Porch.com interviewed Safely CEO Andrew Bate in a recent article, and he offered some sound advice for keeping your short-term rental safe and secure. Here is an excerpt of that article, reprinted with permission:
What are some ways to secure the host in their short-term rental business?
“Keeping your short-term rental business safe requires you to be proactive and then reactive.
“Proactively, you want to know who is staying in your homes. At Safely, we love seeing the guest’s ID. Not only do you have more certainty of the guest’s identity, but the guest also knows that you know who they are. They will think twice before getting extra crazy.
“We also like to check sex offender lists because this screening helps to keep your community safe. When you can, you also need to track guests who have destroyed homes or tried to extort money from you by finding imaginary problems.
“No matter how diligent you are, you can never prevent everything. The right insurance coverage goes a long way. We don’t like damage deposits because guests don’t like you holding their money, and the cost of any damage will likely be more than you collected. We also don’t like credit card holds because guests will often win a chargeback dispute with their credit card company. We find that a specialized insurance policy that covers damage, theft, intentional acts, and your own liability provides the best protection for our hosts.” –Andrew Bate, Safely
Read the full article on porch.com to find out what advice other industry experts gave on this important topic.
