Renting your place on Airbnb, VRBO, and other platforms is a very good way to generate revenue from your real estate property. Airbnb itself is present in more than 200 countries and has millions of listings available for travelers worldwide.
If you are going to rent your apartment, house, vacation home or extra room on Airbnb, here are some tips to run a winning Short Term Rental business.
- Invest in professional, high quality Photographs.
You are investing a lot of your time and money to create a nice looking and comfortable place for your guests. You want it to be the best stay in town. Don’t ruin it with low quality smartphone photos. Hire a professional real estate photographer to showcase your place properly using the right equipment and skills. It may seem tempting to save some bucks at this point, but your place’s photos are the first thing your prospective guests will see, and they will actually book your place (or not) based on what they see in photos.
2. Make sure you invest your time. Renting for short stays is a very lucrative endeavor but it is also time consuming. Make sure you have the time to keep everything clean, organized, fulfilled, maintained, scheduled but most of all make sure you’ll have time to respond and assist your guests at any moment
3. First impressions. Be friendly and honest. Answer quickly. Be pleasant to your guests. Make a connection.
4. Automation. Smart Locks, cameras, automated messaging, automated pricing. All of these are great friends of you as they make your job easier by saving you a lot of time
5. Cleaning and Maintenance Services. Your housekeeper and your handymen need to be the happiest people in town. They are your boots in the ground team. If a guest has a bad experience with a not-very-clean place or a broken appliance, you won’t have perfect reviews in the long run.
6. Details. Make sure you provide things that will help your guest have a memorable stay. Board Games, movies, books, video games, pool toys, kitchen utensils, condiments, coffee and tea, sugar and sweeteners. Consider a welcome gift, something from a local producer or something typical to your city. Impress your guests when they arrive, and make sure they stay happy until they leave.
7. Rules. It is very important that you have some basic rules to make everyone’s life easier. But don’t go crazy with them. Usually a one page document will be enough to tell guests everything they should know.
Conclusion
Short Term Rental is a lucrative way to make money from your real estate property, but it is becoming a very professional segment so you need to have it really close to perfection to compete. Without losing the personal touch and traveler hospitality that makes it better than a cold hotel room.
If you need help with setting up or running your short term rental place in Central Florida, we are here to help. Contact Us and let’s work together!