Author: Autohost

Hosts learned the value of switching to direct bookings the hard way.

After losing control of their business through OTAs’ aggressive cancelation policies and reactions to the crisis, hosts realized there’s more at stake than the commission they pay.Having your own website allows guests to book with you directly, instead of through an online travel agency (OTA). Benefits of direct booking are:

• You don’t have to pay commissions
• You have full control over your short-term rental business
• You won’t be at risk if something happens to your listing on the OTA

Operators are afraid that direct booking sites will put them more at risk of hosting bad guests without the protection that some OTAs offer. Airbnb’s Host Guarantee covers up to $1 million USD of property damage. Without the OTA safety net, how can a host mitigate risk?

Hosts around the world have complained about the difficulty of getting OTAs to reimburse property damages. A South Carolina host claimed that Airbnb didn’t fully cover the damages he faced after guests threw a 100-person party. Even if it had reimbursed him the full amount, he still would’ve been responsible for cleaning and fixing his property. It’s risky to leave your property’s security in the hands of a third party.

The best security is proactive and done by the host and not an OTA. Fortunately, for hosts who allow direct bookings, there are ways for you to protect yourself more effectively than any OTA could.

Direct Bookings for Short Term Rentals

In the era of the shared economy, short-term rentals or vacation rentals have emerged as a popular alternative to traditional accommodations. Many hosts are now exploring the option of direct bookings, which allows them to regain control, eliminate commissions, and manage their businesses more efficiently. However, establishing a secure and safe direct booking process is crucial for both the guests and hosts. Here’s how you can set up a direct booking process that ensures your business’s security while providing a seamless experience for your guests.

Step 1: Design a Professional Website for Direct Bookings

Before you can set up a direct booking process, you need a professional website to showcase your property. Use high-quality photos and clear descriptions to provide potential guests with a vivid idea of what they can expect. Integrating a secure payment gateway is a crucial step in establishing trust with your guests. Implement SSL encryption and choose a trusted payment processor to ensure secure transactions.

Step 2: Install a Reliable Booking Engine

A booking engine allows guests to check the availability of your property for their preferred dates and make a reservation directly. There are many third-party booking engines available, offering features like calendar management, automatic confirmations, and integrated payments. Choose one that is mobile-friendly, easy to integrate with your website, and offers robust security features.

Step 3: Set Clear Booking Policies

Outline clear booking policies including your cancellation policy, check-in and check-out times, pet policy, smoking rules, etc. Make sure these policies are easily accessible on your website to ensure guests are fully aware of them before making a booking. Clear, transparent policies help set expectations, reduce potential disputes, and provide a framework for handling any issues that may arise.

As a vacation rental owner, establishing a secure and reliable direct booking process can be advantageous. It allows you to save on commissions, exercise greater control over your business, and build direct relationships with your guests. However, safety and security should never be compromised in the pursuit of independence. By following the steps outlined above, you can ensure a safe and secure booking process, protecting both you and your guests.

1. Implement a guest-screening process

With the increase in vacation rental scams, you need to have a structured way of screening and verifying guests. At a basic level, this can include:

• Emailing guests and verifying that they reply from the same email address
• Calling guests and asking them questions about their upcoming travel plans
• Checking the area code of guests’ phone numbers
• Asking guests for a copy of their ID
• Running a background check*

*You should be careful with a background check. It’s not directly indicative of whether somebody will commit a crime on your property, and may leave you liable with the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act).

If you’re still on the fence about someone after you’ve screened them, you can choose to meet them in person as a final check.

Manual guest screening can be a lengthy and tedious process, involving many different elements—but it can pay off. To paint a better picture of the guest-screening flow, here’s an example:

Phone verification

Let’s say that someone reserves through your direct booking website. A first step could be entering the provided phone number into a validator tool to see if it’s a real phone number. (There are plenty of free tools available online.)

Then, check the area code of the phone number. Local reservations tend to be riskier since there’s almost no reason for someone to book a property when they live 20 minutes away.

While having a local number doesn’t mean a guest is a fraudster, it does raise some red flags.

Finally, you should call the guest. Fraudulent guests almost never answer the phone, preferring to text instead.

When they answer the phone, you can ask the guest a series of screening questions to verify their story.

For instance, if a guest is coming in by plane, consider asking for their flight number. You can phrase the question as you wanting to monitor their flight in case anything changes. The purpose of this is to check for inconsistencies. A guest who’s unable to give you their flight number or gives you a different one is probably fraudulent.

Benefits of Screening Guests

Screening guests may seem like a hassle since you’ll have to verify the identity and story of each guest. However, the benefits of doing so are long-lasting and can skyrocket your vacation rental business. Some benefits include:

• Improving your hosting reputation
• Removing unnecessary booking restrictions
• Cutting property damage and maintenance costs
• Avoiding situations like squatters

For instance, hosting on NYE can be extremely lucrative. This upside potential, however, does come with the increased likelihood of parties.

While many hosts may refuse all one-night NYE bookings, doing so means losing out on significant revenue. Having a guest-screening process allows you to remove these restrictions while securing your ideal guests.

If you don’t want to screen each reservation manually, you can always automate it. Tools like Autohost streamline the process, removing the grunt work for operators. (They also remove the possibility of human error.)

 

GET STARTED WITH GUEST SCREENING

2. Get Short-Term Rental Insurance

While screening guests is a great way to proactively protect yourself, some bad guests may still sneak through. That’s why it’s advisable to get your own insurance policy to protect yourself in case anything happens.

Depending on your insurance carrier, your homeowners policy may provide limited coverage. Most insurance carriers, however, don’t cover short-term rentals, and those that do, don’t usually provide sufficient coverage. That’s why many hosts and operators end up getting additional insurance for their vacation rental properties.

There are many insurance policies available, and choosing one might be overwhelming. Take the time to research your options and figure out which one is best for your specific situation. If you struggle with legalese, it may be helpful to speak with a real estate lawyer to figure out the best plan for you.

3. Draft and Enforce a Host-Guest Contract

Beyond a screening process and insurance policy, you also want to have a host-guest contract that guests sign upon booking. This document should mention:

• Guests: Outline the registered guests. Any unauthorized people will be considered trespassing, which is a crime.

• Property: Describe your property and the amenities included. For instance, if you have a room that’s off-limits to guests, mention that in the contract.

• Check-In/Checkout: Include check-in/checkout dates and times. Mention any fees related to early check-ins or late checkouts. This will help you prevent squatters, especially if you offer mid-term rentals.

• House Rules: Explain your house rules. Having a clear list of what’s allowed/forbidden will help you to set expectations with guests. You’ll also be able to punish guests for any violations.

• Costs: Break down the total costs, including rental costs, cleaning fees, and security deposits. That way, guests won’t be able to claim you overcharged or had hidden fees.

• Deposits & Damages: Outline what the security deposit covers. You should explain what constitutes damage vs. reasonable wear and tear. This will allow you to enforce your security deposit policy, even if guests complain.

These are only some of the items you should include in your rental agreement. To make sure that you’ve covered all your bases and that the contract is legally binding, you should work with an attorney.

4. Use Smart Devices for Security

For additional protection, you may want to install smart devices to unobtrusively monitor your guests. Some ideas include:

Smart Locks

Smart locks are installed on doors and are opened by punching in a code. Most smart locks can be managed remotely, allowing you to create and delete lock codes from your mobile device or computer. Some can even integrate with your channel manager. You’ll also be able to keep track of who uses what code to enter, so you know exactly who’s entering your property.

Doorbell Cameras

Combined with smart locks, doorbell cameras provide a great final layer of security. You can see who’s coming into your property at all times. So, if a guest makes a reservation for two, but five people show up, you can change the door code to prevent entry. Then, you can call your guest and inquire about the extra people.

