Uplisting and Turno Partnership

Why You Need Property Management Software

Uplisting — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 17:45:42 +0000

Automation and API Make Tasks Painless

Automation has achieved something of a buzzword status when it comes to software and technology, but there’s a reason why it’s so popular — and why it’s such a benefit to property owners.

Automation can take some of your job’s most repetitive and manual parts and do them quickly and consistently.

Say you want to update the availability of a particular property. Normally, you would have to update each and every booking channel by hand — including your own website. This could take an entire afternoon, depending on how many properties you’re updating and how many platforms you’re on.

With automation, you only need to update once. Your change automatically gets pushed out to every single booking channel, which allows you to perform multiple updates in a single sitting.

A PMS can also automate a process and make it run without human intervention, such as cleaning a property in between bookings. As soon as a guest checks out, the PMS can immediately schedule a cleaning crew to do a changeover — all without you lifting a finger.

All this is possible thanks to the platform’s API — a piece of software that allows different apps to talk and send each other instructions. It’s like having an extra set of hands!

Create a Quality Guest Experience

As you probably know by now, a good “guest experience” doesn’t just cover their stay at your property. It also includes every interaction they have with you, whether that’s online or offline.

This means having an attractive website. It means a smooth and painless booking experience. It even means regular and helpful communication with your guests.

Remember the automation we mentioned? You can send out automated messages to guests at designated points of their stay — right after they book, before they arrive, and on the day of their departure. This is super useful if you want to send them important reminders.

Guests will know where they need to go, when they need to get there, and what they’ll need to do (and not do) once they arrive. You remove all confusion and uncertainty from this part of their stay so that they can focus on enjoying themselves.

Yes, you can certainly accomplish this on your own, but a lot of things could happen. You could get busy or forgetful, or you might mistakenly send the wrong details to the wrong person. It’s just added responsibility that you don’t need to take on.

More Efficient Operations

A short-term vacation rental business covers more than just listing properties and booking guests. If you’re going to be successful, you need to get good at every aspect of managing a property’s operations, from clean-up to marketing to team performance.

By leveraging the capabilities of a property management software platform, you’ll be able to:

Increase housekeeping efficiency: Automate cleaning tasks and use an online calendar to manage job schedules. Communicate with crews online and make it easy for them to track jobs and update you when they’re complete.
Keep all your data in one place: No more swimming through paperwork. All of your business data can be kept in a single virtual space, where it can easily be searched, updated, and referenced at any point. And if you do happen to need a hard copy, no problem — just export and print.
Improve customer data management: Do you want to know what else you can do with all that data? Learn more about your customers! Dig deeper into who your best guests are, how much they’re earning you, and what you can do to attract more like them.
Enhance employee productivity and engagement: By automating your booking process and other aspects of your operations, you’ll be able to pull employees (and yourself) away from time-consuming, low-value tasks. They’ll have time for the more important work, and have a greater impact on the success of the business.

Increase Revenue Growth

Guest bookings may be your main source of revenue, but they’re not the only way you can increase your bottom line.

A PMS excels at introducing operational efficiency and improving guest experiences in ways that will dramatically improve your short-term rental profit margins.

Get Listed on the Biggest Booking Platforms

Many of the best property management platforms have existing partnerships with the biggest booking platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com, which make it easy to get your properties in front of thousands of potential travelers. Posting on multiple platforms is a snap and, thanks to automation, very easy to keep up-to-date.

Accept Direct Bookings

Third-party booking sites are great for getting in front of guests, but this advertising comes at a pretty steep price. Their fees can take a significant chunk out of your profits.

Fortunately, you always have the option of creating your own independently-hosted website and accepting direct bookings. A PMS like Uplisting can help you accomplish that thanks to a no-code interface that is easy to set up and get running — with no commission fees.

Strong Data Security

In today’s privacy-focused society, it’s ever more important for you to protect your and your customer’s data from malicious hackers and identity thieves. But what if you don’t have a dedicated IT team — or even a security-savvy employee?

That’s all right. You don’t need an IT budget to protect your data because a PMS will protect your data for you. Many of the top-shelf property management platforms have the equipment, software, certifications, and expertise required to protect crucial data from bad actors.

