How to Prepare Your Home for the Short-Term Rental Market: A Complete Guide 

Understand the Local Hospitality Laws 

Once you’ve ensured using your home as a vacation rental is properly sanctioned, it’s then time to research your local hospitality laws. It’s not well-known by many Airbnb hosts, but many short-term rentals fall under hospitality law, which comes with different compliance and regulations than does a traditional landlord-tenant relationship. 

Hospitality law regulates commercial hosts like hotels and restaurants, and focuses on guest safety. While guest safety is critical to reducing your liability risks as an Airbnb host, it is largely overlooked in the short-term-rental industry at-large. Hospitality laws ensure that host-guest interactions are carried out ethically and legally. 

Factors within your local hospitality law may include: 

• Health regulations like maintaining cleanliness standards 
• Fire regulations such as smoke detectors, CO detectors and proper portals of emergency egress 
• Building regulations like maintaining structural integrity of the property 
• Accessibility regulations such as ramps and handrails 

Know the Safety Expectations for Short-Term Rentals 

When other people enter your home, you’re liable for their safety. That means if they trip and hurt themselves or are injured during their stay, they could sue you for damages – even if their injury is not your fault. So, if you’re planning on listing your property for rent, make sure there are no safety hazards that could deem you negligent.  

Not only is a safe, secure environment something guests implicitly expect when they walk into a vacation rental, but it is vital to minimizing risks of hosting a short-term rental on Airbnb. You must consider the infinite variables that come with guests: different ages, abilities, communication styles, and ethics. To protect yourself and your guests, it’s up to you to prepare for as many worst-case-scenarios as possible. 

A few things every Vrbo host or short-term rental property owner should include in their safety measures are: 

• A detailed safety manual. This should include all critical information about the house, such as location of fire extinguishers, security codes, any spare keys hidden around the property, disclosing security camera locations (which should only be in public facing directions outside), local emergency numbers, and at least three  ways to reach you in case of problems with the property. 
• An emergency kit. Anything can happen. Provide a kit with first-aid and CPR supplies, flashlights, directions to local ERs, water, and items like emergency blankets and HotHands if your short term rental is in a cold climate. 
• A robust security system. Use high-quality door and window hardware, locks and deadbolts at all door entrances and exits. Consider a home security system with a PIN you can change after each guest leaves. Utilize a front door security camera like a Ring, but keep in mind Airbnb’s recently updated security camera ban so that you do not invade the privacy of your guests.  
• Extra safety features in dangerous areas. This includes handrails and non-slip mats in the bathroom and tub/shower, non-flammable burner covers on the stovetop, clear labelling and directions for emergency shut-off valves and fuses, and securing any chemicals on the property, such as paints, accelerants and cleaners. 

Another thing vital to safety and guest experience: always be easy to get ahold of, and always communicate openly with your guests. That doesn’t mean checking in 24/7, but it does mean answering your phone 24/7 when your short-term rental is occupied. 

Deep Clean Your Home and Property Regularly 

A clean property for your Airbnb guests sounds obvious, right? If guests are coming to your home, it’s critical that both your property and inside the home, condo or apartment are clean and presentable. When guests pay money to rent property, they generally expect it to be clean. Remember – if your first review is negative because of a dirty property, it’s going to seriously affect your chances of getting new bookings. 

Beyond reputation, we have already seen that cleanliness is not only a part of hospitality law, but is important for safety as well. Problems such as mold or bug infestations are much easier to find and fix early when you are regularly deep cleaning the property. 

You should consider a commercial short-term rental policy that offers coverage for things like bedbugs or damage from guests who, say, hosts an unapproved-by-you party that gets out of hand. But regardless of coverage, intervening as early as possible ensures you don’t have to shut down your short-term rental for lengthy times while repairs are done and if you do, a Commercial Homeowners policy means you have coverage for income lost during that time.  

Secure Your Valuables 

Another prepare-for-the-worst tip: when it comes to vacation rentals, theft is a very real concern. And while most of your guest rentals should be smooth sailing, there’s always a risk that something could be stolen. Because of this, it’s important to secure all your valuables, preferably in a different location.

