How to Prevent Parties in Your Vacation Rental
Party Prevention for Vacation Rental Owners
For short-term rental owners, the phrase "There’s been a party at your property" is often met with dread. It typically signals potential damage, repair needs, police involvement, and frustrated neighbors. While designated party areas like clubhouses or community pools are acceptable, when guests throw parties in your rental, it can lead to serious consequences for homeowners to manage.
Today, we’re going over 5 different ways you can work to prevent parties at your vacation rental and prevent the repercussions from hurting your investment.
#1: Have a No-Party Rule On Your House Rules and Rental Agreement
The first and most important step to preventing parties at your vacation rental is to make it loud and clear, on both your house rules and rental agreements that guests have to sign, that parties are prohibited. Establishing expectations from the get-go is one surefire way to prevent parties from happening, especially if your house rules clearly outline what types of consequences guests will face if they do decide to throw a party.
It’s a good idea to make it known that guests will have to deal with immediate eviction, no refund on their damage deposit, and a bad guest review. People tend to comply more with the rules if they know that there are already protections in place to help homeowners keep cleaning and repair costs down.
#2: Screen Guests and Keep an Eye Out For Red Flags in Reservations
Screening your guests offers up an extra layer of protection for your vacation rental, and it can be as easy as sending them a simple questionnaire that gives you insight into their reason for coming into town, how many people will be in their party, and if they plan on having any guests over. Not only will taking stock of this information help you to know if they’re a scammer or not, it can also be a great way to see if they are a good fit for your rental.
Another way to help prevent parties from occurring is to know how to spot the red flags in reservations. Even if everything seems all well and good from the questionnaire, if they are booking last minute or their party seems too small for the dwelling they’re reserving, it might be a sign that a party is being planned. Nip these in bud with simple restrictions such as not allowing same-day reservations or requiring a certain group size in order to reserve a larger home.
#3: Use Devices to Monitor Noise Levels
One of the great things about technology is that it makes our lives easier, and this is especially true in the case of noise-monitoring technology.
There are several devices available on the market, such as NoiseAway, that help you to track the noise level in your short-term rental without resorting to invasive tactics like indoor security cameras.
These devices will send you an alert if the noise level in your rental gets too high, one of the primary indicators that a party might be occurring on your property. This will give you the opportunity to contact the guest and remind them that parties are not allowed on your property.
#4: Know Your Neighbors–And Ask Them to Report Noise Violations to You First
It’s always a good policy to get to know your neighbors, and this is even more true when it comes to your vacation rental. Even if you’re not located nearby, it’s still a great idea to get to know the people in the surrounding area who can inform you if any parties might be occurring. Drop by while you’re in the area and give your neighbors your phone number, letting them know to call anytime there is a disturbance or noise complaint at your property. This will encourage them to call you before informing the cops, which allows you to take care of the problem without involving the authorities at all.
#5: Have Someone You Trust Nearby
Finally, we highly recommend having someone you trust in the area that is able to come and take a look at your property if problems or parties arise. This could be anyone from your neighbors mentioned above (if you have a close enough relationship with them) to your property manager. It might be nearly impossible to prevent parties from occurring, but having someone who can jump into action when needed can help before they get completely out of control.
If you get wind that a party might be happening or just have a bad gut feeling about a reservation, send out your trusted ally to take stock of the situation and help you figure out the best way to move forward. This ally can also record evidence if something is awry, giving you a better chance of winning a damage dispute in the event that something gets broken or needs replacement.
Party Prevention From the Local Experts
Preventing parties might not be glamorous, but it goes a long way in protecting your investment and limiting wear and tear on your vacation rental property. From setting basic ground rules to using noise monitoring devices, there are tons of ways that you can limit the amount of parties that occur and also minimize the hassle of cleaning and repair expenses eating into your profits.
For anyone who is looking for a property manager that knows how to do the work to keep your short-term rental in great condition while also pulling in more revenue than you ever thought possible, take a look at our homepage.