Top 10 Unbelievable Tools For Vacation Rental Owners
Managing vacation rentals can be an overwhelming experience. Right from listing your property on various sites to managing the bookings, maintaining the property and responding to multiple inquiries of the guests- there are many tasks that can take up a big chunk of your time.
With the availability of various Property Management Systems in the market today, the life of vacation rental owners may have become easier to some extent, but there are still many things that are difficult to manage while sitting far away from the rental property. Such things could include giving access of door keys to the guests, taking care of any damages or repairs at the property, providing entertainment services to the guests or just making sure that the guests have not left the AC on.
The good news is that many innovative tools have been launched in the market now that can be used by vacation rental owners from a remote location. We have curated a list of 10 such tools that can be used by vacation rental owners to manage their property better and to create a superior experience for their guests.
Pricing Tools
Prices of vacation rentals are dynamic. They depend on a lot of factors such as seasonality, market demand, location and size of the property and the amenities offered to the guests. Prices could also depend on whether the owner will be transferred to the guests for the duration of their stay or if it will be on the home sharing basis. If you are unsure how much price you should set for your listing, below are some of the tools that can help you make the right decision.
1. Beyond Pricing
BeyondPricing is an automatic dynamic pricing software that works with most of the vacation rental listing sites including Airbnb. This software makes use of real-time market data to deliver the maximum revenue and occupancy rates for its clients.
- Best Feature: With Beyond Pricing, you can proactively review the recommended prices for one year and also sync these rates with your calendar.
- Price: One month of free trial. After that, 1% of the booking revenue is charged as the fee every month.
2. Pricing Labs
Price Labs is specifically targeted for vacation rentals and short-term rentals. It provides revenue management and pricing solutions using a data-driven approach and also offers customizations based on your specific needs.
- Best Feature: This is much more intuitive and easy to use compared to other tools. It also has a feature to manage multiple listings on different sites.
- Price: One month of free trial. After that, $20 per month is charged for 1 listing. There are incremental prices slabs for more than 1 listings.
3. Wheelhouse
Wheelhouse is an automated pricing solution that can integrate with all major listings sites such as Airbnb and TripAdvisor. It offers personalized tools, custom strategies and daily updates to ensure the maximum revenue generating dynamic pricing for vacation rental owners, hosts and managers.
- Best Feature: This is much more intuitive and easy to use compared to other tools. It also has a feature to manage multiple listings on different sites.
- Price: One month of free trial. After that, $20 per month is charged for 1 listing. There are incremental prices slabs for more than 1 listings.
Automatic Lock System
It can be difficult to coordinate with the guests with a traditional lock and key systems if the host is at a remote location and especially if he is in a different time zone. Installing the digital lock systems makes it easy for the vacation rental owners to give access to the guests remotely. Once the guests leave, the owners can disable the key. You can use any of the following automatic lock systems at your vacation rental depending on your exact requirements and budget.
1. Lockitron
Lockitron is a smart keyless entry system that can be installed at the rental property entrance. The owners can unlock the doors directly from their phones with just one swipe. They can also share the access key with the guests and set a time limit on the key so that it is used only for a limited period when the guests are there.
- Best Feature: Easy to use, time limit on the lockitron key.
- Price: starts at $99
2. August Lock
AugustLock makes use of mobile technology to provide vacation rental owners, managers and hosts with a convenient way to allow access to the guests and authorized people to the rental property. This is a better method than hiding the key nearby or going to deliver the key physically to the guests.
- Best Feature: a lot of options available depending on the exact usage requirement
- Price: Ranges between $199- $249
Also Read: 10 Surprising Statistics About Vacation Rental
Cleaning and Repair Services
Once the guests leave, the vacation rentals may require cleaning services for the property and also the repairs services for any damages that might have been caused by the guests during their stay. Below are some of the services that can be hired by the vacation rental owners from the remote location.
1. Handy
Handy is an online app that can be used by the vacation rental managers or hosts to call the cleaning services at their doorstep. The cleaning guys come as early as the next day. The best part is that they bring their own tools and equipment for cleaning.
2. ThumbTack
ThumbTack is a website that allows you to hire professionals for cleaning, repairing, painting or any other work that you want to get done at your rental property! You have to specify your requirement on their website, and ThumbTack will provide you with the details of the professionals who can do the job. You can select from them based on the user reviews, ratings and the price.
