6 Ways an Online Property Manager Saves You Time

Managing a rental property is a hands-on task, with every hour you spend on property management cutting into your profits and your free time. With online property management assistance, you can reclaim your time while keeping your vacation rental in great shape. Learn 6 ways an online property manager saves time.

1. Respond to inquiries and bookings

As a rental property host, you know that guests want a fast response. If you take too long to respond to a message, the guest may book another short-term rental where the host was communicative. Online property management services help you respond quickly to any inquiry or booking without the need to be tethered to your phone or email. As a result of quicker communication, you will increase your bookings to generate more revenue from your rental property.

2. Update your availability

While there are services that update your availability across booking platforms automatically, they’re expensive and they don’t often make sense if you have a single vacation rental home. An online property manager can update your availability using the calendar information you provide.

Let someone else tend to the administrative details. You will save time because you’ve outsourced the work to an online property manager, and you never have to worry about canceling a reservation because your property is not available.

3. Arrange cleaning services

While an online property manager can’t clean your vacation rental for you, they can arrange for cleaning services, which is the next best thing.

An online property manager can either call the cleaning service you work with to set up a cleaning or research cleaning companies near you who can handle your request. You’ll benefit from a clean rental that’s ready to handle guests without having to do the cleaning yourself.

4. Handle issues that come up during a stay

Sometimes things go wrong during a guest’s stay. For example, perhaps a guest locks themselves out of the apartment or has an issue with the internet. When issues arise, they tend to require your immediate attention to make things right.

If you are busy or don’t live near your vacation rental, it’s stressful to drop everything and handle a guest’s needs. Fortunately, your online property manager can handle all communication related to issues during a guest’s stay, whether arranging for a locksmith to come out or checking with the internet service provider to see if there are outages in the area.

Guests will be happy when issues are resolved quickly; as a result of fast service, you will get a positive rating (which can lead to more bookings) without needing to spend any time troubleshooting problems.

5. Optimize your rental

Optimizing your rental helps it display at the top of search results, so more people view and book the property. Optimizing your rental means making sure the listing copy includes top keywords, including photos, filling out every section of the listing, and keeping up to date with platform changes, which may introduce new features.

It takes a long time to optimize a listing from scratch; an existing listing requires some editing here and there. If you want to save time and keep your listing discoverable, let an online property manager help you.

6. Edit and add listings

If you get a new amenity, you will need to edit your rental listing. If you are doing so well that you purchase another investment property, you’ll need to build a new listing for that vacation home. Editing and adding listings takes time, especially when it means coordinating photos too. Online property managers can edit, add, and optimize any listing to help your rentals get booked by interested travelers. This translates to more income with less time!

With Co-Host Market, it’s easier than ever to get reliable help managing your vacation rental property. Browse available co-hosts near you and get started today.