FAQ’s – For Owners Renting Their Properties

1. How much does it cost to list my property for rental? Listing your property is free.  However, if someone rents your property, a service fee of 5% will be taken from the total booking, in addition to the PayPal fees incurred by the payment transaction.  This nominal fee covers the costs to run the Rent From Friends web site, which includes credit card transaction fees, hosting fees, etc.
2. When will I receive payment for my booking? Rent from Friends will release your funds within 3 business days (72 hours) after your guest’s scheduled check-in time.  The time it takes for the funds to arrive in your account depends on several factors, such as the payout method (electronic or check).
3. How will I be paid? Payment will be made either electronically or by check, depending on the arrangements Rent from Friends coordinates with you.  Typically, paying by check is easiest as it requires you to provide the minimum amount of information.  However, arrangements can be made to pay electronically if desired.
4. Can I list my property if it is outside the U.S., U.S. Territories or Canada?Yes, but Rent from Friends makes that determination on a case-by-case scenario. Please e-mail info@RentFromFriends.com if you have a property outside the the U.S. or Canada and would like to list it.
5. What is the difference between Instant Booking and Regular Booking?  When you list a property, you will have the opportunity to decide whether or not to use “Instant Booking”. With Instant Booking, guests can immediately pay for your rental and the dates they select will automatically be reserved on your listing’s calendar (blocking out these dates so that they can no longer be reserved).  Without Instant Booking, then as the property owner, you will receive an email message when a user wants to rent your property.  This gives you the opportunity to ensure you want to rent the property to the individuals requesting it and communicate with the requester if you have additional questions.  If you want to proceed with the rental, you can then use the RentFromFriends.com web site to issue an invoice (from your “My Bookings” area), which will then automatically send the person wanting to rent your property an e-mail that the booking has been accepted and they can now pay for it by returning to the RentFromFriends.com site and completing the transaction electronically.
6. How do guests pay for my rental property? Guests will be able to complete the transaction online using their credit card or PayPal account.
7. If someone finds my property on the RentFromFriends.com web site and I want to arrange my own payment directly with them to avoid the service fee charge, can I do that? No, that is against our terms of service.  We trust that all friends will use an honest conscience and that if an accommodation was found using our site, that the service fee is worth paying for considering the service we are providing, namely, the ability to stay at another friends property which brings a level of comfort and security compared to other reservation services.
8. Do I have to pay taxes or other fees when I rent my property? As a Host (that is, a user who uses RentFromFriends.com to rent property), you are solely responsible for determining your obligations to report, collect, remit or include in your listing fees any applicable VAT or other indirect sales taxes, occupancy tax, tourist or other visitor taxes or income taxes.  RentFromFriends.com allows you to include these taxes as separate line items if you need to collect any tax.
9. I rent my properties on other platforms too. Can I synchronize my listing reservation data with these other websites?  Yes. Your listing will have a standard iCalendar feed so that you can synchronize reservation information with other reservation sites, such as Airbnb, HomeAway and VRBO. Rent from Friends supports two way synchronization, meaning that you will be able to import another reservation site’s calendar (such as Airbnb, HomeAway and VRBO) for the same property listed on these sites, as well as export your Rent from Friends calendar to the other reservation site’s calendars. This way, your calendars for the same property on all platforms are automatically kept in synchronization. Detailed steps on how to do this are provided in the “Calendar” section of your property listing.
10. Do I have to fill out all information about a property, including amenities? No, you are only required to fill out a minimum amount of required information that is pertinent to your rental.  However, by providing as much information about your rental, you may increase the desirability of your rental property.  Friends like to know as much as possible about the amenities before booking a property.
11. I have an amenity that is not listed as one of the options when listing, what can I do?If you think it is an amenity worth adding to our list of available amenities, feel free to send an email at info@RentFromFriends.com and we will gladly consider adding it to our library of amenities if appropriate.  In the meantime, you can list the amenity in your property description.
12. How do I guarantee that those renting my place are truly “friends”?While news of our web site spreads among friends by word of mouth, please understand that Rent from Friends is a public site.  Therefore, we encourage you to verify the validity of your relationship with the persons trying to reserve your property.  Out of an abundance of caution, we encourage you to apply the suggestions mentioned in Questions Young People Ask — Answers That Work, Volume 2 p. 102, where it says in part, “Communicate only with people you know or whose identity you can verify.”  You can use the messaging system built inside of Rent from Friends to ask discerning questions to help make that determination.
13. Why do you charge a service fee and not just offer this service for free? There are costs involved with running and maintaining the RentFromFriends.com site, not to mention the credit card processing fees that are charged for transactions in order for our users to have a legitimate e-commerce transaction that can be tracked and refunded if there are issues.  Costs include hosting, maintenance, customer support, credit card transactions and more.
14. Who runs Rent from Friends? Rent from Friends is owned and operated by Jack Russell Technologies, LLC.  You can read more about us here on LinkedIn as well as a small bio here. You can also visit our About Us page.

  FAQ’s – For both Property Owners and Guests

1. What is the refund policy if a guest cancels? For simplicity, currently one refund policy is being used, which is the following:
   • A guest can receive a full refund of the accommodation fees if they cancel the booking at least 14 days (336 hours) prior to the local check-in time (or 3:00 PM if not specified) on the day of check-in.
   • However, a guest will only receive a 50% refund of the accommodation fees if the cancellation is made at least 7 days (168 hours) prior to the local check-in time (or 3:00 PM if not specified) on the day of check-in.
   • If a cancellation is not made within the aforementioned 7 days, no refund will be given to the guest, unless the owner of the property rental requests that Rent from Friends issue a full or partial refund to the guest based on an arrangement the two parties (guest and property owner) have worked out.
   • No refund is given if a guest decides to cancel after check-in.
   • No refunds of service fees are given if the guest cancels less than 14 days (336 hours) prior to check-in time (or 3:00 PM if not specified) on the day of check-in.

   In the future, more refund options may be available, but for now, we have selected this single policy to keep things simple.

  FAQ’s – For Guests Renting Properties from Owners

1. How do I guarantee that those from whom I am renting are truly “friends”?While news of our web site spreads among friends by word of mouth, please understand that Rent from Friends is a public site.  Nevertheless, before approving a new listing, we make an effort to reach out to the property owner to verify their identity.  If a property owner wants the “verified” mark on their owner listing as shown below … … we require a property owner to provide specific information as part of our internal verification process. Once this is provided, we will mark their profile as “verified”.  Another way a listing may be marked as “verified” is that the individuals are personally known by employees or owners of Rent from Friends. Still, if you have concerns, or if the listing is not marked as “verified”, we encourage you to verify the validity of your relationship with the property owner in whose property you are interested in renting.  You can use the messaging system built inside of Rent from Friends to ask discerning questions. That being said, Rent from Friends does not endorse any member, listing or services. Any references to a member being “verified” (or similar language) only indicate that the member has completed a relevant verification or identification process and nothing else. Any such description is not an endorsement, certification or guarantee by Rent from Friends about any member, including of the member’s identity or background or whether the member is trustworthy, safe or suitable. You should always exercise due diligence and care when deciding whether to stay in an accommodation, which is why we always encourage communication between parties.