How We Protect Your Property: Curated Property's Approach to Guest Vetting
How We Protect Your Property: Curated Property's Approach to Guest Vetting
- Curated Property only accepts bookings from guests with verified government ID on all platforms
- Review history, booking purpose and guest profile are assessed for every booking before acceptance
- Noise monitoring is installed across the portfolio — alerts are managed by our team, not left to the owner
- Security deposits are held against every booking and claims are processed promptly when damage occurs
- The entire vetting and response system operates 24/7 — owners are not expected to be available
Why Guest Vetting Matters More Than Most Owners Realise
The short-let risk conversation tends to focus on the dramatic — the party that trashed a property, the fraudulent booking, the guest who refused to leave. These events happen, but they are not the primary risk for a well-managed prime central London property. The primary risk is subtler: the accumulation of minor damage across multiple bookings; the guest who was not vetted carefully and treated the property carelessly; the incident that was not caught early because nobody was monitoring.
Effective guest vetting and property protection is not a single gate — it is a system of layered checks that together reduce risk to a manageable level without making the booking process so onerous that good guests are deterred. Curated Property has developed this system across its London portfolio and continues to refine it. What follows is an honest account of how it works.
The Vetting Layers
Curated Property only accepts bookings from guests who have completed government ID verification on the booking platform. On Airbnb, this means the guest has submitted a passport or driving licence and had it verified by Airbnb's identity verification process. On Vrbo and other platforms, equivalent verification is required as a condition of booking.
This is the baseline. It does not guarantee behaviour, but it does mean that every guest who stays in a Curated Property property has confirmed their identity to a third party and attached that identity to their booking record. The ability to trace a guest in the event of a problem is fundamental to any meaningful protection system.
Beyond platform verification, every booking request is assessed by a member of the Curated Property team before acceptance. This assessment covers review history — how previous hosts have described this guest, and whether any reviews contain signals of concern — as well as the stated purpose of the booking, the guest's profile completeness, and any contextual factors relevant to the specific property.
Instant booking is disabled for all Curated Property properties. Every booking requires manual review and acceptance. This adds a small amount of friction for guests but is non-negotiable for our portfolio — the review step is where the majority of inappropriate bookings are identified and declined.
Bookings that do not meet our criteria — insufficient review history for an unverified new account requesting a high-value property, stated purposes that do not align with a residential short let, or booking patterns that suggest event or party use — are declined without hesitation.
A security deposit is held against every booking. The deposit amount is set according to the property — typically £500–£1,500 for prime central London properties — and is held by the booking platform or, for direct bookings, through a secure payment gateway. The deposit is released to the guest within 14 days of checkout if no claim is raised.
When damage occurs, Curated Property documents it thoroughly — timestamped photographs, repair quotes or invoices, a written account of the issue — and submits a claim through the platform's resolution process within the required window. Platform protection schemes such as Airbnb's AirCover for Hosts provide additional coverage above the deposit for qualifying damage.
Most damage that occurs in short-let properties is minor — a broken item, a stain, a missing piece of equipment — and is resolved through the deposit process without escalation. For more significant damage, the combination of deposit and platform protection typically covers the cost of restoration.
"The best protection is not what happens after something goes wrong. It is the system that prevents the wrong guests arriving in the first place."
Noise monitors are installed across the Curated Property portfolio. These devices measure decibel levels in real time — they do not record audio or identify voices — and alert our team when noise levels exceed a threshold appropriate for the property and its immediate context.
When an alert is triggered, the response is managed by our team: a message to the guest, a call if needed, and escalation to local contacts if the situation is not resolved. The owner is informed but is not expected to be available or to manage the situation directly. This is part of what the management relationship provides — the noise monitoring system is only as effective as the team responding to it.
For properties in buildings with other residents, or on mews streets where noise carries between properties, noise monitoring is particularly important. A problem caught at 11pm, before it escalates into a formal complaint, is a very different situation from one that is discovered the following morning.
Every property is inspected by the cleaning team after each checkout, using a standardised checklist that covers all rooms, fixtures and contents. Any damage, missing items or maintenance issues identified are photographed and reported to the Curated Property team before the next check-in.
For properties with same-day turnovers — a checkout in the morning and a check-in the same afternoon — the inspection window is compressed, but the checklist discipline is maintained. Issues identified are either resolved before the next guest arrives or escalated if resolution is not possible within the available time.
The post-stay inspection is also where the maintenance picture builds over time. Small issues caught early — a tap that is beginning to drip, a door that is catching — are addressed before they become larger problems. Proactive maintenance protects the property and reduces the reactive call-out costs that self-managing owners typically experience.
What Happens When Something Goes Wrong
Despite thorough vetting, issues occasionally arise. The response process matters as much as the prevention system. When damage is identified post-checkout, Curated Property follows a clear sequence: photograph and document the damage immediately; assess whether the damage is coverable through the deposit or platform protection scheme; submit a claim within the required window with full supporting evidence; manage the resolution process on behalf of the owner, keeping them informed throughout.
Owners are not expected to engage directly with guests over damage claims — this is managed entirely by the Curated Property team. The emotional charge of a damage dispute is one of the most stressful aspects of self-managing a short let; removing this from the owner's experience is part of what professional management provides.
In the event of a more serious incident — a guest who will not vacate, a situation that requires police involvement, or a property that has been significantly damaged — Curated Property coordinates with the relevant platform, local authorities if required, and the owner's insurers. These situations are rare but not unprecedented, and having a management team with experience of handling them makes a material difference to the outcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Curated Property's vetting and protection system is built into every property we manage from day one. Talk to the team about bringing your London property under management.
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