We have all heard the phrase, “Work smarter, not harder”. As a business owner, one should always aim to do this and this is no different for #Airbnb hosts.
With the various Airbnb Facebook groups I am in, I have increased my knowledge so much. With being in these groups, there are a few questions that are posted quite often. One of them is around automation and pricing. With this month’s blog post, I will outline five ways short-term rental (STR) owners can streamline their business in able to decrease in efficiencies. This alone, will free up so much time which in turn, will allow you to focus more on increasing your business.
1. Templates - I have discussed the use of templates in a previous blog post. As mentioned in that article, templates help create a consistent look, save time and money, and are easy to use. This can be seen with using one of my Welcome Book
templates. In that same article, I did not explore the use of message templates.
When you have been in the #STR business for some time, you will see that you may
have to send the same message to different guests over time. Some of these
messages can include:
Welcome/check-in message;
During the trip message; or
check-out message.
These are just some of the type of messages that will be sent over time as there are
so much more. Luckily for you, I have created a Seven Airbnb Messages template
free resource that you can use. Grab it today! It’s important to note that Airbnb
assists with automating messages when guests book your rental! This is definitely a
feature you would want to explore for your business.
2. Market research - When starting out in the business, you might have wondered,
how should you price your rental in order to be competitive in the market? You
might have even wondered, what are similar properties in your area charging?
Market research when starting out is key. It helps determine if your property will be
profitable, and/or if this industry is for you. To assist with this, sites such as AirDNA
can assist with your research. It is designed to help optimize your pricing against
your competitors and within your area. With this website, they offer some free
services which may suffice depending on what you are looking for, but to gather
deeper insight, you will have to pay for an upgrade. The basic information of what
your competitors are charging can also be found on Airbnb itself.
3. Automation for listings on multiple platforms - I always recommend being on
multiple platforms, which also includes owning your own website. This is
recommended, because if your account(s) is suspended/unlisted on sites like
Airbnb or VRBO for any reason, you can still continue on with your business.
So keep this in mind. At least when you own your site, you can use the emails you
have gathered (you should be building an email list to stay in touch with customers)
to build up your repeat guests marketing strategy. But when you are listed on
multiple platforms, managing your bookings manually can become frustrating.
TurnoverBnB is a great solution for this. It helps with putting your business on
autopilot. It helps manage your guest calendars when listed on multiple platforms,
schedule cleaners, payouts and even find vacation rental cleaners. The system
allows you to pull your booking schedules from various platforms into the system.
Pretty awesome right!
4. Remote thermostat control - Aiming to keep costs low and profits high is the goal.
No one likes seeing huge utility bills at the end of the month. Or, even having a pipe
burst because the temperature in the house was not kept at a certain temperature
during the winter months. Using gadgets like Nest Thermostat to control the
temperature and keep it at a minimum or maximum from anywhere can save so
many headaches. Seeing posts in Facebook groups where STR owners have
complained due to their utility bill being high was another recurring theme. So of
course, for newbies, I thought it was best to include a section on how to control the
thermostat to avoid this pitfall.
5. Digital locks - Not everyone lives on the same property or even close by their
#VacationRental. The use of digital locks was a game changer when these were
introduced to the market. The use of digital locks allows for someone to enter the
property without the use of a key. You can also lock or unlock a door remotely
(depending on which lock you choose). Generally speaking, a code is provided to
the guest, and the guest uses the code to enter the property. As a suggestion, I
recommend changing the code after each guest. Using the guest’s birthday or last
few digits of their cell number will help with this and it's also easy to remember.
However, sometimes, guests can have trouble using these digital locks, because
they have not read your check-in details. Therefore, store a key to the property
somewhere or in something such as a lock box as a backup.
All in all, if you are new in the business, these five tips can help you along your journey. The above tips mentioned can be used as a starting point to investigate which works best for your business model and/or property. There are so many apps and systems that have been created geared towards this industry. I have chosen the above, because some of the specified systems mentioned were repeated in the groups I belong to. If you are not in any Facebook groups, I would highly recommend joining some as they are useful to not only beginners, but to those that are seasoned in the business. Remember, this post is all about working smarter, not harder. The use of technology in this business will help you save so much time and time is a valuable asset. The more time you have, the more you can strategize ways on marketing your business in order to increase bookings.
Comments