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268. Hosting Hotline: Should You Allow Bounce Houses At Your Airbnb? · Thanks For Visiting

• 0:00
  Sarah: Welcome back for another great episode.
• 0:01
  My name is Sarah Karakaian.
• 0:02
  Annette: My name is Annette Grant, and together we're--
• 0:04
  Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
• 0:05
  Sarah: And this is the--
• 0:06
  Both Annette & Sarah: Hosting Hotline.
• 0:08
  Sarah: Today we're going to talk about bounce houses.
• 0:11
  Questions: Hi, this is Ingrid from Rowe Rentals in Columbus, Ohio.
• 0:15
  I have a question regarding safety and liability.
• 0:20
  What is your take on guests wanting to bring rentals, such as bounce houses,
• 0:26
  and tents, or chairs onto your property?
• 0:32
  Sarah: Listeners, spoiler alert, we do know Ingrid.
• 0:34
  Annette: And didyou hear her baby?
• 0:36
  That's the first baby on the Hosting Hotline.
• 0:39
  Sarah: I know.
• 0:39
  He's so cute.
• 0:40
  He's cute in real life too.
• 0:42
  So I know Ingrid.
• 0:43
  I actually know this story.
• 0:45
  Her and her husband have an epic business here in Columbus, Ohio, next
• 0:49
  level downtown short-term rentals.
• 0:52
  Anyhoo, she messaged me when this happened, and we were talking about it.
• 0:56
  I'm going to color that in a little bit more.
• 0:59
  But what we did was we reached out to our attorney, but he's on paternity leave.
• 1:02
  Rest up Scott Brown.
• 1:04
  And we also reached out to our good friend Justin at Breezeway.
• 1:10
  He is an international safety expert, but he also used to manage upwards of 600--
• 1:16
  Annette: I know.
• 1:17
  It blows my mind.
• 1:18
  Sarah: 600 plus vacation rentals in the New England area.
• 1:21
  So this man knows a thing or two about these outside things.
• 1:24
  It's interesting to see what Justin had to say.
• 1:26
  So let's hear what his recording is.
• 1:29
  Justin: There's a couple different ways to approach this question, but
• 1:32
  first and foremost, if someone wants to bring a tent, or an inflatable
• 1:36
  pool, or a bouncy house to the rental property, that's fine if it's stuff
• 1:43
  that they've purchased on their own, they're bringing to the property,
• 1:46
  and they're going to use it low key.
• 1:49
  If you're dealing with a bouncy house where you've rented it
• 1:52
  for a big gathering, then you need to get event insurance.
• 1:56
  An event insurance is $75.
• 1:59
  Easy to get.
• 1:59
  You can find it online.
• 2:00
  Just Google it.
• 2:02
  And that way you're covered for any of your renters and their
• 2:05
  guests that are using these items.
• 2:08
  Now, very important to remember, not really from a safety side,
• 2:12
  all those items are going to leave big brown marks on your lawn.
• 2:15
  So personally, I would never allow them.
• 2:17
  And as a professional rental manager years ago, I would never allow
• 2:21
  anything that would leave marks on the ground at the property.
• 2:25
  And I get it.
• 2:25
  It's not safety-related.
• 2:27
  Supplying those items, you don't ever want to do.
• 2:31
  You don't even provide pool toys, so you're certainly not going to provide
• 2:35
  an inflatable pool or a bouncy house.
• 2:37
  So just think about it.
• 2:39
  Make sure that you're being smart when you talk to your guests about it.
• 2:43
  Think heavily about event insurance, and watch those brown spots on your lawn.
• 2:49
  Sarah: I was shocked that Justin brought up the brown spots.
• 2:51
  I'm sure he got some--
• 2:53
  Annette: Because it'll ruin itfor so long.
• 2:55
  Sarah: Some memories coming back of these things happening.
• 2:58
  I like Justin's point of view of the event insurance, but I also want to encourage
• 3:04
  listeners too to not only look at the event insurance as an option if your
• 3:09
  guests want to bring something like this.
• 3:11
  But I'd also talk to your attorney.
• 3:13
  I'm going to say this because I know that Ingrid did talk to her
• 3:16
  attorney, and he was like, heck no.
• 3:19
  It's just not worth it.
• 3:22
  Even if she had them all individually sign a waiver, they were not about it.
• 3:27
  They're like, it's just not worth what could happen.
• 3:31
  Even the time it would take if, God forbid, an accident happened and
• 3:35
  someone got hurt and they brought it on and she had event insurance, the
• 3:39
  timing it would take to figure all that out, I don't think it's worth it.
• 3:44
  Annette: It's painful thinking about it.
