By the Unity Stays directors, Marcus Chong & Gadir Al-Khatib · Last updated 12 August 2026
In short: Prevent problems at booking stage: screen enquiries for warning signs such as local one-night weekend bookings and vague answers, set specific house rules shown before booking, and declare any decibel-based noise sensor. If something goes wrong, deal with safety first, keep everything in writing through the platform, photograph damage before clearing it, and claim within the platform's short time limit.
Screening is the whole game
The bookings that cause problems are usually identifiable at enquiry. A local booking for one night at a weekend, a vague answer about who is coming, a guest count that does not match the group described, a brand-new account with no reviews, a booking made hours before check-in — none is proof of anything, but together they are a pattern.
Asking a direct question is the cheapest tool available: what brings you to the area, and who is coming with you? A straightforward answer arrives quickly. An evasive one is the answer.
Under our agreements we can decline, restrict or cancel a booking where we reasonably believe it poses a risk, and we use that. A declined booking costs one night; a party costs the neighbours, the listing and sometimes the lease.
House rules that actually do something
Rules only help if they are specific, visible before booking, and consistently enforced. Vague rules are unenforceable and platforms will not support them.
- No parties or events, stated explicitly rather than implied
- Maximum occupancy, with a stated consequence for exceeding it
- Quiet hours, with actual times
- Noise monitoring in use — declared, because an undeclared device is a privacy problem
- No unregistered guests, which is the clause that makes occupancy enforceable
- Smoking and pets, stated either way rather than left ambiguous
Noise monitoring, done properly
A decibel-based noise sensor detects volume, not conversation, and does not record audio. Used properly it lets you intervene at the point a gathering becomes a problem rather than after a neighbour complains.
It must be declared in the listing and the house rules. Cameras or recording devices inside a property are prohibited by the platforms and are a serious privacy breach — the distinction between a noise sensor and a microphone matters, and guests are right to care about it.
Where we install devices they are declared, and any device we install remains our property.
When something has already gone wrong
Deal with it in order. Guest safety first, then the neighbours, then the property, then the money. Contact the guest directly and in writing through the platform, because a message thread is the evidence any later claim rests on.
Do not go to the property alone to confront a group. If there is a party in progress, the police non-emergency number and the platform's urgent line exist for this, and a neighbour's complaint is better answered by you than ignored.
For damage: photograph everything before anything is cleared, get a quote or invoice, and claim through the platform's process within its time limit — which is short, and which is usually why claims fail. Deposits, platform cover and an insurance policy are three different things, and knowing which applies before you need it is the point of our insurance guide.
The one that frightens owners: a guest who will not leave
Rare, and rarer still if stays are structured properly. The risk rises with very long stays, exclusive occupation and anything that starts to look like a residential tenancy rather than a licence to occupy.
The practical protections are keeping stays within sensible lengths, documenting the arrangement as a short-stay licence, and taking advice before agreeing anything running to several months.
If it happens, it is a legal matter and not a lock-changing one. Removing an occupier without the correct process can be a criminal offence, however clearly they are in the wrong.