H would never agree to let anyone in our home that we don’t know VERY well, tho glad to read of these positive experiences.
There is always risk, but the rent is quite high. Airbnb provides primary liability coverage of $1 million for injuries suffered by guests. As for taxes, you may rent out a residence for up to 14 days per year tax free. Expenses involved in the rental are not deductible, of course. So for these high-dollar rentals, it’s a way to generate some pretty good tax-free income.
We stayed with my father-in-law, who lives about 65 miles away. But we just weren’t up to driving back down for the ballgame, and we really missed a good one! We always go to the “Grove,” and probably wouldn’t have gone to the stadium for the Ole Miss-LSU game since tickets were more than $150, but we enjoy watching on TV along with huge crowds in the Grove. There is about a 10-second delay, so whenever you hear loud cheering you can make a point to look at the TV to make sure you don’t miss the play.
My mom and I rented an Airbnb for my D’s family weekend. For a lot less than even a just-OK motel room in this town, we had an entire apartment in a lovely setting, all new furniture and fixtures, spotless, full kitchen, a study, a deck, wifi/cable etc. The family lived in a house at the front of the property, our space was at hte back with a yard in between, and similar to a converted barn except clearly newly-built-to-look-older. Plenty of privacy, own own parking, we cooked a full meal one night. I’ll do it again, though I’ve only rented “whole place”, not as sure about renting a room in someone’s home.
@EarlVanDorn - I’ve heard that AirBnB’s liability insurance doesn’t kick in until your own coverage has maxed out. Is that true?
@greenwitch They say their coverage is primary coverage, and I’ve read over it and believe it to be primary coverage, not secondary coverage. I read an article in the New York Times that led me to believe that it is best not to ask a lot of questions of one’s insurance carrier about it, though, because all they care about is minimizing risk, period.
I’d get a copy of airbnb’s policy and read it. You can also read your own policies. If you have an ordinary homeowners policy, it is different from a landlord’s policy and it is important to know what you COULD be on the hook for.
Wishing and assuming what your coverage is can lead to expensive future surprises.
I recently had travel insurance medical coverage kick in as “primary” coverage. They covered all medical bills overseas, promptly paid us for our expenses and then submitted all of our paperwork to our “at home” health insurance for reimbursement of whatever costs they would cover. We forwarded any payments our insurer made back to them. All while calling themselves the primary insurer for the incident.
Our car insurance now has a disclaimer for any claims filed in the context of a paid use of the vehicle.
So, yes, agree to be careful with insurance issues.
As to the breakables or valuables, sometimes it is not easy to secure all of your household simultaneously, making it a a different calculation for rental use. Know people who have done it very successfully, including for use in a movie set. That was a full move out for months, with lots of alterations to the house and then a beautiful renovation post-use. Worked for them.
Do you, as owner, get final approval on who it rents to?
Can you restrict certain renters, for example?
Let’s say a particular university sports team uses your rental and leaves it …in less than perfect condition. Can you blackball anyone associated with that school, or just certain sports, or what?
@JustOneDad - yes, the person renting their home approves any renter.
I just had my first experience on the other side of Airbnb. We stayed at a lovely apartment in Copenhagen. Absolutely loved it! I was so grateful to have a spacious apartment at a lower cost than a small hotel room, so I’m glad there are those willing to do this, but I cannot imagine letting a stranger stay in my home!
@travelnut - Sounds like you had a good experience with your travel insurance. Who do you use?
I’ve used both airbnb and homeaway/vrbo as a renter. Several times using homeaway/vrbo, as part of the rental, I’ve had to pay a fee for 3rd party insurance which covers the homeowner (in lieu of a deposit). The fees have ranged from an extra $75 to $150 on top of the rental fee. Seems to me a good way to protect the homeowner with no back and forth between the owner and the renter in the event of damage, etc.
Speaking of travel insurance, I used Travelex (“Travelite” I think) for a trip to Alaska and my D, then 10, became ill. She saw a doctor who thought it might be appendicitis and sent her on for surgical consult with another doctor, who determined it was not. Travelex covered the entire thing, our own insurance never entered into it at all. In fact Travelex paid the docs directly, we didn’t even have to pay out of pocket and be reimbursed. I always buy that policy when traveling now, it’s around $100 and also covers medical evac, travel cancellation, lost luggage, etc.
We rent our vacation place for the month of August every year. We’ve considered Air B&B but opted to go through a local real estate office. They vet people when an inquiry comes in from a potential renter. It’s a lots of work to get ready for the renters–in this area, there’s a tradition of a owner’s closet; it’s a room/large/storage area where the owner can store items that aren’t for use during the rental. Also, we have a fairly high damage deposit. We also require that the renter’s use our cleaning crew once during the two week rental period. We don’t rent for less than two weeks and we’ve been lucky because for the last four years, we’ve had the same extended family group rent from us. They’ve been exceedingly careful. There do have young elementary-school aged children and the first year, they broke a decorative item. My H gave them a choice, they could pay for the repair or a replacement. Repair was cheaper by a few hundred dollars–they just sent a check for the replacement. This rental pays for most of our costs of upkeep and insurance for the vacation home. While we don’t love leaving in August–which is when we can get the highest rental fees–it’s nice to have that extra income.
