6 Common Short-Term Rental Management Challenges & How To Overcome Them

Short-term rental management is a lucrative industry to get into, and there are many opportunities to become successful. However, nothing is that simple, and there are always obstacles and challenges along the way you’ll have to face.

Here are the top six short-term rental management challenges that you are most likely to come across, as well as the ways you can overcome them.

Maintaining Guest Communication

Challenges with guest communication include response time to inquiries, clear instructions and assistance for both check-in/out processes (i.e. key handover), as well as timely responses addressing any concerns raised by the customer during their stay. 

Feedback helps ensure that delays or miscommunication do not result in unsatisfied customers and angry Yelp reviews. 

Using property management software such as Hospiria will make this process more efficient by automatically sending responses, scheduling messages and giving a universal platform for all communication. 

Using automated reminders and customizable templates for communication can guarantee that you communicate as professionally on 100 properties the same way you do with one.

Regulatory Compliance and Legal Issues

Regulatory compliance and legality in the short-term rental segment is a minefield to navigate. Rules range from business licensing, zoning laws and tax collection right through to public health and safety standards. A failure to comply can lead to a penalty or lawsuit. 

Some forms of software offer tracking tools for regulatory changes, automatic tax calculation and record-keeping of compliance documents. The software can provide lists of what is required by local authorities and reminders to renew licenses timely with prescribed rules that are always kept in order. Property managers can use things like this to stay up-to-date and on track with compliance, thus managing legal risks, thereby saving your company's reputation.

Determining Your Prices 

One of the biggest challenges for short-term rental managers is pricing properties appropriately, and balancing maximizing revenue without losing competitiveness. Some of the factors that affect pricing are demand during seasons, local events, and market state. Mispricing will result in low occupancy or lost revenue potential. 

When connected to a range of state-of-the-art dynamic pricing tools, they are able to discover prices in demand in real time based on competitor pricing and market data. These insights can help property managers tailor pricing strategies to balance the need for competitiveness with a hunger for profit. 

Some can also supply you with historical data and predictive analytics, which could be used by you to predict future changes in demand volume so as to adjust the pricing accordingly.

Maintaining High Occupancy Rates 

There is often difficulty bringing in guests during the off-season and standing out from the competition. To achieve high occupancy rates, effective marketing is a must and dynamic pricing helps to increase each room yield. Use Hospiria, integrated with top booking platforms to make sure everybody can see your property. It also has analytics tools built right in so that they can tell you what the trends are and where you need to put in marketing efforts.

Dynamic pricing on Hospiria means that you can adjust rates based on the demand while still making sure you have a competitive price. Automated guest communication also contributes to a positive experience and return bookings. These features allow property managers to keep rental occupancy stable when market conditions fluctuate, allowing for a consistent income stream.

Keeping the Property Clean and Maintained

Cleaning and maintenance has to be of a standard, otherwise, complaints will result in negative feedback. This means you need to ensure that cleaning tasks are scheduled, walkthrough inspections occur at regular intervals with maintenance issues corrected immediately. By assigning tasks to the cleaning staff and maintenance team using an automated system, you can ensure that they get done on time. 

Sometimes, software even schedules routine examinations and maintenance and logs the requests, so you will never face any type of problem. 

Property managers can improve guest satisfaction and maintain the reputation of their property by continuing to enforce high cleaning standards as well as making repairs in a timely manner.

Managing your Online Reputation 

Having a strong online reputation is crucial for acquiring bookings and generating trust. Nevertheless, there are several issues to consider, including keeping track of reviews, responding to unfavorable comments, and prioritizing a consistent guest experience. 

Property management software can enable you to manage your reputation in one convenient location by combining reviews from various sources into one dashboard. This makes it easier for managers to always stay updated and respond promptly. Receiving automated review requests from happy guests may increase the quantity of positive comments. 

Capture and share intelligent evaluations with staff to pinpoint frequent issues and know what could use improvement. Managers who strategically control guest feedback and have a high level of service will help maintain an outstanding image and busy property schedules.

Property Management Software is the Key to Overcoming Short-Term Rental Property Management Challenges

As you can see in many of the solutions above, property management software such as Hospiria is the main solution to overcoming the challenges. Short-term rental owners already have a lot of work to do, so having an automated system and various other tools can help a lot.

Hospiria offers most of the solutions you need in one simple place. To get started today, contact one of our experts for a walkthrough tour of the software.