Thinking of Renting Your Home for a Week? Here's What Nobody Tells You First
Updated: Aug 24
The very first morning our renters arrived, they had no water. Our well went out overnight and nobody knew until someone turned on a faucet and nothing came out. It was the first day of the airshow, the entire reason they fly from England every single year, it was close to 100 degrees and humid, and a few of them had already showered before it stopped completely. My husband had just come off a night shift and gone to bed. I woke him up anyway.
Four thousand dollars and one emergency well drilling later, we were back in business.
If you are thinking about renting your home for a week — welcome. It is one of the best decisions we ever made. Just know going in that Murphy's Law is absolutely real, it will find your home, and you need to be prepared to laugh about it later.
We have been renting our home during EAA AirVenture, one of the largest airshows in the world, for twelve years to the same group of guests who fly in from England every summer. Here is everything we learned so you do not have to figure it out the hard way.
Why We Started and Why We Keep Doing It
The math was simple when we first looked at it. One week of rental income covered our entire family vacation, and since we needed to be out of the house anyway, it just made sense. We started when the boys were young and we were taking family vacations out of state that week regardless.
Twelve years later that same rental income has paid for our landscaping, our property taxes, a new king bed, and yes, a new well. We feel very fortunate and we know that. There are horror stories out there about renting your home to strangers and we have heard plenty of them. Our experience has been the exception, not the rule, and we know that too. But we also believe that the right approach from the beginning makes all the difference.
How It Works for Us, And How It Might Work for You
Our renters come specifically for EAA AirVenture. They are up before dawn, at the airfield all day, out to dinner in the evening, and home to sleep. Our home is essentially a hotel with a dining room table big enough to spread out laptops and share the thousands of photos they take every single day. Fast reliable Wi-Fi is not optional for them, it is essential. Know your renters and know what matters most to them.
We started with a family. As their kids grew up the group evolved into a collection of plane enthusiasts who share a passion for aviation and a loyalty to our street that genuinely touches us every single year.
How We Handle the Money
In the early years we asked for half the rental amount via bank wire as a deposit with the remainder paid in cash upon arrival. After four or five years of building trust that system evolved completely. They now pay the full amount in cash when they arrive. If we are not in town, we have a family member collect it and deposit it for us, and honestly our family loves seeing the group anyway, so it works out beautifully for everyone.
Start formal. Evolve to trust. There is no shame in protecting yourself early on and no shame in relaxing that over time when the relationship has earned it.
What We Did in the Beginning That We No Longer Do
In the early years we emptied entire closets and dressers so our renters could put their belongings away comfortably. We deep cleaned everything, changed the vents, bought new towels, and even replaced the toilet seats — okay, we still do that one.
What we discovered after having to return to the house mid-week a couple of times is that they never opened a single drawer. Not one. They live out of their suitcases for the week, and our carefully emptied dresser drawers sat completely untouched the entire time.
Now I empty the top drawer of one dresser as a courtesy, just in case, that's it.
We also left detailed written instructions for the grill every single year, they have never once used the grill.
The Unexpected Benefit Nobody Talks About
Renting your home forces you to maintain it in a way that daily life simply does not. Every year before our guests arrive we fix the small repairs we let slide, clean the inside of the light fixtures, replace anything that looks worn, patch the nail hole in the drywall where a picture used to hang, and make sure every bed has a fresh clean mattress pad.
We upgrade pillows more often than we otherwise would. We notice things that need attention because we are seeing our home through a stranger's eyes. In a very real way, our home is better maintained because we rent it than it would be if we did not. That is a benefit nobody mentions when they talk about home rentals and it is one of the things we value most about the experience.
What to Leave — And What to Take
We do not empty the refrigerator or pantry completely. Condiments stay. Anything new and unopened stays. Our Brita pitcher stays. The pantry keeps its normal staples — flour, sugar, the canisters — along with any boxed or canned items that are new and unopened. Same with our garage beverage fridge.
What we do make sure to have ready for them:
A fresh coffee setup: coffee maker, filters, mugs for everyone, and enough coffee to get them started their first morning. A water kettle for tea, because after twelve years with our English guests we have learned that a kettle is non-negotiable. A new bar of soap in each shower and a few small toiletries in case anyone forgot something — travel size shampoo, conditioner, the basics. It costs almost nothing and it feels like a warm welcome.
Personal items come out of the shower of course. Beyond that we leave the house feeling like a comfortable furnished home, not a stripped-down rental. Because that is what it is.
No Physical Keys Needed
We do not give our renters physical keys and we never have. A garage code handles everything — they can come and go at any hour without anyone needing to coordinate a key exchange. If multiple people are arriving and leaving at different times throughout the day and night a code makes that completely seamless.
We use the same code for them every year which they appreciate. Once they leave we can reprogram it if we choose — a simple step that takes about thirty seconds and gives you complete peace of mind.
Cameras Are Non-Negotiable
We have had cameras at our front door, back door, and garage for years — even before Ring cameras existed. We consider them essential and not just for security. The ability to see what is happening at the house remotely has saved us multiple times.
