There are many vacation home owners who own or invest in an area where tourism is in high demand, or they own a vacation home abroad and rent it out when not in use.
Today, telecommuting has become a natural part of the work environment. In the last 5 years, the number of people who telecommute has increased by 44%, and with the COVID-19 situation, more and more people are starting to work from home. But working from home presents new challenges for vacation rental owners and property managers that used to not be found.
Being a “long distance homeowner ” doesn’t just apply to people who own a property a few hours away from their usual residence, or even in another city, sometimes the issue isn’t just location.
There are also hosts who live near their vacation rental property, but are unable to go into business full time or cannot travel there due to the COVID situation.
Tips for managing vacation rentals remotely
Thanks to technological advances, it is entirely possible to manage your vacation rental property remotely, and, above all, continue to offer the best experience to your guests.
- Work with a good PMS: If you don’t already use a property management system , you should consider it. A PMS is hotel management software that owners use to manage their business by coordinating reservations, online reservation availability, payments, and reporting in one central place. This system allows you to have all your guests’ reservations automated.
- Home security system: Protecting a vacation home from theft, vandalism and natural disasters is one of the biggest challenges facing homeowners. Those properties are usually far from the first residences, so keeping them insured makes it more complex. Some key security systems are surveillance cameras, motion sensors, and burglar alarms. Many of these systems can be connected to your mobile phone or your computer. If an alarm goes off, you will immediately receive a notification on your phone and can check the cameras live
- Provides autonomous arrival with remote access: Maintain a check-in and check-out system as simple and easy as possible. You can offer an autonomous arrival with an electronic lock , owners and managers will no longer need to coordinate and schedule a date and time for the delivery of keys. Guests can check-in and check-out at their convenience. Guests can open the door remotely with their phone, or collect the keys from a safe or key box that they will open with a code received on their phone.
- Automate check-in and self check-in at your vacation home: Allowing your guests to register themselves will save you the time of traveling to the property, and it will also avoid any contact. With our software, it will be possible for your guests to register themselves even before they arrive at your property. From an online registration form , to the verification of the identity of the guests thanks to our biometric technology, which compares a Selfie photo taken by the guest, with their scanned ID, looking for matches. In addition, you will also have the option to send the data to the police and save all the information in the cloud, making it a 100% digital check-in process .
- Maintain good communication with your guests: Communicate with your guests before, during and after your stay. Let your guests know that even if they do not live in the area, they can contact you if they experience a problem or are not satisfied.
- Find a trusted person to keep it clean: Guests expect impeccable accommodations when they arrive on their vacation. That can be a difficult expectation to fulfill in a remote vacation rental management ; as you will rarely be the one in charge of checking this cleanliness before guests arrive. Also, with the COVID situation; it is more important than ever to ensure hygiene and cleanliness, and to ensure that the home is disinfected.
Our Chekin software is integrated with companies like Doinn , which allows you to automate the cleaning of the house, offering a fully automatic service from reservation to check-out and subsequent cleaning, so that the owner does not have to worry about anything.
At Chekin, we want to offer a comprehensive home management solution for all people who have remote vacation rentals, which allows them to automate everything, from the moment of booking and online check-in , until the moment the guest accesses to the property without any contact.We have the best integrations on the market to facilitate this task for our hosts, and become a 360 tool. If you would like to know more about what online check-in is , do not hesitate to visit our website.
