Renting out your room is a great way to earn a side income. But it is important to make sure that you take the necessary precautions to stay safe and avoid any unnecessary hassle. In this blog post we put to use our 9 years worth of experience in the rental market of Ireland to outline for you the best safety practices when renting out a room in your home and we will walk you through how we implement them for our hosts too. 

Safety First

Renting out your spare room has so many positive sides to it. Beyond the financial gain, which should be tax free (you can read more about that here), our Hosts often share stories of how wonderful it’s been to share their home with someone. Many of our Hosts have even stayed in touch with Guests long after they moved out. 

But it’s completely normal to have some safety concerns, particularly if this is your first time renting out your spare room. That’s why safety is always our priority for both our Hosts and our Guests. Our booking system has been built with that in mind, allowing our Hosts to showcase their rooms for rent while maintaining their privacy and safety. 

Let us walk you through how that works and how we advertise our Hosts rooms without compromising their privacy.

Sharing Personal Details

We don’t recommend sharing your address or any identifying information publicly. While it’s important for our Guests to know the approximate location they are booking, we have designed a system that keeps all our Hosts data (address, full name etc) private while allowing our Guests to still make an informed decision. 

We do this through our detailed listing descriptions. Each listing describes, in detail, the location the property is in, in terms of its proximity to public transportation and important landmarks/areas such as the nearest town or city or universities. These listings also describe other important information such as the nearest shops, parks and other amenities of interest to potential Guests. 

We also provide maps on our listings but they don’t show the exact location of the property. Instead we show the general area the property is located in, like Dublin 3, instead of the street address, for example. We also had a transport information box on each listing with the exact walking distance to public transport from the property. This keeps the Host address fully private while still allowing our Guests enough information about the location of the property to make an informed decision. 

Getting Vetted Bookings

When you rent out a room in your home it’s important that you feel safe, secure and comfortable with the person who will be moving into your home. This is why we place such an emphasis on our Guest Vetting process. 
We vet every Guest for you. We carry out a full verification check, including an ID and payment check on every Guest. We also request information on their studies, internship or work. This gives our Hosts a very detailed profile of the Guest requesting to book their room, allowing them to make an informed decision.

Only vetted Guests can apply to book a room. Once they do that, you will be able to see the Guests’ full profile. This will tell you the dates they wish to stay for, where they are working or studying and a detailed Guest description, written by the Guest that will tell you more about who they are as a person. 

You will only have contact with the Guest once you have reviewed their profile and decided you want them to book your room. This allows you to protect your privacy and also reduces the amount of communication you need to engage in. 

Our Guest vetting process is designed for your safety and peace of mind and ensures that the Guest who will rent out your spare room is verified and suitable.

Rental Documents Provided

Starting your rental arrangement off on the right foot is really important. When your Guest arrives it’s a good time to sit down and go over the ground rules. 

We have created a set of House Rules for our Guests and Hosts. These rules have been designed to create a harmonious living experience for everyone living in the house. 
They clearly set out rules around things like cleanliness, low noise policies, kitchen usage, and other important topics. Having these rules already set out for you sets clear boundaries and goes a long way to avoid any unpleasant situations. If you’d like to learn more about setting up house rules you can read this blog post here. 

It’s also advisable to have documents to keep track of the rent paid and the deposit collected. This keeps everything nice and clear and avoids any misunderstandings around payments. We supply our hosts with these documents too so that they can rest assured that the rent will be paid directly to them on time every week. 

Having these kinds of documents in place is invaluable. Not only does it make renting out your room easier and smoother, but it also acts as security in terms of ensuring payments are made and rules are followed. 

We designed our rental documents from years of experience supporting our Hosts all over Ireland with great success.  
 

Ongoing Support

A great way to maintain your peace of mind while hosting is to benefit from ongoing third party support. That way if anything arises out of the ordinary, or if your circumstances change and you need help navigating that, you have the support in your corner to do that. 

This is exactly what we do for our Hosts. From the moment a Host signs up, our support is guaranteed. We support our Hosts with every booking they accept and work hard to ensure the next booking is as good if not better than the last.

In Summary

It’s important that you feel safe and comfortable when choosing to rent out a room in your home. This is why it’s important to choose the right Guests and have the right rules and documents in place to make the process go as smoothly as possible. 

We never recommend sharing your private details publicly when renting out a room in your primary residence. We designed our online booking systems with this in mind. 

It’s also always a good idea to have support when you are renting out your room. This takes the pressure off you as the Host and means that you have a team on hand to help you with anything that might come up as you host. 

If you’d like to become a Hosting Power Host you can apply today by clicking the button below.