The Ring camera in particular has a feature worth knowing about — you can speak directly through it to whoever is at your door. When a renter cannot figure out something outside the house or needs guidance on arrival that two-way communication has been genuinely useful more than once. If you are renting your home invest in a camera setup before your first guests arrive. You will not regret it.
Things That Will Go Wrong — A Partial List
Let me save you some surprises. Here is a partial list of things that happened to us over twelve years that we never saw coming:
The plunger. We do not keep ours out in the open. One of their children plugged a toilet in the lower-level bathroom and nobody could find the plunger. We guided them to where it was hidden over the phone. Now it is mentioned in the house manual.
The beeping. Our underground dog fence got spliced right as they arrived and the unit in the garage began beeping — loudly and continuously. They heard it from the moment they walked in. They were too polite to call for a while. We came back mid-week and unplugged it. Silence restored.
The grandfather clock. We have one in the lower-level living room where one of the guests sleeps on a pullout sofa. The ticking kept him awake. We now remove the clock every year before they arrive. Problem permanently solved.
The thermostat cover. Our thermostat has a cover over it which hides the buttons. Our renters could not figure out how to adjust the air conditioning because they did not know the cover existed. A simple explanation over the phone fixed it instantly — and it went straight into the house manual.
The garage code battery. One year they arrived and the correct code would not open the garage door. The 9-volt battery in the keypad unit was dead. We had no idea because we use the openers in our vehicles and never touch the keypad. They were standing outside unable to get in. Now we change that battery every single year before they arrive without fail.
The shower head. The very first year they called to ask when the upstairs shower would be repaired. We had no idea what they meant — the shower worked perfectly. When we bought the house, it had a very small original shower head that we had never thought twice about. They assumed there was no shower head at all and never even tried it. We all laughed about that one. The following year we installed a proper shower head and have never heard about it again.
The well. See opening paragraph.
A Note About Pets
We have always had a dog. Quinn is our current girl and before her there were others — always a dog in the house, always part of the family. And every year before our guests arrive every single trace of dog life disappears completely.
Dog beds gone. Food and water bowls put away. Toys out of sight. Treats in a cabinet. Everything that signals a dog lives here gets tucked away before they arrive.
More importantly — the house gets cleaned with fresh pet smell in mind. Carpets vacuumed thoroughly, furniture wiped down, candles or a light fresh scent running before they walk in. A house that smells clean and welcoming tells your guests everything they need to know about how you take care of your space.
We have never once advertised that we have a dog. We have never once been asked. If someone did ask we would absolutely tell them honestly — but volunteering that information upfront felt unnecessary when the house is clean, fresh, and shows no evidence of pet life whatsoever.
If you have pets and are considering renting your home — do not let that stop you. Just make sure your home tells the story of a clean welcoming space, not a home where animals live. Those are two very different first impressions and you have complete control over which one your guests walk into.
The Awkwardness of Returning to Your Own Home
There will be moments during the week when you need to retrieve something from the house — a piece of equipment, a document, something you forgot. Let me prepare you for what that feels like.
You pull up to your own home. You ring your own doorbell or knock on your own door. It is deeply strange. If nobody is home, which in our case is 99% of the time since our guests use the house almost exclusively to sleep, you let yourself in and someone else's shoes are by your door. Someone else's groceries are on your counter. Someone else's belongings are spread across the space you know better than anywhere in the world.
My personal rule: get in and get out as fast as humanly possible. Eyes forward. Do not linger. It is their space for the week and the fastest way to respect that is to treat your own home like you are the visitor.
The Little Things That Matter More Than You Think
Every year our guests ask us for an updated list of restaurant recommendations and places to eat nearby. It started as a practical request and became one of our favorite parts of the preparation. We look forward to putting the list together and they look forward to receiving it.
They use our home to sleep and our dining room table to gather every evening with laptops open sharing the thousands of photos they took at the airfield that day. Fast wifi is their number one requirement. A big table is their second. Everything else is secondary.
Know what matters to your renters. After twelve years we know exactly what ours need and we have it ready before they arrive.
What Twelve Years Taught Us About Trust
The moment that tells you everything about how this arrangement has evolved: as soon as the last person walks out of our house at the end of the week, we get a text. Everyone is out. See you next year.
And then they come back. Every single year for twelve years.
What started as a practical financial decision — rent the house, fund the vacation, make the math work — became something we genuinely look forward to every summer. Throughout the year we message back and forth. How is the family. How is the weather in England. What are you looking forward to at the airshow this year.
We could not be happier to welcome them back every July. And we are already looking forward to next year.
If you are thinking about renting your home — do your homework, protect yourself early, prepare for something to go wrong, and leave the kettle out. You might just end up with friends for life.
Want to stay in the loop?
Pop your email in here and I'll send a roundup of what's new on the blog about once a week, plus you'll get access to the free Social Lifeline Ritual Guide, my simple approach to staying close to the people who matter, even when life gets full.
Comments