If you have been an Airbnb host for a while and enjoyed what you had to do while at the same time being successful at it, maybe your next step could be adding more vacation rental properties to your portfolio. If you are good at multitasking and managing properties, you should seriously consider offering property management services. The question is, how do we grow a portfolio as an Airbnb co-host or Property Manager? We will guide you through this article.

Begin with a business plan

As for any journey, you need to know where you are heading. So, a business plan is what you need before anything else. In that plan, you need to break down step by step how you are going to manage your clients’ properties. You have to scale your operations. Make sure to answer questions like:

• How will the check-ins be carried out, in person, or will you outsource this service?
• How will the cleaning be taken care of, will you be looking for a third-party service provider?
• How will you market your property listings?
• Will you be advising your clients about safety measures for their properties?
• How are you going to communicate with the guests?

This is the basic outline to launch your career. Of course, you can start slowly, with one or two properties, and as you get more experience, your portfolio will also grow.

Find homeowners looking for someone to manage their properties

Track down property owners and try to convince them, firstly, of the advantages of handing over the tasks of managing the rental properties to professionals like you. And secondly, why you are the best at managing properties. In this case, this is where your previous experiences as a property manager will be of good use. 

This is why you also need to secure written testimonials from your old clients. You can also make an appreciation form where you go into more details about what services have been offered by you specifically to them and how good our performance has been. You can maybe even add a scoring system. In case there are some points on which there is still room for improvement, you can show your future clients the efforts made to improve the services. This will also show them that you do listen to feedback and work on your weak points. On the other hand, high scores and great feedback will get you, new clients, in no time.

You must always remember that your main job, as a Property Manager or an Airbnb Co-host is to provide an outstanding guest experience. In any case, a positive, proactive attitude will undoubtedly get you far. As far as the rates are concerned, as your experience and portfolio grow, you can gradually increase them as well.

Be on the lookout for co-hosting opportunities

Never stop looking for clients, that is, homeowners looking for professional property management services. People needing help with hosting can be found, for example, among your contacts. So, be very active on social media platforms. This heightens your chances of meeting clients. You need to be visible on all networks. 

Also, if you’ve been an Airbnb host yourself at one point, you surely know other hosts with properties to be managed. You certainly know where to find them. You can be direct and ask them if they might be interested in having someone manage their property or simply co-hosting. 

You also have to check ads online for people actually looking for Property Managers. You can even post an ad on CoHostMarket, which is the ideal platform for connecting Property Managers with property owners.

Thirdly, if you yourself travel a lot, locally or internationally, you should not hesitate to have a little conversation with your hosts. You can enquire about how they usually find their clients, advertise their properties, and then you can tell them about your services and the advantages of letting a professional manage everything related to renting their properties. They might also have a rich network of friends and others looking for a Property Manager.

Be up-to-date as far as professional tools are concerned

Whether you have a small portfolio or a quite big one already, one thing is key, and that is “Organization”. You need to be very methodical about your work. You will definitely have to be a little tech-savvy unless you can get help from someone else to take care of the IT section of the job. This will help you not miss out on important dates, professional meetings, and pending tasks, among others. Another important is the “automation” of key processes.

By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, you are not only saving time, but you also have more energy to focus on more important tasks. You can for example program automated messages to guests’ most common questions.  

You will also have to keep yourself updated about the latest trends, changes, and evolution in the rental property domain. Prices and laws keep changing, so make sure not to miss on all the important latest news. Property Managers should also not hesitate to look for help when needed. That is, if there is a need to hire more employees to lessen the workload, they should hire more staff without any hesitation. If you are managing rental properties on an international level, you might most probably need local staff and overseas ones.

You also need to be proactive and think about services that your clients might want, and which are not offered by your competitors yet. You could for example offer Home makeover services, Interior design, and staging of the homes. Also, more and more homeowners are looking forward to buying more vacation rentals to use as an STR. You could for example offer a service of looking for properties available for sale and inform your clients accordingly.

To sum it up, the vacation rental industry is a very remunerative career path. However, it’s also lots of work. This requires a lot of self-discipline.