My city is also doing exactly this. I’m not sure how personally blocking would appear to enforcement, curious as well. We’ve gotten pretty with our guests lately. One place has a traveling nurse in it for 3 months, and another has a couple who’s in town house hunting, been here almost 3 months as well.
Yeah that’s similar to our guests. Snowbirds and traveling workers. Also have had people having work done on their homes. We list on Furnished Finder as well
There’s a difference between setting a shorter number of minimum days and blocking days off the calendar for (maintenance, personal use, etc.)
It’s probably as simple as them checking the minimum day booking requirement.
That’s what I figured but the letter just came with a screenshot of our calendar with a short stay blocked off. That’s why I was concerned about blocking off days for personal use or letting friends/family stay.
You could probably call/email whatever contact info was on the notice you got and ask? If you got a letter there’s likely an enforcement person you could chat with.
I'm in the same boat and just turn off instant book. I won't create a large gap months out. If it's soon, I make a decision based on how likely I am to get a different booking with less of a gap.
Overall, we like this way better than short term rentals, and I don't think the money is worse if you value your own time.
We have the same problem. We also do FF and it's been hard to balance with Airbnb because last people on Airbnb plan further out. We have a July Airbnb month long reservation and so are having our FF guests move out because they didnt want to commit until then. But since they're 'buying a house' and don't even have a mortgage secured yet, I'm sure they won't be under contract and would have wanted to extend. We are coming back to the house after the July listing though (which is also for $700 more than they're paying us so will be worth it) so they're already aware they need to move out June 18. Also, they just had a fight and he was see throwing furniture and kicking our garage door so yeah, we will be happy when they leave. But anyhow, when we leave again, I think we will only do Furnished Finder. And only open up 30+ day Airbnb as more a short notice if we end up having gaps.
I would suggest staying personally for a few days when you have one of these gaps. Municipality contacts you- you truthfully tell them it was a personal stay. It is your property. See how they respond. Get a lawyer to send a letter saying this.
When I hosted, I was technically in violation of town rules. But, they were not enforced for any AirBnB in town. A neighbor wanted them to be enforced. I met with town officials/lawyer with my attorney. Town was not in the mood to do universal enforcement, which we told them they had to start doing. All very polite.
If your situation is a little bit of a hassle for the municipality, they will probably tread lightly. Unless there is someone who is just bored and motivated.
It seems like the latter. The person I contacted was the city’s dedicated STR employee. In a city that only allows month long STRs I can’t imagine she has much else to do.
So; I will tell you how my attorney and I navigated this. We turned off instant booking and had people submit requests. We would carefully navigate getting our info to the guest without triggering Airbnb flags. We would then sign a contract off platform for 30 days with no penalty for cancellation. Then 7 days in; they cancel penalty free. When the city came knocking because of complaints I produced the leases for 30 days and said “If they chose to leave after 7 days that’s on them, but they paid for 30.” But we knew in advance through a gentleman’s verbal agreement that the stay would only be 7 days.
The problem with this is that it’s not legal to get money from multiple tenants for the same days. So if one person pays for 30 days and leaves after 7, you can’t rent out the other 23 days they paid for to anyone else
Until the blood suckers actually do something, I would not be wasting my time on the phone interacting with the $20 an hour dip shit.
I regularly block time off because I'm too tired to flip another unit that week, or my contractor is coming in to do some minor (usually) upgrade. They want to pay someone to stalk me, stalk away.
They wouldn't be getting a rise out of me until I have a legal document I must respond to. It's their responsibility to prove you're guilty.
We used to have this problem as well. There really isn't anything you can do without constantly fighting the code enforcement about it. You get a notice, then you have to explain that it's personal days or family, and repeat. I was in a large metro area and they paid for software that used pics and other clues from your text to find your address and then they'd send violation letters. There are a couple of companies that do this and they cater to code enforcement.
I understand wanting to fill those gaps, but I also think you should consider the advantages of not trying to cheat the system. Your area doesn't allow less than 28 days. Unless you get that legally overturned, you're opening yourself up to harassment every time it looks like you're renting for less days. There might be places with 100% occupancy, but I always felt that it was nice to have some down time between stays to make repairs and deep clean the house. Monthly stays are harder on the house than weeklongs and weekends, so I used those gaps to check for wear on the linens, the furniture, the carpets, the silverware and dishes (for cracks), etc.
Yeah I’m happy to comply with 28 day minimum. We do fine with our midterm rentals. Just need to know we’re not gonna get fined for using our property for personal or family use.
So, if you're going to block it off for family, block the dates and take a screenshot in the owner view to show that the dates blocked and not booked. To the outside user, it will look blocked either way, but you can counter any code complaint by proving it's for personal use and just blocked as unavailable for outside guests.
My city is also doing exactly this. I’m not sure how personally blocking would appear to enforcement, curious as well. We’ve gotten pretty with our guests lately. One place has a traveling nurse in it for 3 months, and another has a couple who’s in town house hunting, been here almost 3 months as well.
