All Forum Posts by: Kevin Lefeuvre

@Mike V. yes and no for airbnb. 

Airbnb: Per their terms, (https://www.airbnb.com/host/instant-book) if instant booking is on (and only if it is on), you can cancel "if you don't feel confortable, without penalty". That's theory though, at least based on my multiple experiences. In practice, if you cancel, they will penalize you, post on the review that you cancelled, and even accuse you of racism or other sort of discrimination . I had a case where the guest was lying on a few matters, number of guests, Italians declaring as residents of California, of course first time bookers, profile pic being a cartoon, Italian passport name don't match the guest , etc... I cancelled (because too many lies, I am multicultural myself and anything but racist), and told them, among other reasons, that they appear to be Italian but declared to live in the bay area, CA. Airbnb said, so what? You are discriminating against Italians ... WTH! A bunch of stupid customer support guys.

Another airbnb lie is that theoretically "You can require guests to submit government-issued ID". I had 2 cases where the guest refused to share their ID, I cancelled per my house rules and they would refuse to consider cancellation as from the guest. Another penalty! I escalated the case to a supervisor who said "We tolerate your ID requirement rule, but we don't support or enforce it. If the guest does not feel comfortable not sharing their ID, you can't refuse them."

I still have 30% of my income from airbnb, otherwise I would have dumped them.  Things have gone really bad with airbnb guests since the beginning of 2018 for me. You don't control your property. Now it's all over the web that if a guest trashes an airbnb property, hosts can't do anything so guests are more and more aggressive, and finally, they give you hard time to refund damages, require invoices for everything, and only refund physical damage. If the guest disturb your neighbors in the middle of the night with music or anything, or smoke, or drug or bringing prostitutes to your place, etc... there is no compensation and basically no penalty for the guests. And the security deposit is literally a joke in the case of airbnb. Absolutely useless since it's not in your hands nor in airbnb's hands. You have to claim the money after the damage!!! Are you serious?  Just ridiculous that they call it security deposit. Again all this is now all over the web and the guests know all this and just refuse to pay, and worst case close their account and open a new one with another email address when they need to book. Number of first time travelers with airbnb is increasing drastically (on my properties based on 4 years of experience) and in fact they are not 1st time travelers... Ok I could write a book about all this... I stop. lol

Nancy from my experience, any city official can get your address from airbnb. Not showing the front pic works for curious neighbors, not for enforcement officers.

Don't delete your airbnb listing yet.

STR is dead for you, now your plan B is mid-term rentals. That's anything above 30 days. Change your airbnb settings immediately to 30 days minimum. If you are not on VRBO get there and leave it STR until they figure and you'll immediately correct "the error". Tell the city and the neighbors you are abiding by the rules and have gone 30 days min, they can't say anything. You are basically moving to "furnished rentals". As soon as your calendar gets empty from short term bookings, you'll receive calls from insurance companies who all use VRBO to find houses for families who need relocation for periods of a few weeks to a few months. Also all sort of needs for furnished housing... corporate, nurses, construction, water damage, ...

Hopefully your plan B will give you another 6 to 12 months to amortize your investment.

LTR (long term rental) is your plan C. If the numbers make sense. But try plan B first.

Best of luck!

@Jon Crosby for airbnb guests, where we don't have emails, one option is to send them SMS texts and briefly invite them to opt in to receive specials and new destination vacation homes when that's the case.

That coded airbnb email, even when it's valid, does not allow to carry URLs inside the email anyway. I have never tried but I think it goes through their filters and URLs are removed. My 2 cents.

@Mike V. thanks for sharing your story. 

I actually have my own description in the rental agreement (including pictures) and a standard provision saying in case of duplicate or contradiction with the booking site, or even prior written emails, etc...this agreement prevails. You may want to consider this method anyway since each site puts part of the verbiage in a different way.

 Just curious: What are they threatening with now? since you offered a refund and they refused to take. What "damage" are they seeking to compensate for?

Just following and putting it on the top of the pile ;-)

A relative of mine is looking for a cash out loan on a $700k clear property in Southern California. He's being offered 5.1% ARM 5/30 (5.1% fixed for 5 years then adjustable for another 25 years), with LTV 60%. No tax return , just asset based. He has another property, clear too.

Is there any better program out there for him?

A relative has got a SFR living in a section of the house and renting out the rest (3BR/2BA), through airbnb, in Southern California. Property is bought cash and he's looking for a cash out loan.

Is there any benefit to setup a LLC and go for a SBA loan?

When I started preparing one property for mid term furnished  ( more than 30 days ) with a calendar supporting it (= vacant ) I received a large number of inquiries thru vrbo and some thru airbnb, well more than through sublet.com

Mostly from relocation agencies. 

I wonder if there are many tenants who check  chbo and who don't try vrbo and airbnb. 

 Can't agree more. It looks like you go almost through the burden of a long term tenant (marketing, screening, showing, agreement ), for a much  smaller "total contractvalue ".