Joshua Brustein:
Cory Tschogl, the Airbnb host who rented out the condo, told Business Insider that she was surprised to learn that, legally, she has gone from being an Airbnb host to a normal old landlord. She says she hired a lawyer to try to get the reluctant guest to move along but was told that because he had already stayed in the place for 30 days, his term had aged into all sort of tenant protections granted under California law.
There’s all sorts of laws that protect tenants, and laws that make “guests” tenants after certain time periods. That’s why many motels will hire people to do everything just short of dragging people out if they stay too long.
As a landlord myself, I can tell you that removing a tenant from a property is a long and expensive process — even if they owe you thousands of dollars. It can take 60-90 days of legal proceedings and paying lawyers to get them out, and then you have to store their stuff (usually) for a period of time.
I’d never use AirBNB, either as a host or guest.