Short-Term and Vacation Rental Property Management: Everything You Need to Know

Investing in real estate takes many shapes and forms; the most common, however, is to own rental property. Owning rental properties can also take many forms. The most apparent one being long-term rentals; however, owning short-term rental properties is also worth taking a closer look at. 

Owning short-term or vacation rentals is very intimidating because of the numerous tasks required. If you are considering owning a short-term rental property, we will highlight everything you need to know in this blog. 

First, let's begin by explaining short-term rentals and why so many people own them. 

What Is a Short-Term Rental? 

A short-term rental is a type of property rental that is typically for less than six months. These rentals are often rented on a daily or weekly basis. They are often used by travelers looking for a temporary place to stay while on vacation or for business purposes.

Short-term rentals can include many properties, from apartments and homes to guest houses and hotels.

They are often furnished and equipped with amenities like kitchen appliances and linens. In addition, they may include housekeeping and concierge services (like hotels).

Unlike traditional long-term rentals, which require lease agreements and strict rules and restrictions, short-term rentals can be rented for a shorter time, allowing travelers to stay for as long or as short as they need.

As the demand for short-term rentals continues to rise, many property owners are turning to the short-term rental market to earn additional income.

Short-term rental property management involves overseeing the day-to-day operations of a rental property, including marketing, booking, and maintaining the property.

Short-term rentals can be great investments with high ROIs if appropriately handled. 

Despite the challenges, many property owners find that the potential rewards of short-term rental property management make it worth the effort.

In addition to the financial benefits, property owners can choose when and how often their property is rented and can earn more per rental than with long-term tenants.

Short-term rentals take a lot of work, and property management is regular part of the hospitality industry; in the next section, we'll discuss the management needs of a short-term rental. 

Managing a Short-Term Rental

Suppose you want to become a short-term rental property manager. In that case, it is important to understand that short-term rentals, in essence, take much more consistent work than long-term rentals. 

To maximize the property's success, a property manager or owner must ensure to:

• Offer frequent cleaning services
• Offer amenities
• Conduct frequent maintenance 
• Stay on top of marketing strategies 
• Cater to guest's needs 

… and much more. 

Now let's review these responsibilities one by one so you can decide whether this investment is suitable for you. 

Offer Frequent Cleaning Services

When owning a vacation rental property, you must ensure that the property is fully clean and disinfected before each guest; sometimes this can mean deep cleaning the property more than once per week.   

Offer Amenities

Because of the highly competitive nature of the short-term rental business, you must offer premium amenities like: 

• Adding free wifi
• Including all furnishing 
• Toiletries, including towels and bathroom accessories 

… and plenty more amenities that contribute to the guest experience. 

Conduct Frequent Maintenance

You must ensure quick and effective maintenance when owning or managing short-term rentals. 

An example of this is air conditioning. Let's say that the air conditioning suddenly stops working after a guest's stay; you must fix this problem before the next scheduled guests arrive. 

Not conducting quick and frequent maintenance will lead to bad reviews from your guests, significantly affecting your property's ROI. 

Stay on Top of Marketing Strategies 

Although long-term rentals also require marketing strategies, you might have to do them less frequently. With a short-term rental, you always have to market your property by utilizing listing websites and writing property descriptions. 

Cater to guests' needs 

Catering to your guests' needs can be a difficult challenge if not trained in customer service, which property management companies might not always be trained to do. You always need to say the right thing; doing so can help your investment. 

After going over the needed strategies associated with these rentals, you might understand how difficult and time-consuming they can be, which is why a vacation rental property manager is a great asset to short-term rental teams. 

Short-Term Rental Property Manager

A property manager can seriously help in the process of short-term rentals. First, however, you must hire a good property manager or a property management company. 

A good property manager can handle all these issues and more. They can: 

• Greet guests 
• Manage and request cleanings and maintenance requests 
• Be accessible to guests 
• Handle property's marketing 

Let's go over these in depth to truly get a feel for how much a property manager will do for the rental.

Greet Guests

When owning vacation rental properties, you might find yourself time-restricted in guest greetings. This is something that vacation rental property managers can easily help with.

