FAQ for Hosts

It’s easy. Just follow these steps:

1. At the top of every page it says ‘Hosts’. Click there and select ‘add a property.’
2. Describe your property, upload pictures and set the currency you want to be paid in, the standard amount you want to receive per night and your minimum length of stay.
3. Add your rates and availability under the ‘My Properties’ tab of your host account
4. Respond to availability enquiries and booking requests via the HouseTrip site or your email – you can even do it from your smart phone.
5. Get your first HouseTrip booking!

Yes – it costs absolutely nothing to list a property on HouseTrip. Just define the price you want to receive per night, then we will add our service fee as a mark-up on top. Your guests will pay the price you want to receive plus our mark-up.

It’s easy. Just follow these steps:

 
1. At the top of every page it says ‘Hosts’. Click there and select ‘add a property.’ 
2. Describe your property, upload pictures and set the currency you want to be paid in, the standard amount you want to receive per night and your minimum length of stay.
3. Add your rates and availability under the ‘My Properties’ tab of your host account.

If you have trouble listing your property or if you have a large number of properties you would like to list at the same time, please contact our team via support@housetrip.com and we will be more than happy to help.

When you register your property on HouseTrip, our form will prompt you to describe everything that a guest needs to know. Please take care to describe your property accurately so that guests can make an informed decision. The process for describing your property is simple and intuitive, but if you run into any difficulties, we’re happy to help – please contact us via support@housetrip.com if you need assistance or have any questions.

You can update your property’s availability (as well as manage your bookings, adjust your rates and edit your property details) under the ‘My Properties’ tab of your host account. To view your account, once you’re logged in, click your name at the top right of every page. If you are not logged in, click ‘log in’ at the top right of every page and enter your HouseTrip username and password. You can also view your account by clicking ‘manage’ next to your property’s heading on your property profile page.

Cancellation policies protect both hosts and guests in the event of cancellations by guests. The refunds guests will receive are determined by the cancellation policy set by you, the host. You will receive the balance of the amount less our administrative fee and service fee mark-up, which are non-refundable and will be retained by us in all cases. This means that you will not receive any payment where the guest is eligible for a 85% refund.

We have four cancellation policies for you to choose from. These are:

 
1. Relaxed – Give your guests maximum flexibility by offering a maximum refund with a 2 week cancellation notice. 
 

 
• Guest cancels the booking up to 2 weeks before the start of the stay: guest will receive an 85% refund 
 
• Guest cancels the booking up to 1 week before the start of the stay: guest will receive a 42.5% refund
 
• Cancellations must be made by 12 midday CET (Central European Time) on the appropriate day
 

 
• Guest cancels the booking up to 1 month before the start of the stay: guest will receive an 85% refund
 
• Guest cancels the booking up to 2 weeks before the start of the stay: guest will receive a 42.5% refund
 
• Cancellations must be made by 12 midday CET (Central European Time) on the appropriate day
 

 
• Guest cancels the booking up to 2 months before the start of the stay: guest will receive a 85% refund
 
• Guest cancels the booking up to 1 month before the start of the stay: guest will receive a 42.5% refund
 
• Cancellations must be made by 12 midday CET (Central European Time) on the appropriate day
 

 
• Guest cancels the booking up to 2 months before the start of the stay: guest will receive a 42.5% refund
 
• Cancellations must be made by 12 midday CET (Central European Time) on the appropriate day
 

You can change the cancellation policy that applies to each of your properties in the edit property page under the ‘My properties’ tab of your host account.

As a host, you should not cancel any booking. Remember that your guest has made their travel plans based on your commitment to them. If you have absolutely no other option but to cancel for reasons beyond your control, please contact our team via host@housetrip.com. We will ask that you contact the concerned guest directly and explain the reasons for the cancellation. Please note however that we reserve the right to penalise hosts who cancel. This may mean that we would significantly reduce the website visibility of your property for a fixed period.

When you first log into your HouseTrip account by clicking on either your name or ‘log in’ at the top of every page, you are taken to your Inbox. This is the central hub for all your HouseTrip activity. Here, you can read and respond to messages, confirm or decline your availability enquiries and booking requests, and keep track of your bookings.

Clicking the ‘My properties’ tab takes you to the section of your account where you can manage and edit your properties.

