Vacation Rental Software

How to Scale Your Airbnb Business With Automation

Growing your vacation rental business doesn’t happen overnight. Fortunately, automation can help you scale your business for long-term growth and improve operational efficiency. Below, learn from other top-performing hosts their tips and tricks for automating your short-term rental and scaling your business.

by Beyondbnb

What Does It Mean to Scale an Airbnb Business?

Scaling a short-term rental business involves mastering the day-to-day tasks that come with hosting one Airbnb property — and then applying these skills and techniques to multiple rentals with the utmost efficiency. 

When scaling a vacation rental business, one primary goal is to increase profits while minimizing time spent organizing turnover schedules, communicating with cleaners, and accommodating guests at all hours. It’s easy to get caught up in these daily operations, however, whether you have one property or 20.

In addition to the endless to-dos, running a successful short-term rental business also requires providing an exceptional experience for guests. So, how do you simplify time-consuming operations while still offering a top-notch stay for your guests?

One way is to move beyond manual routines to achieve an automated, high-performing vacation rental business. Keep reading to learn how the Founder and CEO of Beyondbnb, Ryland Nelson, mastered the nuts and bolts of scaling his many vacation rental-related responsibilities. 

How Beyondbnb Founder and CEO Went From 1 to 100+ Properties 

Imagine operating numerous successful Airbnb rentals, ultimately generating more and more revenue with each passing year. It may sound unrealistic and daunting, but the truth is, it’s achievable with less effort than you’d expect. And it’s exactly what Ryland of Beyondbnb did over time.

Ryland started working in the property management industry during his high school years before pursuing an education in Tourism Management at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. After his schooling, Ryland developed an online booking website for local hosts within his community of Fernie, British Columbia. And this was before Airbnb even existed. 

In 2010, Ryland became one of the earliest adopters of Airbnb when he started renting out a room in his condo. As his short-term rental business took off, he began operating numerous properties as an Airbnb Superhost. 

Given his software development knowledge and his experience successfully scaling a vacation rental venture, other hosts started turning to him for advice. Because of this demand for hosting mentorship, Ryland established Ferniebnb. This business helped short-term rental hosts leverage their resources to improve efficiency, reduce frustrations, and manage more Airbnb listings. 

Ryland’s top advice to hosts striving to scale their rental business:

“Make sure you have your systems in place. Don’t try to do everything yourself. That is the definition of scalability. Don’t try to do all your own cleaning. Get everything done by other people as much as possible so you can focus on growing your business. If you are finding that you’re having to do everything yourself, it’s not going to be scalable.”

Ryland eventually established Beyondbnb to help short-term rental managers and owners increase revenue as they grow. Beyondbnb’s innovative solution provides rental management services that include inventory replenishment, guest communications, cleaning and laundry, pricing, and maintenance coordination. 

From managing one single Airbnb in 2010 to managing over 100 listings, Ryland’s secret is to implement process automation early on. He considers this the key to maximizing bookings and mastering running a successful vacation rental. 

“Having all of your systems in place and running smoothly is key. Even if you have two or three properties, it needs to be well set up.”

– Ryland Nelson

Using Automation to Scale Your STR Empire

Nowadays, almost everything can be automated — including the ins and outs of running a short-term rental business. 

When you automate your hosting tasks, you’ll be able to focus on acquiring new customers, prioritize financial freedom, and have confidence that your business is running smoothly.

Discover some of the most significant automation tools you can use to scale your short-term rental business. 

Pricing Automation

Setting a great vacation rental pricing strategy requires a lot of experience or, at least, attention to detail. 

You have to take into account that pricing fluctuates depending on several factors. For example, you can price your property higher on the weekend rather than on weekdays. Additionally, you might want to offer discounts to incentivize people to book more days and fill gaps in your calendar. 

It is critical that you set rates just right — not too high, and not too low — so you don’t fail to take advantage of earning more revenue. 

To get your rates right without missing out on bookings, you can utilize pricing automation tools to help you make lucrative business decisions. Vacation rental pricing software can set a specialized pricing plan based on your listing and other various factors. This ensures that you don’t overestimate or lowball your nightly rate. 

Some of our favorite pricing tools for short-term rentals include Rented, PriceLabs, and Beyond.

Guest Communication Automation

Staying in contact and having excellent communication with your guests play a crucial part in your success as a host. That said, sending responses to guests is one of the most time-consuming hosting tasks. 

Luckily, you can automate guest communication, helping you establish better relationships with guests while saving time. Top guest communication automation software includes Hospitable, Hostfully, and Host Tools

By automating guest communication, you can proactively connect with guests before, during, and after their stay. This is done by using automated templates and triggered messaging. This method enables you to schedule personalized and unique messages to guarantee guests receive them at relevant times. 

Best yet, it allows you to interact with guests when you’re physically unavailable to do so or if you’re in a different time zone. 

Turnover Automation

Whether you clean your own property or hire a professional cleaning service, ensuring a spotless and disinfected property for each set of guests can be demanding. Scheduling and facilitating the cleaning process even just for a single property requires full attention and effort. 

Automating your turnover cleaning process can help you achieve a top-notch vacation rental turnover experience without draining your energy. Tools like Turno help hosts put their cleaning on autopilot. This way, they won’t have to manually carry out cleaning procedures or worry about unreliable cleaners or last-minute cancellations. 

Multiply Your Bookings and Revenue

To effectively scale your vacation rental management business, you need to implement automation tactics that will help you multiply your bookings and ultimately increase your revenue. 

Streamlining your daily operations through automation can eliminate the common stress of performing repetitive tasks, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your short-term rental venture. Once you automate your hosting routine, you will be able to scale faster and more effectively.