Noise Sensors

With noise sensors, you can monitor noise levels within your property. Many noise sensors will notify you if the noise levels exceed a pre-set threshold, so you’ll know right away if a guest throws a party.

Protect yourself while maximizing revenue

With the right security measures in place, direct bookings can be safe and profitable. You’ll be able to host without fear of letting bad guests in.

Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) like Airbnb are great for adventure, but it’s hard to establish trust when users are strangers. Without ID verification, guests and hosts are left defenseless in the sharing economy. Each party has to trust that the person on the other end of the reservation is who they say they are. But there’s no certainty. That’s where Airbnb ID verification comes in.

What is Airbnb ID verification?

In an effort to make our community as safe and secure as possible, Airbnb requires guests and hosts to verify their identity. In other words, you may be asked to provide a government-issued ID or confirm your legal name and add your address. This information protects hosts and guests from fraud and other industry-related risks.

Understanding what Airbnb ID verification entails is crucial for managers considering criminal background checks.

How does Airbnb ID verification work?

ID verification is Airbnb’s way of fighting back against security threats. By identifying incoming guests, Airbnb can better protect our community from fraudulent bookings.

Airbnb ID verification isn’t strictly linked to account creation. Before booking a place to stay or an experience, or becoming a host, you might be asked to upload your ID (passport, driver’s license, etc.) or provide additional personal information. Sometimes users are even asked to take a photo of themselves to match with the picture in the ID provided. This is Airbnb’s way of being sure you’re really you.

There are various requirements across the platform. Airbnb itself requires users to be 18 years of age or older and some hosts require guests to provide valid ID before booking. If your ID doesn’t appear to be valid, you won’t be able to book a listing with this prerequisite.

Once you’ve uploaded your ID, you likely won’t be asked to do it again. But you may be asked for additional verification in order to confirm it is really you who is logging into the account, especially if you’re signing in from a different device.

Explaining Airbnb ID verification can clarify aspects of property management agreements.

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Privacy

Airbnb assures us that all information provided during the process of adding your ID is governed by the company’s Privacy Policy. The information is sent to Airbnb and its third-party databases using the same secure encryption that websites use to transmit credit card numbers.

What does Airbnb ID verification mean for you as a host?

On its website, Airbnb reminds users that “this process isn’t an endorsement of any host or guest, a guarantee of someone’s identity, or an assurance that interacting with them will be safe.” That is, to ensure your business is safe, you need backup security.

As a property manager, use your own best judgment and develop concrete security practices that make sense for your business. While Airbnb may ask for a government ID, there’s no guarantee. If you really want to get to know your guest, screen them.

Hosting over 2 million people every night, Airbnb is a hospitality powerhouse. With more than 150 million users on the platform, it becomes difficult to monitor every listing and every booking that comes in. As a property manager, you have to understand that by using Airbnb, you’re accepting a certain degree of liability. For the best protection, you need to do your due diligence. Get the Airbnb guest verification you want by doing it yourself.

Learn about the threats you face and how to combat them. By properly educating yourself, you can build an effective security process and take matters into your own hands. Streamline your efforts and reduce the risks to your operations with Autohost.

Unlock the power of Autohost for your business. Schedule a demo now!

In the short-term rental industry, property managers need to find the balance between booking as many guests as possible and protecting their properties from misuse. That’s what makes screening guests so complicated. While you want guests to book with you, you need to be mindful of who’s entering your property. One wrong guest can result in a suite littered with red solo cups and thousands of dollars worth of property damage. So, how do you differentiate between a good guest and a bad one based on their reservation details?

Elevate guest screening efficiency: Request a demo today!

A great way to differentiate between the two is by following up with the guest during the booking process. Sometimes the decision will be obvious, but other times, you need to do a little digging. Start a rapport with the guest. Ask them questions. Get to know them. All it takes is a quick email or short phone call. But if you’re stumped as to what kind of questions you should ask, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here are 10 simple questions to ask that will illuminate what kind of guest you’re renting to.

1. Tell me about yourself.

Why it’s important: While our first suggestion on the list is more of a statement than a question, it is imperative to get as much information about the guest as you can. This includes everything from where they live to what their travel plans are. Ideally, you can hop on the phone and chat with the guest, but email works too. Not only will this help you get a better sense of who is booking your property but it will make the guest feel reassured in their booking and show how excited you are to host them.

2. What is the purpose of your visit?

Why it’s important: Whether it’s visiting family, shopping, business, or tourism, guests have all kinds of reasons for travelling. But some of these reasons don’t coincide with your property’s house rules. In order to protect your property, you need to figure out the guest’s intentions before they arrive. If the guest is coming to the city with a bunch of friends to throw a wild bachelor party, or to live it up during a city-wide festival, then you need to be on your guard. If things get too out of control, you could have thousands of dollars worth of property damage on your hands. To prevent this, ask your guest about their travel plans. If something sounds suspicious, question them on it. You want the guest to be fully aware of your expectations and not lie about the number of guests.

3. Have you stayed in the city before?

Why it’s important: As a host, the guest’s safety is a number one priority. When they’re out wandering around the city, you want them to be smart and safe. If the guest is unfamiliar with the area, this is your chance to help them navigate (or even offer some of your Airbnb Add on services), ensuring they don’t get lost or wander into rougher areas. It’s also a kind gesture to offer restaurant and tourism recommendations. Not only will this keep you from being roped into a search party for a lost guest, but it will help secure that 5-star rating.

4. What attracted you to my listing?

Why it’s important: Some guests will be totally honest and tell you it’s because it was the cheapest option, while others might comment on the convenient location or appealing look of the property. Either way, this is a good question to figure out the guest’s priorities. Not only does it reveal the guest’s expectations for their stay but also tells you what about your listing is attracting (or deterring) guests. This type of feedback is invaluable.

5. Have you stayed in a short-term rental before?

Why it’s important: It’s amazing how many guests don’t understand the difference between a short-term rental, mid term rental, and a hotel, or are under the impression that they are booking a hotel rather than a fully-furnished property. This is your chance to inquire about the guest’s experience with short-term rentals, clarifying any aspects that might be unclear, such as how the guest enters the property and how to access the suite’s amenities. It’s also incredibly important to give context to the rental’s location. If it’s in a quiet, suburban neighbourhood, explain that guests need to be courteous to the neighbours and keep noise to an acceptable level.

6. How many additional guests are there?

Why it’s important: Additional guests are one of the great unknowns in the short-term rental industry. Typically, booking platforms only require guests to state how many people will be staying at the property, which certainly doesn’t include whether outside guests will be dropping in to visit. Even if they’re not staying over night, make it clear to the guest that you require contact information for anyone entering your property.

Whether you allow additional guests should be determined on a case-by-case basis. If a couple is in town to visit their daughter at university, they can’t be faulted for inviting her over. But if a 20-something-year-old is throwing a predrink with 10 of her closest friends, you may want to step in. By asking about additional guests and whether there will be any visitors, you are able to clarify your rules around who enters the property.

7. For registration purposes, can you provide the names and contact details of all additional guests?

Why it’s important: Sites like Airbnb only require the main guest to provide their contact information and personal details. But this means there’s no accountability for additional guests. You have no information about who they are or how to contact them. The leadup to the reservation is your chance to get more information. Make it a requirement for all guests staying on your property to provide their personal and contact information. This is also your chance to make sure each guest reads and accepts your house rules, making them legally accountable if anything happens.

