If you have one or more short-term rental properties, you might wonder whether you should hire a short-term rental property manager to help you handle the workload. There are positives to both hiring a short-term rental property management company and handling management matters yourself.
What is a Short-Term Rental Property Manager?
A short-term rental property manager or management company is in charge of property maintenance, tenant screening and turnover, and other tasks associated with running and operating short-term rental properties. Short-term rental properties include but are not limited to:
- Vacation cabins
- Rental condominiums
- Personal residences temporarily rented out to vacationers through platforms like Airbnb
Short-term rental property managers oversee, maintain, clean, and provide other services for these properties.
What Do Short-Term Rental Property Managers Do?
Short-term property managers have a wide range of potential responsibilities.
For starters, short-term rental property managers are in charge of maintaining their assigned properties, just like traditional property managers. This may mean tasks including:
- Mowing the lawns and performing other property maintenance
- Cleaning rooms and residences regularly
- Performing other housekeeping services like changing the linens, restocking refrigerators, etc.
- Repairing property facilities, like AC units and elevators
- Staffing the front desk to answer guest/tenant questions and provide ancillary services
In addition, short-term rental property managers are usually responsible for marketing or advertising the properties in question. They are responsible for advertising the properties to make them look attractive to prospective guests, handling guest applications, managing calendars, and much more.
All of this work is labor that you will have to do yourself if you do not hire a short-term rental property manager. Operating a short-term rental property, even if it’s a room in your own house, can be a lot of work.
A short-term property management company can take most of that off your plate while you profit from owning the unit.
The Benefits of Hiring a Short-Term Rental Property Manager
There are many potential advantages to hiring a short-term rental property manager. These include:
- Experienced Marketing for Your Properties
- Day-to-Day Work is Taken Care Of
- Expanded Investment Opportunities
- Better Reputation from Pleased Guests
- Potentially Higher ROI (By Minimizing Vacancies)
Experienced Marketing for Your Properties
The short-term rental market is incredibly crowded and competitive. When you list a new vacation home, you have to compete against all other vacation homes in the area, which may be listed for lower prices or have better amenities.
By 2027, it is projected that 83% of vacation rentals will be generated through online sales.
It can be difficult for property owners to learn the ins and outs of short-term rental property marketing, especially when they have other work to juggle. Hiring a short-term rental property manager allows you to benefit from an experienced organization that already knows the best practices to market effectively to as many potential guests as possible.
For example, if you hire the right short-term rental property manager, they may:
- Immediately know how to create a great listing for your rental property on multiple platforms at once, such as Airbnb
- Know what kinds of pictures to take and where to take them to maximize your property’s visual attractiveness
- Know how to describe your property and its features
- Have access to established company rental sites or marketing campaigns
All of these benefits can contribute to a higher guest rate and reduced unit vacancy. The longer or more frequently your units are occupied, the more money you’ll make.
Day-to-Day Work is Taken Care Of
Running a short-term rental property, like a vacation cabin, is a lot of work! If you’re inviting a new guest to live at the cabin for the first time, you have to:
- Make sure the cabin looks great and is welcoming for your guests before they arrive
- Coordinate contact information with your guests so they know how to reach you
- Make sure that the guests know how to reach the cabin safely
- Be reachable by the guests at any time, even in the middle of the night, in case there’s an emergency
- Be able to provide ongoing maintenance support for the cabin, like making sure it has running water, the driveway is plowed or shoveled, etc.
Even after your guests are finished using the cabin, you then have to:
- Clean up the cabin and make sure that all of its amenities and utilities are in working condition
- Fix anything that was broken or damaged
- Perform further maintenance work on the property, so it still looks great by the time the next guests arrive
- List the property so that new guests can find it and book it
- Interview or screen those guests to make sure that they’ll be good choices
For many property owners, this isn’t how they want to spend the majority of their time, even if they want to make money on a vacation property. Therefore, they hire short-term property management companies.
Expanded Investment Opportunities
In some cases, you can’t invest in a new short-term rental property in an area where it’s not feasible for you to drive to. Hiring a short-term rental property manager allows you to purchase properties across a broader geographic area, thus expanding your investment opportunities.
Let’s say that you have a short-term rental property in City A. There’s an opportunity to purchase a new short-term rental property in City B. However, it takes over two hours for you to get to City B. If you were to try to manage both properties yourself, you would spend four hours driving back and forth.
But if you hire a short-term rental property manager, they can tackle managing one or both properties, meaning you can purchase the property in City B without worrying about committing too much of your week to drive between both properties just to take care of business.
Better Reputation from Pleased Guests
When you hire a short-term rental property manager, your properties may gradually accumulate a better reputation from the excellent experiences your guests receive.
This benefit is especially noticeable if you are new to the short-term rental property industry. There’s a lot that goes into maximizing guest experiences, from the first visit to customer service and more. Experienced, well-reviewed property management companies know exactly what to do to maximize each guest’s stay at one of your locations.
They can do a lot to make sure each guest:
- Feels taken care of personally
- Have what they need to enjoy their vacation or time
- Feels supported and safe at your property
In this way, hiring a short-term rental property manager could be the best way to give your guests a great time. Once your guests finish their time at your rental properties, they’ll be more likely to leave sterling reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and Airbnb.
