Privacy Policy

We collect only what we need to run your account, show listings, carry your messages, and take the two payments we handle. Verification is optional; if you choose it, those documents are stored privately, reviewed by a real person, and deleted when they are no longer needed. Rent moves directly between Host and Guest — TravelerShare never holds rent funds. We do not sell your data.

When you sign up we collect your name, email address, password, and whether you are joining as a Host or a Guest. Optionally you can add your traveler type and a short “About you” description. Guests can also post dates and a zip code as a housing request.

A Guest's full profile is visible to a Host only once you are connected — through a message thread or an open request in that Host's area. Housing requests appear on the Host demand map as counts by area and month, without your personal details.

What visitors who aren't signed in can see. If you have an open housing request, a short version of your Guest profile page can be seen by anyone, including visitors who aren't signed in. It shows only your first name and last initial, your traveler type, your “About you” text (with any phone numbers, emails or links removed), the "Verified" badge if you have one, and the dates and general area of your request. It never shows your full name, email, ID name, workplace or school, or verification documents. Closing your request removes this page from public view.

Your traveler type on a house listing. A Host may list the traveler types of the people currently staying in a house (for example, "1 nurse, 1 student"). This shows only the traveler type — never your name or profile. If you don't want your traveler type listed, ask the Host to remove it or email support@travelershare.com and we will remove it.

Verification is never required to join, message, or send a housing request. If a Guest chooses to verify:

• Government ID and photo. Processed by Stripe Identity. Stripe performs the selfie match, and we never receive your selfie or ID image — only the result of the check and the verified legal name. Stripe retains its verification record under its own schedule.
• Work or student credential. If you upload a badge or license, the file is stored privately in an access-controlled vault and is visible only to our review team. Hosts are never shown the document itself.

Who can see your verification. Your verified badge — the word "Verified" next to your name and nothing else — can appear on your Guest profile page, which people reach from the open requests list, including visitors who aren't signed in. Your ID name and your work or school location become visible to a Host only once a conversation with you is open.

When the verified ID name does not match the name on the credential, it goes to manual review rather than auto-approval. A reviewer approves or declines and records a short rationale.

• Uploaded student or work ID photos are kept while verification is awaiting a decision. After approval or rejection, they become eligible for deletion after 24 hours. Cleanup runs when verification screens are used, rather than on a fixed timer, so deletion may occur later than 24 hours after the decision — but in any case within 7 days.
• For rejected manual reviews, we keep a separate text-only decision record — the outcome, date, names on the ID and credential, and the reviewer's note — for 12 months, then remove it through automatic cleanup. Approved decisions are not kept in this archive; any archived approval records are removed by routine cleanup. This is separate from your current verification record, which retains verification status, your ID name, and workplace or school after the photo is deleted.
• For the ID check we store only the pass/fail status and verified name; the underlying record sits with Stripe.

Verification is valid for one year. When it expires, your verified badge is removed and you can renew from your Guest dashboard — renewing means running the checks again, so the $4.99 fee applies to each renewal. Renewing after it has expired goes through a short review before the fee is charged.

You can delete your verification at any time from your Guest dashboard — no need to ask us. Deleting it removes your verified badge, verified name, and workplace or school from every conversation and from your profile page, and deletes your uploaded credential photo. You can still use the site normally, and you can verify again later — verifying again means running the checks again, so the $4.99 fee applies to each new verification.

TravelerShare processes two payments: the optional $4.99 Guest verification fee (valid for one year) and the $399/year per-house Host plan. Both go through Stripe.

• We never store full card numbers. Stripe handles the card and we keep only a reference to it.
• Rent is settled directly between Host and Guest. TravelerShare never receives, holds, or transfers rent or deposits.
• We keep transaction records (amount, date, status) for the verification fee and Host plans for seven years, for accounting and tax purposes.

Hosts and Guests can message freely inside TravelerShare and are welcome to exchange phone numbers or emails whenever they choose. Conversations are private between the two parties. Our team may review account information — including messages — for moderation, safety, and support. Message content is stored so we can show your conversation and support safety reviews; it is never sold or used to train outside models.

We send email notifications about new messages and about your account. These are sent through our email provider, which processes your address on our behalf. We may also occasionally send TravelerShare news and updates; every one of those emails includes an unsubscribe link.

The details Hosts publish — room and bathroom counts, square footage, amenities, the careers of current Guests, photos, rate, and availability — are public so Travelers can find a match. Your street address is never shown publicly; we use it only to place your house on the map, and our team may view it when reviewing a report. Check-in and house notes are private and shared only in a conversation the Host chooses.

If you start a listing form and don’t finish it, we save that draft — including any photos you added — to your account, so you can pick up where you left off on any device.

We use cookies and similar browser storage to keep you signed in and remember basic preferences, and we look at aggregate usage to understand which pages help people. We do not sell your browsing data or run third-party advertising trackers.

Account data, messages, listing information, and uploaded files are stored with Lovable Cloud, our managed database and file storage provider, under access controls. Uploaded student or work ID photos sit in a separate access-controlled store. Passwords are hashed, and traffic to the site is encrypted. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your personal data, we will notify you and the authorities as the law requires.

We share data only with the service providers that make the site work — Lovable Cloud for database and file storage, our hosting provider, Stripe for payments and identity checks, our email provider, and map and geocoding services — and when the law requires it. You can read Stripe's privacy policy. Your data may be stored in the United States or other countries where these providers operate. We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

• Access and export. You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Edit or delete. You can update your profile at any time, clear your housing requests, delete conversations, and remove your verification yourself from your Guest dashboard at any time.
• Close your account. Closing your account deletes your verification data per the schedule above and removes your listings and messages.

Depending on where you live, state law may give you additional rights — for example, to know, correct, delete, or opt out of certain uses of your personal information. We honor those rights for all members regardless of state. To exercise any of these, write to us at support@travelershare.com. We will not discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right.

TravelerShare is for adults. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18; if we learn we have, we delete it.

We may update this policy as the service changes. The date at the top shows the current version. If a change is material, we will notify members by email before it takes effect.

Questions about this policy or your data? Contact us at support@travelershare.com or by mail at TravelerShare, Attn: Privacy, 6650 Rivers Ave, Ste 100, Charleston, SC 29406.

Need to report a listing or a member? Visit our Help Center for reporting and dispute steps.