8. Have you read the house rules and do you have any questions about them?

Why it’s important: The house rules are your opportunity to lay out your expectations for guest behaviour. Whether it’s no parties, no pets or no extra guests, hot tub rules, you want to make sure that the guests booking your property agree to and understand your rules. By asking whether they have any questions about the rules, you’re able to reiterate their importance and highlight your zero-tolerance policy for rule breaking, and prevent Airbnb accidents.

9. What time do you expect to arrive?

Why it’s important: Always set a check-in/checkout time for your properties. This way, you can ensure the property is thoroughly cleaned before and after each guest arrives, and it gives a buffer time between guests. But this doesn’t mean guests will always arrive exactly on time. Flight delays and traffic can cause guests to show up at all hours. Asking about their travel plans helps you prepare for their arrival and ensure they don’t show up too early. Or, if some of the guest’s information seemed a little suspicious, this gives you the chance to meet the guest in person and vet them before granting access to your property.

10. What’s the best way to contact you?

Why it’s important: Maybe a couple books with you and the husband never answers his phone. Or a guest from another country makes a reservation but their phone plan doesn’t work here. Clarifying the best way to contact a guest may seem redundant, especially if you already have the guest’s email or phone number from the booking channel, but it can save you a lot of headaches in the case of an emergency. Explain to the guest that they need to be reachable during their stay. That way, if something comes up, you can easily get in touch with them.

The top questions for guest screening can unlock the potential of Airbnb add-on services.

Questions to ask airbnb guests

When dealing with Airbnb, it’s essential to tailor your questions based on the unique characteristics of the platform and its community. On Airbnb, guests are looking for a home-away-from-home experience, and hosts can enhance this by making sure their guest’s needs align with what their listing offers.

Here are a few more questions that you, as a host, can ask to ensure you’re providing the best possible experience while also safeguarding your property.

How familiar are you with Airbnb?

Why it’s important: Just like with short-term rentals in general, it’s important to gauge your guest’s familiarity with Airbnb. This can give you a sense of their expectations and whether they understand the platform’s unique nature and standards. If they are first-time Airbnb users, you may need to spend a bit more time explaining the system, house rules, and their responsibilities as guests.

Do you need any special accommodations or facilities?

Why it’s important: As a host, you’ll want to ensure that your property can cater to your guests’ specific needs. This question will help you understand if they require any special facilities such as wheelchair access, pet-friendly spaces, or allergy-proof environments. If you’re unable to meet their needs, it’s better to discuss this upfront.

Is this a special occasion?

Why it’s important: Guests often choose Airbnb for special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, or even a honeymoon. By asking this question, you’ll be able to provide those little touches that can make their stay extra special – whether that’s leaving a bottle of champagne for an anniversary or providing local recommendations for birthday celebrations.

Open-ended questions to ask hotel guests

• Could you tell us a bit about yourself and the nature of your visit?
• Have you stayed at our hotel or similar establishments before?
• Can you share more about your typical travel experiences and preferences?
• How would you describe your lifestyle during a typical hotel stay?
• What are some of your personal expectations when you stay at a hotel like ours?
• Can you recall an instance where you had to deal with unexpected circumstances during a hotel stay, and how you handled it?
• Could you share any personal standards or rules you adhere to while staying in a hotel?
• What attracted you to our hotel in particular?
• Is there anything you think we should know about your travel companions, if any?
• Would you like to share any unique aspects of your travel habits or routines with us?

Understanding your guests is crucial to maintaining the standards and security of your establishment, whether it’s a hotel, an Airbnb, or another short-term rental. Asking open-ended, yet thoughtful questions can provide valuable insights about your guests, enhancing their experience while also protecting your property. However, for a more efficient, reliable, and comprehensive guest screening process, we recommend leveraging the power of AI-based solutions such as Autohost. By utilizing AI, you can automate your guest screening, saving time, reducing risk, and providing a seamless experience for your guests.

REACH OUT TO AUTOMATE YOUR GUEST SCREENING

As the hospitality industry grows more complex, so does its susceptibility to fraud. Globally, the hospitality industry generates an estimated $3 trillion of revenue per year. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, between 5-6% of this annual revenue is lost to fraud. That amounts to $150 billion in direct loss of revenue.

Property managers in the short-term rental industry are particularly vulnerable. With thousands of guests cycling through your properties every year, there’s a lot that can go wrong. High turnover rates make it nearly impossible to thoroughly screen each guest, and by not having a firm grasp on who you’re booking, you leave yourself open to issues like identity fraud, stolen credit cards, property damage, and more.

Falling victim to fraud will not only damage your company’s reputation but can cause major losses in revenue, whether it be from booking scams or turning away genuine reservations through over-screening. To maintain your company’s reputation, it’s imperative to strike a balance between protecting your properties and maintaining that 5-star guest experience.

Protect yourself against fraud by staying up to date on current trends in the hospitality industry. To help you out, we’ve created a list of the three most common types of fraud in the short-term rental industry and how to combat them.

Common Types of Hotel Frauds:

Bad Guests

While this is the most benign type of fraud (or, more accurately, “social engineering”), it’s also the most common. To a guest staying in one of your properties, it might not seem like a big deal to go behind your back and invite a couple of people over for a party. The resulting noise complaints and property damage, however, can have a severe impact on your company’s reputation and revenue stream going forward.

By violating your house rules (no parties, no extra guests, etc.) guests are defrauding you. Excessive noise, consumption of drugs and alcohol, and inappropriate behaviour can get you in trouble with your neighbours, your building, and even the police. Not to mention irritating your cleaning staff who have to spend the next day collecting red solo cups and scrubbing vomit out of the carpet.

Worst of all, parties are prime situations for accidents—furniture breaks and guests get injured.

How to combat it

To ensure only the best guests book your properties, you need a thorough and comprehensive screening process to avoid scammers. This involves collecting the personal and contact information for all guests who are staying in your property, and requesting their trip details. If anything seems suspicious, like the guest is a local or has only booked for one night on a weekend, your next step should be getting in touch with the guest over the phone to confirm details.

Each guest who books with you should also sign a legally binding rental agreement. This way you have the guest’s written confirmation that they agree to all of your house rules. To ensure your house rules are followed, install noise sensors in your property. If there’s an unwarranted spike in volume, you’ll be immediately alerted. To deescalate the situation, call the guest and give them a warning. It’s up to you how many warnings you give, but If the guest ignores you and the noise persists, send in a trained security team to evict the offending parties. Better safe than sorry!

Keeping up with fraud trends in the hospitality industry is critical for preventing Airbnb credit card fraud.

Criminal activity

Although less common, fraud via criminal activity reveals the darker more frightening side of the short-term rental industry. These are the incidents you see plastered on the front page of the morning newspaper: properties rented to gangs with automatic weapons, drug dealings, sex trafficking, properties falling victim to break-ins and theft.

Incidents like these should always be left to law enforcement. If there’s criminal activity going on in your property, contact your local police immediately. These kinds of activities threaten the safety of your property, the building, other guests, and society.

How to combat it

Once again, this is when it’s imperative to have a thorough screening process so that you know exactly who’s booking your property. By not investigating each reservation, you leave yourself vulnerable to ill-intentioned guests. It is your responsibility to keep your property and the community safe by screening bookings.

To deter these types of bookings, collect the guest’s personal information then cross reference it with the credit card they are using to pay. If the two don’t match, it’s likely that the guest is using a skimmed or stolen credit card. You also want to get in touch with the guest over the phone to find out exactly why they’re travelling and who will be staying in the suite.

To gather more information on the guest, google their name and phone number to see if anything comes up. Then, look at their social media profiles to figure out where they’re from and what they do—any information pertinent to their identity and character. If the reservation is really questionable, your team should meet the guest and vet them in person, making sure all the information matches their credentials.

