Direct Booking Website: How Do You Protect Yourself?

[Gulliver R.]

Hi All,

I have an STR that's on Airbnb and VRBO right now. But I'd like to build a directing booking site and put my STR on that as well. I like that you don't have to worry about getting a bad review on Airbnb or VRBO when getting a booking from your direct booking site. But what about when bad things happen? How do you protect yourself? For example: when guests break stuff, when they break the rules, when they have a party in your STR, etc.? What I like about Airbnb is that if the guest breaks the rules and you can prove it, Airbnb will have your back and allow you to kick the guest out with drawbacks. How do I protect myself from the bad stuff?

Thank you,

Gulliver

[Matt Mertz]

We had the same concerns.  We solved it with security deposits.  OwnerRez has the systems in place to allow you to charge a real security hold on the guest's credit card.  It works with Airbnb, VRBO and our direct booking site (hosted through OwnerRez).

We prefer security deposits over damage/travel insurance because the guest goes into the house with money on the line.  We think this provides a greater incentive to behave.

In the time we implemented security deposits, we only had to dip into it once when a guest was super messy requiring another cleaning fee.  And we didn't have to deal with Airbnb AirCover to collect it.