Property Management

FAQ

How do you keep my property safe?: We require 2 night minimum stay for all of our properties. This, combined with explicit and strict house rules, encourages the safe rental of your home. The house rules are explicitly outlined on your listing. We share the house rules with an inquiry we feel may be higher risk. We share the house rules with every confirmed guest at booking and the day before check-in so they understand proper usage of your property before arrival.

Do you vet guests?: We ask every guest inquiring or instant booking to share their plans for their stay so we have a feel for why they’re coming. If the guest is planning to throw a party, birthday party, ceremony, gathering, shindig, or event, we respectfully ask them to find another listing that’s a better fit for their needs. We cannot guarantee guest honesty but we do vet guests based on their responses.

What does the management fee include?: The management fee includes vetting guests, communicating with guests throughout their reservation, coordinating with housekeeping and any maintenance providers, troubleshooting issues, resolving any guest damage, pricing your listing dynamically to maximize your return, and more. The guest pays you a cleaning fee for every reservation which pays for the property to be cleaned. We pay the cleaners on your behalf and deduct it on your owner’s statement. If a toilet needs to get fixed, we will find a vendor that can complete the job and coordinate the appointment so as not to disturb any guests, but the cost of fixing the toilet itself, lawn care, noise sensor and front door camera subscriptions are not included in the management fee.

What are your fees?: We charge 25% of the nightly rate. For example, Thomas’s reservation has an average nightly rate of $200 x 5 nights totaling $1000. So it’s 25% of $1000 ($250). You get the entire cleaning fee, we don’t factor in the guest fee Thomas paid ($240.00), occupancy taxes (108.12), or the host service fee ($40.20).

Why do you charge based on the nightly rate and not net?: We run a professional service, not a business partnership. We are here to provide you excellent management service of your property, but we are by nature not in a business partnership with clients.

How do I get paid for my property?: We will collect the month’s payouts, pay the cleaning company on your behalf for all reservations, and pay you your payout the beginning of the following month. You’ll get an automatic statement with line items for everything, you’ll have an owner’s portal where you can see reservations, available dates, and you can book your own property. You’ll also be able to see metrics around occupancy and revenue so you can understand financial performance.

How long until I’m receiving money?: We can list and launch a property as fast as you are able to get us the information we need to run it and get any outstanding maintenance issues addressed before the first guest. We find it takes a minimum of 2 weeks from deciding to list the property to being ready to welcome the first guest. During this time period, we have already listed your property to start filling up the calendar.

What happens after my property is launched?: We will assign you a Concierge who will be responsible for the day-to-day guest vetting and messaging as well as coordinating cleaning and maintenance. They will be your go-to contact after the property is launched for any day-to-day concerns. Matthew will be overseeing the guests and reservations, troubleshooting any issues that pop up, as well as tracking and modifying pricing to maximize your return.

Can you use my devices?: We will use devices you already have onsite if you want to keep them (Ring or Blink cameras, Nest thermostats, etc). If you are missing a device, we will recommend one during your onboarding meeting. We can also install it and configure it for you as part of an installation package.

How do you secure a property?: We do not allow guests to stay who mention party, birthday party, bachelor/bachelorette party, etc. We also highly recommend installing a Ring camera and NoiseAware device that will monitor the noise inside the property to ensure there are no parties. Plus, we also have a $1000 fee to the guests if the police come to the front door during a reservation, which is posted in our house rules and send to the guest at reservation confirmation and the day before check-in. All of these methods really encourage the security of the property during a guest stay.

Do I need insurance?: We highly recommend you obtain insurance for your property. We have umbrella insurance for our properties we own and will share with you the contact information of the insurance agent we use should you move forward with us as a client.

Does a reservation come with insurance?: Airbnb has a program called AirCover which gives hosts protections around liability and guest damages, but we really encourage you to get additional insurance that will protect your property should there be an accident or mishap during a guest stay. Fortunately we’ve never had to exercise our insurance, but it does give peace of mind.

Do you collect a security deposit?: On VRBO we are able to collect a security deposit upfront from the guests before their arrival. We can then withdraw from this deposit for any reason. Airbnb has a security deposit field but does not actually collect the deposit from the guest, they treat it as a limit of what we could ask from the guest should there be any damage. A damage during an Airbnb reservation is filed through the resolution center and tends to go to arbitration involving Airbnb directly. We will handle filing the claim, uploading photos, entering a description, and overseeing the claim on your behalf.

Where do you list properties?: Today we list properties across DFW, but we are expanding and are able to operate properties anywhere by using the dense infrastructure we’ve built to run Airbnb’s. If you are interested in doing a property in another location, we would be happy to discuss the management of the property with you.

What is your average occupancy?: We price our properties to achieve a conservative occupancy of 70% and often have months of higher occupancy. We price the properties to be competitive and aim to exceed our base level of occupancy. During peak conditions, we have been able to obtain 90%+ occupancy.

