Airbnb Management Software: Boosting Your Business

Airbnb management software is being used by thousands of property managers worldwide to scale up their operations on Airbnb.

But is it reserved just for property managers?

Or is it something that every short-term rental host can use, too?

At first glance, it might feel like using full-scale management software for your single Airbnb listing operation might be excessive.

However, you'll be pleasantly surprised once you understand how simple, powerful, and effective it can be!

So, if you've got a spare 5 minutes and you're interested to learn more, keep reading.

Airbnb Property Management Best Practices

Being a host on Airbnb is not just as simple as creating a listing and handing off the keys. It's a business that requires time and effort to succeed.

The key to business success on Airbnb lies in an effective Airbnb property management strategy. Every host needs to understand the basics of Airbnb management to compete with the top hosts on the platform.

Here are the building blocks of good Airbnb property management you should pay attention to:

• Manage your guest experience—respond to all initial guest inquiries in under one hour, communicate with guests after they book your property, coordinate late check-in/out requests, monitor all guest reviews, etc.
• Create a competitive pricing strategy and adjust prices to seasonal demand and other variables;
• Coordinate cleaning and maintenance to keep your rental property guest-ready;
• Optimize your Airbnb listing for high Airbnb search placement;
• Be current with the laws and regulations in your area;
• Take care of marketing and more.

As you see, there is so much on your plate, and all these responsibilities require many hours of work daily. Still, there are ways to make your life as a host easier.

Outsourcing an Airbnb Management Service

If you are new to Airbnb and operate multiple properties, managing the process can be extremely time-consuming and stressful. To deal with it, you may consider outsourcing your responsibilities to an Airbnb management company acting on your behalf or hiring a professional property manager who will do everything (or almost everything) for you.

Outsourcing to Airbnb property management service enables you to run your Airbnb from any place quickly, ensure that your account will stay functional, and get consistently good reviews.

However, the problem is that this can be pricey, and finding a reliable third party with a good track record and experience in your area to help you run your Airbnb business is not easy and takes time.

A property manager will charge you a percentage of your monthly earnings and ensure that you get a passive income. But is that your goal?

To become a successful host and maximize your earnings, you should treat your Airbnb as a business.

The good news is that you can manage your STR property yourself without investing much time and keep more of your rental revenue.

Your Airbnb business under your control

A smarter alternative is using Airbnb management software to help you automate most of the routine tasks. Tools like Hospitable can save you a lot of time for a fraction of the cost of hiring a property manager without compromising the guest experience. You can save on property manager's fees and run a lean and efficient Airbnb business.

What is Airbnb Management Software?

Airbnb management software is a tool hosts and property managers use to streamline the day-to-day operations of running a business on Airbnb.

This management software helps automate many of the time-consuming, mundane, repetitive tasks that hosts face daily, as well as offers additional tools and services to make hosting easier and more profitable.

It can lead to considerable time savings and reduced overhead costs if used effectively.

Since you're now in the efficiency mood, download our guide on STR performance boost hacks. Happy reading!

How Does Airbnb Property Management Software Work?

Airbnb property management software creates a direct connection between your listing and the software itself.

Once this connection has been made, actions can be performed, and information can be shared seamlessly between the Airbnb platform and the property management software.

Now, why is this good?

Well, it means you can automate many of the mundane day-to-day tasks of Airbnb hosting to free up your time and reduce labor costs.

We are talking about things like:

• Guest messaging
• Cleaner reminders
• Team management
• Reviews automation
• Calendar synchronization
• Revenue management
• And a whole lot more

On top of that, it also creates a centralized dashboard to manage all your listings (no matter how many you have) in one place, making things much easier.

Airbnb Property Management Software: Essential Features to Look Out For

When you're shopping around for the best Airbnb management software that's going to suit your style (and budget), there are some essential features that you'll want to look out for to keep everything organized and efficient:

1. Automated guest messaging

Without a doubt, the most significant time-saving advantage of using a property management tool comes when you harness the power of automated guest messaging.

