Before you hand over the keys
Twelve things worth doing before someone stays in your home. None of it is complicated, and most first-time hosts skip about half of it. About six minutes to read, an afternoon to do.
Renthropic is invitation-only, which means everyone here came in through someone already in the community. That's a real filter and it's most of why this works — but it isn't a background check, and we don't run one. The checks below are yours to make, and this guide is how we'd make them.
Meeting them
Talk to them properly, before anything is agreed
A video call at minimum — coffee if they're already in Sydney. Fifteen minutes of conversation tells you more than any document, and the people you'd want to say no to usually make that easy. Have it live rather than over text: someone unwilling to get on a call for a two-month stay in your home has told you something.
Ask: what brings you here, how long have you been planning it, who else will be in the house, have you rented like this before, and what would you want from me while you're staying?
Check their ID — but don't keep it
Ask them to hold up a driver licence or passport on the video call and check the name and face against the person you're talking to. Then find one thing that corroborates them independently — a work email on a company domain, a LinkedIn with history, a landlord or employer who'll take a call.
Look at it, don't collect it. Ask them to show it live rather than emailing a copy, and if they do send one, delete it once you've looked. A stored licence photo sitting on your phone is a liability you don't need.
Ask who vouched for them, and go ask that person
The strongest signal available on Renthropic right now is the chain of invitations. Find out who brought them in and message that person directly. “Would you have them stay in your place?” gets an honest answer far more often than a reference request does.
Putting it in writing
Write down what you both agreed
Two pages is plenty, and an email you both reply “agreed” to is better than nothing. Cover: exact dates in and out, the weekly rent and when it's paid, what's included, who pays which bills and how they're read, the bond amount, how much notice either of you needs, and the state the place comes back in.
Don't forget: pets, guests and how many, smoking, parking, whether they can work from home, and what happens if their plans change and they need to leave early.
Check the NSW rules before you take a bond
Agree any security deposit up front and put in writing what it can be used for and when it comes back — but don't just drop it in your everyday account. If your arrangement is a residential sub-lease rather than a short-stay let, NSW law requires the bond to be lodged with Fair Trading, and holding it yourself isn't an option. Which side of that line you're on turns on the arrangement, not on what you call it.
Ten minutes on the NSW Fair Trading site, on short-term rental accommodation and on sub-letting, will tell you which set of rules you're under. If it isn't obvious from your dates and your agreement, ask them or a solicitor before you take the money.
Photograph everything, the day before
Every room, the outside, anything already damaged, and close-ups of anything you care about. Photograph the meters too. Date-stamped photos take twenty minutes and settle almost every disagreement before it starts — send them the set so you're both working from the same record.
The two phone calls to make first
Call your insurer and ask the specific question
Ask whether your home and contents cover still applies with a paying occupant in the house while you're away, and get the answer in writing. Many standard policies treat that differently from a house-sitter or a guest, and some require you to tell them. This is the most commonly skipped step and the most expensive one to get wrong.
Also ask how long the place can be unoccupied between the day you leave and the day they arrive before cover lapses. Most policies have a limit, and a gap at either end can catch you out.
If you rent, ask your landlord in writing — before you list
In NSW a landlord can refuse consent to sub-let the whole property for any reason at all, so this is a yes-or-no you want early rather than the week before you fly. Ask by email, keep the reply, and don't rely on a verbal maybe from a property manager.
Read your strata by-laws, and check where you stand on short-stay rules
If you're in an apartment, the by-laws can restrict or ban letting your place out, and that's entirely separate from anything your council or the state requires. Stays of 21 days or more sit outside the Greater Sydney 180-day cap, and NSW runs a registration scheme for short-term rental accommodation — worth ten minutes on the NSW Fair Trading site to work out whether it applies to your dates.
If in doubt, a short call to your strata manager or council costs nothing and is a much better way to find out than a letter afterwards.
Getting the house ready
Lock away what you'd hate to lose
Passports, birth certificates and anything with your bank details. Jewellery and watches. Heirlooms and the things with no replacement value, only sentimental. One locked cupboard or a friend's place solves all of it, and you'll enjoy your trip more.
Turn off any indoor cameras. Recording someone inside a home they're paying to live in is not on, and in most of Australia it's an offence. While you're at it, sign out of your accounts on the smart TV and any tablet you're leaving behind.
Leave a house guide, and make it more useful than a welcome note
Wifi password, which bin goes out on which night, the quirks — the tap that drips, the window that sticks, the neighbour who knocks. Where the fuse box, water main and spare linen are. Two numbers: yours, and someone local who can let themselves in.
Have a person nearby with a key
A neighbour, a friend, a family member — someone who can meet them on arrival if you've already gone, handle a burst pipe, and be a face rather than a phone number. Tell your guest who they are before they arrive. It reassures both of you, and it's the difference between a small problem and a ruined trip.
One last thing
If something about it doesn't feel right, say no. You don't owe anyone a reason, we won't ask you for one, and no host has ever regretted turning down a stay. The whole point of an invitation-only network is that there's another guest behind this one.
This guide is general information to help you ask the right questions — it isn't legal, tax or insurance advice, and it can't take account of your circumstances. Rules differ by council, by strata scheme and by policy. Check with your own insurer, your strata manager, NSW Fair Trading, and a solicitor if anything material turns on it.
You now know more than most first-time hosts.
Put your home up before the clock runs out and you keep 100% of your rent for as long as it's listed — no listing fee, no commission, ever. Listing takes a few minutes, and nothing is committed until you say yes to a guest yourself.
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