HOW MUCH A FRAUDULENT BOOKING COULD COST YOU

Hospitality Payment Frauds

One common form of fraud in the hotel industry is payment fraud. This can be anything from credit card chargebacks, identity theft, using stolen cards, to even making false disputes about the quality of service to demand a refund. These types of fraud can result in substantial losses, as you may end up giving away services for free and even paying additional fines or charges for disputed transactions.

How to combat it

Implement a secure payment gateway to mitigate potential fraud. Using a system that verifies credit card details can help identify and prevent potential fraud before the transaction takes place. Furthermore, maintain detailed records of each transaction, including the guest’s stay, their interactions with staff, and any complaints they make. This can help provide evidence in case of a dispute.

Fraudulent Bookings

Whether it leads to bad guests, criminal activity or both, a fraudulent booking is guaranteed to rob you of your hard-earned revenue. A guest may try to scam their way into a free stay by committing identity theft or credit card fraud. The guest could lie about who they are and use a stolen credit card to avoid having to pay for the stay themselves.

If the guest does use a stolen credit card, it’s likely you’ll be hit by a chargeback when the card is reported missing. This means that the money you received for the stay will suddenly be reclaimed by the credit card issuer.

And if the guest is willing to lie about their identity or steal a credit card, they probably won’t feel obligated to follow your house rules. Bad guests, as mentioned above, can lead to major issues during the stay.

How to combat it

The number one way to avoid fraudulent bookings is to confirm the guest’s identity. This involves cross referencing their personal information with their credit card, as well as performing an internet search into their background and verifying their social media information. If you want to be absolutely certain, you could run a full background check, involving criminal records and credit scores, but this is time consuming and will cost you extra money.

If the guest’s credit card doesn’t match their ID, it’s likely they’re using a stolen credit card. Keep an eye out for same-day bookings—they’re a major red flag. Criminals using a stolen credit card try to use the card as soon as possible before it gets cancelled. If you do process a stolen credit card, the guest will not only get a free stay, but the revenue accrued will be reclaimed by the credit card issuer, leaving you with nothing but a potential mess and a PR headache.

Assuming the credit card and ID do check out, you should immediately process the guest’s payment after accepting their reservation. Ideally, use a global payment fraud prevention system while processing the payment. All payments should be made online by credit card with guests required to pay 100% of the booking fee upfront. This way, you guarantee payment for every reservation. As an added layer of security, keep the guest’s credit card information for incidentals and charge them a damage deposit.

If it seems like the guest is using a fake ID or stolen credit card, cancel the reservation immediately to free up the calendar. You should take no chances with risky reservations.

Disputing Hotel Room Damage Charges

Another common fraud tactic is disputing hotel room damage charges. In this situation, a guest may cause damage to the hotel room and then deny responsibility, leading to the hotel having to absorb the cost of repairs. Worse still, the guest may dispute the damage charges on their credit card, leading to a drawn-out dispute process.

How to combat it?

Firstly, having a clear and detailed deposit policy that is communicated to the guest at the time of booking can discourage this type of behavior. Regular room inspections, before and after each guest’s stay, are also crucial in identifying and documenting any damage caused by the guest. CCTV footage in communal areas can also serve as evidence, should a dispute arise.

Reselling Hotel Rooms

Some enterprising guests have been known to book rooms, particularly during peak periods or special events, only to resell them at a higher price. This creates a secondary market that is out of the control of the hotel, often leading to confusion and dissatisfaction among guests who may have paid inflated prices.

How to combat it?

Instituting a strict policy that rooms are non-transferrable, and ID must be shown at check-in, is a good way to combat this. Also, a limit on the number of rooms one individual can book during high-demand periods can prevent the mass booking of rooms for resale.

Try Autohost

The only surefire way to protect yourself against fraud in the short-term rental industry is to use Autohost, an intelligent, guest-screening assistant for vacation and short-term rental operators. It scans all reservations, using hundreds of tests and data points to collect and validate guests’ IDs, determining their level of risk. Based on the flagged risks, the software provides users with a list of action items to handle potential issues proactively. Autohost ensures property managers handle all bookings responsibly, keeping their business safe, their revenues rising, and their guests happy.

REACH OUT TO AUTOMATE YOUR GUEST SCREENING

We often describe Autohost as an intelligent guest-screening assistant, but what exactly does guest screening involve? Guest screening is the process by which property managers assess a reservation’s risk level in the short-term rental sector by thoroughly, legally, and impartially investigating each guest.

There’s more to tenant screening than identifying potentially problematic guests; it’s about finding the right balance. This ensures everyone is treated with respect and that potential issues are addressed quickly. Ultimately, guest management must make all guests feel welcome and appreciated.
For example, property management needs to ask these questions:

• What does effective screening entail?
• How does one differentiate between a ‘good’ and a ‘bad’ guest?

This differentiation is about implementing appropriate measures, ranging from security deposits to outright reservation cancellations when necessary.

What is the guest screening process?

The core objective is to book guests who comply with your rules and respect your property. This plays a crucial role in the ongoing debate of Direct Booking vs. Third-party platforms, as the effectiveness of screening processes can vary significantly between these options.

To achieve this, Autohost uses strategic principles to conduct effective tenant screening. This includes:

• Guest verification:Direct communication with the guest for verification of personal and contact details
• Understanding their travel intent
• Ensuring each guest acknowledges and agrees to your house rules through a binding rental agreement
• Guest identification: Validation of guest IDs to detect potential fraud
• The collection of a security deposit as a precautionary measure

Our guest screening is both an art and a science. It requires a delicate balance: being thorough enough to deter bad tenants yet tactful enough to avoid alienating the genuine ones. This involves asking the right questions without being intrusive and assessing the risk level of a reservation without an extensive guest background check.

Why Property Managers Need Guest Screening

Guest screening services provide property managers with an in-depth evaluation of potential guests. Managers can decide who to accept as tenants by vetting individuals or groups.

Mitigating Risks: Tenant screening enables property managers to identify and avoid potentially problematic or high-risk individuals. This reduces the risk of property damage, noise complaints, illegal activities, or other disruptive behavior.

Protecting Reputation: Property owners can safeguard the reputation of their rental properties and create a positive experience for visitors by maintaining a high-quality tenant profile.

Ensuring Compliance: Guest screening can empower real estate managers to comply with local regulations and industry standards. And this minimizes the risk of legal issues or fines.

Improving Occupancy Rates: Property owners can maintain high occupancy rates and lower vacancies by selecting reliable and trustworthy guests.

Enhancing Guest Satisfaction: A well-executed guest screening process can improve the overall guest experience, increasing customer loyalty and positive reviews.

Streamlining Operations: Efficient guest screening can streamline the booking and check-in processes. This lets property managers focus on other essential aspects of their business, such as managing finances.

How does Autohost screen guests?

At Autohost, we streamline this intricate process for you. Acting as your primary line of defense, Autohost intelligently differentiates when to be vigilant and when to allow more flexibility. This enables clients to relax their booking restrictions, focusing instead on maximizing profits.

 

With our vigilant system, you gain confidence in your operational decisions. And you’re safe knowing that we can identify and manage all potential risks. This peace of mind allows you to concentrate on expanding your business.

GET STARTED WITH GUEST SCREENING

Evolving Trends in Guest Screening Services

In recent years, the industry’s professionalization has changed the guest screening process significantly. What used to be a labor-intensive task is now more streamlined, thanks to technology. Modern verification software can conduct robust checks using automated systems that integrate smoothly into the booking process.

• These technologies:
• Verify personal information
• Carry out risk assessment
• Analyze guest behavior and history
• Handle biometric checks and background scans against criminal databases and terrorism watchlists
• Protect property owners from potential damages and legal issues
• Ultimately, they contribute significantly to business growth

Property managers can focus more on enhancing their properties and expanding their business ventures by using guest screening tools. And this advanced approach shows the importance of tenant screening in the vacation and short-term rental markets.