We rented through FlipKey for the first time and WE WERE BAD RENTERS. Who would have thought? The first problem was our dog. The owner had agreed to rent to us, even though she normally doesn’t allow dogs. Upon arriving, I rolled up all her nice area rugs and put the throw rugs in the closet. Our dog proceeded to pee all over the house, but luckily it was on tile floor. When he was outside, between the two units (Landlord lived in adjoining unit), he went over and peed on her door mat, right in front of her. I was so embarrassed. He did that a few more times and each time I would take the mat over to the garden hose and wash it off. The mat ended up shredding. In all fairness to the dog, he was not well and we ended up putting him down during our one month rental period. We also shut a dresser drawer on morning, only to have the antique dresser mirror slide off onto floor and shatter in a million pieces. The landlord said she thought it was attached to the wall. I felt bad so ended up taking it to a local mirror company and having it replaced. The frame was still damaged. The third “bad” thing that happened was when I dropped my curling iron in the bathroom. It landed on a stainless steel trash can and made a dent. I didn’t dare tell the landlord about that. We were lucky to get all of our security deposit returned.
My 2 adult sons went to New York City in October to see a boxing match at MSG. Hotels were crazy exensive so they found an AirBnB in Brooklyn. Unbeknownst to them, 2 days after booking the room which was in a 2 br apartment, their AirBnB host received an award which made her “famous”. My sons stayed in her apartment Friday after she had appeared on the Colbert Show Wednesday. They saw her photo with Colbert in her apartment, and we watched the show the next day.
I’ve rented from Airbnb, Homeaway, VRBO, real estate offices and a VRBO-like site for Europe. It’s interesting to hear what it’s like from the other side.
I’ve begun to notice that there are people who list everywhere, or in at least two places. I’m renting a place for New Year’s that was on both Airbnb and Homeaway. There are often more reviews on Airbnb, which is good, but more info about the rental on Homeaway. My worst experiences have been with real estate offices – I have found them to be the most deceptive about the properties. Many real estate people advertise on these online sites, too.
It’s been obvious to me that many of the Airbnb places are not occupied and just rented out. (One place I rented, the owner was living with his girlfriend, although most of his stuff was still in the apartment. It went off the market when they broke up.)
I have friends who rent out their guest room and kid’s old bedroom on Airbnb – they live in foliage country and get a ton of business in the fall. They love it – love meeting new people, love acting like a tour guide, and especially love the extra money. Airbnb is a good idea for someone who has dreamed of running an inn, but doesn’t have the downpayment for a huge house and wants the option of controlling the calendar.
My DH would NEVER EVER agree to rent out our primary home. After what we experienced last Christmas season, I wouldn’t even broach the subject.
We own an adorable cottage in D2’s college town (DH’s alma mater). We were asked by the neighborhood association to allow our home to be part of a Holiday Home Tour for charity. I agreed, thinking it would be no big deal to DH, since I would be doing all the work of getting it ready . The home is remodeled and beautifully furnished, but I wanted to also decorate it for the season. On the day of the tour, the HOA had volunteers who would stand in each room of the house to make sure that no one damaged anything, and I guess for theft control as well. DH and I were also there. I was enjoying it, hearing all of the compliments about the house and D2’s and my decorating talents, lol. DH, however, was about to have a nervous breakdown. He did NOT like people walking through that house. He was appalled that people would touch things (a lot of people touched some silver glass Xmas trees which were arranged on a coffee table). He about lost it when he noticed people touching a soft faux fur throw on D2’s bed, and took it straight to the cleaners after the tour was over. He had more anxiety than I’ve ever seen him display. It was kind of eye opening. I finally demanded he leave for awhile because he was ruining the whole experience for me. Needless to say, he declared we would NEVER do that ever again.
I can just imagine his reaction if I proposed to rent out our home for Airbnb. It wouldn’t be pretty.
Glad it worked out for the OP, though. 3K for a weekend is certainly not bad at all.
@Nrdsb4 There is far more risk to a homeowner from an open house than from a rental. My hometown has a Pilgrimage every year, and years ago when thousands of people would come there rumors of groups of Gypsies coming through and stealing things.
I’ve got to say that I agree that your husband is not the type to let his house on Airbnb. Does he fret over whether anal retentive should be hyphenated? (Just kidding, but maybe you can use that on him some time).
Yes.
Normally you put your house up for rent and receive inquiries. You can then pre-approve the person or ask a question to get more information before approving them. I had an inquiry from a guy who looked kind of young, and I asked him if he was a student, as the house was not for rent to students. I didn’t hear back from him. So while you can’t really set the system to automatically block fans from a certain school, you can certainly ask them. For example, you might want to only rent to fans from your own school, who might be expected to take better care of your place. You could do this with your back and forth messages, which are down through the Airbnb dashboard. And you could also put it in your description.
Airbnb tries to browbeat its homeowners to enable “instant booking,” on the grounds that it results in more and faster bookings. Virtually every sad homeowner Airbnb story comes from someone who made the mistake of enabling this awful feature. The screening process not only allows the homeowner better control, but it also gives the renter a better idea of what to expect, so that they don’t arrive feeling in some what disgruntled. A disgruntled renter on the front end is just a problem for everyone, so it’s best to communicate on the front end.
A few years ago, we put our house on the market. Of course, I knew to remove jewelry, medications, and other things of value from the house before an open house. Yet after one of our open houses, I noticed FIVE bottles of perfume were missing from my and my daughter’s bathrooms! Luckily, we sold quickly (ironically as a result of holding an open house). But we sold too quickly to find another house, so we leased a house in our neighborhood that was also for sale. THAT house held an open house, and AGAIN, more perfume bottles disappeared. I was really irritated. The realtor suspected a woman who came in with a big purse. She had seen her at another client’s open house, who had later reported a theft of some expensive cosmetics.
In the future, we will probably hesitate to have an open house, even though ours sold that way and we actually found our current house that way.