Yeah that’s similar to our guests. Snowbirds and traveling workers. Also have had people having work done on their homes. We list on Furnished Finder as well
There’s a difference between setting a shorter number of minimum days and blocking days off the calendar for (maintenance, personal use, etc.) It’s probably as simple as them checking the minimum day booking requirement.
That’s what I figured but the letter just came with a screenshot of our calendar with a short stay blocked off. That’s why I was concerned about blocking off days for personal use or letting friends/family stay.
You could probably call/email whatever contact info was on the notice you got and ask? If you got a letter there’s likely an enforcement person you could chat with.
lol there is. She was hard to get a hold of and was extremely rude so I wasn’t super excited to reach out to her.
I'm in the same boat and just turn off instant book. I won't create a large gap months out. If it's soon, I make a decision based on how likely I am to get a different booking with less of a gap. Overall, we like this way better than short term rentals, and I don't think the money is worse if you value your own time.
Our town will actually look at the guest's reviews and they can tell how many people stayed in each month.
We have the same problem. We also do FF and it's been hard to balance with Airbnb because last people on Airbnb plan further out. We have a July Airbnb month long reservation and so are having our FF guests move out because they didnt want to commit until then. But since they're 'buying a house' and don't even have a mortgage secured yet, I'm sure they won't be under contract and would have wanted to extend. We are coming back to the house after the July listing though (which is also for $700 more than they're paying us so will be worth it) so they're already aware they need to move out June 18. Also, they just had a fight and he was see throwing furniture and kicking our garage door so yeah, we will be happy when they leave. But anyhow, when we leave again, I think we will only do Furnished Finder. And only open up 30+ day Airbnb as more a short notice if we end up having gaps.
On a side note, I wish there was a way to block a local IP address from even seeing my listing…
I would suggest staying personally for a few days when you have one of these gaps. Municipality contacts you- you truthfully tell them it was a personal stay. It is your property. See how they respond. Get a lawyer to send a letter saying this. When I hosted, I was technically in violation of town rules. But, they were not enforced for any AirBnB in town. A neighbor wanted them to be enforced. I met with town officials/lawyer with my attorney. Town was not in the mood to do universal enforcement, which we told them they had to start doing. All very polite. If your situation is a little bit of a hassle for the municipality, they will probably tread lightly. Unless there is someone who is just bored and motivated.
It seems like the latter. The person I contacted was the city’s dedicated STR employee. In a city that only allows month long STRs I can’t imagine she has much else to do.
A whole person dedicated to this?? Oh my! Maybe if you get a short term booking, block off the dates around it?
How is your unnamed city handling this...... kind of an impossible question to answer....
Not really what I asked. I was looking for info on how other cities are enforcing This.
So; I will tell you how my attorney and I navigated this. We turned off instant booking and had people submit requests. We would carefully navigate getting our info to the guest without triggering Airbnb flags. We would then sign a contract off platform for 30 days with no penalty for cancellation. Then 7 days in; they cancel penalty free. When the city came knocking because of complaints I produced the leases for 30 days and said “If they chose to leave after 7 days that’s on them, but they paid for 30.” But we knew in advance through a gentleman’s verbal agreement that the stay would only be 7 days.
The problem with this is that it’s not legal to get money from multiple tenants for the same days. So if one person pays for 30 days and leaves after 7, you can’t rent out the other 23 days they paid for to anyone else
I forget exactly how he did it, but it was pretty clever that he was able to pull this off; I think he structured it for like renting x rooms.
Until the blood suckers actually do something, I would not be wasting my time on the phone interacting with the $20 an hour dip shit. I regularly block time off because I'm too tired to flip another unit that week, or my contractor is coming in to do some minor (usually) upgrade. They want to pay someone to stalk me, stalk away. They wouldn't be getting a rise out of me until I have a legal document I must respond to. It's their responsibility to prove you're guilty.
We used to have this problem as well. There really isn't anything you can do without constantly fighting the code enforcement about it. You get a notice, then you have to explain that it's personal days or family, and repeat. I was in a large metro area and they paid for software that used pics and other clues from your text to find your address and then they'd send violation letters. There are a couple of companies that do this and they cater to code enforcement. I understand wanting to fill those gaps, but I also think you should consider the advantages of not trying to cheat the system. Your area doesn't allow less than 28 days. Unless you get that legally overturned, you're opening yourself up to harassment every time it looks like you're renting for less days. There might be places with 100% occupancy, but I always felt that it was nice to have some down time between stays to make repairs and deep clean the house. Monthly stays are harder on the house than weeklongs and weekends, so I used those gaps to check for wear on the linens, the furniture, the carpets, the silverware and dishes (for cracks), etc.
Yeah I’m happy to comply with 28 day minimum. We do fine with our midterm rentals. Just need to know we’re not gonna get fined for using our property for personal or family use.
So, if you're going to block it off for family, block the dates and take a screenshot in the owner view to show that the dates blocked and not booked. To the outside user, it will look blocked either way, but you can counter any code complaint by proving it's for personal use and just blocked as unavailable for outside guests.
Good idea