Automating the Screening Process

Artificial intelligence integration and machine learning in guest screening represent a significant leap forward. These innovations automatically analyze vast amounts of guest data, including past rental histories, public records, and even online behavior patterns. By leveraging algorithms, the screening process becomes faster and more accurate. And this reduces human error and bias.
Also, automation allows real-time decision-making as property managers can respond quickly to booking requests without compromising safety or security.

Enhanced Guest Identity Verification

Advanced guest screening now often involves sophisticated identity verification processes. Biometric analysis techniques, such as facial recognition and fingerprint scanning, ensure that the person booking the property is indeed who they claim to be. Additionally, document verification technologies authenticate government-issued IDs, passports, and driving licenses. Guest authentication enables property managers to validate documents.

Deep Background Checks

Beyond basic identity verification, deep background checks have become a cornerstone of effective guest screening. These checks uncover criminal records, credit histories, and even international watchlists.

The goal is to build a comprehensive guest profile, assessing their reliability and risk level. Property owners can make informed decisions to safeguard their properties and those of other guests by understanding a guest’s background in depth.

Predictive Risk Assessment

One of the most exciting developments in guest screening platforms is predictive analytics. These tools can predict future incidents or non-compliance with house rules by analyzing patterns and trends in guest behavior.
Predictive capability enables managers to proactively manage risks and ensure a safe, secure environment for guests and property owners.

The Future of Guest Screening in Hospitality

As the hospitality industry continues to evolve, guest screening remains a critical element. The future points towards even more integrated systems that can seamlessly connect with property management software. And this promises to offer a holistic approach to managing guest interactions.
The emphasis will likely continue to be on enhancing the guest experience while promoting the highest levels of security and compliance.

Balancing Privacy and Security

In advancing guest screening technologies, users need to strike a balance between privacy and security. While service providers should thoroughly evaluate guest information for safety purposes, they should also respect the guests’ privacy rights. This means adhering to data protection regulations and ensuring transparent communication with tenants about the use of their data.

Embrace Technology with Autohost for Safer Rentals

In conclusion, guest screening technology advancements represent a major shift in the short-term rental market. Real estate managers can protect their assets, streamline operations, and enhance guest satisfaction by embracing these technologies.

Autohost remains at the forefront of this change by offering effective, intelligent screening solutions that respect guest privacy. As we move forward, adopting these emerging innovations will continue to redefine our safety standards and security in the hospitality industry. Why not try Autohost guest screening software to streamline your booking processes? Book a demo to get started!
Posted in Autohost AI

FAQ

What is the guest screening process?

Autohost guest screening software automates verifying guest identities and backgrounds to ensure they are safe to stay. It helps to identify potential risks such as stolen identities, fraud, and criminal activity. And it encourages tenants to be compliant with local laws and regulations.

How do you screen short-term rental guests?

Autohost uses a series of automated checks to ensure short-term rental guests are legitimate and compliant with local laws and regulations. These include verifying their identity, criminal records, address, and payment history.

On average, Airbnb hosts over 2 million guests per night spread across 191 countries and regions, 100,000 cities, and 6 million listings. With so many guests cycling through short-term rentals, hosts are facing increased risks to their properties and operations. The more you rent out your space, the more likely you are to come across ill-intentioned guests.

Everyday, hosts place their faith in Airbnb, trusting that the platform will adequately screen their guests. But in reality, Airbnb has few processes in place to do so.

Risky guests, though sometimes easy to identify, often slip through the cracks. They come in all forms, from the stereotypical criminal with stolen credit cards and traceable records to the high school student booking your property for a prom afterparty. Some of the guests may appear reputable on paper, like the latter, but can still cause issues including property damage, noise complaints, and even theft.

Airbnb Vetting Process:

Airbnb claims to prioritize safety and security for its hosts and guests, but the platform’s vetting process leaves much to be desired.

While Airbnb performs background checks, these checks are limited in scope and accuracy. The company only checks public state databases, county criminal records, and state and national sex offender registries for criminal convictions and sex offender registrations. Airbnb runs guests and hosts’ names against regulatory, terrorist, and sanctions watchlists for guests booking from outside the U.S. But the platform does not provide any guarantees that it will perform background checks on such users, and if it does, the scope and accuracy of coverage may vary. With Airbnb’s vetting process, the onus is on hosts to ensure their guests are safe and reliable.

When it comes to screening, Airbnb, according to its website, only performs background checks on United States-based guests and hosts. These background checks are performed by combing through public state databases and county criminal records, as well as state and national sex offender registries for criminal convictions and sex offender registrations.

Little to no screening measures are put in place for guests booking from outside the U.S. Globally, Airbnb runs guests and hosts’ names against regulatory, terrorist, and sanctions watchlists but says, “We may not run background checks on users located outside the United States, and even if we do, the scope and accuracy of coverage may vary.”

FIND OUT ABOUT AIRBNB’S NEW POLICY

The website goes on to state that the platform is only able to perform background checks on guests and hosts who provide accurate first and last names, plus date of birth—leaving a huge margin for error.

Airbnb Criminal Record:

Airbnb’s criminal record policy has also faced criticism from hosts and guests. The company’s policy states that it will remove a user from the platform if they have been convicted of a felony or certain misdemeanors, such as sexual assault or terrorism-related offenses. However, hosts and guests have reported instances where they were uncomfortable with a user’s criminal record but were unable to get Airbnb to take action.

Overall, Airbnb’s policies and procedures for vetting guests are insufficient and leave hosts vulnerable to a range of risks. The hosts or property managers should take precautions to protect themselves, such as thoroughly screening each guest and using tools like Autohost to detect potential risks.

The kind of rigorous background checks short-term rental companies like Airbnb should be performing involve different types of information searches, including verifying a guest’s identity, their credit card information, and even credit scores, bank statements, and criminal record checks.

Questions about Airbnb’s background checks relate to the peace of mind that such checks can provide.

Does airbnb do credit checks?

Airbnb’s background checks do little to protect hosts from fraud. While the platform uses predictive analytics and machine learning to flag suspicious activity, it has few processes in place to confirm whether the personal information provided by a guest is accurate. Identity fraud is a massive problem in the short-term rental industry, but guests using a stolen ID won’t be flagged by Airbnb’s system. The platform also only performs its version of a background check on the person who books the property. Extra guests are not screened.

Airbnb does require guests to provide payment information, such as a credit card or PayPal account, to complete a booking. However, this payment information is used solely for payment processing and is not used to check the guest’s credit history or financial background.

This can be concerning for hosts who want to ensure that their guests have the financial means to pay for their stay and will not cause issues with payment processing. While a credit check may not be feasible for short-term rentals, hosts can take other steps to verify a guest’s financial background. For example, hosts can require a security deposit or ask guests to provide proof of income or employment. These measures can help hosts feel more secure about their guests’ ability to pay for their stay and reduce the risk of payment issues down the line.

Questions about Airbnb’s background checks can lead to a discussion on the specifics of Airbnb ID verification.

Limitations of Airbnb background checks:

Here’s what Airbnb has to say about its background checks:

Because our background checks are limited, we can’t guarantee that they’ll identify all past criminal convictions or sex offender registrations by a guest or Host. Therefore, you shouldn’t rely on them as a guarantee that the user has no criminal background or other red flags.

But Airbnb’s background checks do little to protect hosts from fraud. While the platform uses predictive analytics and machine learning to flag suspicious activity, it has few processes in place to confirm whether the personal information provided by a guest is accurate. Identity fraud is a massive problem in the short-term rental industry, but guests using a stolen ID won’t be flagged by Airbnb’s system. The platform also only performs its version of a background check on the person who books the property. Extra guests are not screened.