Click the sub-tabs in ‘My Properties’ to:

 
• Properties - Change the description and details of your property and add and remove photos.
 
• Calendar – Update your property’s availability.
 

Bookings – View your upcoming and past bookings, including your guests’ details.

 
• Payment – Provide your payment details so HouseTrip can pay you for your bookings. 
 
• Prices - Set your property’s rates. You can charge the same amount for every night, or set different rates based on length of stay or demand.
 

HouseTrip pays you for your bookings either by bank transfer or, for pounds sterling or euros payments only, via your PayPal account. We take full up-front payment from your guest when you accept and confirm their booking request. We then pay you within two business days (being days when banks are open in Switzerland) of the guest’s planned check-in date.

This is the minimum number of nights you want guests to be able to book. We recommend you set the minimum length of stay to one night so you can attract as many guests as possible.

Yes you can. HouseTrip encourages and accepts listings from both individuals and professional hosts. If you have specific requests or policies related to your business, please contact us via sales@housetrip.com.

Yes. You can list a space – either an entire property or a private room – in any location worldwide.

After you host a guest, HouseTrip will ask them to leave a review about their stay. The review will be displayed on your property profile, and provide potential guests with a testimonial about your property.

When you welcome HouseTrip guests to your property, we suggest you encourage them to post a review about their stay. To maximise the number of bookings you receive, we encourage you to consider factors such as reducing your rates and lowering your minimum length of stay, as well as ensuring your property listing has great pictures and an enticing description, that your calendar is kept up to date, and that you respond quickly to availability enquiries and booking requests.

You can upload as many photos as you like. We recommend that you use pictures that showcase your property at its best, and include pictures of all the important rooms of your property, as well as the neighbourhood. Your default picture is also very important, so be sure to choose the image that best shows off your property. 

When registering your property, first select the country where your property is located from the dropdown menu, then enter the first letters of your property’s town or city and select it from the list that appears. We have more than 25 million locations in our database so if you cannot see your property’s location, please double-check that you have spelt it correctly, including checking Google Maps to make sure that your spelling matches theirs. If that doesn’t resolve the issue, please contact us via host@housetrip.com and we’ll investigate for you.

We have an extensive list of amenities you can tick during the property description process – and you can add any extra ones of your own.

'On request' means that guests need to send you an availability enquiry to check that your property is available for their stay. Once you confirm availability via the HouseTrip site or your email, they can send you a booking request. 'Instant booking' means that HouseTrip knows and trusts that a host's availability calendar is always kept up to date, so guests can go straight to sending a booking request. Once you receive an availability enquiry or a booking request, whether your property is ‘on request’ or ‘instant booking’, you have 36 hours to respond. However, we encourage you to respond to all requests as soon as possible. 

If you would like your property to be ‘instant booking’, please contact our team via host@housetrip.com.

If your property is ‘on request’, you’ll receive availability enquiries from potential guests who want to know if your property is available for their stay. You’ll be notified of these enquiries via email and your HouseTrip account.

When you receive an availability enquiry, please check that the dates, length of stay and rate work for you. Then, confirm or reject the guest’s availability enquiry, or propose alternative dates, property or rate. Please note we encourage you to keep your calendar and rates up to date so that you do not have to use this option. 

Declining an availability request will automatically block out the requested dates in your HouseTrip calendar. 

Once you’ve responded positively to an availability enquiry, your guest can make a booking request for your property. You will be notified of this via email and your HouseTrip account. We encourage you to accept or decline the booking request as soon as possible.

To accept the booking, click the ’Accept’ button. The booking is then automatically confirmed and you’ll receive an email with all the guest’s contact details (phone number, email address, name and postal address). The guest will also receive your contact details.

We encourage guests to make multiple availability enquiries for each stay to maximise their chances of getting a positive response. A guest may therefore receive positive responses for more than one property, and choose to book elsewhere. 

To convert more availability enquiries into bookings, we suggest you respond to all enquiries as soon as possible. 

You have 36 hours before the booking request expires. Make sure you always accept bookings as soon as possible. Allowing a booking request to expire is the worst experience you can give to a guest and is something we strongly discourage.

