 Do You Need a Vacation Rental Property Management Company?
You bought a vacation home and decided it would be a great idea to rent it out for part of the year to help cover your mortgage and expenses. Seemed like an easy enough idea at first. Advertise the property. Rent the property. Repeat. Right?
Wrong! Managing one or two or more vacation rental properties is a full time job. There is a huge amount of tasks revolving around property maintenance, cleaning, scheduling, booking, insurance, and security. The list goes on and on. It is easy to get completely overwhelmed by the responsibility and trying to juggle everything that needs to get done before the guests arrive.
Then add on the customer service element of wanting to provide good communication with your renters and making sure they have a good stay so they’ll praise you with positive feedback. How do you keep everything straight?
Vacation Rental Property Management vs. Vacation Rental Management Software
One option is hiring a professional vacation rental property management company. These types of firms usually charge 30 to 50% of the rental property’s nightly rent rate and rope you into a six or twelve month contract. Various services can be included in that fee. You want to make sure it covers maintenance and key drops. You’ll also want to ask if there are any additional flat fees in addition to the booking fees and if you are still going to be able to use online vacation rental sites to drive visitors to your property.
A second option is using vacation rental property management software. The better programs automate all your communications with customers, staff, and maintenance people. In addition, many software programs also automate the mundane day-to-day tasks revolving around property management. Software with an online booking calendar will allow interested parties to book their vacation directly from your website and pay for it with online credit card processing. Look for a software system that automatically sends payments to vendors and maintenance personnel, in addition to running your payroll.
There are many considerations to make once you’ve decided that you need some help in managing your vacation rental property. The options available allow you to go from completely hands off by hiring a vacation rental property management company, to being better equipped to handle the job yourself with vacation rental management software. Either way you choose to go involves doing your homework and finding an option that can truly meet your needs as a property owner.
About the Author
John Amato is the founder of Bookerville LLC, and has been heavily involved in the vacation rental industry for over five years.
About Bookerville
Bookerville Vacation Rental Software easily and inexpensively manages 1 to 1000’s of properties. Over $40 million dollars worth of rental bookings have been completed through Bookerville. The company offers a free 30-day trial of its vacation rental software. Have questions or want more information? Contact John Amato at Bookerville today. |
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