Summary
- How to use Airbnb in the most effective, professional manner.
- It’s not just about renting property, you are also building your business reputation and social media reputation.
- Successful management can open up many other opportunities.
Airbnb has opened up the opportunity for owners to rent property in an efficient and innovative way. There are few limitations on what kind of space to rent, what your offering is, and how and who you rent to. In many cases the people who rent spaces are not professionals. They may not conduct themselves in a manner that might be expected for, say, an offering of a hotel. Hotels necessarily must conduct themselves professionally if not due to regulation but to common standards of business. Airbnb is simply a facilitator to an owner sharing their own private space. The owner has the ability to conduct themselves as if they were inviting private guests.
Airbnb has more ambition and over time the site has become capable and more professional in its offering. They offer spaces for corporate customers and they also offer an “Instant Book” feature that makes a reservation little different than reserving a hotel.
As a vacation landlord, it is more likely you are already running your properties like a business. This gives you an advantage right from the start. If you market your property on Airbnb, there are standards of conduct in how you use the site that we feel are important to show your professionalism. These are just our own standards that we have implemented based upon our experience.
Market Property At The Right Time
Managing your property isn’t just about the accommodations. It’s about providing service that delights the right customers at the right time.
We have found that each marketing channel has its own “flavor” or “vibe”. You may think that all customers are the same, but they really aren’t. Customers segregate themselves into marketing channels based upon their personality, their need and their expectations. Sometimes even the same people among many channels.
There is not an easy answer to this question. You will get a feel for the kind of customers that request your property and why they show up. When you learn about them, you can then market your property to them where it is appropriate.
Maintain 100% Response Rate.
We are also consumers of Airbnb as well as hosts. When we look for a space, we will always select a host who has a high response rate versus one that has a low response rate (all else being equal). This is really common sense, a high response rate means the owner is serious and more likely will try to make an accommodation. It’s a time saver for a guest.
Respond to guest inquiries and booking requests within 24 hours. Ideally, respond sooner than this.
To maintain this rate, respond to every request or inquiry in the first 24 hours. Yes, even the ones that are spam or guests who want to book outside of Airbnb (there is no indication that spam inquiries aren’t counted against your response rate, if you don’t respond).
Even if you are using Instant Book, you will get requests that fall outside the boundaries of the requirements for Instant Book (as a host you can set these, requiring, e.g., that they have verified their identity and have positive reviews on the platform).
Manage Your Calendar
When it comes to renting your vacation real estate, your calendar is your business. Effective calendar management is essential to keeping your property booked, avoiding double bookings and errors that can cause missed bookings.
Set Expectations Appropriately
If you are new to Airbnb, you might not yet appreciate the extra demand you may get. When you list your property on Airbnb you may think that “nobody will show up in November” because you don’t normally rent that month. You are likely mistaken! If you really don’t want to rent in November, block it off. It will save you time and hassle.
If you put it out there for rent, really mean it!
List Only What You Want To Rent
If you are using multiple marketing channels for your property, block off the days on the calendar that you are not offering the space on each marketing platform. As an owner you might want to list on multiple channels at the same time and that’s great. But, if there are days you know that are not available on Airbnb, block them off
Block the days that you do not want to offer for rent. Offering what you only want to rent will decrease the likelihood of double bookings and unnecessary cancellations.
Block it When A Booking Occurs
There is nothing more frustrating for a guest than to make an inquiry only to find out that your calendar was incorrectly open. When we started renting our first property on Airbnb, for the first 30 rentals, we had to turn away one guest due to double booking with an incorrectly open calendar.
If you are marketing the same weeks on multiple marketing platforms, it is important to manage the other channels when you are negotiating a booking request. The way to handle this is to temporarily block the other marketing channels while you are negotiating the guest lease. This primary effects your bookings made offline or through bookings that are confirmed through a third party broker.
If a week is available on multiple marketing platforms, temporarily block the calendars on the other platforms when you are negotiating the lease. For the hours or perhaps the few days while this works itself out, this will prevent double bookings.
Consistent Communication Workflow
When you interact with potential guests, maintain a consistent pattern of guest interaction and standards with your reservation workflow. This is especially needed for a platform like Airbnb which has many non-professional landlords and it could be argued is working on developing trust with guests (there are people who are still skeptical; we see this in some of our interactions with guests).
There are checkpoints you should initiate communication with your guests. We talk about this in a detailed manner in the article, How To Communicate to Guests on Airbnb.
Important Communication Checkpoints:
- Respond to guest inquiry about their reservation request.
- After confirmed booking, thank guest and let them know more information will be made available.
- As guest stay approaches, provide detailed information about stay, confirming you are expecting them.
- During guest stay, be available to address questions in a timely manner.
Learn From Criticism
When you put yourself and your properties out there on marketing platforms that could also be considered a type ‘social media’ platform, you need to be prepared for criticism. Criticism can be both humbling and insulting. Be prepared for both.
You will get reviews and feedback that you may consider unfair, or even wrong. It’s gonna happen. You should respond to this criticism unemotionally and constructively.
The truth is for us is that feedback has mostly been humbling. We have gotten some good constructive feedback that has helped us improve the quality of our offering.
Why Criticism Happens
The question to ask is why do guests criticize in the first place? Leaving out guests are just difficult on their own, primarily this usually has to do with your accommodations not meeting the guest expectations. One way to mitigate this is to find out what the guest needs by talking with them before they book.
Talk to your guests before they book, if possible. If somethings comes up that doesn’t match their need, don’t be afraid to decline to accommodate them.
If you are offering instant booking on any platforms, you may not get an opportunity to talk to them before they book. The way to address the potential expectations gap is to being as up front as possible about what you are offering and providing as much information as possible prior to booking.
How To Prevent Bad Experiences
Over the long term, the way to get ahead of criticism is to market your property well. Over indulge in information, especially pictures. If guests know all they need to know, and there are no surprises during their visit, they are more likely to end up happy.
Another great source to help you with setting expectations is your previous guests. In their reviews, they will undoubtedly provide a lot of useful information that future guests can use to help them.
Example Guest…And the response
For example, one guest reported that they didn’t have enough bath towels for the entire guest party (these sometimes “disappear”). We took this information as an opportunity to improve our offering.
We do inventory checkpoints when the primary rental season ends. Also, we addressed this by overstocking these items in the closet, as well as having spares in the storage closet that can be retrieved on demand. We do this for all linens, consumables, and even outdoor furniture. Spares on premises makes it easy to address and shortcomings in supplies.
Build Your Business Reputation
In summary, it is important to run your property rentals professionally, first because its good business. Additionally, when you run it professionally, you will also develop a good business reputation that can only help you in the long term.
Before online booking became prevalent, it was challenging to build a client base on your own. It was and still is common to use third parties that you paid commissions to build your client base. For homeowners with the highest quality real estate (e.g., house right on the beach, cabin right next to the ski slope), it has always been easier to build that client base on your own.
When you use online marketing platforms successfully, you will build a reputation that can help you in build you own client base and run it as business. One measured step you can take is to work to become an Airbnb SuperHost. SuperHosts are verified as providing a set of accommodations to a quality level while at the same time the host commits to following through on all bookings.
A good reputation developed over years will give your guests the confidence to book with you directly. This offers the possibility to increase your margins, increase guest retention and reduce guest turnover.
