Are you wondering, “Should I hire a property manager for my vacation rental?” Are they worth it? Especially if you are not local or within a short driving distance of your rental. Owning a vacation rental can be an excellent source of income, but managing it can be daunting. From marketing to guest communication and maintenance, the responsibilities are endless. That’s where a property manager comes in. This Q&A-style blog will explore why hiring a property manager for your vacation rental is a wise investment.
Q: What are the key benefits of using a property manager for vacation rental homes?
A:
- Professional Marketing: Vacation rental managers have the expertise and resources to market your vacation home, reaching a wider audience effectively. Your home will be able to be featured on numerous vacation rental sites, and you will not have to worry about double bookings as this is all handled for you. Giving your home more opportunities to be booked and seen. Plus, you will benefit from the company’s past guest database, which your home will be pushed to. This also includes social media posts, newsletters, ads, etc., that your home will also have opportunities to be featured.
- Guest Screening: Property managers carefully screen guests to ensure the safety and security of your home, reducing the risk of damages or disturbances.
- 24/7 Support: With a full-service manager, potential, existing, and future guests for your property will have round-the-clock support to answer questions, aid with issues during guest stays, answer inquiries, or handle any type of emergency that may arise.
- Pricing Optimization: Most vacation rental companies use a dynamic pricing system to set competitive rental rates, maximizing your income while keeping your property attractive to potential guests. They handle the day-to-day research to ensure that if demand is high, your rates can reflect this.
- Property Maintenance & Cleaning Services: Full-service vacation rental companies will manage all aspects of your home’s maintenance. This includes all cleans between guests, emergency repairs, inspections between guests, pool & spa maintenance, landscaping, etc., ensuring your home is in top condition for guests and you.
- Legal Compliance: Property managers stay current with local regulations and ensure your property is in compliance, reducing your risk of legal issues.
Who can manage my rental property?
A:
When looking for a property manager, you want to make sure you pick one with years of experience in the industry and a fully established team. Managing a vacation rental is a lot of work, so you want to ensure the one you pick has the capacity to handle everything to ensure your home and its guests are taken care of.
Why choose a property manager?
A:
Property managers handle absolutely everything from the moment a guest first inquires to the moment they depart. With GoodNight Stay’s full-service plan, you won’t need to worry about anything. We manage your home’s cleanings, inspections, service requests, guest services, reservations, marketing, accounting, and even permit and license applications, just to name a few.
Airbnb vs. Long-term Rentals – Which one is more profitable?
A:
There are a lot of differentiating factors when deciding to list your property as an Airbnb (short-term rental) vs. long-term rental (6+ month/year tenants). Payment frequency, method, and amount differ between Airbnb and traditional renting. Since Airbnb is used for short-term vacation rentals, payment functions are seen as similar to those of a hotel. Stays are generally paid for on a nightly basis, commanding a higher daily rate due to a number of factors. By contrast, traditional rentals occur over a set duration, with payments collected once during each given period – typically once per month. Generally, this will typically result in a lower rent price per night compared to listing your property as a short-term rental, but this does not consider the assurance of a steady tenancy. This is why we recommend finding a manager who is able to offer your home as a short-term and long-term rental. This way, if your home is underperforming in your market’s slow season, you can have to ability to acquire a tenant that guarantees you income during that time.
How much do property managers charge?
A:
The cost for a property manager to manage your vacation rental varies per company and depends on the type of services you want them to handle. Some offer a strict one-style management plan of 25%, while others, like us at GoodNight Stay, offer 3 different options depending on how much the owner wants to be involved with their rental property:
- Essentials Program – 10%: This program includes listing management – running your listing on various marketing platforms ensuring it is up to date and competitive in the market, algorithm optimization – makes various adjustments to your homes listing ensuring it can appear on search results as much as possible, SEO optimization – adding in and including various keywords that can help the home appear organically and following market trends, social media – featuring and advertising your home through our companies various social media platforms, pre-arrival reservation support – aiding guests on questions, and assisting them through the booking process, pre-arrival customer support – aiding guests on generic questions/ inquiries before they consider booking, revenue management – handle all dynamic pricing making sure home is priced competitively and following the market, accounting – distribute and ensure you are fully paid for each reservation, and vendor referral – assistance on recommended vendors if there is something you are not able to handle yourself. In the Essentials program, the owner handles the cleaning, maintenance requests, and communication with guests for check-in and check-out once they are fully booked. This option is perfect for homeowners who want to be more hands-on with their rental or have their specified team handle their property but need assistance getting bookings.
