How to vet the person who will run your home in India

You will hand a stranger your keys, your reviews and part of your income. The questions below separate a professional manager from a cousin of a friend with a WhatsApp group.

We wrote this checklist so that you can use it with anyone, including us. A good manager answers every point in writing without being chased. Hesitation on money flows or exit terms tells you more than any brochure.

1. What exactly are you signing?

There are two broad models. Under a management mandate, the manager acts in your name: bookings and the income are yours, and the manager earns a fee or commission. Under a lease or master tenancy, someone rents your property and sublets it; you receive a fixed rent and lose sight of how the home is used. Read the contract title and check which model you are actually signing.

2. Who touches the money, and when?

• Does the platform pay you directly, or does money pass through the manager's account?
• If it passes through them, how many days before it reaches you?
• Which costs are paid from it, and with which receipts?

Vague answers here are the single most common source of disputes between absent owners and local operators.

3. What will you see each month?

Ask for a sample report before signing. It should list each stay with dates, gross amount, platform commission, cleaning, consumables, repairs and the net sum paid. Photos after deep cleans and a log of guest complaints are signs of a manager with nothing to hide.

4. Guests and the home

Ask how fast they answer guests at night, how they check identities at arrival, how they handle a guest who breaks the house rules, and who checks the home after each cleaning. A manager who cannot describe a normal arrival in detail has not done many.

5. Spending authority

Agree a ceiling for repairs without prior approval, a list of approved tradespeople and a rule for emergencies. Everything above the ceiling should need your written yes.

6. Access and keys

Who holds keys, lock codes and alarm codes? Can you change them when the contract ends? Does the manager ever let friends, staff or contractors stay between bookings? It should be written down.

7. Pricing discipline

Ask how nightly prices are set and reviewed. A manager filling the calendar with deep discounts keeps occupancy high and your income low. Ask to see the rules they apply to weekends, festivals and last-minute gaps, and how minimum stays are chosen.

8. Leaving

• Notice period and any exit fee.
• Handover of the listing, reviews and future bookings.
• Return of keys, codes, documents and deposits within a fixed number of days.

9. Promises to be wary of

A guaranteed annual figure before anyone has visited the property is a warning sign. So is a manager who cannot show you a real monthly statement from another owner, names removed.

How Hexuvium answers these questions

We work under a management agreement. The property stays yours. We handle listing, pricing, guest messages, check-ins, cleaning coordination and a monthly statement with every receipt. Our fees and exit terms are written into the mandate before you sign, and we do not quote income guarantees.