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Questions and Answers

• I have a person that wants to book through February to November but I’ve already got someone with a reservation in the middle of that time. Do I offer the other guest to switch to another short term rental unit to accommodate the person who wants to stay longer?

This can be pretty common with new short term rental units or you are new to operating. When you put up a new listing it often gets promoted and for people looking for longer stays there often aren’t a lot of options. You should offer the current reservation the option to move to another short term rental unit, even if you don’t have another unit in that particular area. 

The ideal situation would be to get all the days booked with both individuals while also getting the money upfront. The revenue from the long term reservation can actually be used to acquire another unit for the shorter reservation if necessary. There are also a number of incentives you can offer to close the deal.

• A major cancellation issue with AirBnB

J has had a similar situation occur with a guest that said they were going to cancel but didn’t. We continually sent the person messages as well as keeping in communication with AirBnB. In both cases we were paid in full for the days that were stuck in limbo but only because we were being hyper diligent about following up and making sure the reservation was actually cancelled.

If you’re at the 70 bedroom stage like this caller is in, you really shouldn’t be involved in this sort of issue. Your staff should be able to handle everything. Your business should also have an established system for making sure your guests actually arrive for their reservations.

For the caller, they need to have a customer experience manager that should be able to handle all aspects of this sort of issue. When you encounter something new, create an SOP (standard operating procedure).

• My fear of not being sure of where to begin is holding me back. What should I start with first?

All of our short term rental  mastermind students get a six hour kickstart session with J specifically to address this problem. Outside of that, the very first question you have to answer is “Who do I want to serve?”. Once you answer that, you can figure everything else out.

• What if I can’t find a management company for one condo that’s out of town?

Remote management is challenging. If you are going to do it remotely you must have a cash management system in place to make sure that no money gets released without a verification that the work has actually been done. Find someone who can be your eyes and ears on a job site.

If you can find an actual landlord in the area to assist you that has experience with rehabs that would be ideal. You can find them through the local real estate investors association or meetup.com.

• If a guest leaves a review but you haven’t you reviewed them yet, can people still see it?

Nope, not until either you review them or 14 days pass.

• Are the metrics you used in the SmartBnB training available to the public?

SmartBnB is great for their ability to see data and metrics and then use that to drive higher revenue. It’s not currently available to the public.