It can seem a little daunting at first—the prospect of a computer sending messages to your guests—however, once you get under the surface and see how advanced this guest communication can be, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

In fact, with the use of short-codes (little snippets of code like this %guest_name%), it's possible to add dynamic content to each and every message you send, making each message super personal and bespoke to each guest moving through their guest journey.

Here's an example of how personal a message using short-codes can be:

Hello %guest_first_name%, and thanks for your interest in %listing_name%!

I wanted to confirm right away that I have received your request to book my %listing_type% from %check_in%, with %guests% for %nights%. The total price would be %total%.

I will review your request and come up with an answer as soon as possible so that you can prepare for your trip accordingly.

If you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to ask. It would be my pleasure to answer your questions!

Best regards,

%host_name%.

Guests typically have many questions about the property, amenities, surrounding area, and local attractions, and it's your responsibility to answer them as quickly as possible. So, wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to respond to those repetitive questions you get as a host? You know, when you get those same old messages about parking, WiFi, early check-in, etc.

Well, with advanced management software like Hospitable, it's not only possible, it's actually pretty easy. Our system uses AI to quickly send automated replies to FAQs on more than 20 topics using your pre-written answers. You just need to set question rules.

Essentially, this means your guests immediately get the information they want, and you can just sit and relax.

Everyone loves a win-win!

2. Automated cleaner/team reminders

If you have several properties, keeping your cleaners informed about check-in and check-out for each booking can be a headache. Still, if you find it difficult to remember to send reminders to your cleaner and team, Airbnb property management software can help you.

Tools like Hospitable allow you to automate messaging your cleaning team about upcoming jobs based on your booking calendar and add a list of tasks you want them to complete. You can create your own rules, and our system will assign tasks to your cleaners automatically, and it'll never (ever) forget to send out these reminders.

Once set, these reminders will be sent out ON TIME, EVERY TIME, even if it's a last-minute booking. Your cleaners don't have to create accounts—they will get SMS and email notifications.

3. Automated reviews

As you scale up your operations on Airbnb, your workload increases dramatically. And even something as menial as leaving a guest review can turn from a minor job into a full-blown headache!

Sure, if you're just managing one listing, this isn't a big deal, but this can surely add up if you're managing multiple listings.

Good management software can integrate with Airbnb's review system and automate this process for you.

First up, you create a few different guest review templates (using those handy smart short-codes, of course).

Here's a simple review template example:

What more can I say, %guest_first_name% left the house immaculate.

Super clean and tidy. Couldn't recommend highly enough.

Welcome back anytime.

Once your review templates are complete, tell the system how long after the booking you'd like them to be posted, and then the system will randomize, customize, and send them on your behalf at the time specified.

4. Unified Inbox

The last thing you want as a host with multiple Airbnb listings is to log into multiple dashboards to access your Inbox. And that's where a unified inbox comes in.

By creating a centralized dashboard/unified inbox for ALL of your listings (no matter how many you manage), it's easy to see where each guest is on their booking journey and what action needs to be taken.

A unified inbox keeps all your messages in one neat and convenient place, so you'll never miss a booking request or a question from your guests.

The best tools will even integrate with multiple platforms like Vrbo, Agoda, Booking.com, etc., and display all messages across all platforms in one neat, simple dashboard. That way, you basically never need to log in to any of these platforms; instead, you can simply manage the whole lot in one place.

If you reply to your guests from your Hospitable Inbox, they'll receive it on the platform they engaged with you. Your guests will never know that the Hospitable software is helping you communicate with them in the background.

5. Consolidated calendar

Similar to the unified Inbox, a consolidated calendar allows you to view all bookings for all listings across all platforms in one simple visual calendar.

This single calendar view gives you a real-time visual snapshot of your bookings for your entire portfolio of listings in one place. No switching between screens, no switching between platforms.