Additionally, these background checks are typically performed once when the guest first signs up for Airbnb. This means that the company doesn’t continually monitor each guest’s activity. If a guest is criminally charged after signing up, hosts won’t be notified.

While a robust background check would protect you against ill-intentioned guests, the process isn’t realistic. It’s expensive and time consuming to look into every guest’s credit score, employment history, and bank statements—not to mention it requires consent from the guest. The fast-paced nature of the short-term rental industry won’t allow it, and even if it did, how do you flag for potential parties and property damage?

To learn how to thoroughly screen each guest and protect yourself against these risks, check out our Ultimate Guide to Guest Screening blog.

Or try Autohost

Guest screening is a lot of work, and when done manually, bad guests can sneak through the cracks. Instead of taking the risk, try Autohost, an intelligent guest-screening assistant for vacation and short-term rental operators. It’s the only surefire way to thoroughly screen your guests.

Autohost scans all reservations, using hundreds of tests and data points to collect and validate guests’ IDs, determining their level of risk. Based on the flagged risks, the software provides users with a list of action items to handle potential issues proactively. Autohost ensures property managers handle all bookings responsibly, keeping their business safe, their revenues rising, and their guests happy.

 

REACH OUT TO AUTOMATE YOUR GUEST SCREENING

In the rental industry, you’ve probably heard operators and fellow property managers throw around the term “background check.” Typically, this is used as an umbrella term that includes different types of information searches.These searches are particularly prevalent among long-term rentals where the rental agreement is a bigger commitment, and untrustworthy tenants are far too costly. To protect themselves, long-term rental companies perform deep background checks, which include verifying a potential tenant’s identity, checking their credit score to make sure they’re in good standing, calling employers to confirm their employment history and yearly income, requesting bank statements to make sure they can afford the rent, finding out where they currently live and why they’re moving, calling former landlords to get a sense of whether they’re an agreeable tenant, and, if they’re really serious, a criminal record check.

This extensive list requires a huge time investment, additional costs ranging from $20 -$50 per person, not to mention consent from the potential tenant and the assistance of multiple external sources, like employers, landlords, and the police in the case of a criminal record check. While it would be ideal if short-term rentals could operate at a similar level, the industry is often too fast-paced to go to these lengths.

Related post: Does Vrbo Do Background Checks? The Complete Guide

With such frequent turnovers, you have to rely heavily on information provided by the online travel agencies (OTAs), which is limited to the guest’s name, date of arrival, length of stay and other non-personally identifiable information.

Short term rental guest screening

That’s why it’s important for short-term rental companies to perform their own version of a background check: a thorough guest screening. Short-term rental companies should have a streamlined process to properly screen guests, set house expectations and collect personally identifiable information that abides by all privacy laws. In doing this, you need to verify the guest’s ID and payment method, research the guest’s booking history and gather pertinent trip details, such as where the guest is travelling from, the reason for their stay and how many guests will be joining them.

Related post: Why ID verification is not enough to protect your hospitality business

Understanding the Difference: Background Checks and Guest Screening

Background checks and guest screening might seem like two sides of the same coin, but they cater to distinctly different needs. While a background check involves an exhaustive probe into a potential tenant’s history, guest screening is a more streamlined and customized check designed to suit the fast-paced short-term rental industry. Understanding this difference is crucial for property managers to deploy the right safety measures.

The Limitations and Costs of Background Checks in the Short-term Rental Sector

Conducting a thorough background check for short-term rentals can be a cumbersome process. It requires significant time, financial resources, and the involvement of multiple external parties. Additionally, gaining the necessary consents can also be challenging. Given the transient nature of the short-term rental industry, these obstacles make full-scale background checks a less feasible option.

Online background check for rentals

An effective AI based, online guest screening process is the best guard against risky reservations. By confirming a guest’s identity and examining their previous booking history, property managers can reduce the likelihood of rule violations, property damage, and even fraud. A diligent screening not only protects your property but also ensures the security and satisfaction of your guests.

The Role of Responsible Renting in Maintaining Peace in the Community

Guest screening is not just about securing individual properties. It also plays a significant role in maintaining harmony within the community. By keeping out potential troublemakers, responsible renting helps to minimize neighborhood disturbances. It sends out a message that as property managers, we value the peace and security of our neighbors as much as our guests’ comfort.

Guest Screening: The Non-Intrusive, Legal and Non-Discriminatory Way to Safeguard Your Properties

Guest screening is a delicate process that respects the rights and privacy of the guests while keeping properties secure. It is a legal, non-discriminatory, and non-intrusive way to evaluate potential guests. By focusing on the essentials and maintaining transparency, we can ensure that the screening process is fair to all parties involved. And when we get it right, everyone – from property owners and managers to guests and local communities – can benefit.

This will help you avoid dealing with situations like a 20-person party, a trashed unit and your cleaner quitting on you mid-day because they’re overworked and tired. By verifying the guest’s identity and ensuring they’re exactly who they say they are, you can avoid these risky reservations and protect yourself against rule violations, parties, loss of revenue, property damage, credit card fraud and identity theft.

But even with the guests that do pass the screening process, it’s still important to set expectations. This will ensure that there’s no room for any misunderstandings. Property managers should have guests review and agree to all of the short-term rental’s house rules, holding guests accountable for their actions. Guests who violate the rules should be evicted; no questions asked.

In the short-term rental industry, guest screening is the only way to protect your properties. It’s also our duty as operators to rent responsibly, thereby keeping our neighbourhoods and communities nuisance- and disturbance-free.

Running a full background check on your guests, much like a long-term rental, is too costly and complicated for the short-term rental operator. So, next time a property owner inquires about background checks, set the record straight. Responsible property management companies perform accurate, systematic and fair screenings of guests because that’s the non-intrusive, legal and non-discriminatory way to guard your operations. With proper and responsible guest screening, your neighbours, building staff and communities will thank you.

In a perfect world, we would only host quiet and considerate guests, who respected our property, neighbours and community. But unfortunately, that’s not always our reality—property managers see everything from noise violations and property damage to chargebacks and criminal activity.

As savvy and experienced operators, we understood the importance of guest screening. We collected personal information, researched the guest online and focused on deliberate interactions—we thought we had a solid process in place. But even with everything we were doing to protect ourselves, we were targeted by criminals, who booked our suites for illegal activity.

After processing thousands of reservations, and wasting time and money on unsuccessful guest screening, we had a rude awakening. Our best practices weren’t enough and we needed to do better.

To fight back against troublesome guests, we built Autohost, an intelligent guest screening software. No more bad guests.

The Background:

Every host and property manager has seen it before: a seemingly normal guest books through an online travel agency (OTA), throws a party, trashes the place and causes thousands of dollars in damage, or worse. By now, we know there’s much more to hosting than crafting a perfect guest experience.

Proper guest screening is the responsibility of every short-term rental operator. To keep our neighbourhoods and communities safe, property management companies need to set expectations with guests, assess risks, enforce house rules, and most importantly, hold guests accountable for their actions.

Autohost was built to solve a major problem in the short-term rental industry: It’s impossible to manually screen every guest while running and growing a property management company. Our team was wasting 70% of their time on a penetrable guest screening process. Like us, property managers everywhere deal with safety and security gaps in their operations.

With experience in the industry, we’ve seen the struggles property managers face on a day-to-day basis. At the beginning, we had just a few check-ins, so it was pretty easy to get a handle on who we were hosting. With less turnover, we had the time to invest in guest screening, vetting and communications. By having longer interactions with guests, we were able to learn more about their travel plans, set expectations and, as a result, decrease the risk of damage, noise complaints and house rules violations.

