Save Time by Automating Your Short-term Rental Business

Running a successful short-term rental business can be both rewarding and time-consuming. With so many tasks to juggle, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. 

But there is a solution. Automation.

Automation gives you the operational efficiency you need to scale your business—a way to step back from repetitive manual tasks like writing welcome messages and scheduling turnovers.

By implementing the right automation tools, you can focus on growing your business instead of getting bogged down with day-to-day tasks. 

And no, we’re not talking about spending all day prompting ChatGPT for ways to save time.

These are actionable tips and tools that hosts, just like you, are already using.

1. Automate booking calendars

Ok, let’s get the cheeky soft-sell of Hospitable.com out of the way. We promise that this post won’t be all about us.

A reliable booking and guest management tool is a must when managing your short-term rental. Manually checking that your direct booking calendar and 3rd party calendars are updated and synced across channels is a big no-no.

That opens you up to human errors and wastes time much better spent on other ways of growing your business. Using software allows you to prevent double bookings in your calendar and start automating some messages to guests based on their check-in and check-out dates. 

There are plenty of channel managers and property management software out there. Take your time to find the tool that has the right features for you, is suitably priced, and has real human support to help you set things up.

We at Hospitable think we have a pretty great tool, but we’re a little biased. 😉

2. Automate your property maintenance and cleaning

To ensure a smooth turnover between guests, it's essential to keep your property clean and well-maintained. Luckily, there are tools available to help automate this process. For example, Turno (formerly TurnoverBnB) offers automated scheduling for cleaning services and maintenance tasks.

Through the software, you can create custom checklists for your cleaners to ensure that each job gets finished to your exact specifications. And you can even use their network of professionals to find new cleaners for your properties.

These tools can also connect to your property management software, pull in even more information about a booking, and reduce any tasks associated with manually passing information to your cleaning team.

3. Automate your pricing strategy

Getting your pricing strategy right can be the difference between a full calendar and an empty property. 

But how to adjust your nightly rates while factoring in seasonal shifts in demand, public holidays, local events and festivals, and market trends without losing hours of your working day?

Dynamic pricing automatically updates prices based on the most current data across various sources, including the rates of other short-term rentals in your local area. That results in a winning pricing strategy.

Tools like PriceLabs and Beyond can help you optimize your rates with dynamic pricing algorithms considering local demand, seasonality, and special events.

This way, you’ll fill the gaps in your calendar and earn more profit for less work. 

4. Automate your guest messaging

Timely and effective communication with your guests is crucial to ensuring a positive experience. Connecting a messaging tool to your direct booking website allows you to automate those timely communications to share the WiFi password or the guests’ smart lock code, even in the middle of the night or when you’re on vacation. 

Automation can begin simply by writing out some good canned responses for common questions you often get from guests and can flourish into using AI to detect and even write answers for you. Hey, ChatGPT 👋

Those same property management tools mentioned in section one can also help you automate a lot of messaging with guests while keeping things personal so that you get more 5-star reviews.

5. Automate keeping your property damage-free

The perfect check-in and stay rely on clear messaging, but it also depends on innovative solutions; it’s inefficient to screen every guest manually and you can’t always be onsite in person—which is why you need automation. 

Smart locks allow you to provide unique entry codes for guests that will only work during their reserved dates and can be managed automatically from your central property management software.

And with tools like NoiseAware and Minut, you can monitor your property for excessive noise and automatically send guests a reminder to keep the noise down, even if you’re not in town.

For an even higher level of peace of mind, you can employ tools that will screen guests for you without any extra work. Autohost, for example, uses AI to help you weed out potential troublemakers before they can book your property.

By leveraging the power of automation, you can streamline your short-term rental business and focus on what truly matters: providing exceptional guest experiences. You can save time and reduce stress by automating tasks like booking management, property maintenance, pricing, guest communication, and property monitoring.

About the Author

Miles Hobson is the Head of Marketing at Hospitable. Hospitable.com gives short-term rental hosts their valuable time back with AI-powered automation tools, as well as helping hosts to build a direct booking business via integrated payment processing, guest vetting, and damage protection.