Standard for receiving payment

[Robert Carter]

I have a potential guest that would like to book the weekends next fall for all football home games. When it comes to receiving payment how should I approach this? Is it standard practice to ask for full payment, half of payment upfront then other half a month before they arrive, a deposit then they pay every month until 30 days before they arrive? Should I also put the payment schedule into the rental agreement? Any assistance would be great. Haven’t dealt with this before usually I go through Airbnb but this guest came across my property thru Instagram and doesn’t want to deal with the Airbnb fees, which I can understand.

[Lisa Graesser]

I would send a rental agreement with all dates requested and all costs. Collect 1/2 now and 1/2 30 days prior to 1st weekend arrival. 

You receive payment with a check, PayPal, Venmo or Zelle, I have done all and not had any problem.

You might want to list your property on Houfy.com, free for guests and hosts and you can connect square or stripe and receive payments via credit card or the other options above. This site works well for me to send the link to previous bookings to receive direct bookings.