How To Background Check and Vet Your Holiday Rental Property Guests

One of the most common questions our property managers get asked is whether we can control who does or doesn’t stay in their holiday rental home. 

You don’t have to accept a group that wants to stay at your property if you are not comfortable with the composition of the group so long as you have rules clearly defined on the booking websites. It is crucial to note that even though you can specify rules around who can stay, it’s vital to ensure you are not basing these rules around discriminatory factors like race, age or religion. 

What aspects should you consider when guests request a booking? 

When it comes to guests booking your property, there are a few things you may want to check out before approving a booking. 

• If the number of adults and children is specified, are there too many adults to comfortably sleep at your property? 

• Do you want your property to accommodate families only?

Often guests will look at and book a property without properly checking the properties details in full. If you don’t think your guests will be comfortable, contact them to clarify your bedding arrangements and size of property. 

Don’t be greedy and try to squeeze too many in just for the sake of a booking. This will simply result in negative reviews for your holiday rental, having too many guests in a booking can also lead to greater wear and tear which should be a consideration you keep in mind if people are over-booking.

How much vetting of Airbnb rental guests is necessary? 

The amount of vetting you do of guests really depends on your tolerance to risk. Typically a well worded rental agreement will ensure respectful behaviour from your guests. Airbnb also provides Aircover which will protect you against damage or excess cleaning. 

AirCover vs Procover
AirCover for Hosts is top-to-bottom protection for Hosts. It includes guest identity verification, reservation screening, $3M USD Host damage protection, $1M USD Host liability insurance and a 24-hour Safety Line. It also includes $1M USD Experiences liability insurance.

It’s important to note, however that Airbnb may refuse to pay claims and there can be issues with obtaining extra charges from guests via credit cards. This is where Professional Holiday Homes revolutionary Procover owner compensation scheme comes in. Procover is a compensation scheme that reimburses owners for specified damage or theft. It is designed to reduce owner costs and prevent negative reviews by guests. Learn more about it here

If you allow families with pets then in our experience you are unlikely to have many issues other than perhaps the animal leaving a small gift in the back garden (that your housekeeper will clean up!).

While you probably don’t have to worry much about when couples or families are booking, time does have to be spent on vetting groups with eight or more adults to ensure they are not going to cause disturbances with your neighbours. 

If you feel that guests are deceiving you (which can sometimes happen) or if they are a group of adults looking for a place to have a party, you are able to politely decline their booking enquiry so long as you have rules clearly specifying “no parties”.

If you have an inquiry that comes through as all adults it is a good idea to double check with them whether it is indeed all adults or whether it is a mixture of adults and kids. Sometimes when submitting an enquiry guests will simply select a number of adults as they mistakenly think they are selecting the number of guests. This happens surprisingly regularly. Airbnb also identifies an adult as 13 or older which can cause confusion!

If you are very risk averse or cater for large groups that can become boisterous you can ask the person booking the property to supply identification such as a driver’s licence or passport. This is simply a means to verify who they say they are and offers little protection against any potential bad behaviour – but it may make the guest think twice about causing any damages given that you know where they live.

A copy of their credit card also isn’t a perfect deterrent as they can attempt to get any extra charges refunded to them if they initiate a chargeback through their credit card company. The credit card provider will side with their customer nine times out of ten. 

Does a property management company help to vet guests?

At Professional Holiday Homes we do all the hard work for you and we can help vet the guests that book your property to save you time and money. Our team implements several strategies to effectively vet guests who want to rent an Airbnb holiday rental in New South Wales, here are some of them;

1. Guest Screening Procedures

• • Guest Profile Review: We look at the guest’s Airbnb profile, including reviews from other hosts, to get a sense of their reliability and behaviour.
  • Verified ID: All guests must have a verified ID on Airbnb, which includes verifying their email address, phone number, and government-issued ID.
  • We have a strict No parties, Bucks, Hens or Schoolies policy

2. Communication and Interaction

• • Pre-Booking Communication: We engage with potential guests through Airbnb messaging. We can ask them about the purpose of their trip, the number of guests, and any specific requirements they might have.
  • Clear House Rules: We make sure that our rules and policies are outlined in the listing. We then make sure guests sign a detailed rental agreement before confirming the booking.

3. Payment

• • Payment Verification: We ensure that payment is verified and completed through secure payment systems before the guest’s arrival.

4. Use of Technology

• • Monitoring Tools: We install smart home devices such as noise monitoring systems to ensure guests comply with house rules without invading their privacy.

5. Detailed Guest Information

• • We may request the ages of all guests staying at the property. This helps prevent unauthorised guests (such as schoolies groups) from staying.

You can contact a member of our team today to see exactly how we can help you vet your guests and avoid damages to your property.