15% ROI, 5% down loans!”,”body”:”3.99% rate, 5% down! Access the BEST deals in the US at below market prices! 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Running a successful short-term rental (STR) business can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re managing multiple properties. It’s easy to get bogged down between responding to guest inquiries, scheduling cleanings, updating pricing, and tracking expenses.
Thankfully, with the right real estate investment software (like our partners at Baselane), tools, and strategies, you can streamline your operations, save time, and focus on growing your business. Here’s how I automate my STR management and maintain peace of mind while delivering a great guest experience.
1. Vacation Rental Software
Reliable vacation rental software is the backbone of my automation setup. I use Hospitable, which has revolutionized how I communicate with guests and manage bookings.
Automation tools can handle 90% of my guest communication. For example:
- Instant replies: The software responds immediately to inquiries, ensuring potential guests feel valued.
- Automated messaging: I’ve set up templates for check-in instructions, welcome messages, and check-out reminders. These messages are automatically customized with the guest’s name, booking details, and other essential information.
Vacation rental software also syncs calendars across platforms like Airbnb and VRBO, preventing double bookings and keeping my availability current. It even coordinates with cleaning schedules to ensure seamless turnover tasks.
2. Automated Cleaning Management
Cleaning is nonnegotiable in the STR world, and having a system to automate this process is essential. Options like Tidy, Turno, and more are platforms designed to make cleaning management easy. This allows me to:
- Automate scheduling: Cleanings are automatically scheduled after every checkout, with notifications sent directly to my cleaners.
- Assign tasks: The cleaning team is given detailed checklists to address every aspect of the property.
- Track performance: I can rate and provide feedback to cleaners, fostering accountability and high standards.
This system saves me countless hours coordinating via text or email and ensures properties are spotless for the next guest.
3. Dynamic Pricing
Setting the right price for my STRs is crucial for maximizing revenue. PriceLabs, Beyond Pricing, AirDNA, and more are all dynamic pricing tools that help me stay competitive by analyzing market data and adjusting rates automatically.
Here’s how it works:
- Market trends: You can monitor local trends, such as demand spikes during events or seasonal shifts, and recommend optimal pricing.
- Custom rules: I’ve set specific rules for minimum and maximum prices, ensuring my rates stay within an acceptable range.
- Occupancy-based adjustments: If a property isn’t booking as quickly as expected, PriceLabs lowers the price to attract last-minute guests. Conversely, for high-demand dates, rates are increased to maximize profits.
4. Streamlined Bookkeeping and Accounting With Baselane
Financial management is one of the most overlooked yet critical aspects of running an STR. I rely on Baselane, a banking and financial management platform built for hosts and co-hosts.
I opened a business checking account with Baselane for my STR business—it only took a few minutes, and I use it to create multiple accounts and subaccounts (virtual accounts) for my STR listings to easily organize and manage my earnings and expenses.
Baselane’s short-term rental accounting helps simplify my bookkeeping by:
- Easily syncing transactions: Baselane automatically syncs transactions from all your bank accounts and cards, plus payments from vacation rental platforms.
- Automating expense tracking: All expenses, from utility bills to cleaning fees, are automatically categorized.
- Generating reports: You can create detailed financial reports showing STR performance and profitability.
- Streamlining tax prep: With everything organized, tax season is a breeze. I can easily access records and identify deductions specific to STRs. I can automatically get a tax package with Schedule E reports for each property to send to my accountant.
No more stressing when tax season comes, as your finances have been automatically sorted without any of the manual work we usually have to do.
5. Why Automation Is Key
Automation doesn’t just save time—it enhances the guest experience. When processes run smoothly, guests notice. They appreciate fast communication, clean properties, and fair pricing, all made possible through these tools.
Moreover, automation reduces human error. With everything from guest messaging to financial tracking handled systematically, I can operate confidently, knowing nothing will slip through the cracks.
This ecosystem works together seamlessly, creating a stress-free experience for me as the host and a positive experience for my guests. Together, they help me operate like a pro without needing a full-time team.
By embracing automation, I’ve scaled my business while maintaining a work-life balance. The initial time investment to set up these tools pays off in spades, freeing me to focus on strategy, expansion, and, occasionally, taking a breather.
Whether managing one property or 20, the right automation tools will make your life easier and your STR business more profitable. Ready to run your STR business like a pro? Start with a platform like Baselane to handle your STR banking, bookkeeping, and accounting needs, and watch your STR operations transform.
Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.
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