Short-term rentals have become a huge success over the past several years. Travelers no longer need to stay in hotels to enjoy their time away from home. With Airbnb and similar services in more than 100,000 cities worldwide, most people can turn their properties into rentals.
However, you'll need to handle vacation rental management right to succeed. Follow the steps below to get started with your vacation property and start making rental income.
1. Check Your Local Laws
It's not legal to operate a short-term rental in every location. Many areas consider short-term apartment rentals as a problem for housing, so they heavily restrict property owners from listing their properties.
Get legal advice about the status of these types of rentals in your area. You want to ensure you can list your home as a vacation property before you go through the hard work of starting the process.
2. Optimize for the Guest
The next part of prepping your property for guests is to optimize their experience. This means stocking up on the necessary items, such as linens and any amenities you think would be nice.
The goal is to offer great service and encourage guests to leave reviews. The faster you can gather reviews for your property, the more trusted you will become, and you can start booking more guests.
3. Create a Great Listing
Of course, you won't be able to attract guests if you offer no insight into your property. You can do this by setting up a listing on popular short-term rental websites like Airbnb.
You can do this in a few ways:
- Take amazing pictures
- Describe your amenities
- Be clear about your rental terms
Do whatever is possible to present your property professionally and explain why it's better than your competitors.
4. Protect Your Assets
You're putting yourself at risk when you rent a property. You're liable for anything that happens when someone is staying there. If you don't protect yourself, you may put yourself at risk personally.
Set up an LLC or another corporate structure before starting a rental business. Separate your business and personal finances to ensure no crossover between them. Doing this will offer a layer of protection in case something goes wrong.
5. Get Professional Help
Although you can handle vacation rental management alone, you probably don't want to do this. You have other tasks to handle that are more important, so it makes more sense to hire professionals.
Find a property manager or property management company to handle much of the work. The small fee they take is worth the time you save and will allow you to work on more productive tasks.
Do Vacation Rental Management Right
Vacation rentals are an amazing way to put your real estate to use and make extra income. You don't need to deal with long-term tenants and can still use the property yourself if you take it off the market. Ensure you utilize the vacation rental management task above to keep your property in great shape and guests happy.
Of course, finding the right partner is critical to maintaining your rental without spending too much of your time. PMI Gatekeeper Realty Services offers short-term rental management services to help with maintenance, guest support, and other tasks. Reach out today to speak with an expert about what we can offer.
