How to Take an Efficient, Hands-Off Approach to Airbnb Hosting

While Airbnb undoubtedly offers a viable source of substantial income for property owners and potential investors, a barrier for many lies in the perceived time it will take to run a successful hosting business. Understandably, the time investment in Airbnb is a deterrent and if you are taking a manual approach to all aspects of the process, is a reasonable concern to have. Fortunately, the popularity of Airbnb hosting has led to the creation of many digital tools, systems and companies that streamline the experience. Agonising over each little detail is no longer necessary for those serious about hosting. It’s ultimately become feasible to turn an Airbnb property into a hands-off investment with the utilisation of what’s available.With the number of people putting off getting into Airbnb hosting purely because of the time they think it will take, a hands-off approach to hosting should appeal to many. Even in New Zealand, where we are not afforded the tech luxuries that quickly become available elsewhere, there are a plethora of tools in the market to assist with Airbnb hosting.

Reasons to Take a Hands-Off Approach on Airbnb

The bottom-line of Airbnb hosting is the earning potential of your property on the platform. How much you make as an Airbnb host will greatly shape your perception of how worthwhile the experience was for you. Naturally, the time you spend on your listing, hosting and property care will cut into your benefits. While you may be earning money on Airbnb, if you’re spending copious chunks of your day on these duties it might not be paying off as well as it seems. Anybody capable of working can get a second job and spend unrealistic hours supplementing their income. Airbnb hosting or investing for the purpose of Airbnb hosting shouldn’t come with the expectation that you are going to take on a huge amount of work as you get into it. A successful Airbnb host needs to understand how they can utilise what’s on offer to simplify and streamline processes for the best financial outcome.

The Benefits of a Hands-off Approach

Taking a hands-off approach to Airbnb will have a serious pay-off over the duration of the experience. Imagine a property investment that earns you as much or more income than a long-term tenancy, with minimum consumption of your most important resource, your time. This is what’s possible as a hands-off Airbnb host and what’s even better is that the degree to which you relinquish control is up to you. You can choose to simply automate a couple of steps in the booking process, buy a digital lock for your home, hire cleaners and manage every other aspect on your own, or you can hire someone else to take full control over your Airbnb listing in its entirety. The hands-off approach to property investment is a drawcard that lures many to hotel room investments and the hire of real estate agencies to manage traditional tenancies. For this reason, it’s clear that time, involvement and responsibility leaves many searching for investment options that require as little intervention as possible. Investments that grow on their own accord. With a history of being the most commonly chosen route of property investment, long-term tenancies make this possible. However, as Airbnb can be more profitable than long-term tenancies, and have the opportunity to be hands-off, investors should consider this avenue when assessing what’s available to them.

Helpful Technology is Necessary

One of the biggest drains on time as an Airbnb host is waiting to meet guests or organising the check-in situation. Living in the real world means that things often go wrong with arrival times, especially if your guests are flying in from overseas. This can often turn into hours wasted every single week for a process that can be simplified with the purchase of a digital door lock or lock box. By investing in one of these tools, you no longer have to meet guests in person upon their arrival. Taking this step, you’ll be able to simplify the check-in process and also put your guest’s worries at ease.

Automating Correspondence with Guests

When a guest books with you on Airbnb, you’re required to provide them with information that they need about your property. This includes directions, check-in instructions, rules and any other things they need to know during their stay. While this can take a lot of time if you’re doing it from scratch each time, it can be simplified with automated emails. There’s really no need to continuously relay this advice upon every booking confirmation. By creating a template email, you can save yourself a lot of time in the long-run. According to guestready.com, you should be able to easily automate responses for the following enquiries:

• Booking inquiry
• Request to book message
• Booking confirmation
• Check-in information (including House Manual)
• Post check-in message
• Pre check-out message
• Post check-out message
• Review reminder
• Discount offers

Outsourcing Management

If you’re serious about saving time and making your Airbnb entirely hands-off, you can consider the assistance of an Airbnb management company. Hiring a professional to take over your host responsibilities will absolve you from time constraints completely. These services allow you to benefit from your new income without having to put in the effort that full-time hosts usually would. One of the top benefits from hiring an Airbnb management company is that as they are seasoned Airbnb professionals, they’ll generally be able to secure you much better results than you would get as a beginner host.If you don’t feel the need to relinquish full control of your Airbnb responsibilities, you can simply choose to hire a cleaning company to refresh everything after each stay. This simple step can save you many hours every week on time that would usually be spent preparing for and cleaning up after guests.The biggest takeaway from this article is the fact that being an Airbnb host doesn’t mean that you have to do it all yourself. With the number of tools and tried-and-true strategies available out there for you to learn from, it’s unnecessary to do things the hard way. Make things easy for yourself and get the best results from your investment through a hands-off approach to Airbnb hosting.