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Is it up to the owner to send out a rental agreement between owner/renter

Hi....hoping someone can help.  I'm new to Booking.com....I have a holiday cottage in the Scotland that I'm renting out for holidays.  I've phoned booking.com and now emailed them regarding this; Do they provide a rental agreement between owner/renter when a booking is made or is it up to the owner to do this?  If it's up to the owner, does it state anywhere for renters that they have to sign and return before the booking is confirmed?

On both occasions with booking.com regarding this, they have referred me to the agreement that i have with them??!  I didn't think it was a difficult question to answer, but can't seem to get an answer from booking.com regarding this. 

I'm on a couple of other platforms and they have either given an option where you can upload your own or use a template that they have....I can't find this option anywhere on booking.com....am I just looking in the wrong places?

Thank you in anticipation for an answer to this question.


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Leandri Klopper 5 years ago

Hi there Gcmburns ,

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on listing your cottage, I've always wanted to visit Scotland.

There is no Physical Agreement between the Owner of the Property and the Renter that needs to be signed and mailed back, or anything like that (that I'm aware of). Once a guest registers on the Booking.com website, they automatically agree to the Terms and Conditions of using the website (Which can be seen as an agreement between the owner and renter as you yourself also agreed to those when you got your contract). Furthermore you add all the terms and conditions etc on your property which a member has to accept before they can confirm a booking. It's their own responsibility to read through all your rules and descriptions before they confirm the booking.

If you want to have a Physical agreement, you will need to write it up and process it yourselves.

I hope this information helps you.

Keep well!

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Gcmburns 5 years ago

Hi Leandri, thank you so much for answering this for me.

You should come visit....got a lovely cottage for you to stay in ;)

What about more intricate details to adhere to such as sticking to the amount of people that the property's for (6....not 24 people turning up), dogs are allowed, but I'd like to stipulate "not on furniture", also ensuring that the place is left in a decent condition, empty bins on departure, etc. It's the finer details that I think a rental agreement give (peace of mind I suppose). Is there somewhere that I can add these finer details to? From what I've come across on booking.com, it's only possible to accept or decline statements, nowhere to type in additional rules or conditions. If it's not available through booking.com then I guess I'd have to send my own, but then seems pointless if the renter thinks they are booking with booking.com terms and conditions only, then they receive a rental agreement from owner with additional conditions.

I suppose I just want to know that we are covered as much as we can be in the event of something going wrong (bad renters).

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Leandri Klopper 5 years ago

Hello again,

Sounds wonderful! I'm busy making traveling plans, 5 year plan, and Scotland is number one on my list. What is the name of your property if I may ask?

Oh those are called House Rules (according to Booking.com) and isn't relevant enough to put on the property listing as such. You can try and add them on what they call the Fine Print. (Under view my descriptions, way down at the bottom), but every line you add there needs to go through some sort of verification department who decided whether or not they will add it. Information added there should be relevant to the booking, like "You will need to submit a copy of your ID" .. etc.

You can add that you allow dogs under Property - Policies, and then within your House Rules (which you set up/send out/manage yourself) you can stipulate that the fury friends are not allowed on your nice couches. There are many topics that cover How to convey your house rules here on the forum, one of my favorite ones is Printing out the house rules and framing them, then hanging them around the house. Then you take a photo of that and load it onto Booking.com. It's not iron clad but at least you can rest easy knowing your guests have seen it before booking.

I 100% agree with you, but I can tell you that the Client Relations department of Booking.com is excellent. The "Report guest misconduct" button is very effective as one of their reps almost immediately get into contact with you, they speak to the guest and try to resolve the matter while the guest is still there... and follow up. So that Should make you feel a bit more at ease when it comes to those "bad renter" guests.

Keep well!

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Gcmburns 5 years ago

Hi Leandri

Apologies for the late reply, we've been to sunny Tenerife to get some heat in our bones!

Thanks very much for the information you have provided, it's come in very useful. I've also set up my own rental agreement and it seems to have gone through to future travellers. Do you know if Booking.com advise you if they don't forward on your attachments?

Our cottage is called Westwood Cottage, if you search under Dundee area (6 people) it will come up. If you are interested, I can give you my mobile number to chat and also send you over info regarding the area etc. It's well placed for visiting central/east/south Scotland. Edinburgh only 50 mins away driving, St Andrews 25 mins, etc. Scotland is beautiful.....you won't want to leave ;)

We were in South Africa 2 years ago for our honeymoon.....wow wow wow, we both absolutely loved it. Stayed at various routes from Cape Town and along the Garden Route, finishing off with a Safari. Can't wait to get back some day in the near future. My husband is a FUSSY vegetarian and he still goes on about the choice of food eating out that he could get there. Doesn't say much for my home cooking ;)

That's a great idea re the photos! I hope that I never have to use the client relations department, but it's good to know that they are proactive.

Thanks so much for all the info you've forwarded on.....really is very much appreciated :).