When considering what might help them improve their business, not many vacation rental owners consider the power that vacation rental apps have, nor the benefits they provide.
Vacation Rental Apps
Whether management has one property to look after or several, it’s important for them to adequately monitor all of the properties equally. It can be difficult to monitor all of the different aspects of a rental property at once, which is why many owners and management teams struggle with this. Fortunately, this is something that vacation rental apps can simplify.
These apps to manage vacation rentals are available to both management teams and their guests, and they can be downloaded on different smartphone devices. The apps are designed to help the owners manage their bookings and maintenance in an easier manner, and they can also manage various daily activities, like check-in and check-outs, housekeeping services, and sales.
Common Features
No two vacation rental apps are the same. While each one has its own unique features, the vast majority share a few common features.
Management of Revenue
Managing revenue is an important part of every vacation rental owner’s tasks. Generally, management apps have a tool that can analyze both previous and current rental rates. This tool can also predict demand, compare and contrast with the rates that competitors have set, as well as identify external and internal factors that can influence pricing. This tells the owner whether or not they are making a profit or whether they need to adjust their rates to better compete with competitors.
Management of Tasks
It’s essential to keep on top of tasks that need to be performed within various units. One of the common features of vacation rental management apps is task management, where the owner or management team of a vacation rental can assign housekeeping or maintenance duties to a property and keep track of whether they have been performed or not.
Calendar
A calendar is one of the more important features of a vacation rental management app because it helps the owner manage their properties and keep track of all of the bookings, present and future so that there is no overbooking, and the owner knows what to expect.
Integrations
Many vacation rental management apps are fairly versatile, so they allow the integration of third-party software and platforms, like different payment platforms. They also allow the integration of certain pricing tools and application programming interfaces.
Benefits of Vacation Rental Management Apps
There are many benefits to short-term rental apps for both the management and the guests.
Guest Engagement
It is important for vacation rental managers and their guests to communicate with one another about important things, and often the two exchange emails and calls throughout the stay. When guests log into the app, they need to provide their updated contact information, which ensures the property management has their up-to-date phone number and email to contact them when they need to. Additionally, many management apps have a messaging system where the two parties can instantaneously communicate.
For properties that have smart locks, through the app, the management can change the check-in times and give the guests earlier access if needed.
Information
Oftentimes, when guests have checked into their units, they have questions. These questions may be as simple as asking how to use an appliance within the units or the request for a recommendation for them to eat. Even something as simple as asking what the Wi-Fi password is will have a guest reaching out to management. While it is management’s role to respond to these requests and provide them with answers to their questions, there is a much simpler approach.
Vacation rental management apps provide guests with this information through the app, so they don’t have to go through management. Management can put any information that is specific to the property within the app, such as trash days, how to use appliances and troubleshooting technology. These guests have this information throughout the entirety of their stay, which is convenient for them and management.
Customer Support
Issues can occur at any time of day, and there may be moments when your guests need to contact you but cannot reach you. This may be because they have questions about something within the unit or something else; vacation rental apps provide 24/7 customer support as long as they are set up with the proper tools and information that a guest needs. This way, if guests cannot reach management, the answer to their questions will lie within the app.
Efficiency
The capabilities of these management apps can increase your efficiency because you have an overview of everything: the availability of all of your listings, the time a guest has left in their rental, etc. This helps to free up your time so you can spend it on other parts of your business.
Management System
With vacation rental management apps, you don’t have to use different software to manage different premises or bookings. Everything is centralized within the app, including rates, messages, payments, and bookings, which can help ease the burden of the management and make running the rental business a smoother process.
Automate
For vacation rental owners and management, one of the benefits that apply most to them is the automation of certain operations. Within these apps, management can set up specific message sequences that can be activated at different levels of the guest’s stay. This not only provides the guest with excellent service but it saves management time.
User Friendly
One of the greater benefits of vacation rental management apps is how user-friendly they are. Apps and other software are easily integrated with mobile devices and search engines, which makes them easier to use. The interface is also very easy for the guest to figure out and use, no matter how tech-savvy they may or may not be.
Vacation rental management apps provide a service to rental owners that not many other apps and software can. By investing their time into using these apps, rental owners are freeing up more time of their own and simplifying the vacation rental process for themselves.
