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Global: Guests booking a short-term rental within 20 miles of their home are 72 per cent more likely than average to be involved in a damage incident, according to research from Truvi.
The findings are included in the company’s STR Risk & Resilience Report 2026, which analysed a sample of more than 95,000 bookings protected by Truvi between January and September 2026.
Guests travelling at least 1,000 miles were among the lowest-risk groups in the dataset, suggesting that the distance between a guest’s home and the property could help operators identify reservations requiring additional checks.
Booking lead time was another indicator. Same-day reservations were 60 per cent more likely than average to result in a damage incident, with the level of risk decreasing as guests booked further in advance.
Truvi also found that houses were approximately 2.4 times more likely than apartments to be involved in an incident.
Properties advertising at least five group entertainment facilities, such as hot tubs, saunas and pool tables, carried more than twice the average risk. When compared only with houses of a similar size, these properties remained around 60 per cent more likely to record an incident.
The report also identified an increase in the relative risk associated with direct bookings. These reservations moved from 1.34 times the average risk in Truvi’s May analysis to 1.85 times in the latest dataset.
Truvi suggested that operators accepting reservations outside online travel agencies may have access to fewer screening signals and less guest-review history. The company said property managers should introduce equivalent safeguards into their direct booking processes rather than avoiding the channel.
Kayla Perez, vice president of operations at Truvi, said: “Two guests can pass exactly the same identity checks and still present very different levels of risk. Where they’re travelling from, how far in advance they book and the type of property they’re staying in can all tell us something important.”
She added that the findings were particularly relevant as operators increased their direct bookings and assumed greater responsibility for assessing guests.
The findings represent bookings protected through Truvi’s platform and should therefore not be treated as a representative sample of the entire global short-term rental market.
Highlights
- Guests booking within 20 miles of home were 72 per cent more likely to be involved in a damage incident.
- Same-day reservations carried 60 per cent more risk than the average booking.
- Houses were around 2.4 times more likely than apartments to record an incident.
- Properties with at least five group entertainment facilities carried more than twice the average risk.
- The relative risk associated with direct bookings increased to 1.85 times the average.
- Truvi analysed more than 95,000 protected bookings made between January and September 2026.