3. TaskRabbit
While there are many services available for big things such as painting, cleaning or repairs. Sometimes, you need help getting the little things done for the home, for example, mowing the lawn, changing the light bulbs, or supplying the toilet paper. That is when TaskRabbit app comes in handy. They send personnel who will do these tasks for you, plus you can also hire professionals for plumbing, painting or other big tasks from the same website!
TV/Entertainment Services
Having digital entertainment services for the guests is a more financially viable option for the vacation rental owners than taking the cable subscriptions. Digital entertainments service also special content for the kids, which can improve the user experience greatly. Netflix and Hulu are two such services that you can be subscribed to by the vacation rental owners. Since you can have multiple accounts on these services, it is more cost-effective also.
Both Netflix and Hulu subscriptions can be got at $7.99 per month. Both offer 30 days of free trial period. Amazon Prime is another service that can be subscribed at $8.99 per month.
Home Safety Tools
One of the biggest concerns of vacation rental owners who are located far away from their properties is to ensure the safety of their rental homes. Since the properties are usually fully furnished, there are chances of theft or robbery during the unoccupied months. To prevent this, it is best to install vacation rentals with the following tools.
1. Fibaro
Fibaro is an intelligent system that can transform your vacation rental property into a super-smart home. Fibaro offers several products such as smoke sensors, flood sensors, window and door sensors, which can make sure that you stay relaxed and informed with what’s happening at your rental house.
- Best feature: One common centralized app that can be used to control multiple devices at your home
- Price: On the expensive side, but worth installing since it is among the best smart solutions in the market.
2. Canary
Canary is a complete security system in a single device that offers features like motion and person detectors. Canary sends notifications, alerts as well as audio and video warnings in case of any suspect movements. It also provides information about the air, temperature, and humidity.
- Best feature: Night vision available; Free yearly
- Price: Range between $69 to $ 139.
Home Automation Tools
Home automation tools such as thermostats, flood sensors and motion sensors required to improve the experience of guests as well as to control the devices from remote locations in the instances when the guests forget to turn off the AC or Refrigerator while leaving.
1. Parakeet
Parakeet is a suite of home automation tools. They offer a large variety of devices such as key-less locking systems, flood sensors, window and door sensors, freezing and temperature sensors etc. If you want to get all your devices from one place, then Parakeet is the place to go. Their devices are easily integrable with each other and can work in sync to create a superior user experience for the guests as well as a hassle-free experience for the owners and hosts.
- Best feature: Great suite to have it you have multiple properties since hundreds of properties can be controlled from one cloud dashboard in Parakeet
- Price: Quotes can be obtained from the company website for your customized requirements.
2. Nest
A nest is one of the most popular smart thermostat solutions available in the market. It can easily detect the temperature in your vacation rental home and send you updates. Nest also offers smoke detectors, cameras, doorbells and alarm systems.
- Best feature: All the devices of NEST are also integrable with the Google Home Hub devices.
- Price: Thermostats cost around $160- $175
Other Important Tools
Depending on the personal requirements of the vacation rental owners, there are additional tools that can be used for better management of the property. Some of these tools are listed below:
1. NoiseAware
NoiseAware is a noise monitor system that can be used to detect the voice levels within a home. It can notify the owners if the noise to know if the guests are having a party at the house and can be used to prevent the neighbour complaints or police interventions.
- Best feature: Very sensitive, can even detect very small voices.
- Price: Ranges between $150 to $200 price.
2. PartySquasher
PartySquasher is another tool that can be used to know when your guests are having a party. It is a smart home device which can be used to count the number of mobile devices within a specific detection range. This way the vacation rental owners can know when their guests are having a party and they can notify the guests if they don’t approve of it.
- Price: PartySquasher smart device costs $149. This also includes a subscription for the first year. After 1st year, the subscription can be renewed at $99 per year.
3. MagicPlan
Magicplan is a great tool that can be used to create professional floor plans for your rental property. You no longer need to take the manual measures of your property and guest-house rooms anymore. Just click the pictures using your smartphone, and Magicplan software will convert those into classic floor plans!
- Price: $3 per project; $10 per month for unlimited projects per month with access to unlimited features.
Conclusion
While this list of technologies and tools can seem overwhelming, especially if you are starting your vacation rental business for the first time. However, these tools are really useful to have some peace of mind and stay relaxed when you are located far away from your property.
These are not only great tools for vacation rental owners, hosts and managers, but these also increase the quality of experience for the users. Let us know in comments which of these tools do you use in your vacation rental property.