The Airbnb ecosystem is flourishing. It’s not just the Airbnb brand that’s growing – it’s the entire home-sharing industry. It’s the rapidly expanding community of hosts and of guests.
Regardless of the controversy, the Airbnb economy is stronger than ever. And this seemingly unlikely strength sheds light on how fertile this economy truly is. It explains why the businesses already rooted in this sphere are continuing to steadily grow, and how more and more new, relevant businesses are being planted.
Just as the businesses in the Airbnb ecosystem are keeping up with the changes, so should the community. Short-term rental hosts should know about the tools, software, and services that are being designed for and fitted to their needs in this area. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of the 6 must-have resources for Airbnb hosts in 2016.
1. Cost And Effect
In an industry so hot, there is a lot of money to be made. So, first and foremost, hosts should become familiar with the simplest ways of maximizing their vacation rental revenue. BeyondPricing delivers a smart, dynamic pricing tool that first analyzes your listings’ market value based on locality, seasonality, and demand. Then, it updates your listings’ prices accordingly. What’s more is this update occurs daily and it occurs automatically, so you don’t need to spend time researching competition or waste energy manually changing your rates.
It’s a simple solution to a complicated aspect of the hosting business. Plus, it works: BeyondPricing users have reported 40% more revenue after integrating the tool. When the opportunity for adding profit and subtracting effort comes along, the decision to grab it is simple math.
2. Turning Over Control
Many vacation rental hosts opt to handle cleaning themselves. However, hosts who are scaling – or those who are planning to scale – their rental businesses cannot afford to be at every listing after every check-out or to greet guests before every check-in. Growing pains are generally eased by taking the pressure off of the host. Now, there’s a new way for hosts to ensure that their cleaning and turnover services are performing properly and that they are performing exactly according to their instructions.
With a detail-oriented, in-depth visual checklist, the Properly app enables short-term rental hosts to lay down their expectations for the status and condition of guest check-ins. As a substitute for the traditional info binder, this checklist goes over the property with a room-by-room, object-by-object, walk-through. Your cleaners and turnover representatives then have a comprehensive tour and set of instructions for tackling your space and hitting every spot. The best part? Properly requires cleaning and turndown services to deliver verification photographs to hosts, as a sort of visual receipt for a job well-done. Not so hard to relinquish control of your business while continuing to live your personal life, huh?
3. Apply As Needed
Speaking of apps increasing your level of hospitality: there are more where that came from. YourWelcome allows Airbnb hosts to consolidate all aspects of a perfect, hospitable guest experience into one simple tablet screen. The app is designed for making the most out of your guests’ stays, whether or not hosts can be there at the time they arrive. Through YourWelcome, you can greet your guests, lead them on virtual tours of your listings, suggest local recommendations, offer easy on-demand taxis or other services, and promote deals for your guests based on their recent local spending. The tablet allows you to cover all of these bases, virtually.
It’s your style of hosting, at their speed. It’s a relevant, up-to-date guestbook that’s tailored to your guests and the vacation rental experience you choose to create for them.
4. Ryze To The Occasion
The virtual guestbook is the perfect way to introduce your guests to your Airbnb and to your neighborhood. Now, what you need is the perfect way to introduce your guests to how you will accommodate their needs, whatever they may be. And, for the Airbnb hosts knee-deep in this industry, that level of accommodation and hospitality should be five-star. For these Airbnb hosts, there needs to be a way to streamline a high level of service. Maybe you’d prefer to keep that high level of service a personal one. Or maybe, you’re ready to upgrade your service to one that’s as organized as (and as lovable) as that provided in any “hotel-like” experience.
Ryze is an application that allows you to offer your Airbnb guests luxury hospitality, through a single tablet showcasing on-demand room services, mini-bar supplies, and travel amenities. It may not have the peer-to-peer authenticity that you prefer, but it is effective, it’s convenient, and it will make your guests happy. Sometimes, travelers want to just feel taken care of. And now you can give them that vacation they seek, with one simple app.
5. A Timeless Time Saver
Maybe you have multiple listings on Airbnb. Maybe you have multiple listings between Airbnb and HomeAway, or between Airbnb and Booking.com. Regardless of the distribution of your rentals, there should be only one place to access and arrange your data. Now, there is.
We at Guesty have recently expanded the features of our Property Management Software (or, PMS). For one, hosts can now use the PMS to search, organize, report, and share their short-term rental data. Further, hosts can enjoy a consolidated –and interactive – view all of their calendars. This multi-calendar allows you to both review and update pricing for your past, present, and future bookings across all Airbnb listings, Airbnb accounts, and vacation rental platforms. This is something that Airbnb has yet to offer hosts, which makes this feature particularly useful for hosts who choose to share a master calendar with others or to keep their calendars updated in real-time.
This organized scheduling, along with total access to your rental data, creates a unique opportunity for you to finally get the full picture of your short-term business, to analyze it, to strategize accordingly, and, in the end, to improve it.
6. The Key To Success
In addition to a full-fledged display of Airbnb data and a single master calendar, there are other approaches to personalized automation that can truly ease the day-to-day job for hosts. With KeyCafe’s new integration with the Airbnb app, hosts can now automate the entire check-in process, while keeping it safe, organized, and personal. Once the host attaches a tracking fob to their keys, they become a virtually-managed digital entry system. From then on, each Airbnb booking will automatically grant the guests’ access to their property.
Now, organizing home access for cleaners and the like, as well as arranging key handoffs for guests, doesn’t have to be a full-time job. In fact, it doesn’t have to be a job at all. The service allows hosts to manage keys from anywhere at any time, or to simply let the technology take care of it.
All in all, the companies in the Airbnb ecosystem are constantly improving to better match your needs as a host. Whether it be efficiency, hospitality, organization, or seamlessness – there are always recent technologies and brands that can be used to grease the wheels that drive your short-term rental to success. So, in the end, it’s all just about keeping up with the developments while dialing down your hosting energy.
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.