When deciding on what to take out of the soon-to-be rental property, ask yourself, “Would I miss this if it was stolen?” And remember, don’t expect your Homeowners insurance to reimburse you for theft by guests. Instead, you’ll need a form of short-term rental coverage designed specifically for Airbnbs, Vrbos and other vacation rentals like the Proper Insurance policy.

Become the Ideal Airbnb Host 

It’s often the little things that stick out the most when renting a property for a holiday. Leaving a small gift, and making sure you have extra supplies, including toiletries, can mean all the difference. But before you leave a bottle of wine or a pack of local craft beer in your welcome basket, you’ll want to have liquor liability coverage in your insurance policy.

Think about it: guests expect a short-term rental to have all the comforts of a home. And at home, you usually have extra shampoo, paper towels and a few basic kitchen utensils in the cabinets, right? 

When you go out of your way to please guests, you’ll often find yourself getting a 5-star review. Factors Airbnb guests often cite as to what makes the best Airbnb experience include: 

• Air conditioning 
• Laundry 
• Quality Wi-Fi
• TV (streaming and cable) 
• High-quality bed and bath linens 
• Extra pillows, blankets, towels, etc. 
• Basic kitchen cooking supplies (pots, pans, utensils, plates, spatula, etc.)
• Soaps, shampoos and other toiletries 

Consider keeping special supplies for guests with pets on-site as well like furniture covers, pet bowls, pet bed, etc. The less things your guests have to look for when entering your property, and the more comfort and safety features you provide for all types of guests, the better reviews you’ll have across the board as a short-term rental host. And the better your reviews, the more new bookings you’re likely to acquire.

Verify Your Short-Term Rental Insurance 

The insurance world wasn’t ready for the meteoric rise of the Airbnb phenomenon. As a vacation rental host, you are dealing with factors covered by a mixture of o homeowner policies, commercial policies and landlord policies. While you can stack several policies with riders and endorsements to achieve piecemeal insurance coverage, this strategy is still filled with liability and property loopholes.  

The same is true of Aircover for Hosts; when you get into the fine print, you’ll realize it doesn’t actually cover a whole lot. Just within the short-term rental industry, there are several situations that require different types of coverage: Do you own and live in the property? Is it a secondary home? Do you rent the property you intend to Airbnb? The complexity proliferates the piecemeal coverage problem. 

The simplest solution with the broadest coverage is a short-term rental insurance policy tailored specifically for hosts. Proper Insurance is the only vacation rental insurance company exclusively endorsed by Vrbo, and the ultimate solution to short-term-rental loss and liability risks. Our policies for short-term rental hosts includes several features you’ll have a difficult time finding with another carrier. 

Some unique hallmarks of our master policy for Airbnb hosts include: 

• Commercial Homeowners policy designed to completely replace a Homeowners or Dwelling/Landlord policy
• Replacement cost valuation for building and contents (new for old)
• Special cause of loss (all-risk, exclusions-based) for the building and contents
• $1,000,000 of Commercial General Liability insurance standard
• Optional upgrade to $2,000,000 of Commercial General Liability
• No sub-limit on damage caused by a guest
• No sub-limit on theft or vandalism by a guest
• Liability extended to amenities such as pools, hot tubs, bicycles, golf carts, and more
• Liquor liability coverage for the host
• Actual loss sustained business revenue coverage with no time limit
• Mechanical, electrical, and pressure system breakdown (optional)
• Ordinance or law enhancement (optional)
• Squatter protection with legal fees and loss of income (optional)
• Bed bug and flea enhancement which triggers lost business revenue (optional)

There are a few questions you should ask your current broker when you bring up short-term rental insurance, including the difference between Homeowners and Landlord insurance, the coverage available by those policies to a short-term rental business, and the logistics of changing your property insurance to this specific type of commercial insurance policy for short-term rental hosts. 

Airbnb hosting can be a relatively low-labor, low-investment way to get into real estate investing, but only so long as you prepare for every possibility before you set that listing to live. With Proper, you can get a leg up on the competition by minimizing your liability, protecting your property and insuring (literally) your business income.