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One of the most important things to understand about the short term rental business is that it gets easier with the more units you have. If you’re ready to scale up your business and start acquiring new units, you need to take the steps necessary to set yourself up for success. 

Questions and Answers

• What do we with units that have carpets in them? 

Carpets can be challenging because they are gigantic sponges for bacteria. If your unit does have carpets you need to have a process for keeping it clean in place. Establishing a relationship with a carpet vendor that your cleaning crew can contact to get the work done without getting the approval from you will save you a lot of time.

• How many customer service managers do you have and how many hours do they work?

J has a pair of customer service managers working for him that cover a total of 16 hours a day. He chose each of them to hire as managers and he trained them directly through a screen sharing app like Zoom or Loom.

• I have some people interested in working with me and my short term rental business but they are wary of marketplaces like Airbnb. Is there anything I can do to help them be more comfortable with them?

You would think these people would be more comfortable with markets like Airbnb and HomeAway than they would with Facebook. If the caller wants to reassure these people, showing them the listing so they understand what details are being revealed is a good option.

Starting with Airbnb as your first platform also gives you the advantage of benefitting from their existing background check process. What the landlord really wants to know is the contact information of the person in the case of an emergency, and that can be solved by simply automating parts of the reservation process.

If you explain to the landlord that you are on the same side of the table and will be making major investments in the unit and don’t want unsavory guests as well, things will go much smoother. In many cases, you have the ability to correct the issue if it does come up than the landlord could with a traditional tenant.

• Should I use Guesty if I am bringing on three additional units?

J recommends using Smartbnb and Lodgify instead of Guesty to his students. Everybody who brings on multiple units at the same time gets overwhelmed but it gets easier the more you do it. 

It’s also important to understand the difference between using a tool and using it expertly. If you don’t know how to use the tool well, it’s not going to be able to help you scale your business.

• We’ve got our first short term rental unit up and running and want to scale. Should we wait until we’re making more profit to scale or push ahead now?

The short term rental business is easier with more units than it is with less. Starting a new unit in a slow season can be very challenging bu