Is AirBNB’s long term rental program legal?

Is AirBNB’s long term stay legal?

The Jedi have been living in AirBNBs long term stay program since October 2020. Last night, without notice, an armed security guard entered our apartment and forcibly removed us from our home that was paid through April 13th, 2021.

NOTE: Since we got kicked off the AirBNB system, we have decided to sublease an apartment in the Upper East Side Manhattan commencing on April 15th 2021 and extending through August 31st 2021.

We used AirBNB’s 4 week+ stay program to travel to Panama. It’s a great deal. No credit checks, no background checks and no security deposit required to book an apartment for 3 months. Sound crazy? We thought so too, but let’s give it a try.

We are photojournalists who have travelled the world by living in weekly stays and temporary housing for nearly 10 years. When we were unable to pay rent after the global pandemic hit, we packed up our bags and looked into other options.

We rented a condo from Air BNB in Panama from October 18th 2020 until January 18th 2021. Amazingly simple. The condo was wonderful. Unfortunately, the other condo owners did not feel the same way about AirBNB guests. The other owners did not like having strangers moving in & out of their building, bypassing their strict condo association bylaws. Nevertheless, the condo owner extended our stay twice through February & March. But when the owner received a larger than normal electric bill in January, he complained to AirBNB. We are not sure what happened next, but we received a call out-of-the-blue from AirBNB demanding that we check out immediately, even though we had PREPAID through March 2021. They would not tell us why we were being evicted. We presumed it had something to do with the electric bill.

Panama was under very tight COVID restrictions. Men & women were not allowed outside on the same day. If caught, we would get arrested. So later that day, we bought last minute tickets back to Las Vegas which were very expensive.

We did not understand why we were being kicked out. There was no hearing. So we started another AirBNB account using my wife’s name. We rented a unit from January 7th until April 13th 2021.

Two days ago, we received the same cookie-cutter emails saying we violated AirBNBs terms & conditions and that we must check out immediately. When we asked why, they refused to provide an answer. Presumably they figured out we were together.
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Somehow, AirBNB has been able to circumvent state & local tenancy laws in Nevada. Las Vegas hotels have very strict rules. If a guest stays longer than 28 days, they hurst becomes a legal tenant with tenant rights. Therefore, no hotel in Las Vegas allows guests to stay longer than 28 days except not so for AirBNB. Why is AirBNB an exception?

In the State of Nevada, if a person stays in a hotel longer than 28 days, then that person is considered a legal tenant and has tenant rights. Therefore, AirBNB cannot make someone leave their home without going though a legal eviction process. But they did it to us anyway.

Last night, an armed security guard entered our apartment at 11:30pm demanding that we vacate the premises immediately. We were stunned. We threatened to call the Las Vegas Metro. At the end, we decided that this was not the tome to fight our battle. We complied with the security guard and moved out of our apartment at midnight on my birthday.