Yes, you can decline a booking request, however this should only happen if another guest has booked your property after you accepted the guest’s availability enquiry. Please make sure you double-check dates and prices before confirming any availability enquiry, to avoid having to decline the guest’s booking request later on.

Yes. You should reply to all availability enquiries, whether to accept, decline or propose an alternative property, dates or rate. You should also reply to all booking requests and messages, because not receiving a response is a poor guest experience.

Yes. Your property profile has a unique link. We strongly encourage you to share it wherever you can on the internet as this exposure will help generate interest in and bookings for your property.

'Entire property' is a property that your guests will have all to themselves. 'Private room' is a bedroom that your guests will have to themselves in a property that they may share with other guests or with you, their host. Please be sure to make it very clear whether you are offering an ‘entire property’ or a ‘private room’ in your property description.

Once you create your first listing, you will have an account. Simply repeat the process you used to list your first property.

If you wish to un-publish your property you can do it directly under the ‘My Properties’ tab of your host account. Click to ‘change the description’ for the property – you’ll see a green ‘Published’ button above the property’s details. Here, you can change the status to ‘Unpublished’.

If you wish to delete your listing entirely, you need to contact our team via host@housetrip.com. You cannot un-publish or delete a property that has upcoming bookings.

As a host, you should not cancel any booking. Remember that your guest has made their travel plans based on your commitment to them. If you have absolutely no other option but to cancel for reasons beyond your control, please contact our team via host@housetrip.com. We will ask that you contact the concerned guest directly and explain the reasons for the cancellation. Please note however that we reserve the right to penalise hosts who cancel. This may mean that we would significantly reduce the website visibility of your property for a fixed period.

Guests can cancel their booking at any time, but always in accordance with the cancellation policy (see next question) that you have selected. You’ll get a certain percentage of the value of the booking as per the selected policy.

If a booking is cancelled, your property will display as available again so you can receive new availability enquiries for these dates.

Go to ‘My properties’ tab on your host account and select the property you want to edit. On the photo gallery, select the preferred picture and click on ’make default’.

The first page displays our most popular properties by number of bookings. You can improve your rank by replying to all enquiries and accepting more booking requests..

We require all messaging to be handled through the site to maintain your privacy, to enable us to provide an appropriate level of service, and to ensure that all interactions adhere to our Terms of Use. This ensures you are protected. Once you accept and confirm a booking request you will receive the guest’s details and they will receive yours: name, email address, phone number and postal address.

Yes you can. Just be careful not to accept two bookings for the same dates (i.e. double booking your property). A simple way to avoid this is to check your calendar under the ‘My Properties’ tab in your host account every time you have a booking request from another website to ensure you don’t already have a HouseTrip booking for the same dates.

We encourage all hosts to keep their calendar as up to date as possible. If your property is ‘Instant booking’, your calendar must always be up to date.

The easiest ways to increase bookings are to add a range of quality photos, lower your prices, keep your calendar up to date and reply promptly to all enquiries and booking requests. 

The most important thing is having great quality photos and an accurate and complete description.

To maintain the quality of HouseTrip, all property listings need to be verified by our team before they can appear on the site. When you first list your property, it can take some days before the property is checked and appears on the site.

No. When you accept a booking request, you do so for that particular property. You must not swap properties and/or guests at any time. Please contact us via support@housetrip.com if availability becomes an issue.

When you get a booking request for a specific property, you can offer another property if the requested one is not available, and the guest can choose whether to accept your offer. Once you’ve accepted a booking for a specific property, however, you cannot move the guest to a new one.

Take note of the feedback, make improvements, and host again. We encourage you to respond to the review in order to provide your views on the problem. This allows future guests to see both sides of the issue and acknowledge that you are a concerned and professional host.

If you think the review is defamatory or unfair, contact us via support@housetrip.com and we’ll investigate.

There are 2 ways to access the details of a booking.

1. Simply go to the ‘My Properties’ tab in your account and select ‘Bookings’ to see a list of confirmed bookings sorted by check-in-date.
2. In your Inbox, select ‘Accepted Bookings’ on the left hand menu. Once you have opened the conversation for a particular booking there is a link to view the details of that particular booking.
   (N.b. If the booking was made more than 30 days previously, first select ‘Archived messages’ on the left hand menu to find the conversation.)

