- Farzana Rahman, an orthodontist, operates two Airbnbs in the Durham, North Carolina, area.
- Guests who checked into one in October and booked to stay until May have refused to leave.
- Rahman said they raised red flags early, such as trying to pay in cash instead of through Airbnb.
Guests in a North Carolina Airbnb rental have refused to leave the property after an eight-month stay, the homeowner said.
Farzana Rahman, the Airbnb host, said the guests taped a sign to the door that says they are “legal residents.”
“It’s not fair,” Rahman told Business Insider. “I’m losing rent.”
Rahman purchased the two-bedroom, two-bathroom condominium in a quiet neighborhood in Durham, North Carolina, in 2023. It’s her second Airbnb in the area.
Rahman, an orthodontist, told a local ABC affiliate that she started her Airbnb side hustle to help pay for her kid’s college tuition.
The guests were difficult from the start, the host said
There were red flags with these guests from the start, Rahman said.
A woman in her mid-30s initially booked the rental for two guests from October 25 to May 24, she said.
Rahman told BI that the woman asked her to move the conversation off the Airbnb platform, saying it would be easier to communicate via their cellphones. Rahman said the guest also asked her if she could pay in cash instead of through Airbnb’s payment portal.
Rahman denied both requests, saying she was faithful to her agreements with Airbnb and wanted to keep communication and payment on the platform.
The guests were late with payments, Rahman said
When an Airbnb guest books a shorter stay, like a long weekend, they’ll typically pay the full price of the rental in one lump sum.
But when guests stay for extended periods, Airbnb offers them the option to pay in monthly installments, akin to a traditional rental property. Rahman said her rental prices have fluctuated based on demand but the guests were paying about $2,200 each month.
Rahman said the guests were late with payments nearly every month because the credit card attached to their Airbnb account routinely bounced. They even missed January’s payment, she added, though they eventually made up the difference.
The guests continued to ask if they could pay in cash and would make excuses, such as saying they lost a credit card, to explain the late payments, Rahman told BI.
The guests turned into squatters on their checkout date
Trouble began on May 24 when the guests were scheduled to check out.
Rahman said her cleaning crew arrived at the property to turn it over. The guests told the cleaners to leave and asked Rahman if they could stay through Memorial Day on May 27.
Rahman relented and sent the cleaners back on the agreed-upon date, but the guests again refused to leave.
Rahman reached out to Airbnb for help but was told to contact local authorities, according to screenshots Rahman shared with Business Insider. She said she went to the property with the police and the guests said they’d leave the following day.
Rahman sent the cleaners back a third time only to find a note taped to the door warning them to leave the premises or the guests would “press charges,” she told Business Insider.
The note said the guests are “legal residents of the home” and would not leave until Rahman “filed the proper paperwork with the civil magistrate for an eviction.”
Other hosts should watch out for red flags, Rahman said
Rahman couldn’t proceed with a two-month booking for May and June because the delinquent guests had refused to leave the home.
She said she’s worried about losing more bookings on the property if the chaos continues.
Rahman has filed paperwork to evict the guests and has a court hearing Thursday.
In North Carolina, a “squatter” has to live in a property for over 20 years to claim ownership of it, according to the landlord-insurance company Steadily.
“Issues like this are very rare on Airbnb, and our team is continuing to work with our host to provide support,” an Airbnb spokesperson said in an email to BI.
Rahman said she wants to warn other hosts to proceed with caution if guests try to break Airbnb rules, like requesting to communicate outside the platform.
“If you see red flags at the beginning, people trying to make you break your contract and go outside,” she told Business Insider. “You shouldn’t rent it to those people.”
Axel Springer, Insider Inc.’s parent company, is an investor in Airbnb.
