Five Most Important People To Help Manage Your Airbnb
BY MIKEL HUBBARD
CO-FOUNDER, THE HOST CO
OWNER, TIMES EIGHT PROPERTY & DESIGN
Running your own Airbnb often takes more than just yourself. It takes work in a lot of different areas to keep and maintain a house — especially if you’re not always nearby. A lot of hosts use property managers, which we’ve covered the pros and cons of elsewhere. But what if you want to run the whole place by yourself, so you can pocket all the profits?
There are a few people you may need to keep on retainer, or a phone call away. It takes a village to raise an Airbnb, after all.
Here are our top five people we recommend you have in place for your Airbnb:
READ MORE: BEST 9 LOW-MAINTENANCE YARD OPTIONS FOR YOUR AIRBNB
5 Most Important People You Need For Your Airbnb
1. CLEANER
We’ll start out with the most obvious — and most often hired right out of the gate. A cleaner will be your eyes and ears on the ground to maintain your Airbnb at a high standard between guest stays. They can help you identify broken items in your Airbnb, get you new cleaning products, and of course — clean your place between stays quickly and efficiently. They can also snap photos of your Host Co store between guest stays as a theft prevention mechanism, and restock your store for you.
Especially if you don’t live on the property, this is a worthwhile investment to make your Airbnb experience akin to a well-oiled machine — you can charge a cleaning fee to cover most or all of it, and it prevents you from needing to visit your short-term rental after every guest has stayed there. Don’t forget a Christmas bonus for these people - they make your Airbnb a viable business.
2. LANDSCAPER
Especially during the height of seasonal changes — mowing grass, shoveling snow, raking leaves, trimming bushes — a landscaper is good to have on call. They also can do preventative maintenance tasks around the outside of the house to help your listing out while you’re not around — refilling your propane tank, cleaning up dog waste, etc.
How often you have them come is entirely dependent on how the seasons affect your area and what you want to do on your own, but we highly recommend having a trusted one on hand!
3. POOL / HOT TUB PERSON
For those of us who have water features in our short-term rental, it’s so helpful to have someone who specializes in pool or outdoor water maintenance. They can maintain high water quality, take care of it during the cold months, and even sometimes will go above and beyond with repairs! We’ve heard of pool maintenance staff sweeping around the pool, rearranging patio furniture if it blows away, cleaning trash around the pool… things that help you keep your listing looking professional and ready for guests.
They could even potentially be hired to fix issues or leaks with irrigation, which is a huge resource to have on hand in case of an emergency.
4. KNOW YOUR HANDYMAN & PLUMBER ON CALL
It’s so critical to have a handyman and a plumber on call in case of emergencies. Normal life things happen, and when your toilet backs up or your shower stops working, if you don’t have a plumber you can call, you’ll most likely have to check your guests into a hotel. A handyman that can fix things hourly can cover pretty much everything else other than sewage issues. Have these resources on hand in your listing as well as saved in your phone to avoid disaster and solve issues that come up as quickly as possible!
5. LOCAL CONTACT
Whether it’s a friend or a trusted neighbor, make sure you have someone on the ground that can visit your Airbnb if anything arises. Whether it’s to check on a noise complaint and help break up a party or someone who can drive by if there’s an issue with the guest and their stay, this is so important to have nearby — especially if you don’t live near your listing or don’t want to be physically on call 24/7. A lot of hosts have other jobs or responsibilities, so this is going to help you out big time.
It can be overwhelming to think of all the help needed to run an Airbnb. But don’t worry! It’s best to ensure you have safeguards in place so that you are providing the best and safest spot for your guest to stay.
Share this with a host you think would benefit from saving this list for future reference!