How SetStay protects every booking.
Productions need housing that won't fall through. Hosts need to know they'll be paid. Vendors need verified clients. Here's the full picture — in plain English.
The three pillars of SetStay protection
$19 Booking Guarantee
Optional per-booking add-on. If a host bails inside 7 days, misrepresents the property, or it's unsafe to occupy — SetStay refunds the production 100% from a protection pool and helps rebook.
Certificate of Insurance
Every host provides their legal entity name, property address, and mortgagee on file. Productions can hand it straight to their broker — no chasing required.
Verified hosts & productions
Hosts upload residency / business proof to a private vault. Productions verify their company, IMDb credits, and contact. Tier badges on every profile.
$19 per night that buys real protection — with real limits.
SetStay is a marketplace, not an insurer. The Guarantee is a capped platform credit funded by the $19 fee — purpose-built for the housing failures productions actually hit.
Covers
- Host cancels less than 7 days before check-in
- Property materially misrepresented (size, beds, amenities)
- Unsafe to occupy on arrival (no power, no heat, structural)
Does NOT cover
- Production shutdown / schedule change
- On-set incidents, talent injuries, equipment loss
- Weather, force majeure, road closures
- Vendor non-performance, equipment, talent
- Criminal acts or consequential damages
Per-booking cap
$2,000
Up to one night's rate
Per-production cap
$5,000
Lifetime across the project
Productions are still required to carry $1M General Liability insurance. The Guarantee complements production insurance — it does not replace it. Full terms: Disclaimers & limitations.
Three policies. Set by the host, locked in at booking.
Refunds are calculated automatically and routed back through Stripe — including a proportional reversal of the platform's application fee, so hosts and SetStay share the burden fairly.
Flexible
- • 100% refund up to 24 hrs before check-in
- • After that: no refund
Moderate
- • 100% refund up to 7 days before check-in
- • 50% refund inside 7 days
- • 0% inside 24 hrs
Strict
- • 100% refund up to 14 days before check-in
- • 0% inside 14 days
If the host cancels — for any reason — the production gets a 100% refund regardless of policy. The $19 Guarantee fee is non-refundable in either direction (it funded the protection that was active until that moment).
Real hosts. Real productions.
- Host residency or business proof + EIN uploaded to a private vault. Never public.
- Stripe Connect identity verification before any payout is released.
- Production verification: company name, IMDb / project credits, point-of-contact.
- AI-assisted listing verification flags inconsistencies before approval.
Paperwork productions actually want.
- Certified Tax Reports per project — signed PDFs accepted by accounting teams and state film offices.
- Annual host tax summary with bed-tax, platform fees, and net payouts itemized.
- COI fields surfaced on every confirmed booking — broker-ready.
Honest about what SetStay is — and isn't
SetStay is a marketplace. We connect productions with vetted hosts and vendors, hold funds in escrow, and provide a capped guarantee. We are not a licensed insurer, the property owner, or the production company. Disputes outside the Guarantee scope are resolved between the parties — we provide records and best-effort support.
Read the full disclaimer