Benefits of Guest Screening for Your Vacation Homes' Security

There are two kinds of travelers: respectful ones and those who are careless. You're the primary line of defense against partying minors, fraudulent reservations, and all other possible risks when you manage your vacation rental. Fortunately, most vacationers treat homes respectfully, but some don't.

5 Star Short Term Rental has strict guidelines to prevent disruptive visitors from making reservations in the first place. Automated and manual guest screening is one of our most critical systems. It is your main line of defense against troublesome visitors. Our security-first approach prevents risky reservations and protects you and your house. Before accepting a guest, we screen the following:

Minimum Age

Renting a property with us guarantees that only responsible adults will stay there. We make sure of this by establishing and enforcing strict age policies. Some areas require a minimum age of 21 to rent, but others have different minimum requirements. For example, guests must be at least 25 years old in Washington and California unless they are traveling with parents or legal guardians. If a guest is younger than the required age, a parent or guardian must accompany them throughout their stay.

Guests must be mature enough to ensure everyone's safety and behave responsibly. If our Customer Experience agents suspect a reservation was booked by someone underage, they will follow up with a phone call to establish the guests' ages. We may even request your local manager to stop by and meet the guests in person at times.

Identity

Although it's not typically necessary for tourists on holiday for a few days to undergo extensive background checks, we still maintain strict procedures to ensure that those reserving our vacation homes are who they say they are. Before booking, guests are required to disclose personal information. Certain reservations, such as those booked last minute or in high-risk areas, are filtered for fraud using the third party to verify the identity of any potential visitors.

Possible Circumstances

Our booking system is designed to detect suspicious reservations automatically. It is important to note that legitimate and responsible guests may also trigger these concerns, so we contact them afterward to ensure that we provide a warm welcome. Common reasons why bookings are flagged include:

  • Only one or two adults are on the reservation, but the home has a large capacity.

  • An excessively long stay at a remote location or during the off-season is considered abnormal.

  • Using the home for commercial purposes, such as garage sales or catering (these activities are prohibited by our rental agreement and may violate licensing requirements) is possible.

  • Several declined payments.

  • Several people requested to make separate payments.

  • Our Customer Service team will call the cardholder to verify if the credit card payment is made using a name different from the reservation's name.

No single screening approach can catch every ill-intentioned guest, but our multiple layers of prevention are critical to keeping your home safe. We welcome people from all walks of life. We fervently oppose discrimination or bias of any kind, particularly those based on race, gender, or age (except for our minimum age policy). We only examine potential risks and violations of our rental policy.

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