Why you Should Consider an Airbnb Rental Agreement

All Airbnb hosts like to believe that each guest staying will be respectful and look after their property well. And while this is true in most cases, unfortunately there can be those rare guests that break your Airbnb's house rules. Some Airbnb guests may claim that they never saw the rules on your listing. Others may claim that they did not understand them. This is where a separate Airbnb Rental Agreement can come in handy.

By creating an Airbnb Rental Agreement, you can ask guests to sign and confirm that they are aware of the rules and know the consequences for breaking them. Here are some details and clauses that you might want to add into your agreement:

Guests

The agreement should clearly state who has booked the property, who is staying at the property and the maximum occupancy. This can help to avoid parties within your home or extra guests staying in your property without permission.

Property

The agreement should clearly show the full address of the property. Here you can include the facilities and amenities that guests can expect to use during their stay.

Check-in/ Check-out

It's important to include the dates that the property has been booked for. You can also include here the Check-In and Check-out times and any fees for arriving to or leaving the property late.

House Rules

This should include all expectations that you have for the guest while they are staying in your property. This can include rules such as no smoking, no pets, no parties, no extra guests, along with cleaning and rubbish expectations.

It’s important to note that these rules should still be included on your listing. This is so that guests cannot claim that they should have been made aware of them before booking. In this section, you can also add in any charges associated with breaking these rules.

Rental Costs

You can include the total cost for your rental that you receive, the security deposit required as well as the cleaning fee. If you offer extra services, you could include a price list here.

Damages

You can state here that the guest will be charged for the repair or replacement of any damages that are made during their stay. You could also include here that guests must notify you of damages as soon as possible.

For more information on what to do if a guest damages your property, read our older post here.

Parking

If your Airbnb has parking available you can include the details in the agreement also as well as any rules e.g. ‘Only use the carpark provided otherwise your car may be towed’ or ‘Gates to garage close at 10pm until 6am’. You may need to confirm the license plate of the guest’s vehicle for security reasons also.

After you’ve created your agreement, the next step is getting guests to sign it. Airbnb’s guidelines for external rental agreements here mention that the host must disclose the requirement and the terms within it prior to booking. Therefore, it's important to add in your listing that guests will be required to sign an external document to confirm they agree with the house rules that are already set out on your listing. You can also add that you reserve the right to cancel the booking if the agreement is not signed.

By having a rental agreement, you can feel more assured that guests will be taking better care of your property.