The art of property management in the short-term rental (STR) industry is like managerial kung-fu. It requires keeping a finger on the pulse of the market and price regulation, constantly communicating with guests, monitoring the condition of the property, and dealing with various formal issues.

Therefore, when we talk about what actually goes into managing your short-term rental business independently, we mean a multitude of tasks coming from all directions, including those from listing platforms such as Booking and Airbnb. Although It's difficult to call it passive income, we know how to improve the situation.

We evaluated Booking and Airbnb from the perspective of their convenience for hosts and prepared two bonuses for you: 

• a checklist for optimizing time spent managing your property so that your income can truly become passive
• a table with insider assessments of the opportunities provided by Booking and Airbnb for hosts

What goes under the STR management?

There is a well-known myth that managing a short term rental property is an ideal type of passive income. Just make a one-time investment and all you need is to collect the cheques in the end. In real life, however, everything is a bit more complicated. This article is to shed light on the most important aspects of managing the STR that usually take most of the manager’s time. It is truly surprising sometimes how the dream of a passive income turns into a full-time job.

Managing rental vacation

This work includes tasks such as updating listings, forecasting sales, adjusting prices based on demand and seasonality, analyzing competitors, and promoting the property. Much of this work can be done using Excel spreadsheets and formulas to compare sales figures with actual bookings, length of stay, number of guests, and profit and loss.

Filling in a registration form on a booking platform with a description and photos is just the beginning. In the future, you must monitor your listing's ranking, analyze your competitors' strategies, and find more opportunities to attract guests and optimise business plans.

Time required: up to 3 hours a week during low season (1-2 bookings a week). This time is the same for both Booking and Airbnb platforms.

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‍Communicating with guests

While Booking doesn’t require too much communication (just accept the booking and wait for the guest to arrive), Airbnb draws your attention to this. Let’s highlight the main points:

• Pre-booking communication: You must respond to the request as soon as possible, within 24 hours. During this time, you need to check the guest's profile and other hosts' feedback to decide whether to accept the request or not.
  
• Communication before arrival: At this point, the guest may ask for more information about the property, such as its location and accommodation rules, or even if there is any milk in the fridge.
  
• Communication on the day of arrival: Guests may get lost or have trouble understanding instructions.
  
• Communication during the stay: Guests may have questions about the property, the neighbourhood, or the city.
  
• Communication after check-out: You have the opportunity to ask the guest to leave feedback, and you have about 30 days to write your own feedback on the guest's profile.

Time required: up to 2 hours for Airbnb and up to 30 minutes for Booking per request.

Maintaining the property

The above item includes cleaning, restocking supplies, and minor repairs. Something will always run out, no matter how much stock you have, and something will always need repairs or upgrades. Lost keys or a malfunctioning boiler are examples of these types of issues.

Time required: Up to 2 hours after each booking if you do the cleaning yourself, or up to 30 minutes to check the work of a cleaning agency. Restocking supplies may take an hour per week if you have a list and follow it.

Receiving payments

Airbnb sends payments 24-48 hours after the guest arrives. Booking is a bit more complicated though: the payments are sent weekly (usually on Thursdays) after the guests depart or monthly before the 15^th . The housing location has a significant influence on the payment frequency and the fund transfer can even be blocked if the location is not confirmed.

Time required: mostly none with Airbnb vs an opportunity of a great headache with Booking (if you are unlucky). In general, it usually takes up to an hour each week.

Emergencies

There’s always a probability of emergency situations no matter how reliable the housing and its utility networks are. And if you are in charge of managing the housing yourself – it’s your duty to cope with them at 22:00 on Friday or early in the morning on Sunday. Whether it is a crashed Wi-Fi router or a clogged sewerage to name but a few.

Time required: up to 2 hours weekly.