Listing Your Apartment on Airbnb Is Now a Little More Legal
Rent prices are insanely high and it doesn’t look like they’re going down anytime soon. Typical U.S. monthly rent rose 12.3 percent year-over-year in August, according to Vox. Tenants who feel stranded often resort to temporarily renting additional rooms on services like Airbnb, but this is usually a violation of the terms of the lease. But a new program between Airbnb and landlords aims to make it truly legal.
Airbnb-friendly apartments is a new program that allows you to sign a long-term apartment lease and then list it as a short-term rental—one day or 180 days a year—without breaching the lease or risking being penalized by your landlord. “As the cost of living continues to rise, tenants can use the extra income generated from part-time Airbnb listings to contribute to rent, save on a home, or pay for other living expenses,” said Nathan Bleharczyk, co-founder. Airbnb, the company said in a statement.
What is an Airbnb-friendly apartment?
Searching for an apartment participating in the new program is very similar to searching for Zillow or Apartments.com. You can search your city for Airbnb-friendly apartments and be sure that if you rent one of them, you will be allowed to list part or all of the apartment on Airbnb if you so choose. The program comes at a time when many US cities and states are banning or otherwise restricting short-term rentals on Airbnb . As a result, Airbnb is trying to work with landlords to make the prospect of renting apartments more profitable. This includes recent changes such as increased damage protection for property owners, bans on parties and events , and the introduction of stricter screening processes for guests.
Each building and location included in the program will have its own rules that tenants must follow, and you will still need to comply with all local laws governing short-term subletting. But for the most part, as an Airbnb-friendly apartment tenant, you can rent out your accommodation as often as you like, as long as you don’t exceed the building’s or Airbnb’s maximum rental days of 180 days per year. You can also expect Airbnb and participating buildings to get a share of roughly 20% of your revenue , according to the Wall Street Journal.
Which apartments are eligible for the program?
At the moment , Airbnb-friendly apartments are available in 29 cities – a total of 175 buildings across the country. When you’re browsing the list of available Airbnb-friendly apartments, you can click on each one to see a breakdown of how much you’ll earn if you rent out the apartment. For example, a one-bedroom apartment at Eviva On Cherokee in Denver, Colorado costs $1,770 per month. If you stay 7 nights per month, you can earn $851 after payment, bringing your net monthly rent to $919.
How is this different from renting with a roommate?
The main difference here is flexibility. The program allows people who are anxious to make ends meet every month or want to save extra money to invite temporary roommates of their choice, eliminating the hassle of finding a permanent roommate you are compatible with without sacrificing extra money. .
In the past, if you wanted to register your apartment as a tenant, you needed permission from your landlord (most leases forbid this action) or you risked doing it under the table. These Airbnb apartments are “Airbnb-able” pre-approved apartments. However, it’s worth considering that just because you can list your location doesn’t mean you can reliably find temporary tenants, so extra income is hardly guaranteed.