Short Term/ Vacation Home Safety Checklist for Your Renters

One of my top priorities as a short term rental landlord is the safety of my guests. When you rent or share your short term or vacation home with others, it pays to make sure they're prepared for emergencies! Click through to get a quick safety To-Do list especially for vacation homeowners....

You hope the guests who use your vacation home never experience an emergency like a fire or injury, but sometimes these things happen. A little preparation now will pay dividends later if the worst happens at your vacation home.

Addresses and phone numbers are critical in emergency situations. 

Get cards printed with your vacation home’s address.

When they use their cell phones to call 911 during an emergency, visitors will need to share your home’s address. Make that easy by setting out business cards with your property’s address.

Put the cards in card stands next to any landlines, on the kitchen counter and on the refrigerator. The cards double as marketing – visitors will take them home.

Vistaprint offers inexpensive business cards. You can also write the property’s address on a small sheet of paper and tape it to all the phones.

Bonus points: Put up a list with numbers for local fire stations, police, hospitals and disaster centers. 

Set up an emergency evacuation meeting spot.

Most families have a home fire safety plan that includes a meeting place where they’ll gather if everyone has to sudden evacuate. Pick a meeting place at your vacation home.

In your home’s information folder, share an explanation of what the meeting place is and map showing how to get to it.

Share natural disaster information.

Prepare an information sheet about any natural disasters that may occur during your tenants’ vacation. Put evacuation route maps and local street maps in a go-folder that visitors can take if they need to clear out in a hurry. Then, put a note on the fridge explaining where the go-folder is kept

Remind your visitors to check government websites for weather forecasts.

Prepare them for power outages.

Leave detailed information sheets that show tenants where to locate the electrical breaker if the power flickers or goes out in inclement weather. These sheets should also point out the location of safety flashlights and emergency blankets.

Ideal storage spots include linen closets, hall closets or sturdy dresser drawers. 

Stop your home from flooding.

If a pipe bursts, you want visitors to be able to immediately turn off the water coming into your home. Leave an explanation of where the water shut-off valve is and then put a big sign next to the shut-off.

For shut-offs that work by turning a lever, attach a photo showing the off and on positions. For a spigot-style shut off, put up arrows showing which way to turn the water off and on.

Tell them about dangers unique to your location.

At the beach, put a riptide information flier on the fridge. [http://www.ripcurrents.noaa.gov/signs_brochures.shtml]

In the mountains, share the avalanche advisory forecast website. [http://www.fsavalanche.org/get-the-forecast/]

The Red Cross has safety sheets for other hazards like earthquakes, landslides and hurricanes. [http://www.redcross.org/prepare/disaster-safety-library]

Vacation homes should provide tenants with abundant safety features. With all required information sheets and emergency supplies on hand, your tenants will be better equipped for any unexpected events that may develop on their vacation.

Modified by: Theresa Tscheschke Gunal ; Used courtesy of Jason McKeon, Home Actions, LLC