Go to your calendar under the My Properties tab. Dates highlighted in light green are availability periods. Simply click on any of those dates to see the settings for the corresponding period. To remove, modify or add availability, simply select the correct option from the dropdown, choose the dates to which this new status will apply and click ‘confirm’.

Go to the My Properties tab in your account, and click the ’change the description’ link next to the correct property. Then, click on any one of the ’edit’ buttons to modify the description.

We suggest you look at some similar HouseTrip listings in your city for guidance. If you’re a new host, we recommend you put your listing on sale by charging 25-50% less than the market rate to compete with hosts with lots of reviews.

This will add value and be a good long-term investment. Once you build a good reputation, demand will go up, and you can charge more.

We ask guests to pay us in order to offer an easy and secure payment system. We hold the payment amount securely and usually release it to you, the host, within two business days (being days where banks are open in Switzerland) of the guest’s planned check-in date. Please see our Booking Terms for more details.

If there are booking problems or cancellations, it is also easier and more secure for us to deal with refunds.

As a host, you benefit too as we handle the whole payment process and transfer the money directly to your bank or PayPal account; you don’t need to do anything to collect payments.

We usually release the payment to you within two business days (being days where banks are open in Switzerland) of the guest’s planned check-in date. Please see our Booking Terms for more details.

We pay you by bank transfer or, for pounds sterling or euros payments only, via your PayPal account. You can change your billing details under the ‘Payment’ tab of ‘My Properties’ in your host account.

Your bank or PayPal may charge transaction fees, so we advise you to check this first in order to select the best payment option for you.

IBAN means International Bank Account Number and BIC (sometimes also called SWIFT) means Bank Identifier Code. You can find both numbers on your bank statements.

IBAN and BIC account details alone are not sufficient to debit, withdraw or transfer funds from a bank account; they are used solely to credit or transfer funds into bank accounts. 

We take your trust incredibly seriously. We use appropriate physical, technical and administrative procedures to safeguard the information we collect. We also use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption when collecting or transferring financial information such as your billing details.

You can set additional fees in your property listings. These are fees that are not calculated in the total price paid by the guest via HouseTrip when they book and that you will have to arrange payment for yourself. Usually it would be a payment charged in cash locally at check-in or check-out.

These fees are final cleaning, damage deposit and late check-out fees. You must be clear about whether these fees are included in the price or extras to be paid locally in your property description and during the booking process. Please note that additional fees may be an unappealing prospect to guests, which is why we recommend factoring them into your price per night wherever possible.

We suggest you factor this fee into the price of your listing, rather than adding extra charges. If you prefer not to, then please do not forget to set it as an additional fee in your property profile and charge it directly to your guests at check-in or check-out.

Damage deposits are an arrangement that we don’t facilitate. You will need to make separate arrangements with guests to collect these deposits.

You must specify that you will collect a damage deposit (as well as how much it is) in the description of your property, within the ’additional fees’ section.

A guest can pay in euros, pounds sterling, US dollars and Swiss francs. You can receive payment in euros, pounds sterling or US dollars.

The price you set when you originally register your property is the default rate for all dates in your calendar. The system is flexible so you can change your rates for long periods of time, or set a different price every day. To make changes to your prices and to apply them to different dates in your calendar:

 
1. Go to your host account page, select the ‘My Properties’ tab and then the ‘Prices’ sub-tab.
 
2. Use the links to ‘add a new rate’ or ‘modify’ a current rate.
 
3. Follow the link to ‘Apply rates to dates on your calendar’.
 
4. Choose the property as necessary from the dropdown to show the calendar for that property.
 
5. Click on the start date for the period to which you want a rate to apply. Select ‘modify availability’ from the dropdown, enter the dates, choose the rate and click ‘Confirm’.
 

You define the price you want to receive from guests booking the property and we simply add our service fee (typically between 10% and 20%) as a mark-up on top. Your guests pay the price you want to receive, plus our mark-up and an administrative fee.

It is your responsibility to ensure you know and comply with the laws and tax rules of your country of residence and of the state and/or city where your property is located.

Typically, hosts may be required to charge and account for sales tax (such as VAT) and/or local/city tax (once you’ve checked, you may want to factor such costs into your price per night).

You may also be liable for income or corporation tax on the revenue you make from bookings.

