# landlords short term vs tenant rents



## londoncalling (Sep 17, 2011)

Hi all,

My wife and I had a discussion while on a getaway to Toronto this weekend which sparked my curiosity. When we travel we prefer to use short term lets (ex. AirBnB) over hotels as we have had way better time traveling this way. Our current stay, is a charming 2 story(plus basement) that has 2 (soon to be 3 once the basement is reno'd) units with kitchen laundry patio etc. From a landlord perspective we were curious as to the differences between opting to short term let or have a tenant. Obviously, there are many factors in deciding which route to take. Is there anyone on the forum that can share their experience, that have gone from tenants(lease) to short stay renters? I have a ton of follow up questions but I wanted to leave this thread fairly open to see where it heads.

Cheers


----------



## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

I do know a little about it and a few people who rent out their places short term. The people I know who are successful at it manage the process themselves. It is very "management intensive" and so in a sense you are paying yourself to do the extra work. It's quite similar to student rentals where you need a steady presence to deal with issues before they become major. 

Obviously vacancy is high but the extra money you get works to defray the extra vacancy. 

If you rent long term your focus should be on tenant quality and then you rent and just take care of any issues as they come along. However the hard work of finding the tenant only happens every couple years or so.


----------



## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

As long as this wasn't you...lol

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other...ve-home-trashed/vi-BBiWgNA?ocid=mailsignoutmd


----------



## stardancer (Apr 26, 2009)

One consideration is that short-term stays are considered commercial, rather than residential, and subject to HST. Residential accommodation is not. Not sure of the conditions, so check this out.


----------



## londoncalling (Sep 17, 2011)

Cal said:


> As long as this wasn't you...lol
> 
> http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other...ve-home-trashed/vi-BBiWgNA?ocid=mailsignoutmd


I read this the other day and knew it would wind up on this thread. I can assure you I feel for the owners and am glad airbnb is taking a stand. There is definitely a possibility of this occurring but I am sure that the same can be said for hotels,motels, resorts and tenants. Is it fair for me to assume nobody on this board has their properties on Air BNB etc. Is it just not worth the extra effort?


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

What if a "guest" brings in bed bugs.................ewwww.


----------



## newuser (Sep 16, 2014)

My condo board is OK with rentals but against AirBnB. And I agree -- it's too risky to have so many new faces go through the building. Even with long term rentals, we've already had a case of a illegal drug lab explosion causing huge damage.


----------

