3 Steps to Becoming An Airbnb Property Manager

Many small business owners, real estate agents and long-term rental property managers are turning towards Airbnb to increase their rental income. We've spoken about the long-term vs short-term rental topic in the past and we've found that more homeowners in Australia find the short-term rental market lucrative. This comes after a boom in domestic travel earlier this year when Australia and New Zealand announced the Trans-Tasman Travel Bubble. Domestic travel was encouraged when Australians received discounts on major domestic flights to support the local economies in vacation towns and bigger cities like Gold Coast.

Have you thought about transitioning from long-term rentals to short-term rentals? Or are you looking to buy your first investment property to take advantage of the increased local travel trend? With more than 6 years of experience in the short-term rental industry, we've found the key to managing successful Airbnbs. We keep guests happy by providing memorable stays and offer full transparency into a property's performance for homeowners.

1. Build relationships with suppliers

This may be one of the most important steps to setting up your Airbnb property management business. A good relationship with suppliers may help you get a discount on services and ensure you get the best possible service before welcoming new guests.

Research some of the local businesses in your area and find out if they provide the services you need. This includes:

• Cleaning
• Deep cleaning (if your home is pet friendly)
• Washing (linen, towels, blankets, throws, bath mats, kitchen towels)
• Property and pool maintenance
• Gardening and/or landscaping services
• Trash removals
• Key delivery (if needed)

Once you've found your preferred service supplier, it's important to ensure they clean and offer services up to the high Airbnb standards. Homes need to follow the new Enhanced Cleaning Protocol and follow extra steps for pet-friendly homes.

Don't forget to keep these local businesses up to date with your bookings for a seamless property management experience. Be upfront and transparent with your service providers about your turnaround times, service delivery expectations and standards.

2. Get a free property management tool

The best way to stay up to date with your bookings, cleaning, revenue and other operations is to get short-term rental management software that works for you. Hometime recently launched a free tool that syncs all your bookings, messages, inbox, invoicing and revenue tools. You'll no longer have to keep different tabs open on many platforms to manage your short-term rentals.

The platform makes it easy to communicate with different guests while the calendar syncs all your upcoming bookings so you can organise your cleaning and maintenance services. You can also process and send invoices while calculating revenue and upcoming expenses.

Once you have a proper system in place, it's easy to stay on top of all the homes you manage and never let a booking or issue go unnoticed again.  

3. Create awareness through marketing

The last step is to create awareness of your business through marketing. Define your target audience by taking a step back and creating your client persona. Give that person a name, age, career and pain point. Here's an example:

Jonathan is 42 years old and has been married for six years. It's been his goal to save up and buy a vacation home, which he was able to do at the end of last year. He has recently found himself too busy raising a newborn and working full time to visit his vacation home as often as he would like and has been thinking about how he can earn a return on his investment. Jonathan uses social media to stay in touch with his family and friends and works from home most of the time.

Now put yourself in Jonathan's shoes. What would be the best way to target personas similar to Jonathan? If you're starting with a low marketing budget, it may be best to look at Facebook and Instagram advertising. With these social platforms, you can target specific areas, demographics, incomes, interests and careers. It's a good way to create brand interest without breaking the bank. If your budget is higher, you could look at print advertising in local newspapers, distribute flyers and drop off information leaflets at property agencies and realtors. It's a great way to build relationships and trust with the businesses in your area.

Are you ready to start your business?

The above tips are a great way to start an Airbnb property management business and allow you the opportunity to benefit from the booming Airbnb shared economy without owning an Airbnb.

At Hometime, we partner with Airbnb property managers like yourself in Australia and New Zealand. If you're already managing some Airbnbs, we welcome you to become a Hosting Partner. Our marketing team works hard to add Airbnb to our property management portfolios which we then hand over to our local hosts in their areas. They manage the groundwork, like guest communications, cleaning coordination, maintenance and more. Our expert revenue management teams, partner support teams and homeowner teams are dedicated to assisting our Hosting Partners with all the information, guidance, software and tools needed to increase their business' revenue.

Find out more about our Hosting Partners and the management process, here.