Month: June 2016

You want to rent your house to tenants to enjoy their vacation, but you also want them to be respectful of your rules and leave your place in good condition, right?

This issue could bring some worries about giving strangers full control of your vacation home while vacationing. As most people would be respectful of your house rules, there’s a big chance you will have a few guests who might want to throw crazy parties, break things, and get really loud and noisy in the neighborhood.

Also, the worst of your nightmares is to have guests committing felonies or illegal actions in your place. This may lead to many problems of financial losses to get things fixed or replaced, or worse, involvement in police investigations of felonies you had nothing to do with. So, what can you do to prevent or, at least, lessen the chances of getting such problematic guests?

Talk to the potential guest on the phone

It is completely acceptable to ask for the name, the address, the number of adults and children. You can also ask for the purpose of the trip and if they have stayed in a vacation home rental home before. After all, this is your home, and they will be staying in it.

If you still do not feel completely comfortable on the phone with the guest, you may ask for a driver’s license/ passport copy to be sent; so you can have a background check done. Remember, following your gut is the best thing to do if you still don’t feel happy about hosting this guest, your gut needs to be sitting just right!

Lead a little internet sleuthing

You can do a little search on the Internet. An area code lookup will help you know if the potential guests live within the area, which means a big crazy party is going to be thrown at your place! You can also use websites that provide information about people to match the information with what you got on the phone. A few websites that can help are www.zabasearch.com, www.whitepages.com, and www.pipl.com.

Pay attention to email addresses and search states’ offender databases

Emails like “2Wildto Tame”, “PassionFroot4U”, “tooHott2Trott”, and “hotchick59” can raise red flags! This might lead you to conduct more thorough research about your guest.

You may also want to look up the names of offenders in the state your guest is coming from. This is very important as you really don’t want to get involved in a crime committed in your own house by a stranger you never met before!

Use the reliable vacation home rental website: CuddlyNest.com

Use the online vacation home rental website, CuddlyNest, to protect your rights against any possible losses. Problematic guests are discouraged from using an online website to rent a place because they know they will be legally prosecuted.

When you sign an agreement to list your property in a trustworthy online vacation home rental platform, like CuddlyNest, you automatically guarantee that your rights to any losses or damages will be guaranteed to be compensated for. Using an online vacation home rental platform is the best way to protect your rights.

Avoid potential guests who keep arguing about your rules

Post your home, minimum-stay rules, and rates online and make them final. Any guest who argues and tries to make you bend the rules is a potentially problematic one. After all, renting your vacation home listing to these guests is not worth the headache.

Set down a refundable large damage fee

By setting down a large damage fee, you guarantee your right to be compensated for any losses that might be caused by a problematic guest. Also, setting down the large fee online will keep harmful guests away, but it will not scare those who have no bad will intentions.

Set longer minimum stays at your listing than others

All guests who intend to throw a crazy party at your vacation home rental will need your house for a night or two. By setting relatively longer minimum stays, according to the season, you will largely keep undesirable guests away from considering your listing for their wild party or huge family reunion.

Stop by once during the rental stay

Passing by to say hello to your guests and check on them will give them a good feeling of a caring host. It will also give you the chance to check on your house and make sure everything is going smoothly and in accordance with your house rules.

Browse. Book. Stay.

CuddlyNest provides all accommodations to all travelers at the best price. Find unlimited travel inspiration on our blog and social media channels:
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and X.

You May Also Like:

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Hosting guests in your own place to make some profit is a great idea, but things may not always run smoothly. You may be trying your best to provide your vacation home guests with a great traveling experience. However; along with that, many issues arise and stand as stressful challenges. Following are some points to consider when it comes to the difficulties of being the best host you can be.

As a host, you surely must be striving to provide your guests with the best travel experience. However; guests’ demands and wants may be dissimilar to what you are willing to provide in your own home. So, how can you compromise between your set of rules in your own vacation rental and guests’ wants in a rented property?

You may wish to state your house rules clearly in your profile so that guests are aware of your rules before booking the property. However; this may lessen the number of booking requests you may receive and consequently limit your profit. This is a challenge, especially if you are listing a room in a house, or if your short-term vacation rental is in a highly competitive shared marketplace area.

Another challenge faced by hosts is not being able to be physically available at the property. Some guests can be so demanding and are hard to please if things don’t go exactly the way they are expecting. This situation is especially intensified if you are running several vacation listings at distant locations, or in different regions or countries.

Of course, you can always consider hiring a company to manage your vacation rental, but a question of trust would still stand strong. This solution is also not satisfying in terms of economic feasibility, especially if you are listing affordable rooms in a house and trying to compete with hotel rooms or other similar room listings in the area.

Another challenge you may face is getting refunds on insurance claims. This process could be a time-consuming and stressful one. As a vacation rental host, you may be left at the lower end of the priority chain when it comes to guest satisfaction. You will need to put a lot of effort into claiming money for damages caused by guests. Shared marketplace and insurance companies prioritize profit and guest satisfaction over host satisfaction. So, this is something you need to accept and be ready to deal with if it occurs.

Also, as a host, you are certainly concerned about the measurements of safety related to hosts. The vacation home host-safety topic is not adequately addressed or given attention to by most shared marketplace businesses; in opposition to the amount of consideration given to guests’ safety by these companies.

There are no clear regulations addressing this topic to guarantee the safety of hosts, especially since there are no measurements of guest screening available other than the host’s own considerations and guest reviews; which may not, in some cases, reflect the reality of the guest’s background. A matter which sometimes leaves a host’s safety to mere luck and chances.

All these topics form great challenges for vacation rental hosts. These problems need to be seriously addressed, and long-term solutions need to be created. It is a great mission to host people in your own place, but this definitely shouldn’t be a troublesome one.

The amount of effort a vacation rental host puts into the renting process should be greatly valued, and this should be reflected in better services and provisions addressing hosts’ satisfaction. Guests’ satisfaction shouldn’t outweigh hosts’ satisfaction in any situation. A happy host means happy guests and a booming business!

Browse. Book. Stay.

CuddlyNest provides all accommodations to all travelers at the best price. Find unlimited travel inspiration on our blog and social media channels:
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and X.

You May Also Like:

CuddlyNest secures US$3.5M funding to accelerate growth
CuddlyNest reaches 25,000 property listings in Scandinavia
CuddlyNest raises an additional US$6 million amidst pandemic
CuddlyNest surpasses 60,000 properties across India