But as our check-ins increased, so did the risks to our business. We moved to instant book and expanded to platforms beyond Airbnb, meaning we suddenly had less control over who booked our suites.

We were hosting tons of people from all over the world, and though most were great, a few bad apples kept us on edge 24/7. As topline operators, we knew it was our responsibility to prevent unnecessary nuisances in our neighbourhoods by monitoring our guests’ behaviour. Our team desperately needed an accurate, systematic and non-discriminatory way to protect our clients, properties, business and community against bad guests.

What We Were Doing:

To safeguard our operations, we developed a manual process for screening new guests. This involved looking at different parameters from a checklist and researching the guest online.

Our agents would comb through various pieces of information, searching for anything that made us suspicious of the guest or their reason for travelling. We would look at everything—cost of reservation, length of stay, the number of guests and even which suites they booked.

After manually examining every piece of information associated with the booking, we would check out the guest’s online presence. To validate identities, we’d spend hours googling guest names and phone numbers, scrolling through photos on social media and carefully examining booking profiles. This wasted a lot of time, and left a huge margin for error. Often, our searches didn’t yield any results, or worse, gave us a false positive.

We’d keep a closer eye on high-risk reservations and guests—like the 21-year-old man who booked a 3-bedroom condo “for him and his girlfriend” to “see the city”. If something raised a red flag throughout the screening process, we’d reach out to the guest for additional information.

Guests would be asked to confirm their reservation details and agree to our house rules. We’d send out warning messages to higher-risk guests, ensuring they understood the consequences of any violations. Before sending out check-in instructions, guests had to provide us with a copy of their ID and credit card. If we were suspicious of someone, we’d get them on a phone call to better assess the situation. Sometimes, we’d even go as far as meeting guests in person to verify our previous interactions. In cases where we couldn’t confirm the guest’s information, we’d cancel the reservation.

The Challenge:

Since starting out, our reservations have skyrocketed. With new guests checking in and out everyday, guest screening became way too time-consuming, incredibly expensive and highly inaccurate. This made it easy for troublesome guests to slip through the cracks, particularly when we had our guard down, even if it was temporary.

To keep up with the influx of bookings, we expanded our team and increased the hours dedicated to processing reservations and screening guests. Sometimes, agents would spend 70% of their shift worrying about safety and security, taking away from the goal—providing a world-class experience for guests.

A bigger team helped with volume, but made it more difficult to manage guest screening. Even with procedures in place, every agent to join the team increased the likelihood of discrimination and human error. With hundreds of factors to consider and an increased number of bookings, it was easy to overlook details. Missing information could lead to wrong decisions, resulting in disrespectful guests, rule violations and unhappy neighbours.

To make matters worse, the only details we got from the reservation were from the booking site, not the guest. We had no control over what information was provided and lacked a platform for the guest to disclose additional information.

Details like names of extra guests, time of check-in and reason for staying are required by some municipal and building by-laws and mandated by insurance providers. To get these missing pieces, we had to collect them ourselves, causing friction in the booking process, massive headaches and overhead expenses, all while exposing us to privacy issues.

We did our best to prevent house rule violations through strict screening, but this ended up deterring bookers, causing us to lose out on amazing guests and higher revenue potential. When we were more lenient, we came across issues of noise complaints, chargebacks, fraud, property damage and even criminal activity.

It was more instinctual to focus on customer service instead of security, which meant we were more reactive than proactive. If we booked disrespectful guests, we shifted to damage control. And when things went south, we’d have to dispatch our security team to lockdown the suite, resulting in unnecessary costs.

 

CONTACT US

 

 

The Need:

As our company evolved, our guest screening process got more and more convoluted. With too many small details and judgment calls at play, it became essential for us to systemize. We knew there was a better way to protect our communities. We just needed a system to accurately assess all factors associated with a guest’s reservation in order to screen them properly. It was time to eliminate the decision element.

The Solution:

With Autohost, we created a systemized way of screening all guests. Upon booking confirmation, guests are sent into a dedicated portal. From there, the intelligent guest screening software builds a risk algorithm that examines hundreds of parameters, including IP addresses, device type and cell phone carrier. As an extra layer of security, we verify IDs, collect security deposits and have guests sign a rental agreement.

With our dynamic verification, we provide property managers and their teams with easy-to-interpret results. Based on these results, Autohost suggests actions, so agents can be confident in their responses to all types of reservations. With Autohost’s recommendations, we’ve eliminated the judgment call—removing the possibility of personal bias and discrimination. In with the good guests and out with the bad guests.

How Autohost Helps:

Autohost scans every reservation that comes into your system and automatically generates an intelligent risk score, which provides your team with actionable outputs. With these, you understand the risks and know exactly what to look for. Whether it’s sending the guest a warning message, reiterating house rules, or even calling the guest on the phone, you know how to proceed.

Before confirming the guest’s stay, wait for their response. They can either accept the conditions for booking or cancel—it’s as simple as that.

The Results:

Since creating Autohost, we’ve seen a 15% increase in revenue. With a higher risk tolerance, we can remove stricter booking restrictions from our OTAs. Fewer restrictions = more bookings. At the same time, we’ve decreased noise complaints and property damage, and reduced the risk of fraud, chargebacks and criminal activity. It’s a win-win.

By removing the decision factor from guest screening, we crafted a simple, transferable process that’s easy to pass on to new agents. We started making better use of our time, while saving thousands of dollars by reducing chargebacks and processing costs.

Thanks to Autohost, our team and clients have more confidence in our operations. Through each dedicated building portal, owners and property management companies can see every guest who has been successfully verified. With every risk-free check-in, we’re able to prove our dedication to responsible hosting. In turn, we bring in more properties under management.

The best part? With the time and money we save on tedious guest screening processes, we can focus our attention on what really matters—5-star hospitality.

Learn how Autohost can help you.

Running a short-term rental business on a platform like Vrbo takes trust. With each booking, you invite the potential for destructive parties, loud and anti-social visitors, fraud, Vrbo scams, and even criminal activity, all of which could put your business at risk.

 

If you have property listings on Vrbo, you can lower the risk of bad guest behavior by understanding how Vrbo ID verification works—and figuring out if it’s enough to safeguard your business.

With proper safety protocols in place, you’ll gain happier guests and a more profitable, professional, and scalable business. After reading this guide, you’ll understand how Vrbo ID verification works and how to perform even better background checks to maximize trust and minimize risk.

Want to perform in-depth ID verifications on your bookings on Vrbo?
Autohost performs advanced guest vetting processes to minimize risk of unwanted occupants with disruptive behavior or financial red flags.
Request a demo.

What is Vrbo ID verification?

Vrbo ID verification is a basic security check on the Vrbo platform intended to verify that guests are who they say they are. 

Vrbo (formerly HomeAway) uses data such as a guest’s email address, date of birth, and physical address to perform basic Vrbo background checks to increase the chance that booked guests are who they claim to be.

ID checks are intended to give peace of mind to Vrbo hosts and attach a “paper trail” to the guest. It helps establish trust because guests are more likely to be conscientious if they’re willing to be identified: they know they can be tracked if they cause expensive damage or engage in criminal activity.

Vrbo isn’t the only platform to offer ID checks—Airbnb ID verification works in a very similar way.

How does Vrbo ID verification work?

If you’re wondering whether Vrbo ID verification is robust enough for your business then it may help to take a closer look at the process, see how it works, and what details are required to officially verify a user and guest.

Here’s how the Vrbo ID verification process works.

How do users get verified?

Users can complete the verification process by creating an account on Vrbo, logging in, and providing the information requested.

Once verified, this shows on the guest’s profile, and hosts can see the verification status. Usually, the user only needs to complete the process once.

