You have to follow your instincts and guts when doing the screening process.Screening guests is your duty not only to your vacation rental home but to yourself as well. Here are 4 tips to follow when communicating with your renters.
At times it is certain that we have an ill feeling about a soon-to-be renter. Ask these questions before accepting a booking. The answers may reverse you ill feeling into a good feeling and eventually take the booking.
First you have to talk to each renter on the phone before taking the booking. You'll get a lot of information about a potential renter from a short phone conversation. You'll be able to discern a lot of your guest by asking the rightquestions such as the following:
* What's the purpose of your tour?
* Have you stay in vacation rental home before?
* How many adults and how many kids will be staying?
* What tourists' attractions are you looking to take in?
Second is to be on the lookout for any red flags. Maybe your guests insist that their friend couple they'd like to bring wouldn't mind sleeping in a mat on the floor. Or the puppy they plan to bring behaved well and well trained. Also, those who live in the area would like to rent your vacation rental home for one evening. This certainly raises a red flag. This is especially if you are concerned about locals throwing crazy party in your home. Trust your gut if you sense a bad feeling about a potential renter. This is to avoid future damages to your property by a renter with whom you feel will do wrong.
Third is to do an internet surfing. There are a lot of ways to know more about a person on the internet. One is to do a Google search and try WhitePages.com. Do a “People Search” and see if the information presented matches the information he/she gave you. Try also the “Reverse Phone Number” or “Reverse Address” searches. This will tell you whether or not the phone number and/or address match up with the potential renter's name.
Another is to refer to social network sites like Facebook or Twitter. However, you don't have to become a “friend” of every potential renter you encounter. You may be able to know some information from their personal profiles and their photos. If you see people chugging beers and drinking wines, these may not be the best renters for your vacation rental home.
The usual information you should collect from renters should be their names, address, home and cell phone numbers, number of adults and children, check in and check out dates and credit card number for payment. Beyond basic Internet searches based on name and address, most other methods are a little too intrusive for a three-to-seven-day vacation rental. You don't want to scare away good renters by asking for too much information. Even the most trusting renter may turn and run if you ask them for their social security number. Besides, you probably don't need this type of information anyway.
Generally, your rule of thumb should be: ask only those information which are necessary and generally acceptable for the renter-traveller's booking.