Short-term rentals (STRs) are a big business in the US. Perhaps you’ve forged your spot within the 29 billion dollar vacation rental industry (US) with your own vacation rentals.
But to keep your rental business’s revenue flowing, you must make guest safety a top priority. Think about it: a house fire, slip and fall, air toxin, or countless other risks can jeopardize your ability to rent your property and even cost you thousands in repairs or legal fees. But that won’t happen with the right safety features, security cameras, and protocols in your rental management business.
Here at SaferVRs, we offer courses, consulting, and standards of care to short-term rental homeowners like yourself to make sure your property follows safety laws and continues to generate revenue.
Here are nine life-saving rules you can use to prioritize vacation rental safety.
Did you know a string of hotel fires prompted the US government to pass the Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act? If we could edit the name, we’d plug “vacation rentals” in as well. Smoke alarms are a great preventative measure for fires and a life-saving rule for vacation rentals. The notice offered by a smoke alarm can be the difference between a temporarily smoky room and an entire home set ablaze.
These devices last about ten years, but you should regularly check and test them to make sure they’re still functional. Keep in mind that batteries for smoke detectors tend to only last a year, so you should mark your calendar for an annual switch.
We recommend you install multiple smoke alarms — one for each bedroom, a couple in the basement, near fire sources like the kitchen, and always at least one on each floor. However, you shouldn’t install them near windows, bathrooms, or the four-inch dead zone from sloped ceilings.
Next life-saving rule in fire safety?
Sometimes, a smoke alarm doesn’t give enough notice to evacuate a burning building. Some fires start and spread in an instant, making fire extinguishers an important life-saving rule for your rental.
A common culprit for rental fires? Gas grills and BBQs — but you can prevent the damage and tragedy with a few well-placed fire extinguishers. You might place one on the floor by your grill, but that’s a faux pas and sure recipe for corrosion. Instead, mount them on the wall 3-5 feet above the floor. Keep one within 30 feet of any cooking area and make sure you have one on each floor.
As for the type of fire extinguisher? You have a few options. Class C is quite common, as it’s meant for fires that involve cooking oils and gasoline. Another common choice is Class K, which extinguishes fires that were started with fats, animal, and vegetable oils.
Learn more about fire extinguisher classes from the US Fire Administration.
Over 1,000 Americans died of carbon monoxide poisoning in 2022. The best way to exclude your guests from those figures is to start with a carbon monoxide alarm.
Carbon monoxide is a toxic, unnoticeable, and colorless gas that can be omitted from sources that use fuel, oil, or anything else with carbon. We’re talking gas controls, stoves, hot water heaters, propane tanks, and generators. Of course, you should always hire a gas company or expert before and after all installations with these kinds of appliances.
But a carbon monoxide alarm can detect this poison where the human senses cannot. They help you detect early signs, or small amounts of carbon monoxide, in the air to inform your guests before they experience any hazardous effects.
Like smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms aren’t functional forever. They tend to last between 5 to 7 years, but we recommend you test them once a year to be sure they still work. Remember, these alarms beep four times when they detect carbon monoxide in the air — if they beep only three times, that might indicate malfunctioning. Always check the box for more specific instructions.
Check out after 3 p.m.? Your guests might show up on a sunny afternoon — or the dead of night. In either case, your vacation home needs to be conspicuous to them at any hour of day, so they arrive smoothly.
More importantly? It should be clearly lit for emergency responders should any accident occur.
Address markers should be clear of any trees or bushes and measure about 4 inches high. Remember to check local county requirements if applicable.
Exterior lighting in your front yard should light up automatically to identify your house during darker hours.
Your swimming pool might be your property’s most attractive attribute. But it can quickly contribute to a lawsuit or tragedy if you don’t pair it with safety measures. In fact, almost 5,000 people died from drowning between 2020 and 2022.
Step one for pool safety? Clear, visible signs with rules, such as:
Then comes maintenance, specifically electrical work. We recommend you hire an electrician to inspect the pool’s system once every five years or sooner.
Finally, pool alarms help guests know when someone enters the pool area. This is a vital safety measure for guests with children, pets, or adults who aren’t strong swimmers.
Drownings aren’t as high a risk for hot tubs as they are with pools. Still, hot tubs come with risks that can still threaten your guests’ safety. The heat comes from an electrical source, meaning we’d recommend a regular electrical safety inspection for hot tubs as well. Electrical safety also includes ground fault circuit interpreters (GFCIs) to prevent electrical shock.
Additionally, you’ll need regular maintenance checks to assess the tub’s water temperature, sanitation, and chemical balance.
How about children? Sure, they can enjoy the hot tub as long as an adult is present but make sure your hot tub has a secure latch that guests can use to control access and keep children out unattended. It’s also wise to set up fencing, nets, and locks to prevent children from hopping inside.
Everyone drives around your short-term rental. Whether it’s you driving to check on your property, guests accessing the property, or maintenance workers who come to conduct inspections, driving policies can help maintain your rental’s safety.
These protocols might look like vehicle inspections, especially for company cars. You might also implement requirements for defensive driver training for your staff. But safe driving practices aren’t limited to your own business. You can also discuss policies with guests and contractors as well.
Safety devices or controls usually speak to measures within a work environment to protect contractors. You might have safety devices and controls in place on your property, but bypassing those controls requires minimum requirements, like:
While permission isn’t as relevant in the short-term rental environment, we might encourage consulting before bypassing safety measures. Feel free to reach out to our team.
You might have a housekeeper, handyperson, maintenance worker, inspector, or property manager who helps you manage your vacation rental. But guess what? Their safety is just as important as your guests. Here are some safeguards you can implement to protect your lone workers:
SaferVRs helps hundreds of short-term rental owners keep their properties safe, improve guest experience, and keep revenue flowing.
These life-saving rules and tools are great starting points for a vacation rental property that promotes safety for your renters. But if you want to expand your business and safety to new heights, we’d recommend you take one of our courses.