What would you look for in rental management partner?

Question

I'm starting a vacation / short-term rental management / co-hosting business in the Minneapolis market. Asking all short-term rental hosts/owners, what would be most important to you in hiring a rental management partner?  Are there certain aspects of the management you would want to stay involved in vs. outsourcing? If you are using a rental management company now, what has been your experience?

Blair Russell · Answer

I think for Rentals you generally get the 100%ers,  50%ers, and 0%ers. So there are people who do everything booking thru turnover. There are people who manage bookings, calendars, and rates themselves and just want to outsource property maintenance, changeovers, and on-call customer service. Then there are people who don't want to do anything and only want to be informed of any major issues. The 50%ers are probably going to be your customer base.

Account Closed · Answer

@Selena Walsh -- I would love to meet you some day -- us both being local.1) Cost

2) Handles all laundry (provides sheets, towels, etc) and paper products (TP, Paper towels, etc).

3) I think I'd prefer some that charged by turn vs a % cost of the rental

4) All inclusive (I don't want to have someone take 28%-40% and not give the option to provide or manage snow, lawn, etc)

5) Shares guest information (all names, email, addresses, phone, etc).

6) I'd prefer the person be able to be at the place within an hour to handle any issue in person if need be. (this could be an added cost if I pay by turn -- but important)

7) They need to understand the numbers as good as I do.  They need to be an expert in vacation rentals/str.

I think 2 & 5 are the most important to me -- with 3 pretty close behind.

Selena Walsh · Answer

Account Closed  Thanks for the input! Great points, some of these I've considered, although I had been thinking about a percentage vs. per turn pricing ... maybe there is opportunity to make it a combination of the two.

Selena Walsh · Answer

@Nancy Bachety Appreciate the input. Yes, would only be been managing local properties. I have 3 units that I rent on Airbnb and am looking to build on that and fill a gap in my local market.

Nancy Bachety · Answer

@Selena Walsh

It depends if I'm local or out of state. I'd say knowing that the pm was local and could be hands-on as needed. And huge for me is finding a reliable cleaner or assuring the cleaning and changeovers get done. I would pay a flat fee for each turnover just to know you're taking the cleaners last minute emergency phone call or whatever.

Curious to know what your experiences and background is to start taking this on. I think it's an underserved area. The so called pm who aren't local to the area aren't worth their fee.

John Underwood · Answer

I easily self manage using homeaway. They make it easy by automating the booking process including taking payments maintaining the calendar etc. The key in my opinion is a good and responsible cleaning person.

I have an Airbnb account also but for my area and my lake house, homeaway / VRBO is king and keeps my VRBO full.

What would you look for in rental management partner?

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