- Full-Service Program – 20 %: Just as it sounds, this program covers everything from start (pre-booking) to finish (check-out) for all guests.Once your home is officially onboarded, all owners must worry about is sitting back and earning revenue!
- Luxe Program – 25%: Similar to full-service, the Luxe program is fully handled by the GNS team but also offers a numerous amount of additional services to ensure your guests and home are praised and valued to the full extent! Including twilight photography, a virtual 3-D walk-through, drone photography, luxe branding, gift baskets for every guest’s arrival, robes available to guests, a curated map, and more! To be considered for the luxe program, your home must be pre-qualified. Your sales agent can advise you if your home meets the Luxe criteria, and you can enter your submissions here if you are interested.
Do I need a license to manage a short-term rental?
A:
Yes, licenses and permits are required in many states and cities. The best part of choosing GoodNight Stay as your property manager is that when you onboard your home with us, you will be assigned to one of our expert Owner Success Managers, who will guide you and provide all the necessary documents to list your property as a short-term rental legally.
Airbnb vs. VRBO
A:
Airbnb and Vrbo are good choices for hosts looking to advertise their listings in front of millions of travelers. While there are some differences in commission fees, cancellation policies, audience, property types, and review systems, none of these mean that one platform is inherently better than the other. In fact, many hosts choose to list their properties on both platforms to maximize their listings’ visibility and increase their occupancy and revenue. By choosing GoodNight Stay as your property manager, you can have your host listed not just on both but on over 350 booking platforms, increasing the opportunity for your home to get bookings.
What do I need to do to list my home with GoodNight Stay?
A:
Simply visit our Vacation Rental Management page, fill out the form with your information, and one of our team members will contact you for your free consultation.
Owner Testimonies
Don’t just take our word for it. Here are what some of our owners have to say about choosing GoodNight Stay.
Katie’s Exceptional Management:
“As homeowners, we couldn’t be happier with Katie’s exceptional management of our properties through Goodnight Stay in Nashville. From the outset, Katie has been incredibly professional, organized, and attentive to both our needs and those of our guests. Her dedication to ensuring our properties are well-maintained and welcoming has been truly impressive. Katie’s communication skills are top-notch; she keeps us updated regularly and promptly addresses any issues that arise. She has a keen eye for detail, ensuring that every guest enjoys a seamless and pleasant experience. This has significantly boosted our positive reviews and occupancy rates. We are grateful for Katie’s hard work and highly recommend her and the GoodNight Stay team to any homeowner looking for a reliable and outstanding property manager.”
Townhouse Success with Tawney:
“We recently listed our townhouse with Good Night Stay for short-term rentals. Tawney Felde is our Success Manager, and she is awesome to work with! She has been on top of all the details and is available for us and our guests. A review on the unit recently cited their appreciation for her responsiveness! Using Good Night Stay has proven to be a great decision. They handle everything. Thank you, Tawney, for making this so easy for us!”
Turning an Investment into Success:
“Kudos to Good Night Stay. My husband and I are new at owning rental property and knew we had to find a seasoned company to manage our Nashville condo. After much research, we decided on Good Night Stay due to great reviews. Tawney is our personal manager for the property and keeps great communication with us as needed. We have been pleasantly surprised at the frequent rental that GNS has produced from their own website. With all the competition in Nashville, we knew it was an iffy investment, however, Good Night Stay has turned it into a very good investment. I give them a 10 out of 10.”
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In conclusion, hiring a property manager for your vacation rental can save you time, maximize your income, and provide peace of mind. Depending on how involved you want to be with your vacation rental, property managers can handle everything from marketing to legal compliance and everything in between. This is why most vacation rental owners are choosing to go with a property manager. If you’re ready to take the stress out of managing your rental, contact us today and allow your home to become a GoodNight Stay. Get started here by visiting our vacation rental management page.