Screening and House Rules

Most damage is predictable from the booking itself. You can see it coming in the reservation details, before anybody is standing in your driveway.

The pattern

The damage signature, in order of how much it tells you:

• A local booking. Somebody twenty minutes away does not need a holiday home. They need a venue.
• One or two nights, especially on a weekend.
• A brand-new account with no reviews. On its own this is just a new traveller; combined with the others it is a signal.
• A guest count well below capacity. Two guests booking a 6-bedroom house means either a very good deal for them or a very bad night for you.

Any two of those together is worth a friendly message asking what the occasion is. The answer, or the silence, tells you most of what you need.

Screening without wrecking your ranking

Airbnb visibly favours Instant Book listings, so switching it off costs you impressions — potentially a fifth of them. The move is not to turn it off; it is to put requirements on it.

• Government ID verified.
• No negative reviews from other hosts.
• For a first booking with no history, require a message first.

Got it? Then the rules that actually hold.

House rules that are enforceable

The single most useful rule you have: the guest of record must be 25 or over and present for the entire stay. It is specific, it is checkable, and it removes the no-accountable-adult scenario that predicts most damage.

The rest of a short, enforceable list:

• Maximum occupancy, matching your permit — not aspirational.
• No parties or events. Say it plainly; it is what platforms enforce against.
• Quiet hours, with times.
• Parking: how many vehicles, and where. Most neighbour complaints start here.
• No unregistered guests overnight.

A rule you cannot detect is a wish. A noise monitor at $100–$200 turns “quiet hours” into something you find out about at 11pm rather than from a neighbour on Monday.