Cofounder at UpperKey. Passionate about property management, real estate investments, proptech and driving international business growth.
Whether you’re considering the current climate, recent events or how technology has significantly changed the way we behave over the past decade, one thing’s for sure: short-term and vacation lets have gone from strength to strength as a return on property investment.
Around fifteen years ago, Airbnb founded a platform that made it easier than ever for anyone with a space to rent—whether it was a couch, spare room, apartment, house or villa—to upgrade the rates of their long-term lets significantly with easier-than-ever access to the guests they needed to satisfy their required occupancy rates.
More recently, Covid-19 made the “staycation” the holiday-du-jour, as international travel took a severe hit and private holidaying spaces became an option for people looking to vacation more safely.
And now, with a cost of living crisis forcing many to reconsider their budgets, short breaks and home-away-from-home holidays are likely to continue feeding this hugely popular and ever-expanding corner of the market.
What This Means For Property Management Companies
For anyone who has ever run their own holiday let before or after Airbnb, they’ll know how much work it takes. While traditional property management companies once typically catered to long-term residential lets, there is an exceptional opportunity to break into short-term options, too. Taking the work out of the hands of investors and owners for a percentage of the profits while operating far more efficiently can be a win-win for both parties.
With the contacts, experience and staff perfectly placed to expand their range of services, real estate agents can come to the party, too, by adding short-term let management to their portfolio of services.
How Real Estate And Property Managers Can Implement BnB Management Into Their Portfolio Of Services
Platforms like Airbnb have created an opportunity for anyone who’d run a few short-term holiday rentals, or those with property management experience, to provide their services to owners and investors who don’t want to do most of the heavy lifting themselves.
And now, with real estate agents having direct access to property owners and property managers having the same with long-term letters, it’s a short skip and a jump into a short-term BnB system to maximize returns.
Adding A BnB Model To Your Existing Services
With new platforms piggybacking on the short-term rental platform idea, there are plenty of places where people are promoting and leasing those lets. Think booking.com, VRBO, Expedia and so many more—but I believe the real key to a successful model is delivering a system that takes care of every angle, but as efficiently and easily as possible. That’s where real estate professionals and those in property management can work to hit all the necessary criteria.
To do that, they should work to become specialists in three areas:
• Property management.
• Guest management.
• Listing management.
Within those three areas of expertise, they should cover:
• The practical side of maintaining the premises by keeping it in pristine condition for every guest and stay.
• Customer service and ease of access and operation for guests.
• Professional marketing to maximize occupation at the best rates.
Taking Care Of The Property
To ensure the best possible product for every new stay, property managers should ensure each property is lovingly cleaned, updated and prepared to the highest standard so that the guests can’t fail to be impressed and will provide high reviews.
For property managers, this means they should provide hotel-quality cleaning and laundry services, with a detailed system to ensure everything adheres to schedule, that inventories are checked and complete, and that any losses or damages are repaired and replaced.
Taking Care Of Guests
For the good of the property and its profits, guests should be screened to protect everyone’s best interests. It’s a form of self-administered insurance to protect the most valuable asset—but also, it’s important for property managers to ensure that the correct level of insurance is in place to protect both people and property in the event of emergencies or unpredictable eventualities.
To maximize efficiency and to meet guest expectations, customer service is vital; that means providing everything they need in advance and being ready to meet any other needs 24/7.
A digital welcome pack should answer every question your guests might have about their stay and the property, with walkthroughs for remote check-ins, smart keys, operating appliances and more. The more a manager covers in advance, the less they need to do during the stay.
Taking Care Of Marketing
Having professionally created listings and high-end photography will make each property shine, ensuring its best presentation and responses. By maximizing interest over multiple platforms, property managers can earn excellent reviews to help the property market itself.
With expert geographic and seasonal market analysis, the savvy manager should optimize pricing schedules to boost income at the most popular times and promote high-value, can’t-miss opportunities in off-season periods.
Automating Whatever You Can, Wherever You Can
As with most business models today, AI and automation can help ensure quality property management.
Every job you automate is one less for you or your team to contend with—freeing everyone up to do more of what your business needs from them. Automation and AI can be a gift for customer service, scheduling, check-ins, check-outs, reservations, payment and practically everything in between.
Imagine how different a manager’s role will be if their system monitors check-ins, check-outs, cleaning and laundry schedules, property checks and seasonal pricing adjustments—and it responds to requests with realistically human chatbots, all while suggesting, supplying and confirming reservations and bookings.
There are industry-aligned specialized software systems designed to streamline all types of property management and that integrate everything from marketing, pricing, scheduling, website creation, listing and more. The best option for your operation depends on your level of service and operational requirements, but there’s enough technology out there for every category and kind of property management service.
Summing Up
With many of the necessary ingredients already available, real estate agents and property managers are perfectly placed to take advantage of the current trends by adding BnB management to their services.
Additionally, it’s a model that I’ve found easy to scale, which can make it even more attractive to the professionals ready to explore the small step into a potentially healthy new income stream.
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