While busy researching about travel, we’ve recently dug out a lot more information on vacation rental homes which led to this mysterious love for it. Sure, we do love our 5 star hotels and resorts with a view, but vacation homes just have this touch of bond and love that you cannot really find in other accommodation types.
Sure, one of the key influencer is price (most vacation homes are 50% cheaper than hotels and resorts), but what’s more important is that hard-to-come-by local touch that brings a personal note to the vacation. Connecting with locals, you can get spectacular travel tips and insider information that will help make your trip even more awesome than it already is. Learning the ways of the locals, you can also potentially reduce expenses and visit hidden secrets of the city, lesser known by all tourists.
However, when looking for vacation homes, it is crucial to find out who you will be staying with. Will my family, partner or even myself be (and feel) secure under the roof of these complete strangers?
Bearing this concern in mind, we went on a Google rampage to source for credible sources of vacation homes. Most rental platforms ensure that the guests are given the utmost security and choice when deciding on potential homestays during their holiday, but if you were to ask for our favourite pick, that would be PandaBed.
In a bid to win over the hearts of all travellers who wish to eliminate the thrill of staying with a weird homeowner, PandaBed has come up with a Property Ratings system that allows for credibility checks. In so doing, homeowners who are credible will be bumped up the list of rental ranking! It’s all fair and square at PandaBed.
Here are some of the simple steps that homeowners have to perform to move up the rental ranks.
1. Submit passport identification
What better way to sift out the real from the fake? Homeowners have to submit a valid passport or national ID to PandaBed for verification. If they are credible, they will have a proud badge pasted on their profiles for all guests to see. All information will, of course, be kept confidential - only the administrators will see it.
2. Connect through online platforms
All homeowners share their business profiles on PandaBed through Linkedln! That’s the perfect way to get to know your homeowners - what they do for a living as well as their interests. Even better, homeowners share their Facebook profiles on PandaBed. This is perhaps the ultimate form of online intimacy and you can comfortably find out more about your prospective homeowner, and they can find out more about you to better cater to your interests too!
3. Customer reviews
Personally, and I think many will agree, reviews written by customers are the most comforting and trustable sources that can vouch for a home. Who else can you trust besides the people who once had the exact same questions and worries that you are experiencing now? PandaBed encourages its homeowners to be reviewed by guests, who they feel are more credible than reviews published in publications aimed to advertise a property.
4. Mandatory verification of phone number
Homeowners have to verify their phone numbers with PandaBed. This way, if guests are faced with any problems, they can easily contact the homeowners. We believe this should be quite a relief for homeowners as well!
5. Prompt response through messaging system
PandaBed has a very effective messaging system with homeowners that ensure swift response from homeowners at any given time. Homeowners are encouraged to check PandaBed messages as often as possible and to respond timely. They must give the system utmost importance as their attentivity to it may potentially make or break a deal.
