how you protect your house in short term rental?

Question

Hi ,

I just list my house for short term

four  young people rent my furnished apartment via Airbnb for two weeks.  the person who rent it has one review . I know nothing about the rest.  few days in they asked to add 4 more people.

hearing all the horror stories about parties and trashing the house, what are the tricks and ways to minimize the risk?

is it practical and acceptable to do some sort of background checks on the new people?  send someone to visit the house?

also, Airbnb has some sort of protection but what are you doing with reservations coming from other platforms such as  booking.com VRBO etc?

thanks !

Itay

James Carlson · Answer

Hey @Itay Heled

Trashed Airbnb homes makes for good click bait news, but it's not the norm.

In twelve years with investment properties in Colorado -- including LTRs, MTRs, and STRs -- we've had exactly one "trashed" home ... and that was from a long-term tenant, not a short-term rental guest. Similar story for all our vacation rental investor clients.

Set strong rules and expectations, vet guests as best you can, have robust insurance and carry on.

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

A) do not rent to people that only have one review. B) do not rent to anybody on a last-minute basis make it be at least 3 days in advance, C) never rent for only one night, that will be a partier for sure. D) sets your age limit higher, I use 30 years old.

just call your regular insurance company and ask them if they insure short-term rentals. I use State Farm and they were super reasonable, but make sure you tell them exactly what you're using it for.

Collin Hays · Answer

I have owned vacation rentals since 2005 and had many thousands of guests. I don't recall when I have had anything trashed.

Andrew Steffens · Answer

Hi Itay

I can understand your nerves!  As a PM I have managed over 200 STR's in total and currently around 65 units.  As mentioned above there is always some risk - but to be honest I have had worse lucky with LTR's.  STR's at least your cleaners are getting in a few times a month allowing windows to keep up with maintenance tasks.  With LTR's usually if the tenant is quiet and pays on time you may go months or even years without seeing the property's condition.  In 9 years and over 30,000 reservations we have only had damages under $1,000 maybe around 20 times and over $1,000 3 times.

That said, do make sure you have an STR compliant insurance policy.  This, usually, will not cover small damages and items, but the property as a whole and used for large claims.  If you are renting exclusively on Airbnb, there is AirCover, which will cover you if the guest trashes the house or causes damage.  Make sure you document everything and you can submit right through Airbnb's Resolution Center.

As far as guest screening goes, there are some services out there but especially at scale it is cumbersome and costly.  We do check guest reviews as well as having guests sign an agreement outlining damage procedures, partying, etc.  Usually this is enough to scare people off if they know they are rowdy.  For example most of our larger, pool homes attract things like bachelor/ette parties.  They book and once they see the agreement (also posted in listing) they become a bit nervous that they may be removed from the property with no refund if we get noise complaints.  We let them cancel with full refund.  Steps like these weed out 99+% of potential trouble, at least in our experience.

Jacob St. Martin · Answer

Hello Italy,

Unfortunately there will always be risk when doing short term rentals, and things will inevitably get ruined or broken at some point. Expect that and plan for it! Airbnb does have an insurance policy in case a guest does trash a house but I will note that they are very much partial to guests and will normally not side with the host in a dispute unless you have really good evidence. There are a few things that you can do to help protect your listing, this is not exactly an exhaustive list but just a few things:

- You can install a ring doorbell so that you have video evidence of who is coming in and out of the house. If the guests throw a party against your rules you will be able to show a bunch of people entering the house who weren't supposed to be there.

- You can require that guests have uploaded proof of ID to airbnb in your settings. This prevents people from making a new account to throw a party, trash a house, get a bad review from the host, then just make a new account so that it doesn't matter.

- You can require a refundable deposit/place a hold on their card just in case. I don't do this and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it but you can.

- Have a smart lock. It is really helpful to have a log of when guests were going in and out of the house. This has helped me with airbnb disputes before

- Tell your cleaners to let you know if anything is broken or trashed and to take thorough pictures before touching anything.

- I believe the other OTAs also have host insurance but not as robust as airbnb.

- Send a message during the guest's stay checking in and ask how their stay is going. This gives them a chance to tell you if anything is wrong with the unit and if they do not reply or say that everything is going well, it will help you if they break stuff and/or try to get a refund later.

- Honestly, I haven't had that much issue with people breaking things, I have had more people trying to fraudulently get a refund though.

- Set aside a % of each host payout you get for future repairs replacing furnishings, expect it to happen, and then you will be prepared when it does.

Feel free to reach out if you have more questions!

John Underwood · Answer

Just have the correct STR insurance and don't sweat it

John Underwood · Answer

It varies. You'll need to get several quotes to get prices specific to you property.

Itay Heled · Answer

can you explain please what STR insurance is actually covering what is the cost and what is the deductible to get a sense?