How to List Your Land for Recreational Access (Step by Step)

To list your land on WildPass, create a host account, decide whether access is free or paid, build a listing with photos and rules, draw a zone map with an entrance and parking marker, and create one or more passes. Listing is free. Nothing here promises bookings, and screens may change over time.

Before you start: who can host

Hosts must be US landowners. You must be 18 or older to host or book, and accounts for 13 to 17 year olds must be linked to an adult guardian and cannot book or host. If the land is held by a family member, a trust or a company, make sure the person setting up the listing has the authority to do so.

Also take a moment to check the basics that sit outside any platform: your local rules on commercial recreation, your insurance and any tax-program terms. They are covered in the last section and in the linked articles.

Step 1: decide free or paid, and set up payments

Some owners want to let people in for free, such as a family that opens a trail or a landowner who welcomes foragers. Others want income. Both are possible.

• Free access: you can offer free passes. Hosts who only offer free access do not provide banking or tax information, and pricing fields stay locked on a free-only account.
• Paid access: you set a price, and payments run through Stripe. You will verify your identity and bank directly with Stripe, and you must finish that before you can publish priced passes; until then you can publish free passes and add prices later.

If you are unsure how to think about price, the host guide and the articles on hunting lease prices and how much to charge for foraging access give you starting points.

WildPass uses Stripe for payments. Paid hosts connect an account and complete verification with Stripe directly. Stripe pays hosts out about two business days after a booking and handles IRS Form 1099-K reporting, which is explained in what is a 1099-K for landowners.

Guests pay your listed price plus a 6% WildPass fee. You receive 100% of your listed price, though standard payment-processing costs apply. As the host you are the merchant of record, so refunds follow the policy you state in your listing.

Step 2: build the listing

Your listing is what a guest sees before they decide. Fill it out like a briefing for a stranger. The new-listing form is one page with numbered sections (basics, map, activities, species, amenities, rules and passes), and some fields are required: title, description, acreage, town, state, land rules, at least one activity, at least one pass, and the entrance and parking markers.

• Title and description: what the land is, where it is and what guests can do.
• Location and acreage: town, state and approximate size, plus the pin you set on the map.
• Activities: choose from what WildPass supports, such as foraging, hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, water access, winter activities, farming plots, events, photography and birdwatching, each with optional season months and activity-specific rules.
• Species and seasons: list what you actually see and when.
• Amenities and photos: facilities, parking, toilets, views and trails. Photos are optional, JPEG only and limited to eight per listing.

How to photograph and describe your land has a shot list and a checklist of what to write.

Be specific about what is and is not on offer. If you allow foraging but not hunting, say so. If a trail crosses a neighbor’s property or the road gets impassable after rain, say that too. The listing is also where you describe species and seasons, and it is better to under-promise than to describe a hillside full of mushrooms you saw once.

Step 3: draw the zone map and write the rules

The zone map is the heart of a listing. You draw the property boundary, then mark open (green) zones where guests may go and off-limits (red) zones where they may not. You must also place an entrance marker and a parking marker.

• Mark wells, ponds you do not want used, steep banks, equipment areas, livestock, your home and anything else that is risky or private as red.
• Keep green zones simple and easy to follow on a phone.
• Place the entrance exactly where guests should turn in, and the parking marker where they should leave their vehicle.
• Optionally upload a premade property map image; guests see it alongside the drawn map and it prints on their ticket.
• Add check-in notes, such as parking, a gate code or a phone number, which are shared with guests after they book.

Our guide to making your property safe for guests helps you decide what belongs in the red zones.

Rules protect the land, your neighbors and your guests. Keep them short, put the most important first and explain the reason behind them. Harvest limits apply per pass, so set them to match what your land can bear. The rules for guests article has wording you can adapt.

Step 4: create your passes

A pass is an access product you design. You decide how long it lasts, what it costs and what it allows.

• Duration: an hour, a day, a weekend, a week, a month, a season or a year.
• Price, and optionally per-person pricing.
• Group-size cap and daily capacity.
• Per-pass harvest limits and the list of allowed activities.
• Commercial harvest on or off.
• Optional group discount: a percentage off once a group reaches a size you choose.

You can offer several passes on one listing, such as a cheap day pass for foragers, a weekend camping pass and a season pass for hunters. Each pass has its own activity list, so a camper does not accidentally get hunting rights and a forager does not get a campsite.

Start with fewer passes than you think you need. Two or three clear products are easier for guests to compare than a dozen overlapping ones, and you can add more after you see what people ask for. If you set group-size caps and daily capacity thoughtfully, you also protect the land from overuse on busy days.

Step 5: choose a waiver and decide on Unlimited

You can require guests to accept a liability waiver; the option is switched on by default in the listing form, and acceptance is recorded with each booking. WildPass waivers release ordinary negligence, never gross negligence or willful misconduct. They are not a substitute for insurance, and WildPass does not provide liability insurance, so hosts should carry their own. Read the liability waiver page and the insurance directory, and ask your agent and a local attorney what fits.

WildPass Unlimited is an optional membership, and each listing has an optional checkbox to take part. Members pay $65 a month for up to 25 non-commercial day passes at participating properties, and 80% of the member fee is distributed to the hosts a member visits. Eligibility depends on enough participating listings in the member’s home state. Details are on the membership page.

Take your time with the first listing. Having a friend who has never visited the property read it and tell you what is unclear is the cheapest quality check available, and it usually catches the gaps you stopped noticing years ago.

After you publish: what guests see and do

Guests find your listing through search and the map, so the title, activities and location pin matter. They read your zones, rules and passes, choose a start date and group size, and pay. A group can check out once for the same dates, with everyone’s names on the shared pass.

• Each booking has a message thread between you and the guest.
• The ticket includes a QR code, zone map and check-in details, and works offline in the Android app.
• On hunt bookings, guests can optionally share hunting license information with you.
• Ratings go both ways and are tied to completed bookings.
• Incident reports are available if something goes wrong.

Before a guest arrives, read the booking details and the guest list so you know who is coming and how many. A short message confirming the gate, the parking spot and any recent changes, such as a washed-out bridge or a burn ban, prevents most arrival-day problems. Afterward, leave an honest rating, since ratings are two-way and tied to completed bookings.

Be ready to respond quickly and to follow your own rules consistently. If trouble arises, what to do when a guest breaks your rules walks through a calm response.

Plan for the unexpected too. Decide how you will handle a guest who arrives late, a gate left open, a storm that closes your road or a conflict with a neighbor. You do not need a rule for every possibility, but you should know who you will call and what you will say.

Go live with confidence

Before you publish, run through a short list. Insurance is confirmed with your agent, local permits and tax rules are checked, hazards are marked, gates and signs work, and your rules and passes say the same thing as your description. Walk the property once more as a guest would, starting from the parking marker, and fix anything confusing.

When you are ready, start from host onboarding to create your host account, then complete the new-listing form and publish. Update the listing each season so it stays accurate.