Can I require guests to sign a contract on Airbnb?
Many hosts are wondering if they're allowed to require guests to sign a contract after they book.
The short answer is: yes!
You can require guests to sign a contract after they book your place on Airbnb.
However, there are a few things you should not overlook if you wish to do so.
Oftentimes, guests contact Airbnb complaining about the contract, and they're often right because hosts do not set up their listing or the contract correctly.
Here's a checklist of what you should do if you want guests to sign a contract if they book your place on Airbnb.
#1 Add the contract to your House Rules
You should clearly indicate on your House Rules that you require guests to sign a contract after their booking and also indicate how they will have to sign it (for example, if they will do it when they check in or through an online electronic sign service, and so on).
You should also highlight all of the main points of the contract.
It's fine if the wording is different than the one in the contract itself. But the main points of the contract should be readable by the guest before they book.
Wondering how to set or edit your House Rules?
No worries, we covered that in this article:
Vincenzo Asaro
#2 Add the main points of the contract to the description
Guests shouldn't have any surprises after they book.
A traveler carefully checks your listing and doesn't want to abide by additional rules that weren't communicated clearly.
For example, what if you advertise a BBQ grill in your listing, but then in the contract mention that it can only be used upon paying 100$?
I'm not sure how you would feel about that as a traveler. I would personally feel robbed. I booked a place with a BBQ grill so I could hang with my friends and family and cook something, but it will cost me 100$ on top of what I already paid.
That's not right.
That's why Airbnb requires all of the terms of the contract to be clearly disclosed in the listing's description.
You can find the official Airbnb article about this here:
#3 Clarity is king
If you clearly mentioned the contract in your House Rules and also disclosed all of the terms of the contract on your listing description, you're all set.
There's an additional rule of thumb though.
You can message a guest who booked or requested a stay at your place to double check they read the House Rules and know that they will have to sign a contract.
You can also create a message template that you can send to guests about it.
Even though you're not required to do so, it often happens that guests overlook the House Rules.
Being clear and double check with guests if everything is communicated correctly is good in general, thus also with contracts they have to sign.
#4 Let guests know why you require them to sign a contract
People are usually more keen on doing something if you explain to them the reasons behind what they should do.
If you require them to sign a contract, you can consider also writing in the House Rules the reason why you're requesting so.
In some countries that's required by the law. Sometimes hosts require guests to sign a contract to protect themselves. Sometimes a liability agreement is required for some special features offered in the house (such as the free use of bikes, or jet-skies).
Whatever the reason why you're requiring a contract to be signed, let the guests know.
You can write something like:
"In order to protect ourselves and enforce our rights we require guests to sign a contract, however, you can rest assured that the terms of the contract are the same as you can see in the listing's description, so you won't have any surprises!"
#5 Make sure you know how the guest will actually sign the contract
Airbnb doesn't have any tool that allows guests to sign documents digitally through the platform.
If you require guests to sign a contract and you want to do it digitally, you should either do it through an external service, or send the contract to the guest as a PDF (using a service such as Google Drive), and then give them your email so they can print it, sign it, and send it back to you.
The easiest option, which is only feasible if you don't have the self-check-in though, is to have them sign the contract when they check in.
Is there any other best practice for requesting guests to sign a contract that you want to suggest? Feel free to contact us or write a comment below!