Good photos are a huge component of a good listing (see the next question if you need advice on this).

If your listing is comprehensive, it will generally be more appealing to guests, and they will be more likely to make availability requests. Other important components of a listing are: 

 
• The property description: Make sure you sell your property. Describe your property in a way that encourages guests to imagine the great stay they will have there. Add any unique selling points, major amenities, info about the bedrooms and the beds, suitability for certain groups of guests and a description of the view and location.
 
• The title of the property: Use words that clearly and realistically describe your property and its main selling points. It could describe your property type, location type and major amenities (e.g. ‘19th century apartment in Paris city centre with panoramic view’)
 
• The location: Guests look for properties that are close to specific attractions. In the property’s description, we recommend listing the distance from the property itself to specific attractions.
 
• The price: Most guests search with a certain budget in mind. Make sure you set up your nightly prices correctly in the ‘Prices’ tab under ‘My Properties’ section of your host account, and take into account what similar properties are charging in your property’s location.
 
• Availability: Many guests base their holidays around work and school calendars, which can make their timing inflexible. Keep your availability calendar up to date to attract guests looking for specific dates, even at the last minute.
 

The more quality photos you provide, the more interested guests become – and then they’re more likely to book.

Here are a few tips to help you take the right shots:

 
• Stage your photos: Help guests imagine what it’s like to stay at your place. Stage your scene by making sure it’s clean and tidy and add warm touches, such as a bowl of fruit or a vase of flowers.
 
• Shed some light: Open all blinds and curtains, turn on all indoor lights, and take photos both with and without flash to see what looks better.
 
• Necessary photos: Be sure to include pictures of all the main rooms of your house, both inside and outside. This could include the living area, the bedrooms, the kitchen, the bathrooms, the view from the property, the outside of the property and the neighbourhood. Be sure to upload photos of anything that makes your property unique and desirable.
 
• Keep it sharp: Use a tripod to avoid blurred photos.
 

• Be quick: Be the first to respond to enquiries from potential guests
 
• Be competitive: Be competitive with your prices – or reduce them initially if you need more bookings and reviews
 
• Update: Keep your listings updated, especially the calendar
 
• Reviews: Get positive reviews by being a fabulous host
 
• Optimise: Optimise your listing for search engines by being as specific as possible when writing your property description
 
• Link: Link to your property listing from other websites around the web (your blog, Facebook, Twitter etc).
 

Think about why guests want to stay in a rental property instead of a hotel. There’s more space, more amenities, more personality - and they get to experience life as a local.

 
•  Sleeping areas: Provide nice beds with washable pillow and mattress protectors. Provide quality linen and extra bedding. 
  
•  Living area: Make sure your living area has enough comfortable seating for at least the number of people that the property accomodates.
  
•  The bathrooms: Make sure bathrooms are spotless and that there are plenty of good quality towels.
  
•  Decoration: Aim to decorate and furnish your property tastefully. You may want to consider adding a unique and/or local touch in order to stand out from the crowd.
  
•  The kitchen: When it comes to kitchens, think practical. Don’t limit tableware to the amount of people you sleep – remember they may want to entertain guests. The more you offer, the more appealing your property will be.
  
•  TV and Internet: Guests often expect high-speed Internet and a large TV with a DVD player.
  
•  Extras: Aim to exceed expectations. Why not offer some games, books, DVDs or music – or a personal touch from the host, such as a package of bread, coffee and milk in the fridge on arrival.
  

Note: before welcoming guests, remember to remove or lock away any valuables or items with sentimental value.

If you can’t hand them over in person when your guests arrive, here are some other options:

• Personal touch: Ask someone else to hand them over on your behalf.
 
• Lock boxes: It’s easy to set your own code on a lock box and fix it next to your door with the keys inside. You can then provide your guests with the combination.
 
• Keyless door locks: If you use a keyless entry lock, you can email the code to guests and change it between guests.
 
• Send keys by post: We don’t recommend this method as mail can get lost or arrive late. However, a lot of hosts still use this method. If you do, use a recorded/signed-for delivery service and make sure you keep the master keys.
 

If you have more questions or want to find out more about a specific property, you can always reach us at +44 (0)203 463 0098 or send an email to host@housetrip.com.