Benefits of Using an Airbnb Property Management Service

Airbnb has revolutionised the travel segment since its entry into the short-term rental market. Travellers no longer need to book hotel rooms months in advance or pay exorbitant hotel rates. Families travelling with pets or large groups can now stay in comfortable and spacious homes while they enjoy their vacation. For property owners, the benefits of Airbnb have been considerable. They can now rent out their vacation homes or their regular homes while they are away, and make a significant amount of money in the process. Particularly in favourite tourist cities such as Paris, Sydney, London, and New York, property owners can make a very lucrative business out of renting their homes to guests on a short-term basis.

Challenges with Airbnb booking for homeowners

Recently, the Airbnb and short-term vacation rental market have become very competitive. Guests now have high expectations from their rented homes, including spotlessly clean houses, a pleasant welcome from the host, fast and painless check-in experience, food, toiletries and other essential supplies, information about local attractions and experiences, and even travel arrangements.

For hosts looking to let their homes to several guests every month or even every week, this involves a wide range of responsibilities and time-consuming tasks such as posting your property on Airbnb, promptly responding to numerous queries from guests, being available to check-in and check-out your guests, cleaning the bathrooms, changing the bed sheets and linen, restocking the supplies, scheduling the availability of your home, and so much more. For many property owners, all this work amounts to a lot of stress and lost time. Especially if you are planning to let out more than one property or schedule your rentals based on your busy travel schedule, it can also mean a lot of lost opportunities and lost income.

Fortunately, many property management services have stepped in to make this process more efficient and more productive for homeowners and landlords. They can take over the entire process of renting your home and improve the guest experience, all while taking the hassle out of it and making your life easier.

What exactly does a property management service do?

For a small percentage of the rental income, Airbnb property management services handle the following tasks on your behalf:

• Maximise the booking of your home and optimise the price, thereby increasing your revenue. This will involve preparing the best possible Airbnb posting for your home, providing suggestions to improve the property’s attractiveness to guests, keeping track of demand and adjusting the price, setting the rental availability based on your requirements and schedule. They also post the property on other major booking websites besides Airbnb, such as Booking.com and HomeAway. This will ensure that your home gets viewed more often and booked more often by travellers.

• Handle the entire guest experience, so that you do not have to ever interact with the guests. This part is the most time-consuming. It involves screening guests, answering numerous queries about the features, availability and location of your home, finalizing the guest booking, welcoming your guests upon arrival, handling their departure and key handover, managing the entire cleaning process before and after letting your home, managing the linen and essential supplies, providing welcome kits to guests, arranging their travel, 24-hour concierge service, and so much more.

• Maintain and upkeep of your home throughout the year  To ensure that your home is always ready for a booking, property management services regularly check that the house is in immaculate condition and handle the cleaning services. Homes also require regular maintenance and upkeep, especially vacation homes or busy properties with a lot of guest turnover. The property management services work with reliable service providers and make sure that all the facilities in your home are working and in good condition.

What are the benefits of using an Airbnb property management service?

• Better marketing and pricing of your property: Property management services make money only when your home gets booked. So, they are highly motivated to increase the booking of your home by optimising the Airbnb posting, making the property more attractive to guests, tracking demands and trends, and setting the best rental prices. They also manage your property posting on multiple booking websites, so that the chances of your home being viewed and booked by guests is drastically increased.

• Optimisation of your property’s availability: Many homeowners prefer to rent out their homes when they are away on vacation or business/family trips. Unfortunately, this means arranging for a neighbour or friend to be available during your guests’ stay, which is not always possible or practical. You can get increased flexibility for letting your home during your absence by having a property management service manage the scheduling of guest booking around your availability.

• Better guest experience: Meeting and fulfilling the high expectations of your guests is an essential requirement for a successful Airbnb rental business. Happy guests are more likely to book your home again, share the posting with their friends, and leave a glowing review. All of these will significantly improve the booking of your property. Guest services are the most difficult to manage for property owners because of the time and work involved. So, having a property management service take care of your guests’ requirements 24/7 is a boon for homeowners and landlords.

• Go the extra mile: Some property management services provide additional services to ensure that your guests are comfortable and cared for, thus guaranteeing you positive feedback from the guests and more future bookings. Some of these extra services include airport pickup for your guests, booking cars for their travel around the area, and even arranging personal chefs for the convenience of your guests. Besides, they can provide storage solutions for you to safely put away the valuable items from your home while it is let to guests, and even for guests to store their excess luggage.

• More convenience and peace of mind for you: Having a property management service take care of your guests and your home means that you have peace of mind over the safety of your home and belongings. These services carefully screen guests before being allowed to rent your home or apartment. More importantly, you do not have to do any of the work and handle any of the day-to-day responsibilities of renting out your property and dealing with guests.

• Better maintenance of your property: With a property management service, your home will be maintained well throughout the year. Timely checking, cleaning and servicing of your home will ensure a comfortable stay, both for you and your guests. This also means that you can take advantage of last-minute bookings without rushing to get your house ready for guests. Finally, a professionally maintained home will fetch a better market value if you plan to sell your property at some point.

• Higher income from your property: All of the above benefits ultimately mean a vastly increased income from renting your home. Most of these service providers are reasonably priced and take their cut only when your home is rented, through their efforts. Even after deducting their fees of roughly 15% of rental income, the additional income earned by many hosts using a property management service far exceeds their original profits, with some homeowners earning even twice or thrice as much as they did before.