Do you 'vet' Digs, Hosts or Guests?

We take accuracy, honesty and safety very seriously. 

This article outlines part of our approach to making sure users of our site are meeting expected standards and covers the following:

• What we do to 'vet' Hosts and their Digs.
• How Guests can find out more about Hosts and their Digs before requesting a booking.
• What we do to 'vet' Guests.
• How Hosts can find out more about Guests before accepting a booking.

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Vetting Hosts

Vetting Digs

Vetting Guests

Vetting Hosts

All Hosts are required to validate their email address and enter valid home/business addresses, digs addresses and phone numbers.

Before creating an account, all users are required to acknowledge and adhere to our Terms and Conditions and Code of Conduct.

We aim to visually check all new bookable listings within one week of going live. We also ask all Hosts to call to 'verbally verify' their listings when we check details and help prevent fake accounts. Not all Hosts are available during the day and so not all Hosts have been verbally verified but we always follow this up with emails and support articles.

Hosts with children in their home are responsible for ensuring that their children are safeguarded. 

Ultimately, whatever a platform's processes or information about a Host, it is essential that the Guest feels comfortable booking with (and staying with when 'Living with Host') their Hosts and therefore we actively encourage Guests to ensure they have all the detail needed before booking. 

To find out more about a Host, Guests can enter their required dates into the listing to reveal the details of the Host. By clicking on the name of the Host, Guests are taken to the Host's profile. 

The Host profile shows information about the Hosts verification, as well as a bit about them. 

Scrolling down will show all available booking history, including how long the Host has been on the site for and their acceptance rate. 

Scrolling further will show any Guest reviews that they have received during their time at TheatreDigsBooker.

In most cases, this is enough for Guests to make an informed choice but all Guests are more than welcome to message the Host and ask any questions they feel they need to via the 'Contact Host' button:

Vetting Digs

We do not 'vet' or inspect digs ourselves. 

Our view from over 2000 years worth of successful bookings, is that vetting digs in a traditional sense is not useful or realistic. By traditional, we refer to a time when a representative of the theatre arranged a visit with a Host and spent a few minutes inspecting the accommodation. This does not give a realistic sense of the experience of staying in the accommodation. 

What does the bed feel like? Is there a draft when the heating goes off at midnight? What is the noise level like in the mornings or when the clubs kick out at 3am? What is it like two years after 'passing vetting'?

We believe only reviews written by Guests who have actually stayed in the accommodation can really paint an up-to-date, accurate picture of the full experience. And whilst our reviews, like most platforms, are subjective and rely on the opinion of the reviewer, most reasonable website users are able to draw their own conclusions if there are enough verified reviews to draw from.  Guests can view Digs reviews on the Host profile, and also on the Digs themselves.  Here is what a Digs review looks like on the site:

Therefore, we rely heavily on our Guests to write reviews after they have stayed. Since 90% of our bookings are by and for the theatre profession. The vast majority of reviews are from a Guest's peers which offers unrivalled relevance and trustworthiness. 

In addition to subjective reviews, our Code of Conduct for Hosts and Guests aims to give a clear set of objective criteria by which to evaluate accommodation and report any shortcomings.

With over 48,000 published booking reviews from Theatre Professionals, and with an overall average review rating of 4.9 stars out of a total star rating of 5, we believe Guests can book with more confidence now than ever before.

Vetting Guests

All Guests are required to validate their email address and enter a valid phone number.

Before creating an account, all users are required to acknowledge and adhere to our Terms and Conditions and Code of Conduct.

Ultimately, whatever a platform's processes or information about a Guest, it is essential that the Host feels comfortable accepting a booking and so we actively encourage Hosts to ensure they have all the detail needed before proceeding.

Hosts are welcome to assess any potential Guest on an individual basis, once they have received a booking request, and either accept or reject the booking at that stage.  

Guests are required to write a booking message to explain any details about why they are booking or if they have any specific needs, concerns or questions. A Host can ask the Guest as many questions as required before accepting a booking.  To do this login to Host account, select the requested booking and click onto the 'messages' button. For more information about this please view this useful help article How to message a Guest.

Beyond this, more information about a Guest can be found on their profile which can be accessed by clicking their name or avatar on the site.  This information includes Guest reviews from Hosts that the Guest has stayed with -  TheatreDigsBooker has over 55,000 Guest reviews currently, giving Hosts even more confidence than ever when choosing to accept bookings from a Guest!

Hosts should be able to view the Guest's profile, showing information about their current/future tour (if they're using their Tour Code), professional body association and their verification. 

Scrolling down will show how long they have been registered for as well as their booking history.

Scrolling further will show any reviews written by their previous Hosts.

We also encourage Hosts to message Guests with any queries they might have should the profile or booking message not provide enough information.  

If you have any questions please visit our Help centre

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