With short-term rentals growing increasingly popular across the world, we have come up with a number of steps you can take as a host, to lower the risk of opening up your home to guests. 

Be transparent 

When creating your listing or writing your property description, it is highly advised to provide all the important details of your home to your guests. This will be the first point of contact you will have as a host with your prospective guests and therefore have the opportunity to clearly highlight your expectations. In addition, it is crucial to signify how many guests the property can accommodate and whether or not it is children or pet friendly. 

Guest screening 

There is no doubt that opening the doors of your home can be difficult for some homeowners, as you have to fully trust your guests. At SMARTHOST, we aim to eliminate this risk by carrying out strict guest vetting protocols in line with Airbnb’s procedures. Here we conduct security and ID checks, whilst also taking a close look at other reviews written during their previous stays. This allows for greater peace of mind for a host during this process. 

Insurance coverage 

Although it is unlikely, there is still a possibility for accidents to take place within your property. To diminish to risk of responsibility for a landlord, there is a Host Protection Insurance issued by Airbnb that provides up to $1,000,000 USD in liability coverage for a host’s legal responsibility to a guest or third party, for any injuries or property damages. Moreover, we also have secure deposit safety schemes in place that act as a secondary safety blanket. 

Move smartly 

Another vital point to protect yourself as a host and your property is to interact intelligently when communicating with guests. If you are a host who works independently (without an agency) then checking for profile verifications and legitimate contact numbers are crucial. References and reviews are a wonderful tool to navigate as to whether or not someone’s profile seems worthwhile. In these circumstances, trusting your intuition comes in handy and if something seems off about a booking, it’s best to avoid accepting it!