Automation Software for Your Vacation Rental Business: Is It Worth It?

In today’s day and age, several tasks have been automated successfully. Many vacation rental automation tools have been created specifically to help hosts and property managers. From smart thermostats to smart home devices, there is practically a tool for every task.

Hosts need to have their work cut out for them if they want to stand out among the millions of listings, and with vacation rental automation it is much easier. By investing in software, you can save money, time, and workforce that you can then reinvest into your vacation rental property again. It will also help you to deliver an enhanced guest experience and offer better value to your guests. Here are some of the main tasks that you can automate:

Automate Messaging to Improve Guest Experience

When it comes to guest communication, your response time can be the difference between securing a booking or not. Ideally, hosts must reply within a few minutes (even replying within the hour can be too long). Needless to say, this is not humanly possible to do 24/7, but with the right tool, you can. Most vacation rental automation software solutions have triggered messaging and templates that you can personalize to help you reply faster.

Synchronize Direct Bookings and Reservations Across Multiple Vacation Rental Sites

Channel managers enable you to manage your property’s availability and update reservations across multiple vacation rental websites (such as Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, etc.). Many vacation rental automation software also has this channel manager feature. Though, they are a better investment as they also have direct bookings management and a multi-calendar dashboard that you can use to manage your calendars via a single place. It is easier and faster as you will no longer have to log off and into different accounts. Also, as you will be able to see all the information immediately, planning all the tasks linked to the different reservations is simple.

Automate Your Check-in/Checkout Process

Guests appreciate efficiency, especially during the check-in and checkout process. A smart lock is pretty convenient as it enables you to provide self-check-in. In addition, it is also more secure than keys or electronic locks for that matter and can help you and your guests feel safer and more rest assured.

If keyless entry is too foreign, but you still want to offer self-check-in, you can use a service such as Keycafe. In short, Keycafe uses nearby cafes as storage locations for keys where guests or cleaners can pick them up during the trading hours of the specific location.

Automate Cleaning, Team Management, and Maintenance

Cleanliness has always been important in the vacation rental industry. However, in 2020 it has become even more crucial and challenging to manage with the special requirements that have been in place for the pandemic. A vacation rental automation tool lets you create cleaning and maintenance tasks and automatically notifies cleaners and other team members on your behalf. It greatly reduces human error!

Control Your Earnings by Automated Financial Reporting

The guests have checked out and the cleaning task has been assigned to a cleaner, but there are still tasks on your to-do list, such as financial reporting. With the right management software solution, you can access comprehensive financial reports. It will give you much more insight than an Excel spreadsheet, which makes staying on top of your financials (and within budget) simple, even without a financial background.

Use an All-in-one Solution for all Your Vacation Rental Management Tasks

As you can see, there is actually a long list of tasks that you can automate in the vacation rental industry. If you were to use a different tool for each of these tasks, it will defy the purpose. In fact, you might even end up spending more time.

So, the real solution is to invest in an all-in-one solution, such as iGMS. It offers all these features (and more) to help you stay in control of your business and steer it to success. Even if you do not use all the features from day one, it has everything you need to grow your business when the need arises.

All things considered, vacation rental automation is for everyone. For minimal upfront investment, you get the tools you need to use your time and workforce optimally. With this information, you are empowered to take (back) control of your short-term rentals.

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