The bar every listing
has to clear.
Most rental sites let anything through and hope for the best. We don't. Here are the ten things a place must pass before it ever reaches you — and a free tool to hold any listing, anywhere, to the same bar.
Found a listing somewhere else? Grade it.
Paste any rental — from Craigslist, Facebook, anywhere — and our Scam Shield grades it against the Standard in seconds. Free, no account.
1 · A verified human host
Government ID checked before the place is ever shown. No anonymous landlords, no bots.
2 · Scam-screened before you see it
Our Scam Shield checks every listing for fraud the moment it's posted.
3 · You pay nobody before you have the keys
Your first month is frozen the moment you pay it, and only reaches the host once you've confirmed you're in. Where state law allows, your deposit is protected for the whole stay too.
4 · Real photos, real place
Images are screened; stolen or stock photos don't make it through.
5 · A signed Renter's Bill of Rights
Every host agrees to it before listing. You know your rights up front.
6 · Honest pricing, no commission
We never take a cut of your rent and there are no surprise fees. Renters pay their rent and nothing on top; hosts pay a flat $29 a month per room to have it collected.
7 · Safe, in-app messaging
Conversations are screened in real time, and we'll never ask you to pay off-platform.
8 · See it before you commit
Verified video tours so you meet the real place and the real person.
9 · Reviews from real stays only
Two-way reviews exist only when a tenancy actually happened. No fakes, no paid ratings.
10 · The First Night Promise
If it's not the place you were promised, you don't stay — claim within 48 hours of move-in, refunded in full when you return the keys.
How we decide a deposit dispute
These are the rules our own reviewers follow, published so you can hold us to them. We also publish how disputes actually come out — see the Safety Ledger.
Sharelet must never gain or lose money based on how a dispute comes out. If a decision would affect what we earn, we don't make it.
We decide the money, not the merits
A resolution decides only where the protected funds go. It is not a finding about who breached a lease, who caused damage, or who owes whom. Either party can pursue the other in court or small claims for anything they believe is still owed, and this decision does not stop them or count against them there.
Never decide where Sharelet has a stake
Sharelet's fee is earned when a deposit is funded and does not change with the outcome. If that ever stops being true for a case — if any amount, fee, refund or cost to us moves depending on which way it goes — the decision is not ours to make and the case goes to an outside resolver at our expense.
Rules first, then evidence
Decide against the published deduction standards and the sealed move-in baseline, in that order. If the standards don't cover it, that is a gap to write into the standards, not a judgment call to make privately once.
Both sides, before any money moves
Every resolution is a proposal with a written reason, sent to both parties, with 48 hours to add new evidence before funds move. A decision the loser first learns about from their bank balance is not a decision, it is an ambush.
Who pays us is not a tiebreaker
Membership, Operator status, listing volume, review score and how long someone has been here are not evidence about a scuffed floor. They must not enter the reasoning, and they must not appear in the written rationale.
Say when you don't know
Where the evidence genuinely does not resolve it, split it or return it to the renter rather than guessing confidently. The deposit is the renter's money until someone shows otherwise — that is the default the law starts from, and it is the right one to fall back to.