Want to spend less time managing your Airbnb?
It shouldn’t take hours to clean your property after a guest leaves and you shouldn’t have to spend hours answering questions you’ve been asked hundreds of times before.
Investment properties are supposed to be as hands-off as possible. After all, you’re trying to generate a passive income. You want to spend more time with your family and friends, instead of catering to every guest’s needs, right?
To help you cut down the time spent managing your Airbnb property, we have provided you with 10 tips that will make management a breeze.
#1. Keep it simple
If you follow just one thing in this list, this is the one to follow. It’s too easy to complicate everything from the way you hand over the keys to how you clean up the house after they leave.
When you’re trying to make a decision, ask yourself which one is simpler. Both you and your guests will appreciate this in the long run.
#2. Include instructions
Just like how you want to keep things simple, you want to make everything easy for your guests as well. This means leaving instructions on how to use your complicated washing machine, giving them a quick guide on how to get to the station, and any other information that might help them.
One effective way to do this is to leave a stick-it note where they’re more likely to need this information.
#3. Provide exceptional customer service
Huge problems that can lead to massive headaches, poor reviews, and canceled bookings, can oftentimes be avoided by one simple thing — communication.
If your guests have a problem, you want to be easy to reach. You also want to respond as quickly as possible.
By effectively communicating, you avoid any potential management headaches and allows you to develop rapport with your guests.
#4. Give yourself enough time
Unrealistic expectations, like the amount of time it’ll take you to clean a house before you book another guest in, can make managing your Airbnb property a headache.
Give yourself enough buffer time between guests to allow you to comfortably prepare the property. If you own multiple properties, you also want to give yourself plenty of time to travel and prepare to check-in or check-out guests in your other locations.
#5. Use a security lockbox
One easy and affordable way to save time with checking in or checking out guests is to use a security lockbox. This is also convenient for your guests and might even earn you a positive review.
Basically, instead of traveling to your Airbnb property to give your guests keys, you can just supply the code to a safe or lock. Inside this will be the keys to the property. This allows you to spend time relaxing at home, instead of traveling back and forth.
#6. Or a keyless lock
Similar to a security lockbox, you can simply install a keyless lock for your door. This allows for guests to check themselves in and out, for cleaners to come in and prepare the property, and for the new guests to arrive without a hassle. Notice how you didn’t have to visit the site at all?
#7. Hire a cleaner
It’s tempting to handle all the cleaning and preparation for a new guest yourself. But then, your investment property has just become a workplace for your new job — a cleaner.
Instead, hire a professional to handle this task. They have the necessary equipment to clean your property in a portion of the time and to a better standard. Plus, this allows you to spend more time on other tasks which could generate you more money than you’d spend hiring a cleaner. Remember, you’re now an investor building your passive income.
#8. Leave extras of everything
While your guest is in your property, they’re probably in a completely new area. It’s difficult for them to head out to purchase a towel, toilet paper, or any other basic essentials. But for you, it’s easy to leave a few extra rolled-up towels in a drawer, an extra tube of toothpaste on the sink, and even an emergency box of cereal on the kitchen counter.
By leaving extras of any essentials you think your guests might require, you decrease the chances of them needing to contact you for help and boost the likelihood of receiving a positive review.
#9. Follow a process
Even if you follow all the previous tips, you don’t want this to take up too much time or energy. This is why you should create a process so that you don’t have to spend hours thinking about what you need to do before every new guest.
You could create a simple checklist to follow every time. Or you could even hand this checklist off to someone else to manage for you.
#10. Hire an Airbnb property manager
If you want to make Airbnb rental management in Australia as easy as possible, hiring an Airbnb property manager can save you hours every single day.
They can handle tasks like:
- Cleaning your property after guests leave
- Checking to make sure keys are returned
- Inspecting your property for any damage
- And so much more…
But, do you need a property manager for your Airbnb?
That depends on how hands-off you want your investment property to be. By simply investing just 15% of your rental income, Oasis Stay’s property management service can handle your Airbnb listing, property management tasks, customer service, property styling, and more. This leaves you tens of hours saved a week, that you can spend with your family and friends.
