Renting spare room on Airbnb when I have a housemate?

delmonta

Hi, 

This is possibly a slightly unusual scenario. I own my house, and live with a good friend. It's a 3 bedroom terraced house in Bristol, I have the loft room, he has the big room, and the small box room is a guest room (which we never use!). 

I go away for work for a few weeks or a month at a time occasionally, and it would be great to make some money of the mostly empty house in that time. If my friend ever went away at the same time, we could lock everything expensive in one room and Airbnb the whole place, and it would make a lot of money. We already spoke of this, and I said if we do that, he won't pay rent for those days and I will give him some extra from the rental money, not sure how much. 

But he rarely ever goes away. So I was wondering is it reasonable for me to want to rent the spare room when I'm away on Airbnb? I know he won't like it to have strangers in and out of the house when its just him there. I'm just wondering if its either totally reasonable for me to want to do this with my house, or unreasonable because my housemate also lives here! Hence why I'm posting here asking for advice, before I broach the subject with him

The house is in a great area, and a room can go for £40/£50 a night, so it would be incredible for when I was away. It could even pay for a holiday!

Any advice greatly appreciated

NameUnavailable

I think your choices are really, do you want your existing lodger or do you want a spare room to let as Air B&B as it sounds like your lodger would move out if you were to let the place regularly.

Who will deal with keys, cleaning, repairs etc.? (if the guests turn up and the heating packs up but you're away, what will you do)?

Maybe speak to your friend and look at renting just the small room out to see how it works in practice (and offer a split of any income given that they are losing some of their privacy etc) IF they are comfortable with it.

It's your house but as I said, you need to think about whether you want to potentially lose a good lodger/friend.

theoretica

You want to rent the small room, but only when you are away?  It does seem to be not what your current lodger/friend signed up for.  And realistically he would get lumbered with a fair amount of the hosting and the down side of the extra person in the house.  I think it is quite revealing that you don't want to rent the room out when you are there - says to me that you see downsides to it and don't want to deal with them, but do want your current lodger to.

Why not rent the room out when you are there for a trial so you both can see what it is like?

delmonta

Sorry I should have been more clear, I do also plan to rent the room on airbnb when I am here, but have only just finished renovating after a year, and now I have to be away for a few trips in the coming months, hence the post. I'd personally have no issues with renting the spare room on Airbnb a few nights a week, for the money but also you can meet some nice people. But I understand its a bit weirder for him if he is here alone. 

I did say to him when he moved in that I would like to rent the spare room, possibly airbnb or maybe a full time tenant. But we didn't speak about when I was away

I was just wondering if this was something other people had come across and if there was any standard or etiquette to go by! 

But as you say I probably need to discuss it with him. You mentioned splitting the income with him, which I guess I'd have to think about

NameUnavailable

OK how about if your lodger told you he was going away and would be renting out his room on Air BnB to get some money towards his rent? Would you be happy with that?

Yes it's your house, but it is also his home.

And, this is a 'good friend' you're talking about, not some lodger who you don't know apart from letting them a room. Hmmmm.

delmonta

NameUnavailable said:

OK how about if your lodger told you he was going away and would be renting out his room on Air BnB to get some money towards his rent? Would you be happy with that?

Yes it's your house, but it is also his home.

And, this is a 'good friend' you're talking about, not some lodger who you don't know apart from letting them a room. Hmmmm.

Yeah this is what I'm trying to work out! I don't know what is reasonable to ask or not as it seems a slightly odd situation. The thing is if I'm going to rent on Airbnb while I'm here and then suddenly have to be away for a few weeks then I'd already have bookings and it would happen anyway. But I probably just need to discuss it with him and see if he's really not happy about it. And then maybe consider having another permanent housemate in the spare room for the income. 

But my housemate was quite happy about the idea that if we both went away at the same time he would not pay rent and I would give him some of the money on top. Because sometimes we both go back to Devon where we're from for a week or two. So in some ways its mutually beneficial. If the house is empty and can get upwards of £150 a night, it seems worth doing

I appreciate all your input, just feeling it all out

bbat

He's already expressed some reservations. If you go down this route I think you risk losing a stable lodger, a friend who you are comfortable living with.

delmonta

Yeah I don't think we'd fall out over it or he'd move out. I wouldn't do anything he's really not happy with, and we get on well so I'm sure we can come to a compromise. He's getting cheap rent for having half the house basically and a guest room to use. I know both of us prefer it just being the two of us, but even having a full time tenant could bring in an extra £400/500 a month, much more on airbnb. Its just a little hard too justify it being just the two of us. 

But I appreciate everyones ideas and it sounds like I should be quite sensitive to what he wants, not just say 'its my house!' which I wasn't planning on doing

hazyjo

As above, who's doing the cleaning, changing sheets, putting bits in room/bathroom, etc? Offering breakfast?

delmonta

Sorry I didn't respond to that either...

When I'm here I'd do everything if we rented the spare room.

If I'm away I'd pay someone to clean and so changeovers so my housemate wouldn't have to do anything, unless of course he wanted to for some money

Do you offer breakfast on Airbnb? I've never been offered it

MaryNB

It's up to you to decide what you want to do with your own house but tbh if I was a lodger and had strangers coming in and out of the house all the time I'd be out of there pretty quickly. The extra money wouldnt be worth it for all the work that needs doing  between guests, changing sheets, cleaning etc.