Time is a vital and non-renewable resource in business. Like in any other industry, the key to success in the short-term property management industry is striking the perfect balance between input and output. Optimizing your time and maximizing your revenue at the same time is one of the biggest challenges you will face, and we’re here to guide you through it. Before we get into the best way to go about this, let’s quickly break down a typical Airbnb rental business.
The Property Management Breakdown
Launching Your Property Listings
Once you have set up the goals and expectations for your business, the next step is to list your properties for rental through online channels. During this timeframe, you’ll want to assemble a winning team to help set up your success. Consider hiring interior decorators and furniture assemblers to help speed up your entry to the market. The sooner a listing goes live (i.e. on Airbnb), the faster a profit becomes possible.
How your profile looks on Airbnb can be as important as how your rental looks inside. If you can’t get the bookings in the first place, nobody will end up seeing the inside of your rental. Take visually clear, accurate, and “Instagram-worthy” photos to help set up a positive first impression with potential clients.
The title of your post and the description you use is also highly critical to the listing. Make the content easy to digest with bullet-points and short snippets of information instead of walls of text.
The Post-Launch Touch-Up
As soon as your properties have been listed, it’s time to look into marketing it and adding little improvements that can make a huge difference in a guest’s stay. Making an effort to become an Airbnb Superhost, learning about Airbnb Rental Arbitrage, or even starting a blog about your listings can all ultimately benefit your business.
With the infrastructure that you have set in place, you’re now ready to optimize time and maximize your revenue. Some of the easiest tips agreed upon by many of their various rental experiences that make all the difference.
Here Are the 3 Property Management Tips to Maximize Time And Revenue
Property Management Tip #1: Automate Your Calendar Pricing
When pricing for Airbnb listings is on autopilot, it means that you don’t have to log into calendars every day to manually adjust, because the pricing tool automatically does this for you.
You also won’t have to worry about researching the market constantly after the initial set-up. Daily market changes no longer need to consume your time, and you can stay well-informed just by checking on it every few weeks.
However, there are still advantages to frequent calendar check-ins. Did you know that Airbnb gives higher search engine optimization (SEO) scores to hosts that log into their calendars daily? Aside from the 20-30% more revenue that can be generated with a dynamic pricing tool, listings also gain an added boost from these scores. It will also contribute to your understanding of the market, and allow you to make more educated decisions.
[Image Credit: PriceLabs]
Property Management Tip #2: Become An Efficient Host
Little things in our budget often pass by without notice. Whether it’s accessories, supplies, or home maintenance, planning ahead of time can prevent dips in your profit.
Ordering supplies in bulk from one place can help you form long-term relationships with vendors and generate special deals. Successful business happens when you stay ahead of the game. Offering free toiletries and accessories is something that travelers appreciate, and can really set you apart from the Airbnb host crowd.
Upgrading each of your listing locations with efficient home items is another way to upscale your properties and even save you time. For example, having keyless door locks with passcodes that you can manage for individual guests can save you the trouble of key handoffs or misplacements.
Efficient lighting and sensors for the thermostat can help you cut back on costs. It may seem like a difficult or expensive approach at first, but anything that can help to reduce your utility bills long-term will ultimately save you money. On top of helping your wallet, these little changes are great for the environment as well!
Property Management Tip #3: Utilize A Powerful PMS
In one example of a current business, we have a client who owns and manages three properties. It took them at least two hours a day to sort through guest communication and manage the cleaning staff, which is roughly 14 hours a week dedicated to managing business operations.
With a powerful property management software like Guesty, it’s possible to focus on the essential aspects of a business, making it clearer to see which properties are being successful and which ones need a little bit of extra care. It also allows for significantly more time looking into analytics and financial reporting. It’s also helpful for determining when you are well-positioned to scale more units and grow overall business.
A Closing Note
These are truly some of the simplest changes that can be made to achieve huge results and save an invaluable amount of time. Enjoy it with your family or on that vacation you’ve been itching for. No matter how you use it, having higher profits and more time will change your life!
Sam Zuo is an author for Passiveairbnb.com, a blog designed to teach you how to leverage other people’s properties to sublease on popular home-sharing platforms like Airbnb. Sam founded his own content company and draws inspiration from his background in digital marketing and business development. You can contact Sam here.
Guesty’s talented marketing team is comprised of passionate professionals who share insightful industry knowledge and shape brand narratives. By bringing a diverse blend of expertise to the table, we are the visionary architects behind the Guesty brand and innovative campaigns that help people understand our product.
