What are the top tools for your short term rental?
Recently we wrote about the Advantages of a Property Manager where we outlined the value add a licensed professional brings to your properties. Now we would like to go into detail about the tools a property manages use to optimize your short-term rental property.
Many of these tools can be adopted by self-managers as well as larger management companies. That said, it’s important to mention that a significant investment in time is paramount to understanding and implementing these tools, or run the risk of making mistakes with real guests, live reservations, and your money!
The good news: the World Wide Web and followed by the Internet of Things (IOT) brought us an abundance of different tools at our disposal.
The bad news: how do we know what we need for our business? Or which tools are a best fit without wasting time and money trying each one out?
MyTripify is here to help shorten that learning curve. First thing’s first, it’s important to take a detailed look at the rental model you’re using. A long-term leasing agent is going to use a different set of tools than a short-term rental operator. Think critically about all areas of your business and the tasks that need to be completed. Start by outlining your process flows and then focus on the time consuming manual processes as initial areas of improvement.
Property Management Software
This will be one of the more important decisions you will make when setting up your rental business. There are countless PMS systems available today with a wide variety of price points and available features. Lucky for you, we’ve researched and demoed dozens of solutions and will weigh in with our opinion here shortly. For now let’s focus on the notable features to look for in a PMS.
A Channel manager simplifies the setup and ongoing maintenance of your listings on all the channels you decide are a good fit for your property. Without this tool, you’ll quickly find a large amount of redundant work being done, with the added challenge of version control on multiple platforms. BEWARE: most PMS solutions advertise this but few truly have it. An ICAL integration syncs rates and availability which is commonplace even in the lower price point solutions. If you’re in contact with the sales and/or support staff directly ask them where do you create, and maintain your listing information like description and photos.
The unified inbox collects and organizes the communication from all your channels including Airbnb, VRBO, booking.com, HomeAway, etc into one place. This greatly reduces the chance that something goes undone, a risk that increases with the number of properties and channels in use. IMPORTANT: make sure that pre-booking communication is also included, as well as all the necessary inquiry information. Doing all your work in one place should be a priority, going to each channel to review quoted dates is not ideal to say the least.
A multi-calendar gives you a glance at pricing and availability for one or many properties. You’re going to spend a good chunk of your time here monitoring performance and tweaking the dials as you grow your rental empire. Again the type of integration is important. ICAL can take up to an hour to sync calendars across channels which can lead to double booking. API integration is the gold standard being both quick and dependable, but is not offered by all providers to all channels.
Other useful features typically include accounting/reporting, owner portals, team and task management, and hardware connectivity for locks, cameras, and thermostats among others. First take time to understand your needs, then find a software with the right features in the right price range for your operation.
Recommendations:
YourPorter is a nice little package that offers most of what you’re looking for without breaking the bank. For anyone new to the game, this is likely going to be a great fit.
Guesty is an industry leader if you’re looking at expansion and need a platform that is absolutely rich with features. This comes at a price, paying between 3-5% of all bookings. Hosteeva is another provider in this space which offers the same functionality but all in-house rather than the marketplace style of guesty.
Dynamic Pricing Tool
How should you price your rental? What occupancy level will maximize bookings and revenue? These are complicated questions with complicated answers. Price too high and occupancy plummets, price too low and ROI decreases. Experience and an understanding of the market combined with the proper tools allows MyTripify to accurately forecast and achieve the highest return for short-term rentals in Charlotte. With our help, you can too.
Start with finding a competitive price point, which means analyzing comps as well as continually monitoring demand in your area. There are a hand full of tools out there like PriceLabs and Beyond Pricing, both of which have done most of the leg work for you by placing large amounts of rental data at your fingertips. A good pricing dynamic pricing tool can increase or decrease nightly rates based on supply and demand in your area. On top of that there are other powerful features that automatically optimize your pricing strategy. For example lowering nightly rate as lead time decreases, lowering minimum night stay for approaching dates or orphan days (days between existing reservations), and MUCH MORE.
But this is only the first step. Analyzing and implementing these tools as they fit your property and market takes a solid understanding of your market and your goals as a short-term rental operator.
Direct Booking Site
Direct booking is a tricky but worthwhile factor in both new and repeat business.
Generating bookings outside of OTAs like Airbnb and Vrbo saves on service fees and added taxes. When a guest pays less you make more, at least you should. The challenge here is driving traffic to your site with a mix of advertising and automated guest communication. There are multiple ways to offer direct booking functionality which is dictated by the PMS you’re using. Some platforms host or develop an entire site, which we’ve seen be included in the software subscription fee on occasion like with YourPorter. Another option is to include a one size fits all widget or code snippet into your own existing site, which adds the direct booking functionality. Consider the branded experience you’re offering when you determine which solution is the best fit for you.
Connected Hardware
The Internet of Things has opened the doors for technology to improve both the quality of stay for our guests and profitability of our property owners. Contactless check in has become the gold standard in a time where health and safety is at the forefront of every decision both now and moving forward. Smart locks and thermostats integrate directly with your PMS to automate things like managing lock codes, or turning down heat & A/C between stays to save on energy costs. All this happens behind the scenes exactly when it should, all without lifting a finger. Samsung SmartThings hub is a leader in this space and can connect with hardware from a number of different companies. If possible avoid systems that require regular interaction with another website or portal, keeping things under one roof is important when considering growth and expansion. Interior/Exterior cameras and noise monitors and/or smoke monitors are a way to increase security and protection for your most valuable assets. Which of these shiny new technologies should you include in your rental? That depends on your management strategy, risk tolerance, and other factors.
Team Members
Operating a successful rental business is just that. It’s business, not a hobby and must be treated as such. A successful business employs the right person for each job, who then work together in synergy to perform a task to the best of their ability. Very important to any rental operator is their team, including but not limited to one or even a couple accountants, handyman or GC, cleaning crew, lawyer, broker, banker, and marketing lead. It’s possible to be one or many of these roles, but know what you’re good at and hire out the rest. Save yourself the headache of falling on your face and let professionals help you where you need it.
Now these are not all the tools in a short-term rental operator’s tool belt. But this list includes some of the cutting edge technologies and services that give you the edge over your competition. Over time, more and more third party providers will do their part of revolutionizing the hospitality industry. Keep your ear to the ground, and absorb as much information as you can. There are tons of podcasts, webinars (guesty for example), books, and networking groups that are eager to share their wealth of knowledge. Luckily, MyTripify is here to help, best of luck on your journey!
Ryley Beaumont
(704) 286-6994
Ryley@MyTripify.com