Positive reviews often drive a positive cyclical sequence in which another prospective guest sees the positive reviews and decides to make a booking. They leave a positive review of their own, further driving the cycle and helping you to maximize occupancy at your short-term rental properties.
Potentially Higher ROI (By Minimizing Vacancies)
Knowledgeable short-term rental property managers know how to minimize vacancies in your properties, helping you reach a higher ROI or return on investment. Ensuring that the property is filled with paying guests as often as possible is the key to success in any rental business. They do this through a combination of effective marketing and exceptional service.
By minimizing vacancies, you’ll make more money off of your short-term rental properties than you would otherwise. The cost of the property management company is often offset by increased occupancy.
Benefits of DIY Short-Term Rental Property Management
While there are benefits to hiring a short-term rental property manager, there are some benefits to doing it all yourself as well, such as:
- More Autonomy Over Property Operations
- Increased Control
- All Profits Go to Your Pocket
More Autonomy Over Property Operations
One of the biggest benefits of handling short-term rental property management yourself is increased autonomy. Put simply, if you’re the only one working on a given short-term rental property, you have complete control over all the aspects of managing that property.
Many owners value being able to determine:
- When your property is rented
- How much money you make off your property (via the rates you charge)
- When your property is available for rental
- What work is expected of your property tenants – for example, do you handle mowing and shoveling snow, or is that something tenants have to take care of?
For a lot of property owners, giving away control over their rental property to someone else – even an experienced company – is a no-go. When you’re in charge of your short-term rental property, you know what goes on and never have to worry about explaining the actions of others.
Increased Control
There’s something to be said for the complete control you have over marketing your property – you get to set up the website, the marketing materials, and much more.
You also get to determine what tenants spend time at your short-term rental property. For example, if you screen a potential tenant and you don’t want to give them the property, you don’t have anyone else to listen to or who might supersede your decision, depending on your management contract.
In contrast, when you sign up with a short-term rental property manager, they often have 100% control over things like:
- Which tenants stay on your property
- How much your property is rented for
- Marketing materials
In short, hiring a short-term rental property manager means giving away some of your control. This is undoubtedly easier for some property owners than others.
All Profits Go to Your Pocket
The most important benefit of DIYing short-term rental property management is there’s no need to share profits. Any profits you make get to go into your pocket or bank account, which you can use to expand your portfolio, make your existing rental property better, or do anything else you imagine.
The majority of short-term rental property management companies can charge upwards of 50% of collected rent or profits. You have to be comfortable with not receiving as much money if you want to work with a short-term rental property manager. The reverse is also true; if you DIY it, you get to keep every dollar you make from your rental property.
For some property owners, this is enough of a benefit that it puts short-term rental property management off the table entirely. If, for instance, you can make a maximum of $1,000 per month off your short-term rental property, it may not make much sense to hire a property management company, particularly if the upkeep for the property may only cost you a few hours each week in total labor.
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Is Hiring a Short-Term Rental Property Manager Right for You?
As you can see, hiring a short-term rental property manager can be wise in some situations and less advantageous in others. You’ll need to consider several key factors, such as:
- Overall fees compared to how much money you may make from the rental property
- Available property management companies in your area
- The number of properties you need to be managed
- Your comfort level regarding giving up control
Let’s take a look at some situations in which it’s smart to hire a short-term rental property manager and some situations where it might be wiser to DIY it.
When to Hire a Short-Term Rental Property Manager
It might be a good idea to hire a short-term rental property manager when:
- You have multiple properties to manage – This quickly turns into a nearly full-time job when you have enough properties. Most investors aren’t willing to spend all their time being a property manager.
- Your properties require lots of upkeep – If you have a cabin in the woods, you might have to do lots of driving, snow removal, keeping roads clear of debris, and normal property cleaning. Is it worth it to you?
- You want to minimize vacancy – In some cases, you can earn more money by paying a short-term rental property management company because they have the experience to keep your properties filled, and often at higher prices.
- You have limited property management experience – Short-term property management has a lot of turnover. Understanding how to market the property, keep it occupied, and get guests to write great reviews is essential to having a successful business.
When to DIY Short-Term Rental Property Management
It may be smarter to handle short-term rental property management yourself when:
- You have 1-2 properties – If you can handle everything yourself with minimal effort, you can come out ahead financially without committing too much time.
- Your properties don’t require much upkeep – If your property is the other half of your duplex, maintenance would be relatively simple
- Your properties are unlikely to turn a major profit – If you’re working on a slim margin, then personally maintaining the unit might be a necessity.
- You plan to use a rental listing site – Several vacation rental sites offer tools that make property management a bit easier. While sites like Airbnb charge host fees, it may be more cost-effective to use these services and manage your own property rather than paying a short-term rental property manager and the additional vacation site fees.
How Do I Find a Short-Term Rental Property Manager?
There are several effective ways to find a high-quality short-term rental property manager including:
- Referrals – Ask local property owners who they use and if they would recommend their PM or Property Management Company
- Online Search – A quick Google search will yield several options. Take a deep dive into their reviews, professional profiles (Linkedin, Yelp), and social media accounts.
- Vacation Rental Sites – Look at vacation rental sites for homes in the area of your property. If you see a few listings that you like, look over the contact information.
