Woman asks if she is wrong to ask for rent from sister who will save $26k by living with her

There is a fine line between asking family for help and taking advantage of them. u/Southie_Sister seems to be dangling on the same fine line with her sister. For context, she shared how her sister was renting out her only house as an Airbnb for an entire month. Through that, she will make about $26k before taxes. "She has a planned vacation for a part of the time but will be 'homeless' for about three weeks," the sister revealed. She wanted to stay at the woman's house for one week out of the three. 

The woman had a husband and two teenage children at home, so she asked for $500 rent for using the guest room at her house. "She is upset and does not want to pay me," the woman remarked. "As background, we stay with each other frequently for overnight visits at no charge. We both are fortunate and have means," she added. She wondered who was wrong in this situation. People had mixed opinions about the circumstances. Some felt that charging rent was valid as the sister was moving out of her house for a profit, while others felt the rent was a bit much for a week. u/Own_purchase1388 commented, "For a profit. It'd be one thing if the sister was remodeling and needed a place to stay. But she's making money by leaving her place. The least she could do was pay her sister for the inconvenience. And $500 for 3 weeks is a good deal. Especially considering she's making thousands."

u/No-Self-jiw wrote, "And when she's home, the woman can rent her place and bring her entire family to stay with the sister for 3 weeks for free. Because family!!! It's funny how it's only the 'right thing to do' until they're the ones who are expected to do it. $26k for 4 weeks and yet you're expecting to stay somewhere for free for 3 weeks? How about you give her 3/4 of that $26k since staying with her is what is making you all that money? $500 is a bargain." u/MorporkianDisc pointed out, "It's one week that she wants to stay ('for about 1 week'), rather than the full three weeks. I'd say absolutely not wrong if the sister wanted to stay for three weeks, but $500 for one week is definitely a bit cheeky. Especially if they already frequently sleep over at each other's houses."

u/Best_System_2927 remarked, "Will you call the sister wrong when, on one of her frequent visits, the woman is asked to pay to stay? Apparently, the going rate for the sister's house is nearly a thousand dollars a night. It seems super short-sighted for the person to ask for money when the current deal is to stay at each other's houses for free (frequently, without charge). Anyone who visits family could be said to be voluntarily leaving a house they already have." u/meller69 replied, "Are you actually that dense that you can't see the difference between staying over for a visit or purposefully renting out your house for 26 grand and then expecting to just get a free stay somewhere? It's cheap and tacky on the sister's part.. huge difference between staying a night here or there and renting out your place like that."