Trust & safety
Boring is the goal.
Handing a stranger a $4,000 camera — or handing your weekend to a stranger's gear — should feel uneventful. Every rental runs through the same layered system. No exceptions, no shortcuts.
ID verification
Every renter verifies their identity before a first booking can be approved. At MVP this runs as a manual review; full Stripe Identity integration lands with the custom stack D-018.
Payment screening
Stripe Radar machine-learning screening plus 3D Secure on every transaction — the baseline layer against stolen-card fraud D-018.
Bond holds
Each owner sets a bond on their own listing, scaled to the gear's value. It's a temporary pre-authorisation — held, never charged — released after the gear comes back in good condition. The main lever against not-returned or returned-damaged loss D-017.
Photo handovers
Timestamped condition photos at check-out and check-in, taken by both parties and stored on the booking. Disputes start from evidence, not memory.
Protection Plan
Every booking includes our Protection Plan — see how it works. It's a described feature of the platform, not an insurance product — and we never call it one D-006.
Double-blind reviews
Reviews publish only once both sides submit — the Airbnb model. No retaliation, no review-for-review, honest signal for the next person.
Keeping it on-platform
Why we moderate messages.
Once two parties meet, the temptation to deal directly next time is real — and it's how protection, bonds and reviews all fall away. Messages are screened for contact details and off-platform payment hints, and flagged messages surface to both sides with a reminder of what's lost outside the system.
It's not about reading your mail. It's about keeping the safety net under every rental.
When it goes wrong
The dispute ladder.
Resolve together
Gear Envy review
Bond adjudication