What is required of me, the property owner?: We just ask you give us all the information upfront regarding your property, the nuances of the amenities you’re offering, how parking works, etc. This is really facilitated by the onboarding questionnaire, so it’s extremely important to spend time on that form to really get us all the information we need to run the property effectively. All of the bills will need to be on auto-pay such as electricity, water, trash. We’ll be in touch from time to time about various updates and happenings, but our mission is to take care of things so you can devote your time to other things.

What happens if there are damages during a reservation?: On VRBO we are able to collect a security deposit upfront from the guests before their arrival. We can then withdraw from this deposit for any reason. Airbnb has a security deposit field but does not actually collect the deposit from the guest, they treat it as a limit of what we could ask from the guest should there be any damage. A damage during an Airbnb reservation is filed through the resolution center and tends to go to arbitration involving Airbnb directly. We will handle filing the claim, uploading photos, entering a description, and overseeing the claim on your behalf.

How do you price a property?: We scout comps for your property and price it based on a variety of factors. We do dynamic pricing, which allows us to be very precise based on a base price, weekdays/weekends, seasonality, local demand due to concerts or events, and more. Our goal is to maximize your return, our fee puts us in alignment with you of generating the most return on your property.

Can you help me launch my property, not just manage it?: Yes, we do installation services where we install and configure onsite and virtual infrastructure such as Ring cameras, front door locks, and supply closets, we onboard cleaning and maintenance, address outstanding maintenance issues, and more. This is done on a custom basis, every property is in different condition so we survey the property and scope of what it needs to be ready for guests. Once we agree on the scope you want us to execute for you, we will price the work and provided you want to move forward we will execute the installation. Our clients love this service, it’s a great option if you’re busy and don’t want to assemble the individual contractors to do each service.

Can you help me with design and furniture?: We work with a designer Sarah Nowak who designs Airbnb’s. She will help you identify the furniture, items, and design to maximize your property. Working with Sarah is completely optional but she’s a great resource if you need a hand with furnishings and design. Her contact info is ‭(469) 952-1562‬ and [email protected].

What do I need to do to get my property ready to rent?: Your property should be in good condition with all of the maintenance issues or peculiarities either fixed or identified. This ensures the listing accurately reflects the property and that the property is ready for guests. The penalty for a listed amenity that does not work during a guest stay is a severe 50% from Airbnb, so it’s really important the property is in tip-top shape so it’s ready for guests.

How will I benefit from your property management services?: We take care of anything and everything regarding the rental of the property, including vetting guests, communicating with future and current guests staying, coordinating with housekeeping and maintenance, issue resolution, and more. If you don’t want to do this yourself, we are here to make things easy!

What happens when a guest needs something that requires physically going to the property?  Do you hire a handyman or cleaning person that is willing to be on standby? These days guests don’t want the host to come onsite, they view it as an invasion of their privacy. They want you to anticipate their needs and potential pitfalls, such as thoroughly explaining how to use the TV remote or where to park. If you can believe it, it’s actually not uncommon to get partial refund requests if you have to go onsite to help the guest with something. This makes all the infrastructure I’ve created to keep the business stable super useful. Having said that, yes we hire a local handyman and cleaning company for every property. If there’s a maintenance need during a reservation, we dispatch the handyman, he gets an automated text message and email with the notes from the request as well as his own front door code so we can track his execution, we always shoot for same day service. Same goes for a follow-up clean if the cleaning company missed something, but we onboard the cleaning company with an Airbnb cleaning video, housekeeping checklist, and personal walkthrough so they are well-prepared to do the job.

Do you have any rules around how often the owners can stay in the home?  Ie, if we wanted to stay one weekend a month, or for 2 whole weeks in the summer, are there any management fees attached to our own stay? Or are we asked to steer clear during certain peak times? No rules for owners :). You can come and go as you please, the only things you can’t do is show up unannounced during a reservation or cancel a reservation that’s already confirmed. So it’s important to block dates that are important to you ahead of time in your owner’s portal. You’ll also be able to see what’s already booked and what’s available. There are no management fees attached to your own stay! But the home has to be turned by the cleaning company after you check out so it’s prepared for the next guest, so there will be a cleaning fee when you check out.

Will you Airbnb the property forever? What if we want to sell the property at a later time? If you choose to sell your property or long-term rent it, we still need to fulfill the existing reservations already booked, so we will share with you the confirmed reservations and agree on a date to start blocking available dates so that you can sell or long-term rent the property. If you’re considering doing either, we can set a shorter booking window for you (3-6 months out) so guests can’t book far in advance. After the final reservation is fulfilled we’ll do an offboarding and you will be free to sell or long-term rent the property. On the final day of our management of your property, we will uninstall and remove any configurations and materials we installed such as guest laminates, checklists, device settings, as well as any virtual infrastructure we set up to run your property.

Do the cleaners charge per hour or fixed fee? The cleaning company will charge a fixed fee for cleaning the property, unless there’s some exorbitant uncommon usage, like if the cleaners had to stay an extra 3 hours. Whether they use 1 just bed or every bed in the house and every amenity, it’s a flat fee.