Of course, you and your staff still need to behave responsibly when it comes to being secure, but your PMS partner can take care of data protection on their side.

What Most Hosts Encounter Without a PMS

Over the course of speaking with hundreds of hosts across different regions, maturity levels, and company sizes, we’ve discovered some common challenges that property managers encounter when they don’t leverage a PMS. Learn more about these pain points below.

Managing a Rental Business Dominates Your Schedule

Short-term property rental is a multi-faceted business with many moving parts. It can be challenging to run smoothly, even while employing full-time staff. Without any sort of management software to assist, it can easily take hours to perform a single task.

Take managing your different booking apps and listings, for example. You’ve got properties listed on Airbnb, Flipkey, Booking.com, and Vrbo just to name a few. Any single update you make to one of your listings has to be applied across every single one of those digital platforms.

Basically, you’re doing the same task multiple times.

The same can be said for juggling resources like cleaning crews. Which job are they on? Have you told them about their next job? How many jobs do they have pending? Coordinating all of this by hand is a nightmare (and may even lead to nightmares).

Manually Updating Bookings Leads to Errors

A single booking by itself doesn’t contain that much information: customer details, property details, and the booking schedule are generally the extent. So it’s not a huge lift to update your records and calendar by hand.

It’s a different story when you multiply that by all of your other properties. Updating your records and consolidating all of those bookings into a single updated spreadsheet (even a digital one) becomes a juggling act — and you may eventually fumble.

Double-booking a property is the most common mistake. This happens when you record a booking for a property in one spreadsheet or document, but neglect to do the same to another.

This can easily happen during peak seasons or when dealing with needy or fickle travelers. You’re preoccupied and in a rush, and bouncing between different platforms, apps, and documents doesn’t help. The additional complications just add to the chaos and lead to more mistakes.

Mental and Physical Fatigue

As we already mentioned, manually listing your properties on multiple channels can take a physical and mental toll. If you repeat this inefficient cycle day in and day out, you’re not going to get better at it. On the contrary: it’ll just get worse.

Tension and fatigue are going to build up at the same rate as your backlog of tasks. Your day will become more unorganized, and your tasks and priorities will become more scattered. You may end up feeling lost and unsure of what to do next and feel increased frustration as a result.

Any mistakes you make during this period or additional workplace crises will only increase your stress levels. Without intervention or assistance, you might even burn out. And who wants that?

Inefficiency Inertia

Many property owners and managers are trapped in something we call “inefficiency inertia.”

This is when you know that a process is obsolete and inefficient, but you stick with it anyway even though there are better options.

There are a few reasons why you might decide to stick it out: maybe you’re already used to the old way and think it will be more effort to learn the new system. Maybe you’re skeptical of the new system and don’t believe it will do the job properly. Or maybe you think upgrading to a technological solution will be prohibitively expensive.

Whatever the reason, you recognize that it’s time to find a streamlined process that improves your operations, but you can’t or don’t move past your current state.

Save the Headache and Grow Your Airbnb Business With a PMS

If you’re looking to increase your productivity — and your revenue — then a property management software platform may be just what you need.

Any hosting inefficiencies you’re already working through will become much worse as you get more properties, more inquiries, and more channels to manage. You’ll become even more burdened with managing your business and sink deeper into the quicksand of disorganization.

And this is how things will be — unless you make a change.

Luckily, with some elbow grease and help from automation and management software, you can grow your business and build an Airbnb empire.

The post Why You Need Property Management Software appeared first on Turno.

Tips to Select Vacation Properties and Build Your Portfolio

Uplisting — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 23:46:41 +0000

Is It the Right Time to Add More Properties?

“When is it time to buy a second, third, or fourth rental property? Renting multiple properties can allow you to increase your monthly income, lower individual repair costs by purchasing in bulk, and add a small cushion for times when one property is vacant. Best of all, you’ve already learned how to hack it in this business, so you don’t have the same learning curve to contend with.

If you’re thinking it’s time to purchase another property to use as a short-term rental, you’ll want to begin by analyzing your finances in much the same way as you did when purchasing your first property. Check for liquid money for the down payment, and keep your bank statements squeaky clean.

To fully decide if you’re ready, think critically about the challenges you’ve faced in being a host and candidly consider whether or not you are ready to deal with those challenges multiplied.

