HEALTH & SAFETY
This article discusses ways to keep your Sicilian home and guests there safe. It’s part of our comprehensive series of guides for owners.
What safety equipment is mandatory in a Sicilian holiday home?
Three items are required by law under Decree Law 145/2023: a portable fire extinguisher, a combustible gas detector and a carbon monoxide detector. These must be installed in your individual unit, even if the building already has them in shared areas. At least one fire extinguisher is required to be present on every floor. The detectors must be in working order and compliant with European technical standards.
These are prerequisites for obtaining your national identification code (CIN), and failing to have them in place carries fines of between €600 and €6,000.
You may find that your local authority adds further obligations beyond the national rules. Airbnb maintains an English-language guide to renting to tourists in Sicily, which includes a useful rundown of requirements specific to the region.
What should I include in a first aid kit for my Sicilian holiday home?
Providing a well-stocked first aid kit in your Sicilian rental property is a legal obligation. A reasonable kit should include:
Plasters in assorted sizes, sterile wound dressings and adhesive bandages, antiseptic wipes and cream, sterile eye wash, disposable gloves, a digital thermometer, tweezers and small scissors, a foil emergency blanket and a basic first aid instruction card.
Display the local emergency number (112) and the address of the nearest hospital clearly alongside the kit.
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What insurance coverage does my Sicilian holiday home need to have?
A standard home insurance policy will almost certainly not be sufficient if you are hosting paying guests.
The most essential cover to obtain is public liability insurance (responsabilità civile), which covers injury or damage suffered by guests during their stay, including any legal proceedings that might follow. Buildings and contents cover should also specifically include both holiday let use and periods of vacancy between guests.
One quirk of Italian law worth being aware of in advance is that theft by guests can only be pursued as misappropriation (appropriazione indebita) rather than theft. A legal protection policy (polizza di tutela legale) covers you in this situation.
Many major Italian insurers including Generali, UnipolSai and Allianz all offer products which are tailored specifically to holiday home owners.
How Solemar can help
As well as always being on hand to help you navigate the complex world of insurance in a language which may not be your first, our property management team are on hand to give you advice on providers and tips to make sure you are getting the very best rates.
We can also introduce you to brokers whom we trust and in many cases use ourselves.
Do you have any practical tips for keeping guests safe in your Sicilian holiday home?
It’s almost essential to be able to use both. Portal sites give you visibility, but the ability to take direct bookings will reduce your commission over time and allow you to cultivate relationships with returning guests.
The main platforms (Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo) give you immediate access to a large international audience that’s almost impossible to replicate independently, especially in the early years. The trade-off is commission: both Airbnb and Booking.com currently charge hosts around 15% per booking. Vrbo is cheaper, at around8% including a payment processing fee, but whichever route you take this adds up significantly across a full season. Booking will also offer you a very easy and attractive reservation management platform which may prove challenging to replicate if you ever decide to leave their platform.
If your property has a pool, make sure the depth is clearly marked, that there is a reaching pole available and that your house rules address the correct use of this space explicitly.
Test your gas and carbon monoxide detectors and check your fire extinguisher at the start of each season. In fact, leasing extinguishers from an agency which will do this for you is a more practical solution for many owners.
To guarantee that access to the property is tightly controlled, consider a keypad entry system rather than physical keys. Codes can be changed between every guest, which physical keys cannot.
How Solemar can help
The welcome teams who coordinate with guests before their arrival at a Solemar property are comprehensive in their presentation of the home and of all safety equipment. Wherever possible we will send someone who is a fluent speaker of your guests’ first language.
We are extremely attentive to maintenance of detectors and extinguishers, and always collaborate with trusted rental services in order to guarantee that the equipment protecting your home is in perfect working order.
We will help you prepare a house manual and can arrange for it to be translated by native-speaking experts.