How to remotely operate an Airbnb

[Jessica872]

I currently offer up a cute little guest house on Airbnb. I live in the main house in close proximity and am available to guests as necessary. The casita has a lock box, so it is not necessary I be home when a guest arrives. I clean, stock, & change the linens / towels when a guest departs. 

I am planning on traveling in the near future and was wondering how other Airbnb hosts manage their property remotely. Ive maintained super host status and hesitate entrusting someone else to get the job done. Suggestions?? Thanks in advance!

[Pete28]

For a short period I just increase min stay to try to get a good chunk booked out - if we are out of town for 3 weeks I try to get 1 week booking. Easier in summer.

The cheapest I've seen cleaning service locally is $85 by that doesn't include laundry 😞 I would need to do min stay of 2-3 nights to eat that cost - most of my current 100%ish occupancy is 1 night which works out well if we do are our turn over, but wouldn't be worth it to pay cleaner.

One of the problems with Airbnb is the need to be present nearby to maximize profit and safety.

[Cor3]

Hi @Jessica872,

We are a remote host (we operate our apartment over 2.000 km away).

And we have a local contact person (with backups) whom executes all front-end activities. Such as Check-In, Cleaning, Shopping and all other local tasks (letting workmen in, etc).

And we do all the back-end stuff ourselves. Such as handling bookings, guest communication, etc.

We are usually in close contact with our local contact person (and her backups) via a WhatsApp group (usually at least once a day in high season).

So everybody is always fully informed about anything.

We prefer this way of working, rather than a property management company or any cleaning company. Because our local contact person is fully aware of our situation. And she will notice any defects/alterations immediately. Which will not be the case, when just any person would deal with our situation.

It all works very well. Now for the third year on a row. But communications is key! Whenever she sends in her accounts, I always pay her immediately (no questions asked). My own system estimates the costs automatically upfront.

Airbnb is all about trust, the same applies to the relationship with other team-members locally.

We have been working like this from the beginning. So it is not an ad-hoc way of working.

[Jeffrey240]

Hey,

I am in the process of trying to manage my airbnb remotely, mostly likely a couple states away. I noticed that you seemed to workout a relatively smooth system of operation when managing your airbnb. How did you find the right people? What is an affordable percentage for someone managing the cleaning, Check-in, shopping and letting in maintence personel? How did you manage reviews when interactions between guests were minimal? what advice do you have for someone trying to transform their home (4 beds) to 100% remote airbnb? 

Respectfully,

Jeff S. 

[Cor3]

Hi @Jeffrey240,

That’s quite a couple of questions!

Well first of all, you sometimes have to be a bit lucky 😄

Our local caretaker more or less came with the deal, when we purchased the place. She has somewhat a will of her own. So needed a bit of training and/or adaption to what we wanted, which was not always easy (she had been in this business for about 20 years, and we were new). And we learn all the time. When we started out renting: We didn’t have a clue, what this was all about!

The previous owner was just looking at minimizing costs, we are looking at maximizing profits (and that’s a big difference). There is an end to what you can reduce on costs, but there is virtually no end to what you can do to maximize your profit.

So we had to do: Loads and loads of reading (Like here in the CC).

Thinking about what others have to say, and so on.

And by the time you think, you’ve seen it all: Bam, there is another unforeseen experience.

Be on the ball: I’ve got a really big and pretty complex Excel Spreadsheet (Including VBA programming, as some of the formulas became too complex), which estimates my costs and monitors actuals.

Cost-rate of our local caretaker is roughly 9% of what guests pay (The taxman takes more).

Basic advice:

• Think, Evaluate and rethink!
• Stay away of instantaneous emotions!
• Don’t leave your comfort-zone and adhere to your common practices!
  What works well, does work well.
• Communicate well, extremely important! Have the Airbnb App on your phone and react fast!
  Even when they don’t communicate back, they will have seen your message (count on it).
• Have a backup-plan, and have a backup-plan for the backup-plan (Murphy never strikes alone, you see).
• Have spares.
• Calculate with depreciation on your investments and replacements.
• Have local contact details at hand. Make local friends. May come in handy sooner or later.
• Be honest. Don’t tell guests, a problem will be solved in 2 days. When it is more likely to take 2 weeks (as it will take 2 weeks).
• Adhere to the local rules and authorities. Actually be upfront to adhering to these rules!
  You will gain an advantage towards your local competition!
• Pay every local supplier immediately (have a close look at your costs, but do not question every bill). You will earn yourself a bit of credit.
  When a supplier is busy, guess whom he will serve first (the problem guy or the guy that pays immediately and no or hardly any questions asked).
• Invest in the right things and make sure everything is as much as possible idiot-proof.
• Accept things will go wrong, and you will have to do replacements/have associated costs.
• Be descent, even when people do the wrong things (It’s hard, but it’s do-able).
  A good review is worth more, than a couple of dimes over small damage.
• And last, but not least: Try to charge the maximum price.
  Charging too less, is a sign of laziness!
  And it will get you better guests.
  All my lesser reviews, came from guests, that weren’t paying the maximum price!
• Oh, and I don’t especially like property management companies.
  Bad for business and costly. But then again: Peace of mind, for what it is worth.
  Cause to a virtuous circle: No benefits, no investments, no bookings.
  If you do things well: According to Airdna, we are in the top-30 out of about 2.000 active listings in ‘our’ town.

And please, don’t get me going about guest communication.

It is sometimes really terrible. But that’s where your local contacts will or can help you out.

I had a guest, which only send me 4 messages on Airbnb in total (I did send no less than over a dozen). And after the reviews were done: He send me 2 messages in 1 day!

Go figure!

[Jeffrey240]

Wow, Cor thank you kindly for all these wonderful tips. I can definitely implement a few of these ideas right away. I have been looking for a way to better track costs. How did you go about setting up your excel spreadsheet in order to track costs? Is there a blank document with equations already set up that I could use to get started? 

Besides the opportunity for higher profits, what are the advantages of turning my home into a remotely operated airbnb versus traditional renting with long-term tenants? I'm trying to weigh pros and cons of both options. I currently have two airbnb rooms set up in my home that are easy for me to manage since I also live on the property. I'm concerned about the logistics of changing it to 4 airbnb rental rooms when I move. It will be more listings and guests to manage, on top of getting used to hosting remotely. If I'm able to find reliable help with co-hosting and cleaning, it will certainly help things as well.

I also checked out Airdna, and would like to thank you for introducing me to it! I had never heard of this website, but it seems like a valuable tool to use for market analysis in my area.

[Cor3]

Hi @Jeffrey240,

I did setup my version of the Excel sheet myself – from scratch. And which is very specific to my situation (I.e. it is useless to someone else).

It does forecast on basis of things, such as:

• Duration
• Number of persons in a group
• Season
• Tax-impact
• Depreciation
• Unit-prices, determined from experience

Once the actuals do come in, they will replace the forecast.

And I can also adjust my parameters (because of inflation and adjusted legislation).

With all this in place, I can quite accurately forecast turnover and associated costs – for about a year or so.

Due to all the VBA programming in this sheet, it really needs a bit of time to calculate everything through.

I only do Short Term Rentals, as Long Term Rentals is a completely different ball-game.

Sorry, I can’t help you with that.

Just try to work out what the Pros and Cons are – of both scenarios are.

Learn as you go, which does unfortunately mean: You will stumble, so once and a while.

And sometimes, you just have to be lucky.

There are no of the shelf instructions. As each situation is specific.

And you really need to have local presence! Can’t do without it!

I do not have a paid subscription at Airdna (as I find it, a bit expensive).

But even without it, it will provide you with some good insight.

I understood, they are nowadays trying to incorporate VRBO data as well.

They are using web-scraping techniques to gather data. So their data is not perfect (but I think the level of quality of their data is at about 98% of the truth).

And it is much better, than what Airbnb provides hosts with (as they supply hardly any data at all).

Success!

[Alessandra396]

Thank you very interesting

[Jessica872]

Thank you for the feedback. I have since discovered an individual interested in managing my properties. In addition there are a couple management companies in my area that may fit my needs. I think I can make this work!!

[John1080]

@Jessica872, we host remotely as well, and as others have said, you need someone to handle things. For us, our cleaners do the cleaning and then let us know if anything is wrong.  You won't be gone long, but if your time away becomes lengthier in the future, I would also look into getting a security camera and a smart lock.