You can see what a booking pays as soon as it comes through, but what's the risk that the guest will cause damage to your property?
Truvi released its 2026 STR Risk & Resilience Report this week, and across more than 95,000 bookings, around 1 in 59 led to a protection request for guest damage.
But some booking patterns carried way more risk than others. For example, stays of 21–30 nights were 2.4x as likely to result in an incident as the average booking:
This report caught my eye because there isn’t much data on the types of bookings that carry the highest risk of property damage. So it helps to put numbers behind things we usually have to judge by gut feel.
Here’s what else stood out:
Overcrowding can matter more than size
First, let's look at how many guests your property can accommodate.
Incident rates generally rose as the max capacity of a property went up. That makes sense, but the trend wasn’t perfectly linear:
Now look at the number of guests per bathroom:
The second chart gets at something that max capacity misses. 8 guests staying in a house with 4 bathrooms is a totally different setup than 8 guests sharing 2 bathrooms. The headcount is the same, but the wear and tear on the property isn’t.
Keep that in mind when a guest asks to bring “just one more person.” It sounds like a small favor. But it’s the small, overcrowded properties with people sleeping on couches and floors where the risk of damage gets higher.
Amenities come with tradeoffs
The amenities you advertise can also shape the trips your property attracts.
In Truvi’s data, properties advertising 5 or more group-entertainment features (ex: pool table + outdoor seating + barbecue + pool + hot tub), are 2.3x as likely to end in an incident.
And here’s the breakdown by individual amenity:
These patterns don't say that amenities inherently carry risk, or that they aren’t right for your property.
But most hosts just see how much additional revenue an amenity brings to the property… they don't always understand what kind of bookings that amenity attracts, and include the upkeep and potential damage costs that come along with the extra revenue.
Timing, distance, and age
Beyond the property itself, Truvi found differences based on when guests booked, how far they traveled, and the primary guest’s age.
Same-day bookings had higher incident rates than bookings made further ahead:
Nearby guests also had higher incident rates. The lowest-risk distance was 1,001–5,000 miles:
Incident rates went down as the primary guest’s age went up:
Look at the whole booking
No single factor tells you how a stay will go. But if you know what bookings tend to be more risky, you can see a booking that has several red flags at the same time (like a last-minute, local booking, with extra guests).
Most hosts don’t have this kind of information on hand. Knowing these patterns can help you recognize bookings that deserve a closer look, and take precautions before guests arrive.
P.S. - It’s always a good idea to understand your protection before you need it. THR’s AirCover guide and fine print explainer are useful starting points
Data Source: Truvi’s 2026 STR Risk & Resilience Report. Booking analysis covers January 1–September 16, 2026; damage-category analysis covers April–September 2026. An “incident” means a host opened a protection request. Findings show associations, not causes.
Further reading
