By Roshan L. D’Silva · Guide To Holiday Renting
Everything in this article is decided months before it happens. You will not be there, it will be the middle of the night, and you will be managing it by telephone in a language you may not speak. What determines the outcome is what you arranged in advance.
The one thing to arrange first
Somebody local, reachable, who can be at the property within the hour.
Not a management company's central number. A person, with a name, who has keys and lives nearby. If you have a caretaker this is them; if you do not, it needs to be someone, and they need to know they are that person and be paid accordingly.
Every scenario below is either manageable or a disaster depending on whether that person exists. Arrange it before your first booking.
Medical
Put the local emergency number in the guest guide, on the fridge, and in your booking confirmation — guests from abroad will otherwise dial the number from home, which does not work. Add the nearest hospital with an emergency department, its address written out so it can be shown to a taxi driver, and the nearest pharmacy and doctor.
Keep a first-aid kit somewhere obvious and say where it is. If the house has a pool, know where the nearest defibrillator is.
If a guest is taken ill, your role is small and specific: get help to them, notify your insurer promptly, and write down what happened while it is fresh. Beyond that, you are not qualified and neither are we — call the emergency services.
Illegal or unauthorised use
Rare, and worth knowing how to handle because instinct is a poor guide.
If the house is being used for something illegal, or a party has taken over, call the police. Do not send your caretaker to confront a house full of strangers, and do not go yourself. Property can be repaired; the other outcome cannot.
Most of this is prevented at booking, which is why the house rules and guest selection article matters more than it looks. The rest is prevented by neighbours who have your number and will use it, which is worth cultivating deliberately.
Afterwards: photograph everything, report to the platform immediately if the booking came through one, notify your insurer, and file a police report even if you expect nothing from it — insurers frequently require one.
Wildlife, insects and the local hazards
Whatever is normal where your house is will not be normal to your guests. Snakes, scorpions, monkeys, bears, jellyfish, mosquitoes, ticks, wild boar — a guest who has never encountered one does not know whether to be alarmed.
Write a short, calm section in the guest guide: what they may see, what to do, what genuinely requires a doctor. Do not omit it for fear of putting people off. An honest note reads as competence; a guest surprised by a scorpion in the shower with no warning writes a very different review.
Practically: screens on the windows, a torch in every bedroom, the pool fenced if local rules require it, and somebody who knows who to call for removal.
Weather, fire and utilities
Know your property's specific exposure — wildfire, flood, hurricane, earthquake, landslide — and be honest about it, because your insurer will be. Our guide to coverage gaps in second-home insurance covers what standard policies exclude, and the exclusions are usually the local hazard.
In the house: smoke alarms tested between changeovers, a carbon monoxide alarm wherever anything burns fuel, a fire extinguisher and blanket in the kitchen, and an evacuation note in the guide for anywhere with a known seasonal risk.
Make sure the guest guide says where the water stop-tap, fuse box and gas shut-off are, with a photograph of each. A guest who can turn the water off saves you a ceiling.
Write the list before you need it
One page, in the house and in your own phone. Local emergency number. Your caretaker. A plumber, an electrician and a locksmith who have actually been used before. The insurer's claim line and policy number. The community administrator. A neighbour. The nearest hospital.
Give the same list to your guests, minus the parts that are yours alone. Almost every problem is smaller when the person standing in the house can call somebody directly instead of waiting for you to wake up.
And tell your insurer the truth
The most expensive mistake in this whole area is a policy that does not cover letting. A standard second-home policy generally does not, and a claim is exactly when that is discovered. Declare that you let the property, declare it accurately, and check the occupancy conditions — most policies restrict cover on a property left empty beyond a stated number of days.
Nothing here is legal, medical or insurance advice, and requirements vary by market. Confirm the position locally, and check your policy before your first guest rather than after your first incident.