Assume Murphy’s Law here. If the air conditioner goes out at both properties, can you keep your head above water? Most importantly, do you have the time needed to effectively manage both properties? If the answer to these questions is yes, you’re ready to begin expanding your business,” says Futurestay.

What to Consider When Adding More Properties

You may be looking to start scaling your vacation rental business by adding more properties to your portfolio as the next logical step — and it’s a good one. But this phase is very risky.

Even a single new rental property represents a hefty financial investment, so you want to make sure you’ve done your due diligence and taken all the crucial factors into consideration, such as:

Stay Local or Expand to a New Area?

If you only started with a couple of properties, you may want to consider staying local. There are a couple of reasons why this is more ideal.

First, it’s easier to manage multiple properties if they’re all within easy driving distance. This is important, even in an era of online bookings and remote property management, because you never know when you may need to make an in-person visit to help a guest or resolve an incident.

Second is familiarity with the market. You already know all the pros and cons of each neighborhood and the demographics of the local population. Moving to a new area removes this advantage, forcing you to have to relearn quickly.

Which New Area Has the Best Opportunities?

Sometimes it’s expanding to a new area that is the best move, and not signing another local property. It’s best to move slowly when you consider expanding your borders, almost as if you were starting over from scratch (because in a way, you are).

Consider the ideal guests for your new property. What age? What group size? Business traveler, tourist, or student? Establish a purchasing budget that won’t strain your Airbnb cash flow. Then, carefully analyze which city or neighborhood would provide you with the best business opportunity to match.

Once you’ve finally landed a property in the new area, focus on developing this new property first and run it for at least a quarter or two before expanding further.

Develop Your Infrastructure First

Before you sign the contract on your new property, you should first make sure that your rental property business has the manpower, cash flow, and infrastructure required to run it effectively.

This could mean:

Hiring an administrator to be in charge of the new area (even more important if there are multiple properties involved)
Researching the bylaws, ordinances, permits, and fees required (especially if you’re opening in a different state)
Finding and hiring contractors in the new area — maintenance teams, cleaning crews, security, etc.
Upgrading software tools to dedicated accounting and/or property management software

If you open up your new rental property without these pieces in place, you risk being caught flat-footed if things go sideways.

You’ve Selected Your Next Property — Now What?

You may have gotten into a groove with managing your first rental — but the more properties and booking channels you add into the mix, the more you’ll need to look for ways to improve your efficiency.

Before you start listing this new property, consider how you’ll navigate the additional hosting tasks while still juggling your other responsibilities. You can’t add more hours to a day, but there are tools and software on the market that can help you maximize your time.

The post Tips to Select Vacation Properties and Build Your Portfolio appeared first on Turno.

12 Features of the Best Property Management Software

Uplisting — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 19:31:13 +0000

1. Channel Manager

This is probably the only feature we would consider a must-have.

A PMS should make it easier for you to list, maintain, and update listings across different short-term rental channels. It should also help simplify the process of accepting and managing bookings from said channels as well.

2. Automated Guest Messaging

When comparing automated guest messaging functionality between PMS platforms, a flexible solution is generally best. What that means is you should be able to build an email sequence that matches your own preferred booking process.

How soon after booking should the message be sent? How many reminders will you send the guest before they arrive, and what will you remind them about? Will you require a security deposit? Should the automation also handle the identity verification process?

A flexible guest messaging module will be more likely to scale to your needs as your business grows and your process evolves.

3. Direct Booking Website

There are no-code website builders out there like Wix and Squarespace, but they’re not built with short-term rental properties in mind. If anything, vacation rentals are more of an afterthought for these general-purpose platforms.

That’s why it’s ideal for you to create direct booking websites from a PMS. Not only can you create a tasteful website that presents your property (or properties) in their best light, but it will be built specifically to accommodate additional features that your business will need, such as guest payment plans, direct booking options, and instant connections to Airbnb.

Not all PMS platforms can create a direct booking website, so if this is important to you, make sure you check that box before signing.

4. Unified Inbox

One of the most challenging aspects of listing on multiple platforms is having to check each of the inboxes every single day. There’s a lot of risk of miscommunication, and it becomes difficult to keep track of who said what and where.

