Managing an Airbnb can be tedious. As a host, you are faced with many responsibilities that can overwhelm your to-do list and impact your success. The following will aid you in becoming an effective and efficient Airbnb host.
Time-Saving Tips for Short-Term Rental Hosts
As an Airbnb host, you are given an opportunity to create a comfortable, reliable stay for guests. This requires a lot of time and attention to detail, however, which means that time management is imperative when running a short-term rental.
The following tips will help you maximize your time and improve guests’ experiences.
1. Hire a Co-Host
Co-hosts share the responsibilities of running the short-term rental. They help listing owners manage the property and the guests’ arrivals and departures. This leaves property owners with more time to scale their businesses and invest in other properties.
Co-hosts can be family members, friends, or a hired employee. Typically hired co-hosts are given more responsibility, but they are also given more compensation for their time spent organizing and managing your properties.
2. Buy in Bulk
Hosts or co-hosts have the responsibility of providing guests with basic necessities, such as toilet paper, towels, linens, hand and body soap, and pillows. Purchasing these items in bulk will save you constant trips to the store – and likely save you money, too.
Items that are used daily should be stored in an area that guests can easily access. It’s up to you how many items are provided per stay; however, guests may need easy access to extra amenities. Keeping that in mind, having enough stock will also save you time in having to run back and forth to your rental to provide things like extra towels or toilet paper.
3. Keep Up With Maintenance
Putting off needed maintenance and repairs can cost you precious time down the road.
For example, if you get a leaky pipe and don’t fix it as soon as you’re notified about the needed repair, you could run into future problems. Mold can form behind the wall, structural damage may occur, and electrical issues can become a big problem.
Once these problems occur, you may have to spend a few weeks fixing the leak and the added damage. This means that you will not be able to book listings.
4. Automate Daily Operations
Automation for an Airbnb host is the process of streamlining daily and recurring tasks. Automating your host tasks will make running multiple properties less laborious and save you from having to do each task – setting your nightly rate, writing guest reviews, answering guests’ questions, and more – manually.
You can automate the following:
- Communication: On average, vacation rental hosts spend 75% of their time communicating with guests. Automating your communication channels through message templates or using an automated messaging system can cut your time spent talking to your guests about frequently asked questions.
- Reviews: The more reviews you get from your guests, the higher your ranking could be on the Airbnb platform. With automation software, you can submit templated reviews of your guests after their stays. You can also set up auto-responses to guests’ reviews of their experience at your property. Both reviewing guests and responding to reviews from guests are important in demonstrating your attentiveness and care as a host.
- Check-in/check-out: Key exchanges take the most time when it comes to guest check-in and check-out processes. Consider installing a smart lock that will allow your guests access with a specific code given to them upon their arrival. Once they leave, you can reset the code for the next guest, cleaner, or maintenance worker.
- Pricing: A sure way to make your listing stand out is the price. This can be either a good thing or a bad thing. Finding the right price for your market can wind up being time-consuming or expensive if you hire a data scientist. Utilizing a dynamic Airbnb pricing tool is always a good idea. This type of software suggests nightly pricing based on select factors, including competitors’ prices, location, and time of year.
- Cleanings: Hiring a professional cleaner will ensure that your property is thoroughly cleaned and ready for future guests. Consistently having one or more cleaners per property is recommended. You can automate your cleaning service projects through platforms like TurnoverBnB. As a host, you can select the best cleaner for your property and work with them on building a schedule.
Consider automating as many of your Airbnb hosting responsibilities as possible. This will make sure that everything runs smoothly and efficiently if you decide to take on more bookings or even list more properties.
5. Set Guest Expectations Upfront
Failing to let guests know of house rules and expectations can waste time later on when you’re trying to resolve any potential consequences of the broken rule.
For this reason, it’s important to make guests aware of the house expectations when they book your short-term rental. This can be done by having the rules and expectations in a contract or rental agreement.
Another way to help ensure that guests are aware of house rules is to provide them in your listing description. This puts your expectations front and center before they even book your short-term rental.
6. Use a Professional Cleaning Service
After each guest stay, consider hiring a professional cleaning service. Professional cleaners have the skill set and knowledge to ensure your short-term rental is in top-notch shape after each guest stay.
Cleaning services take care of washing the bedding, removing stains from carpets and furniture, and cleaning overlooked places like the stove, the refrigerator, and the interiors of cabinets. They can also manage your re-stocking of towels, toilet paper, and other necessities.
Become an Efficient Airbnb Host
Hosting an Airbnb can take a lot of time away from your personal life. If you are not skilled at managing your time or feel stressed about all the responsibilities that come with being a host, your reviews and ratings could potentially go down.
Hiring a co-host, keeping amenities stocked, and automating your basic responsibilities as a host will help save you time. Furthermore, hiring a professional cleaning service will ensure that your property is thoroughly cleaned and ready for each set of guests — without you having to lift a finger.
For more Airbnb hosting tips and tricks, visit the TurnoverBnB blog.
This guest post has been contributed by our friends at TurnoverBnB.