Just one simple, consolidated calendar that provides a clear overview of all your bookings across all properties so you can easily manage them.

Switching from channel to channel to manually check bookings and update your calendar and prices can be overwhelming.

But the right software will automatically update your availability in real-time on each channel, saving you time and effort. You'll also have peace of mind knowing that double bookings are now impossible.

And since Hospitable integrates with some of the best dynamic pricing tools, you can be sure that you always charge the right price for every booking.

6. Analytics and reporting

You need data to make intelligent business decisions and stay competitive. That means you need Airbnb property management software that can give you valuable insights into all your bookings to track your performance over time and adjust your strategy.

For example, Hospitable allows you to assess the performance of your short-term rentals in an accessible yet powerful Metrics Dashboard. It has all the key performance indicators, so you can always know the health of your vacation rental business.

You can see critical data, such as

• Total revenue
• Number of reservations
• Revenue per reservation
• Average nightly rate
• Revenue per available night
• Occupancy for available nights
• Occupancy for all nights
• Number of booked nights
• Percentage of unavailable nights
• Average length of stay

You can also see the percentage of bookings and revenue by channel. If you want to go deeper, you can filter your key data to get insights based on property, dates, guest names, teammates, and much more. You can also save filtered dashboards as "views" to easily access them later or share them with other stakeholders who may not have a Hospitable account.

7. Direct booking website builder

Listing your rental on sites like Airbnb is a great way to reach wider audiences and gain new clients. But it's only the first step to success.

You can't rely only on OTAs. You need to build your brand and become independent. That means you need your own website with booking capabilities.

Creating your direct booking website will allow you to build relationships with guests, encourage direct bookings, and save money on OTA fees.

And you don't need to hire a developer for that. You can easily build a fully functional direct booking website using Hospitable Direct.

We'll list your property on Google Vacation Rentals so travelers can discover it when searching for accommodation using Google search. If travelers decide to book your rental, Google will redirect them to your Hospitable website, and you'll get direct bookings without paying high third-party fees.

8. Integrations

No matter how powerful Airbnb property management software is, creating a single tool covering every aspect of running a short-term rental business is impossible. That's why you should look for software with integrations with other tools that will help you save time managing your STR properties and improve customer service. 

Hospitable has seamless integrations with many platforms and tools that extend its features and possibilities to help you streamline your operations and enhance guest experience. Hospitable users can take advantage of our integrations with

• Top dynamic pricing tools that will allow you to automatically adjust your rates based on real-time market data and maximize your occupancy and revenue;
• Smart locks that will allow you to welcome your guests remotely and ensure a smooth self-check-in process;
• Noise monitoring systems that can help you protect your property from damage and avoid neighbor complaints;
• Cleaning management tools that can help you find professional cleaners and automatically schedule cleanings after each reservation;
• Guest portals to build an interactive tool for guests that pre-empts questions and allows them to manage your smart home devices.
• An e-commerce that allows you to upsell extra services without being pushy or intrusive.
• Accounting software to help you automate your bookkeeping, and many more.

Conclusion

By now, you should know what property management software for Airbnb is and how effective it can be at reducing labor costs, increasing efficiencies, and reducing stress load while at the same time helping you make more money and grow your business.

Download our guide on boosting your short-term rental business performance even further.

The minimal setup costs to get started usually pay for themselves within the first week or two.

So, whether you manage 1 or 100 properties, Airbnb management software is something every (serious) host should be taking advantage of.

Now, there are many different options out there to choose from, but none of them are created equal. Hospitable offers a comprehensive solution for hosts and property managers, and it's a good value, too.

You can give our vacation rental management software a test run—totally free for 14 days and decide whether it's a good fit for you (and don't worry, you don't even need to give us your credit card details or anything).

So sign yourself up for a free account and witness firsthand just how powerful Airbnb property management software can be and how it can make your life easier.