• 3:45
  AD MARKER
• 3:46
  Annette: Something we didn't talk about in any of it yet is, depending on how close
• 3:51
  you are to your neighbors, this could be a huge issue in the neighborhood for sure.
• 3:57
  But let's talk about how you can maybe put some of this in your listing, in
• 4:02
  your house rules, Sarah, ahead of time to mitigate any issues if, for some
• 4:07
  reason, someone just shows up and they don't even think to ask you because
• 4:11
  it just doesn't cross their mind.
• 4:13
  Sarah: Right.
• 4:13
  They're like, I rent your property.
• 4:14
  I own this now for a couple days.
• 4:16
  And that's what Ingrid and I talked about when she brought this to my attention.
• 4:19
  I was like, well, the good news about this whole situation is now
• 4:22
  you know how to round out your house rules a little bit more.
• 4:25
  You know that you don't want to allow this.
• 4:28
  And that way, a guest, when they book, they either sign their guest
• 4:33
  rental agreement-- whether they read it or not is up to them.
• 4:36
  Or also you can say it on the OTAs, you confirming your booking
• 4:42
  means that you've read our house rules and you agree to all of them.
• 4:44
  And make sure that it's in there, that these third party, these rental, what do
• 4:50
  you call them, amenities, I guess, that you bring without our permission, you
• 4:54
  won't be able to use them at our property.
• 4:57
  And so you can just make your house rules a little bit more robust.
• 5:01
  And here's the thing.
• 5:02
  Maybe you're listening to this episode and you're like, but I
• 5:04
  have the perfect property, as Justin would say, a bouncy house.
• 5:09
  What you could do is, before you even get this question or any of the
• 5:12
  other questions that you might get from a guest, like, can they bring, I
• 5:14
  don't know, a trampoline or any fun--
• 5:18
  Annette: A tent.
• 5:18
  Sarah: A tent.
• 5:18
  Annette: I likewhat Justin said there.
• 5:20
  That would be very common.
• 5:21
  Like, hey, I want to bring a tent because I'm having a family
• 5:23
  reunion or a few extra people.
• 5:25
  Those are things I can see happening.
• 5:26
  Sarah: So talk to your attorney now, ahead of time, and figure out what
• 5:29
  ducks you'd have to have in a row in order to accommodate these things.
• 5:33
  I know when we used to manage a very large vacation rental with a lot
• 5:37
  of land, you cannot bring a boat.
• 5:39
  You cannot bring in our RV.
• 5:40
  You cannot bring a tent.
• 5:41
  And that was in our rental agreement.
• 5:42
  We didn't want them parking these things.
• 5:44
  It had safety implications, so that's why we couldn't allow them.
• 5:47
  And also the whole, like, the grass being indented and leaving brown spots.
• 5:52
  It could really ruin your landscape.
• 5:55
  Annette: I will say, the bounce house, that one was a surprise to
• 5:59
  me to hear about the bounce house.
• 6:00
  Sarah: She told me about that, and I was like, I'm sorry.
• 6:03
  Annette: Let's wrap this one up, though.
• 6:06
  The guest did not end up staying.
• 6:08
  Sarah: No, they ended up staying.
• 6:09
  Annette: Oh, they did.
• 6:11
  So the bounce house flew under the radar?
• 6:13
  Sarah: Yeah.
• 6:14
  Annette: Ooh.
• 6:14
  Sarah: And so they were already--
• 6:16
  Annette: Did the bounce house show up, and they started installing it?
• 6:19
  It's a big--
• 6:20
  Sarah: Okay.
• 6:21
  This might be he said, she said, so Ingrid, don't kill me, but I feel like
• 6:24
  the cleaning team reported back to Ingrid that something was happening with
• 6:29
  a large inflatable in their backyard.
• 6:32
  I feel like it was something like that.
• 6:33
  And so--
• 6:35
  Annette: They caught wind of the inflatable.
• 6:36
  Sarah: Ingrid made it right.
• 6:37
  She figured it out, and now she is more equipped for future stays, and she
• 6:42
  was so kind to call that question in.
• 6:44
  Annette: Yeah.
• 6:45
  Be on the lookout for bouncy houses, everybody.
• 6:48
  Sarah: Bouncy house.
• 6:48
  And Justin, thank you so much for your insight, not only as a safety
• 6:51
  expert but also as a former vacation rental manager of 600 plus properties.
• 6:56
  Oh my gosh.
• 6:58
  They're so many.
• 6:59
  With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.
• 7:02
  Annette: I am Annette Grant, and together we are--
• 7:03
  Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
• 7:04
  Sarah: Talk to you next time.