You may want to ask your property management software vendor whether or not their product has a unified inbox. A unified inbox connects with all of the different booking platforms and centralizes all of the messages so that you can see all of your guest communications in one place.

Not only is this a huge time saver — but it also helps prevent double booking and reduces guest miscommunications.

5. Integrations

As complete as some property management software claim to be, they will never be able to do everything that your business needs. That’s why it’s important to assess whether or not your PMS of choice can integrate with other apps, and how well.

Here are a few examples of useful apps with which to integrate:

PriceLabs is a dynamic pricing solution that helps you find the right rate for your properties at any given point during the year
BookingTrust is accounting software designed specifically for the short-term rental industry
August is a smart locks app that helps automate guest access
Minut monitors noise and occupancy levels
Safely is an insurtech guest screening solution

If your PMS can expand its capabilities through integrations, your business can become more efficient and scalable.

6. Multi-Calendar

We’ve already covered the value of seeing all of your messages from the different booking platforms in one place. Now, let’s take it a step further and incorporate all of your different booking calendars.

How much of a life-saver would that feature be?

That said, a poorly executed muti-calendar can be just as bad as not having one at all. For best results, this feature needs specific functions that make it easier to read and manage. Things like:

Color-coding and other display options to help you differentiate between booking platforms and actions to be taken
Tags and filters to help you easily sort and find the information you need
Instant calendar updates so that blocking a date in one calendar updates all the other platforms at the same time

These functions should be considered basic features when reviewing multi-calendars. If a PMS doesn’t have these, then you should look elsewhere.

7. Security Deposits

Security deposits on platforms like Airbnb are a tricky issue. It’s not a matter of whether or not they allow it (they do) but how these security deposits are handled.

In a nutshell, Airbnb’s security deposit policies put you, the property owner, at a disadvantage by not actually taking the deposit money from the guest — it’s just a hold amount on their card.

Why is this relevant? Because some property management software platforms allow you to choose between different security deposit arrangements. You can either accept deposits the Airbnb way, or you can do it the traditional way, where the guest sends you cash to keep as security.

8. eSign Rental Agreements

While we’re on the topic of protecting your property, rental agreements play a crucial role in both protecting yourself from liability and screening potential guests.

Paper rental agreements are a thing of the past, and very few short-term rental property owners ever use them anymore. Now, agreements can be sent using electronic documents, but doing so via email usually ends up turning into a game of cat and mouse, as you try to get guests to sign well before they arrive on your doorstep.

That’s where a good property management platform can assist.

Check to see if your PMS can help you streamline the rental agreement process through automated messaging and digital signatures. Also, try asking whether or not the PMS will be able to enforce the process in such a way that the booking won’t proceed without the guest’s signature.

9. Guest Identity Verification

Cautious property owners will want to verify their guests’ identities prior to their stay as a means of protecting against stolen identities and impersonations.

Screening guests can certainly be handled through other means, doing it within the PMS that is already handling the rest of the booking process is much more convenient, for both you and your guest.

10. Cleaning Scheduler

Arranging cleaning schedules with external contractors is always a challenge, but with the right features, a PMS can help make this less of a burden.

Some property management tools come equipped with a cleaning scheduler that can help you coordinate turnover tasks with your cleaning service — but this is only really helpful if you already have primary and backup cleaners you know and trust.

To find new professional cleaners in your area and automate the scheduling process, Turno can help. The platform will assign the cleaning task as soon as the guest checks out. It can then let the cleaners notify you whenever they’ve completed the project. Best yet, Turno integrates with all the top property management systems on the market.

11. Professional Check-In/Check-Out Capabilities

This section doesn’t discuss a specific feature that a PMS should have, but rather the net effect of all its capabilities put together.

What do we mean? Well, one of the things that traditional hotels do well is they create a consistent and scalable check-in/check-out process. This process was refined over time across thousands of hotel chains to help move guests in and out with little to no fuss. If your own short-term rental business is to grow, you need to build toward the same.

Since you lack a physical front desk (and a desk agent), you need to upgrade your online lobby to compete.

This means making sure your PMS can help create smooth, repeatable, and above all stress-free check-in and check-out experiences. Features like centralized calendars, digital rental agreements, online guest verification, automated messaging, and more all help contribute to positive guest relations.