They will be able to greet guests, provide them with the needed information and resources to access the property and communicate the house rules.

Manage Cleanings and Conduct Maintenance Requests 

Another essential aspect of short-term rental property management is ensuring that the property is well-maintained and equipped to provide guests a comfortable and enjoyable stay. This can involve regular cleaning and maintenance and providing amenities such as linens, towels, and kitchen supplies.

Short-term rental properties depend heavily on guest reviews. A great way to receive good reviews is by having a well-maintained and clean property, which can become very time-consuming. 

Property managers can request timely maintenance requests and ensure the property is clean. A property manager can ease the property owner from dealing with this time-consuming task. 

Be Accessible to Guests

In vacation rentals, guests often need to contact the host about an array of issues or concerns, which can happen at any time of the day. 

Having a property manager can make the guests feel more comfortable knowing that there is someone to voice their concerns. 

Handle Property's Marketing 

Short-term rentals require constant marketing and advertising. Suppose an owner has too many short-term rental properties. In that case, however, this can become very overwhelming and almost impossible to tackle. 

A property manager or property management company can do this for the property owner, saving them precious time.

When owning short-term rental properties, a good property manager can make all the difference in the world. Still, a bad one can severely hurt your ROI. Let's review this in the upcoming section.

Hiring a Property Manager

If you are thinking about hiring a property manager or you are a property manager thinking of managing a short-term rental, here are some important skills for the job: 

• Reliability 
• Marketing knowledge and skills 
• Customer service and strong interpersonal skills 
• Local and State law knowledge

Reliability 

A property manager must be reliable in this line of the rental business. If a property manager or property management team is not reliable, it can cause substantial financial liability for the property owner. 

Marketing Knowledge and Skills 

Your property manager must know the basic marketing skills needed to increase bookings. 

One of the biggest challenges of short-term rental property management is effectively marketing the property to attract guests. This can involve creating a compelling listing on platforms like Airbnb and utilizing social media and other online marketing channels to reach potential guests.

Customer Service and Strong Interpersonal Skills

Above all, a good property manager for a short-term rental must know how to deal with customers and have a positive attitude. 

If guests are treated rudely, they are more likely to write a bad review, hurting the reputation of the rental. 

Local and State Law Knowledge

Last but certainly not least, both the property owner and short-term rental property managers also need to be familiar with local regulations and laws related to short-term rental property's location. This is why many landlords hire expensive top property management companies.

In many areas, there are strict rules and regulations governing the operation of short-term rentals, and property managers need to be aware of and comply with these regulations to avoid penalties or legal action.

If you're considering entering the short-term rental market, it's important to thoroughly research the local regulations and market conditions to ensure success.

With the right approach, short-term rental property management can be a profitable and rewarding venture.

Finding a good property manager is highly time-consuming. Having one can put the property owner at risk for significant financial liability. Not to mention that hiring professional property managers can take a big chunk off your rental income; luckily, property management software is here to save the day. 

Property Management Software 

Property management software can give landlords and property managers great benefits.

Property management software can: 

• Automate payments 
• Help build a custom site 
• Place property on listing platforms 
• Help you manage and assign maintenance requests 

Property management software can give you the best of both worlds. This is where DoorLoop has got you covered; let's learn more in the next section. 

DoorLoop Property Management Software 

DoorLoop is an all-in-one property management software designed to make your life easier.

It allows you to manage one or multiple properties without losing creative or authoritative control, from vacation rentals to anything under the sun with a door.

As an added bonus, DoorLoop's fantastic customer support team prioritizes employee satisfaction. 

DoorLoop’s features include:

• Making rent collection easier: With automatic payments and payment reminders.
• Unique accounting features: Has a QuickBooks Online integration.
• Maintenance management tools: Manage all your maintenance requests, assign them to vendors, and payout vendors, from the app.
• eLeasing: Accept applications online and conduct tenant screenings.
• Tenant portal and communications tools: Give tenants a place to see all their responsibilities and you a place to centralize communications with your tenants.

And plenty more…

Schedule a free demo today and see what DoorLoop can do for you.

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