What details does Vrbo ID verification need?

Vrbo asks for details including first and last name, email address, mobile phone number, physical address, and date of birth.

For example, once a user signs up to Vrbo using their email address, they’ll receive an email at that address asking them to confirm it via a unique link. Their email is only confirmed once the link is clicked (proving the account really belongs to them, or they have access to it, at least).

 

 

 

However, unlike some more thorough processes—such as hotel background checks—Vrbo verification doesn’t always require photo ID (such as a passport or driver’s license), or personal details such as physical proof of address.

The information requested is pretty basic.

Do users have to provide identifications?

No, although Vrbo does recommend it. 

Vrbo states: “Currently, there’s no way for a property owner or manager to require a guest to confirm their identity before sending a booking request” 

Hosts can’t see the details of a guest’s verification, only whether or not they have a verification badge on their profile.

Vrbo only requires users to provide identification in some countries where it’s legally mandatory, such as in Spain, Italy, and Portugal. These countries require vacation rental site owners to share the ID of each person staying with the local authorities 24 hours after arrival.

This is the major issue with Vrbo’s ID process. In countries with less stringent laws on short-term rentals, guests can book places without having a verified profile, or submitting any proof of address or photo ID.

Even though it’s technically legal, this is less than ideal for hosts, as it opens them up to major risks in case of damage or problematic behavior from the guest. It limits the traceability of the guest and is fairly basic in terms of proper background checks and screening.

Does the host get to see the guest’s ID?

No, on Vrbo the host or cohost only sees whether the user is verified or not. This protects the guest’s privacy, which is a valid concern, but it also opens the host up to potential issues as they can’t verify the guest’s ID or background themselves, or see which details have been verified.

This means there are still major risks and uncertainties over the guest’s identity and trustworthiness, and a lack of details should the host need to contact or identify the guest later.

This is where a STR security platform like Autohost helps, as hosts can see everything that the platform finds to prove the guest’s identity (while still respecting the guest’s privacy and data protection laws). You’ll have more peace of mind knowing that the guest is legitimate and traceable, and therefore more likely to be respectful while staying at your property.

When does Vrbo ask for ID verification?

Vrbo asks for verification when users sign up. Later, it may ask for ID when users request to book a property. However, the details requested are limited, and it doesn’t pass much of the information along to the host for verification.

Similarly, email verification is only done once on sign-up, and not for each subsequent booking, meaning that it may not always be up to date.

Is Vrbo ID verification reliable for hosts?

Vrbo ID verification is certainly better than nothing but it’s not robust enough for serious hosts who want to fully protect their property and trust their guests. 

The lack of information it requires, and the ease with which users can get “verified” with relatively little data, means that it’s not as reliable as it could be. Perhaps this explains why it has a low customer rating on Trustpilot.

 

How can I improve my ID verification process?

You can improve your ID verification process by using a dedicated cybersecurity platform designed for it, like Autohost. This will always offer more reliable checks than an online travel agency (OTA) like Vrbo.

A comprehensive security check will flag major issues such as guests trying to book using a fake ID or those who present a financial or legal risk. Here are all the ways a STR security platform can enhance your process.

Guest screening

• Intelligent guest screening using AI to analyze each booking and assess the risk level
• Verification of the guests’ photo ID, matched with a selfie
• Background checks, including a search of criminal databases and sex offender records
• Credit checks for financial protection and to ensure the guest is of good financial standing

Fraud and incident prevention

• Chargeback protection, and flagging of any suspicious attempts by the guest to avoid identification, or attempt identity theft
• Security damage deposits to validate payments and prevent chargebacks
• Legally-binding digital contracts and rental agreements requiring the guest to acknowledge and accept your house rules
• Verification that there are not too many people in the property via integration with NoiseAware occupancy monitors, which can send alerts in case of a breach

The checks are automated with each booking, meaning that you can consistently perform checks for every guest without adding to your workload.

Local compliance

Collect guest info to comply with any short-term rental regulations and authority requirements

Online, secure check-in

• Collect personal information directly, ahead of time
• Process and verify check-ins without needing to be on-site at the time
• Automated messaging dependent on the guest’s ID status, only sending check-in information to guests who pass the verification and answer your questions for guests in a satisfactory way

Want to perform in-depth ID verifications on your bookings on Vrbo?
Autohost performs advanced guest vetting processes to minimize risk.
Request a demo.

These features help you to:

• Protect your property from damage caused by reckless guests
• Prevent visitors from lying about the number of guests
• Reduce the potential downtime and loss of revenue caused by damage and repairs
• Trace guests in case of problems or insurance claims
• Reduce the risk of noisy, destructive parties that could damage your property, disturb the neighbors or cause police to be called
• Ensure you don’t unwittingly enable criminal activity
• Ensure you comply with all local laws on short-term stays and rental guests

A high level of checks will likely dissuade guests who might otherwise risk being problematic or noisy, conduct criminal activity, or treat the property disrespectfully. Unlike respectful guests, these guests won’t appreciate the extra questioning and requirements, meaning they’ll likely cancel with you, and go elsewhere.

But for reliable guests, this increases trust between you and reassures them that they are being cared for by a professional, safe host.

A specially-designed platform like Autohost will go beyond Vrbo’s basic ID checks, and can help identify partiers, criminals, fraudsters, and problematic potential guests before they even arrive—but without infringing on guests’ privacy.

Vrbo ID verification: Is it enough for your business?

Ultimately, Vrbo ID verification offers a basic level of verification for guests that may request to book your short-term rental property.

However, it’s unlikely to be comprehensive or reliable enough to protect your property in the event of any real problems or risks, or operate it with the level of safety, security, and professionalism that you need.

A platform such as Autohost offers a solution to these issues. 

It offers a variety of automated AI-, database- and security-led checks, so you can prevent damage, downtime, and criminal activity. You’ll also save money and boost revenue, improve your relationship with guests, and ensure real peace of mind for you and your visitors.

Want to perform in-depth ID verifications on your bookings on Vrbo?
Autohost performs advanced guest vetting processes to minimize risk.
Request a demo.

Frequently asked questions about Vrbo ID verification

Is it normal for Vrbo to ask for ID?

It’s normal for Vrbo and Airbnb to ask for ID, but the data they require is very limited. Vrbo doesn’t systematically ask or require ID for guests, such as via photo documents. It does ask for verification of some data, such as your name and email address, and even your physical address.

Are Vrbo rental guests verified?

Vrbo rental guests can be verified using data such as their name, date of birth, physical address, and email address. But it’s not mandatory in most countries, leaving hosts open to increased risk. Verification using dedicated platforms designed for this task, such as Autohost, can verify guests to a much higher level of security.

How does Vrbo verify the age of the renter?

Vrbo identifies the age of the renter by asking for your birth date. In its terms of service, Vrbo has a minimum age requirement. It states you must be at least 18 years of age and able to enter into legally binding contracts to use its booking site and book a stay.

How long does it take Vrbo to verify ID?

Vrbo doesn’t take long to verify ID, because it is based on basic information such as name, email address, and birth date. However, doing deeper more effective background checks and guest screening doesn’t have to take a long time either. Platforms such as Autohost can automate it, making it quick, automatic, and scalable, without extra work.

Can you lie about your age on Vrbo?

Yes, technically you can lie about your age on Vrbo because it doesn’t require you to submit any photo ID or documents to prove your age. It would be illegal, go against Vrbo’s terms of service, and be considered fraud to lie—but guests can do it if they give inaccurate information.

It’s arguably better and safer to use in-depth background screening and a dedicated platform such as Autohost to avoid the risk of users lying or providing inaccurate information in an attempt to circumvent the system.