Best Practices For Co-Hosting

[Todd Chandler]

My wife and I own two short term rentals here in Georgia and manage them ourselves. We been very successful in doing so. We have been approached by a fellow STR owner about co-hosting a single property for them. We are confident in our ability to handle the tasks and have the systems in place, but we do have a few best practice questions.

1.   They have asked us if we have any type of insurance that would cover any incident if my wife and I or any cleaner or handyman that we hire were to be injured on the property.   This frankly didn't even cross my mind.  What are guys who are co-hosting and managing STRs doing for this?  I am assuming that the best bet is to hire an insured cleaner and handyman so that they cover themselves or have them sign some type of waiver relieving the owner of any responsibility, but I want to hear your thoughts.

2.  For those who have clients who prefer that the payouts from the OTAs come to them and then they pay your management invoice at the end of the month, do you have your client directly pay the cleaner and handyman for their work or do you pay them and then invoice the client?