Optimize Your Short-Term Rental Operations

In this episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast, we welcome Marisa Grover, CEO of Simply Stay, a full-service vacation rental management company specializing in upscale properties across Texas and New Mexico. Marisa is an Airbnb operations and systems expert who helps ambitious Airbnb entrepreneurs build profitable STR businesses while working less.

Marisa manages 50 properties in her local market and is a mom of two kids. In the episode, Marisa shares her secrets for optimizing operations, creating a sustainable business model, and achieving work-life balance. She discusses the importance of building scalable systems, automating workflows with software, and assembling a strong team to transform your STR business and run it on autopilot.

Press Play now to discover how to create the right systems and leverage technology to run your STR business without the chaos.

If you prefer to read the highlights, we’ve got a summary of the key takeaways below.

Operational Challenges That Hosts Face

Marisa discusses common operational pain points STR hosts face as they scale their businesses. She thinks that the most significant pain point is that people are trying to do everything themselves. “Wearing all the hats, like trying to be the bookkeeper, coordinating with the cleaner, handling the troubleshooting, and the guest messages, and the owner communication. That's a lot of things that one person is trying to manage, so that's a big operational error.”

Another mistake that many hosts make is not having documentation for standard operating procedures. “If you don't have anything documented and you hire someone, there's nothing for them to be able to refer to and take the workload off your plate.” So Marisa recommends recording everything you do as a host to manage your rentals. This allows you to have written documents and build systems and SOPs that your team can follow.

When It’s Time to Have Systems in Place

Marisa says the point at which it becomes non-negotiable for STR hosts to have systems in place varies from person to person. It depends on what your goals are and the sacrifices you’re willing to make to achieve them.

Marisa recommends reviewing your personal and business goals and reflecting on why you want to be an entrepreneur. “If it's freedom, money, travel, vacation, whatever that is, when those things become affected, that's when we need systems or sooner.”

First Steps in Building SOPs and Systems

“At first, when we think of systems, they feel very restrictive,” Marisa says. “But I think when you have systems and standard operating procedures in place, it becomes less restrictive and more freeing. We have to look at it like it's a cost now for a really high reward later.”

Marisa thinks that one of the first steps you can take is to stop using your personal phone number for business purposes and use a business phone number instead. Another critical step is creating written documents that include all information about each of your STR properties. Such documents help save many hours a week as you start building your team because your team members can use them to find answers to many questions, and you won’t have to answer them.

“As you start to grow, someone's going to ask you, 'How do we work the thermostat at this house?' And you're like, I don't even know where the thermostat is in that house,” Marisa points out. “So, how the washer and dryer work, or where to park, or if the ceiling fan is a light switch that you turn on or a remote that you have to keep close. Those types of details should all live in one sheet.”

Using Software to Streamline Operations

Marisa emphasizes the importance of using the right automation software to simplify operations. “I think tools are an incredible and super valuable resource as you grow.” She also notes that you need to define the company’s standards and set your KPIs first. Then it’s much easier to build your systems and have a tech stack to support them.

Marisa says she uses Hospitable to streamline operations, and many hosts in her online community also use it to manage their properties. Marisa underlines that Hospitable is easy to use and “there's so much more that it can do than other property management software.”

Marisa likes that she can use Hospitable to manage smart locks and take advantage of AI-suggested replies when communicating with guests. She also loves the Metrics and Reporting feature, which makes it easy to track her properties' performance and make better business decisions based on data.