarlPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · Tennessee Florida · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    5y

    @Leon Lee

    I didn’t read all this but after 28 days they’re no longer a guest they are a tenant. Get a lease.

    Podcast Guest on Show From Surviving on $30/Day to 30+ Properties Thanks to Blue-Collar Skills
    2Reply
  • Leon Lee
    OP
    Real Estate Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 286 posts · 67 votes
    5y
    Originally posted by @Julie McCoy:

    Treat them like long-term tenants.  Have a lease, know the landlord laws.  Find sites that cater to travel workers and see if you can find comps in your area to base your rents on, but if they're trying to book more than 28 days at your nightly rate, keep rolling with that.  See if you can source any info about their housing stipend so you don't overprice, but aren't leaving money on the table either. 

    One night at a hotel may not be sufficient to interrupt their rights at long term tenants - again, know your local laws.  The traveling worker niche can be a good one, just make sure you're set up in ways that protect yourself.  What kind of workers?  @Paul Sandhu has an incredible business housing industrial plant mechanics etc.  

    Julie

    Thank you for your helpful information! I will send them a lease to sign then. Do you perform background check on them as well?

    It seems that although they are all travel workers, they came for different companies. Getting their housing stipend is a good idea, so that I could price accordingly. Do you happen to have a rough formula on estimating SFR profits, such as the % of supplies, utilities, cleaning for gross income, etc.? I just started STR and got excited about the cash flows, but probably need more time to know the real profits, given there are major differences between STR and LTR business models.


    Thanks again!

    Lee 

    1Reply
  • Paul Sandhu
    Investor · The worst town to live in, KS · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    5y

    @Leon Lee  Your tenants and mine get a per diem based upon the cost of living in the market.  Around here a motel room with 2 beds is $400 a week.  I charge $600 a week for a 3 bedroom house.  I don't charge what the house is worth.  I charge what they can afford to pay with their budget.  That 3 bedroom house would probably rent for $600 a month as a long term rental.  I've got a 14 unit apartment complex.  They go for $450/month as long term.  I charge $400/week for short term.  They are 2 BR.

    1Reply
  • Paul Sandhu
    Investor · The worst town to live in, KS · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    5y

    One more thing.  I also perform a drug screen on all my potential tenants.  But that is another story.

    0Reply
  • Leon Lee
    OP
    Real Estate Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 286 posts · 67 votes
    5y
    Originally posted by @Paul Sandhu:

    @Leon Lee  Your tenants and mine get a per diem based upon the cost of living in the market.  Around here a motel room with 2 beds is $400 a week.  I charge $600 a week for a 3 bedroom house.  I don't charge what the house is worth.  I charge what they can afford to pay with their budget.  That 3 bedroom house would probably rent for $600 a month as a long term rental.  I've got a 14 unit apartment complex.  They go for $450/month as long term.  I charge $400/week for short term.  They are 2 BR.

    Paul

    This is really helpful! I need to figure out the charges for the local motel/inns and price mine accordingly. Some basic info: the unit I have costs around $100K, and market long-term rent is about $900/month. I negotiated with several potential guests and found that $2000/month short-term rent is what they would go ahead. I got this one for $2300/month (out of pocket from guests) via Airbnb, but Airbnb charges a hefty fee from guests and I ended up netting close to $2000.   


    Thanks again!

    Lee  

    1Reply
  • Paul Sandhu
    Investor · The worst town to live in, KS · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    5y

    @Leon Lee  I've had 1800 renters in the last 8 years.  I can count on 2 hands the number that came from Airbnb.  Be creative and find another method to get your renters.  I put a bill board up in the contractors parking lot of a refinery.  I also put up a 3'x8' wooden banner on the side of my dump truck bed and parked it by a worksite of people doing pipeline work.  Some day I'll have someone fly around an airplane with my advertising banner towed behind it.

    1Reply
  • Zachary Beach
    Specialist · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2018 · 291 posts · 231 votes
    5y

    @Leon Lee we don’t allow guests to stay that long. Plus we charge enough that it’s unlikely anyone would ever book is for that long. No one wants to pay enough for a down payment on a property to stay there for a month haha. We gross about 3-8 times the LTR’s that the properties would get depending on the time of year.

    2Reply
  • Paul Sandhu
    Investor · The worst town to live in, KS · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    5y

    I've had several STR occupancies that lasted a long time. Long enough that the gross rent of their stay was more than the purchase price of the house. But houses are cheap in my town.

    0Reply
  • Julie McCoy
    Real Estate Agent · Sevierville, TN · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    5y
    Originally posted by @Leon Lee:

    It seems that although they are all travel workers, they came for different companies. Getting their housing stipend is a good idea, so that I could price accordingly. Do you happen to have a rough formula on estimating SFR profits, such as the % of supplies, utilities, cleaning for gross income, etc.? I just started STR and got excited about the cash flows, but probably need more time to know the real profits, given there are major differences between STR and LTR business models.


    Thanks again!

    Lee 

    Hey Lee, I don't have metrics for you, as they're going to be property- and market-specific.  I only rented a spare room to a traveling nurse once, LOL, I've done some research on the topic but my day-to-day business is overnight rentals in a vacation market.  I did not do a background check in my one instance, but I did check references and called the agency that placed the nurse to verify they were legit.  Other professions may require more/less vetting.

     Good luck!

    1Reply
  • Mike B.
    Rental Property Investor · Madison, WI · Member since 2020 · 91 posts · 71 votes
    5y

    @Paul Sandhu

    Bahahahaha Paul you’re the man, man

    1Reply
  • Leon Lee
    OP
    Real Estate Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 286 posts · 67 votes
    5y

    Just some updates, I modified my lease for long-term rentals and signed with tenants. Thank you all for your helpful inputs!

    0Reply
  • Doug Pintarch
    Rental Property Investor · Harrisburg, PA · Member since 2018 · 369 posts · 406 votes
    5y

    Our 2 STR's are in Delaware and they have additional forms required if you rent long-term...liability and disclosure and security deposit and blah, blah, blah. We have refused requests for longer than 28 days several times in the past 3 years. Two adjusted their stay to less and one moved on to another rental. We have a strict length policy and stick to it.

    and @Paul Sandhu     

    "Take all this with a grain of salt. 2 weeks ago I was drinking water from my toilet for pre-workout coffee because my pipes were frozen and my handyman had my torpedo heater."

    You, sir, are and always will be  S A V A G E!!!

    0Reply
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