Being a vacation rental homeowner can be an exciting and lucrative endeavor. But it can also demand a lot of your time and effort. This is great if you are handy and a hands-on owner but may be more than the typical owner of a short-term rental wants to invest.

Self-Management

• Self-management requires some very basic things.
• You will want to design your listing carefully
• Take good photos for your listing or have them professionally done
• Manage bookings on the various sites that you have listed on
• Keep up with calendars on these sites so you are not double-booking
• Respond to any questions from potential guests
• Ready the home for each guest between bookings
• Perform all maintenance
• Be available around the clock for questions, maintenance or customer service issues It takes approximately 15 to 30 hours per week to successfully manage a vacation rental. Although this seems like a lot of work (it is!), it can also be manageable if there is only one property you are renting periodically and you enjoy being on call for any issues.

Hiring Specific Services to Offset Workload

Maybe you want to hire out specific services instead of handling everything yourself. In this case, you may wish to take advantage of choosing services a la carte from maintenance providers to housekeeping services. If you enjoy a more hands-on management approach, hiring partial services can be helpful depending on how often you are planning on renting out your property. But it still demands your continual attention even though you may not be providing the actual manpower. You will still need to be on call to schedule and manage these services as they are needed as well as attend to the usual guest services.

Hiring a Vacation Rental Management Company

If you are planning on having your short-term rental supply a steady stream of guests and income, you may want to explore hiring a designated property manager. Having the skill and experience of a full-service vacation rental property manager can maximize your return on investment while providing the full spectrum of management capabilities that you would be providing with your blood, sweat and tears. From setting up your listing with professional photos and web-optimized content, to booking and responding to guests, to having your property cleaned and maintained, a good vacation rental property manager does it all.

Experience and Expertise That is Priceless

An active property manager also offers expertise that many vacation rental owners may not understand such as local and county regulations for short-term rentals, filing tax paperwork, optimizing listings for the internet and updating rates to keep them competitive. This experience offers information and navigation that property owners without the benefit of a property manager may find out the hard way. If you are a vacation rental owner, you want to get the most benefit from your property. Having the services of a property manager can help in a myriad of ways by maximizing your revenue and minimizing your workload.