12. Revenue Management

As with the professional check-in/check-out capabilities we mentioned above, any property management software worth its code will give you at least some methods to improve and manage your revenue.

Direct booking, guest payment plans, and integrations with major banks, accounting software, and digital payment processors all help you manage the flow of cash. You can further connect your PMS with dynamic pricing apps and other similar tools.

The net result? You get total visibility into how much each of your properties is earning, and you have the ability to push and pull various levers to adjust your profit margins.

Take the Legwork Out of Hosting

Using a PMS to handle the tedious and manual tasks that come with vacation rental hosting, frees up your time to start acquiring additional properties, spend more time with your family, or travel the world.

Not to mention, this type of automation software will also enhance guests’ experiences by making check-in and check-out a breeze, ensuring they’re welcomed into a clean property, and facilitating consistent communication between them and you.

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Thinking About Scaling Your Business? 5 Tips for Rental Property Managers

Uplisting — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 15:57:18 +0000

5 Tips for Scaling Your Property Management Business

What will help to power your business today won’t necessarily be the same as two years ago. It’s important to be aware of industry trends and adapt your business plans accordingly. This year, remote working, sustainability, and technology are set to dominate the industry.

So, with these trends in mind, here is some advice on scaling your short-term rental business in 2022.

1. Utilize Top Technology

You’ll need the right toolkit to scale your business to its full potential. So, invest in the top industry tech on offer.

Partner with short-term rental property management software to automate and streamline your processes, so you can focus on growing your business. Together with integrations, these systems allow you to optimize tasks like cleaning so you’re notified when guests check out early and can profit from the opportunity by offering early check-ins.

2. Automate What You Can

To grow your portfolio, you’ll have to up your owner acquisition. More and more second-home owners and long-time hosts are looking to list new properties to profit in the current climate. But, how do you get quality homes on board to build a strong portfolio? And how do you attract the best of the best when it comes to properties?

Reassure owners of your professionalism as a property manager, by simplifying the process with automated systems. Vacation management software provides an all-in-one platform for bookings, guest communication, cleaning notifications, and much more.

This automated tech relieves pressure and makes for a smooth-running business for both you and property owners. It offers owners a sense of security and frees your time to focus on the growth of your business.

3. Invest in the Right Location

Location matters. According to Evolve, the top U.S. locations for short-term rental investment this year are Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennessee, judged by rental performance across the nation, rental value, and yearly expenses.

The Poconos in Pennsylvania has been top for four years running due to its beautiful lakes, mountains, small-town charm, and a cap rate of 15%. Rural destinations have flourished in recent years, as people begin to live more flexibly and take advantage of longer stays while working remotely.

Urban rentals are set to make a comeback in the latter half of this year though, with data suggesting a rebound growth of 33% and a full recovery by 2023.

Top urban locations spotlighted for this year are Palm Springs, California for its music festivals; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Sarasota, Florida where hosts witnessed longer stays leading the mid-sized city to have the highest winter occupancy in America last year.

4. Focus on Guest Experience

Growth in the short-term rental industry means increased competition from other property providers. So, go above and beyond to add value to your rentals by keeping current trends and demands in mind.

Guest expectations will be higher than before, especially when it comes to cleanliness and hygiene. And most importantly, guests seek hosts who can offer the best guest experience throughout the whole travel process. The rentals that focus on these guest expectations will be the ones that thrive this year.

5. Build a Strong Team

Your business is only as strong as your people. Build a dream team by sourcing talented employees to drive your business forward.

Recruitment is a challenge right now in the era of the Great Resignation. Vacation rental services can connect you to reliable teams to automate tasks like room cleaning, so you don’t have to worry about schedules.

Use These Tips to Scale Your Business in 2022

Growing your short-term rental business has never been so exciting, with so many opportunities out there.

Optimize your time by replacing long-winded, multi-software tasks with an automated all-in-one solution that provides you with the best on-trend tools. Attract quality new properties to scale your business in the most sought-after locations. Provide unforgettable guest experiences, all while scaling your business responsibly.

The post Thinking About Scaling Your Business? 5 Tips for Rental Property Managers appeared first on Turno.