Steps to Airbnb Your Apartment Without Permission from Landlord

You want to know how to Airbnb your apartment without permission if you think the landlord or management will not allow guests to stay over.

However, you would have to deal with issues, such as eviction or having your Airbnb account reported for suspension by the landlord.

Some tenants ask their landlord for permission while others do not. Mostly, the goal is to make more money without the landlord knowing that the apartment generates your passive income, especially if you spend most of your time away from the apartment.

How to Airbnb your apartment without permission

You need to keep it low-key because some neighbors do not like Airbnbs, even if it is legal in your location. This is because some guests may be a nuisance.

Below are the steps to Airbnb your apartment without permission from your landlord:

1. Look at your lease

First, look at your lease and what it says about subletting the property. Note that charging people to stay in your apartment does not make them guests. Airbnb may refer to renters as guests but they are subletters.

Your lease may not mention anything about “guests” but uses “sublet”, which includes Airbnbing the apartment.

Airbnb is a “vacation rental company”, with “rental” being the operative term.

If your lease says you can sublet without the landlord’s permission or says nothing at all about subletting, you can Airbnb legally (as long as it is legal in your local community).

Read also: when can your landlord break the lease to sell the home?

If the lease mentions subletting, and that you cannot do it, you would be breaching the contract if you go ahead. You could lose your apartment, and that will appear on your records.

In extreme cases, the landlord may take all you have earned and have your account suspended.

2. Don’t advertise the entire apartment

Suppose you rent an entire apartment. Do not advertise the entire property on Airbnb to reduce the chances of the landlord or property management coming across and identifying the property on Airbnb listings.

You could advertise just a room or a couple of rooms without including pictures of the exterior on Airbnb.

You can then share pictures of the exterior with your potential guests via direct message. Explain or give them an excuse not to post the pictures on social media.

3. Minimize the number of reviews

You could ask some guests not to leave reviews. Massive reviews may get you busted as more and more guests will be flocking to your listing.

However, you want to ensure more positive reviews.

4. Do not add accessories to the property

You might want to add accessories to the rooms for Airbnb but this could make the landlord suspicious during inspections.

Allow the property to stay just how the landlord leaves it with you but ensure to keep it clean and in good condition. Making repairs without informing the landlord can be a sign that there is a skeleton in your closet.

5. Tick no pets allowed

Do not tick “pets allowed” on your Airbnb listing. Dog barks can disturb neighbors at night. Cats can damage the property, which will cost money to replace.

Read also: hiding a pet cat is even easier in an apartment

Guests’ pets leave hairs on the property, and even urine, so these degrade the quality of the apartment faster.

6. Tick no smoking allowed

Do not also tick “smoking allowed”. This might make the listing sell faster but think about the neighbors in the building being disturbed.

Those neighbors can report seeing lots of random people hanging around, late-night comings and goings, and the occasional smell of smoke to your landlord. Of course, this will tip the landlord that you have rented out your apartment on Airbnb without their permission.

7. Scrutinize the guests

Get to know the Airbnb guest. Some guests are not worth it, especially if you are running Airbnb without permission from your landlord.

Guests with nasty behavior will piss off the neighbors. And if Airbnb is illegal in your community, the neighbor can immediately have the guests removed, which results in a bad Airbnb review. Your landlord will also be penalized because of you but they would have to prove that they are not aware you Airbnb on the property.

8. Have a good rapport with the guest

Instead of sending the instructions through Airbnb, ask for the guest’s email address to get in touch with them.

Write them an honest email so they know what they are in for beforehand to reduce the chance of getting you caught by your landlord. You could talk about your financial situation but do not dismiss the fact that you are making money.

Suppose your job takes you out of your apartment regularly. Explain to your guests that you Airbnb the apartment to recoup some of the money.

Include in the email that if they are asked why they are on the property, they should say they are just a friend visiting and not mention Airbnb.

If the guest is not comfortable with the idea, let them go to prevent you from getting caught.

When a guest agrees to play along, you can have them pay a little less than you listed to make them happy. Besides, your landlord is not getting any percentage of the money since they are not aware.

Airbnb will not disclose your information to your landlord

Full disclosure: this section of the publication cannot give exactly what to expect but covers general insights of what to expect from Airbnb if your landlord finds out you list and rent out your apartment.

Airbnb would view the situation as a sort of a grey area following their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Thus, your landlord can only get pretty limited information from Airbnb.

When you list your rented apartment, agree to Airbnb’s Terms of Service (ToS) and Privacy Policy. The ToS says that it is up to the “host or account owner” to understand and abide by the laws and regulations for their specific area regarding accommodations and tenancy.

Airbnb does not enforce these laws or regulations and does not know all the laws and regulations that are constantly changing in the countries where people host. That makes it an honor system.

In addition to the ToS, the Privacy Policy says that Airbnb will not release or modify the information of your account at the request of a third party. However, they can make changes to your account at their sole discretion.

As such, when your landlord reports your account, Airbnb will not immediately take down your listing. It would be violating their own Privacy Policy.

Airbnb cannot also tell your landlord the amount of money you have made off the listing.

Airbnb may flag your host account, and get in touch with you for documentation proving that you can legally host at their listing. They will do the same with the landlord.

The whole process can take a week or two, and Airbnb reviews all issues on a case-by-case basis.

Take permission from your landlord

Understand your landlord’s concerns about not allowing Airbnb. Your landlord is also aware that they can make lots of money through Airbnb hosting, but they choose to give the property to you for reasons.

• Property security. The landlord is responsible for stolen, damaged, or destroyed property.
• General safety. Renting your apartment to Airbnb can technically be a safety hazard to other tenants or neighbors – you do not fully know who your guest is.
• Local regulations. You may be forced to disobey the local regulations for a short-term rental in your area. For instance, some states or communities mandate an apartment to be licensed to legally operate Airbnb. If you are illegally subletting, you are incriminating the landlord and management.

At the very least, you violate the lease when you Airbnb your apartment without the landlord knowing. Avoid the troubles and carry your landlord along with the arrangement. If the landlord refuses, do not do it. Find another apartment that allows tenants to sublet to Airbnb.