Beware of Airbnb's rental collection policy for long term rentals (i.e. anything duration over 1 month).
They only collect the rent for the 2nd month (and subsequent months) at the end of the first month. If the guest defaults, the first you'll hear about it is an automated message from Airbnb 1-2 days into the '2nd period'. By the time you know that there's an issue, your guest has already stayed 1-2 days rent-free and remains in residence with your calendar blocked for the remainder of the reservation.
This has happened to me twice now. The first time was a technical issue with payment that we were able to resolve but the second time (yesterday), the guest just decided that she wasn't going to pay.
Airbnb automatically applies their long stay cancellation policy for all stays of more than 30 days.
The policy seems to protect hosts to the extent that guests have to give 30 days notice to cancel once the stay has started. However, the guest's payment schedule (invisible to hosts) does not support this policy and Airbnb refuses to take liability for collecting the rent due. They are explicit about this in the message they send to hosts when they can't process payment. Here's the message I received yesterday:
"The attempt to charge your guest, XXXX, for the amount due for reservation XXXX from 21 April 2020 - 16 June 2020 was unsuccessful. The reservation is still active at this time, and we've sent XXXX an email alert with a direct way to pay the balance.
If your guest successfully submits payment, we'll send you a confirmation email right away. If you have questions about the payment problem, you can contact your guest.
If your guest doesn't successfully submit payment or if they cancel the reservation before making the payment, Airbnb isn't liable for issuing your host payout.
If you prefer to cancel the reservation, you can cancel penalty-free at any time before the trip begins. If the reservation has started and you'd like to cancel, please send us a note."
Airbnb is actively encouraging long term bookings but their rent collection is not fit for purpose and does not match the cancellation policy. When something goes wrong, they inform hosts that Airbnb isn’t liable for paying what’s owed. This leaves hosts extremely vulnerable.
In my case, I have a tenant in residence who's been staying rent-free for 2 days, has blocked my calendar for the coming month and says that they have changed their mind about the 2nd month.
Until Airbnb adopt a rent collection policy for long stays that's fit for purpose, hosts are carrying all the risks for these stays.
Hosts be warned; Airbnb do not have our back!