This post on the daily routines of a serious Airbnb host was originally posted by our friend Mark Welpman, who has a great property in Maui, on the professional host facebook group. I love this post because it reminds us that you can always improve and do better. This is why we started this business; it is all about making it easier for hosts to focus on the business and stop wasting time managing turnovers and finding cleaners.
Daily Routines of a Serious Airbnb host
I have a daily, weekly, and monthly routine that I strictly adhere to.
First thing every morning before going to work.
Daily:
• Check my combined calendar and look for any notice or actions that might require my attention.
• Based on my reminders in my combined calendar, I send off my notice and welcome letters.
• I then go to each of my different listing websites and insure my calendrers are all in sync. Sometimes someone will slip in an instant booking overnight. (International travelers).
• One each calendar I block out and save and a few days. Then I unblock the days I selected and save then again, reopening those days. This is important. Rankings algorithms take into consideration how often you update your calendar. Daily activity on your calendar helps you greatly in your ranking.
The should take 15 minutes max. It usually take me about five minutes. I have automated much of my business to save time, but that is another lesson.
Weekly:
• Once a week, I go to my combined calendar and manually Sync each of my calendars to insure I have any new bookings captured.
• Then I use a spreadsheet that I made to set up reminders on the calendar. I have a reminder for what day I send out letters/notice:
- Welcome packet.
- Arrival follow-up letter.
- Day before check out letter.
- Day of check out letter.
- 48-hour review request letter.
- 7 Day request for review letter (last ask)
• I check comparable listings in my area to see how the competition stacks up. This includes their rates, cleaning fees, and other fees. I read each listing to see what improvements, if any that I can make to make my listing to stand out against theirs. Importantly I check their availability to see how booked they are. This can tell you many things about your competition. It gives you a good idea if they have figured out their sweet spot or they are way underpriced. Try and make sure that your listing is as close to the same as your listing. (Apples to Apples)
• Tweak your listing: Go in and see if you can improve your listings write or perhaps a better photo. Make sure that your write up is short but comprehensive. Your photos must tell a story. Try and change your title every couple of months. Or at least for the different seasons of the year. Keep your listing fresh.
Monthly:
• After paying all the bills, I perform an audit on my expenditures and see where I can do better. You can always do better. There are many ideas that can help cut costs. But I’ll save that for another time.
My final words of advice are that this is a full-time business. Not that it takes 40-hour a week to run, but it requires your full attention. You need to have a plan. Many people go into this thinking that it’s a wonderful easy way to make a few bucks on the side. As for reading on this page, you see example after example. You need to learn something new every day about this business. Ignorance of this business will cost you in the end. Benjamin Franklin said, “ If you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail.”
