If there were one single truth about the vacation rental market, it would be that customer delight is king. But, the needs and desires of Gen-Z renters are constantly growing and diversifying. What is a novelty today, will soon become a standard tomorrow.
In its continuous quest to deliver better guest experiences, the industry has adopted many new technology solutions and processes. Smart home automation being a top one. Afterall, the smarter the rental home, the greater the customer (and property manager) delight.
But not all property automation technologies are created equal. If you’re looking for a solution that’s mobile-ready, secure and cloud-based, powered by business intelligence, PointCentral is your best bet.
Innovation-seeking property managers take control of their properties and operating income with this intuitive and enterprise-scale smart vacation rental solution.
Here’s how we help property managers look after thousands of homes with ease, all day, every day:
The everyday smart home experience
Short-term rental owners and experts already see smart home technology revolutionizing the industry, as it permeates into every aspect of short-term rental operations.
Here at PointCentral, we offer a real-time view of vacation rental access and HVAC activity across all homes that you manage, while also enabling remote key management for guests. Essentially, it enables your short-term rentals to more or less take care of themselves, even when you’re located miles away – a dream come true for property managers and owners!
Here is how smart home technology and IoT optimizes guest and owner experience at each stage of the process:
Guest check in
Property automation enables a seamless, contact free check-in experience with the following steps:
- Guest is automatically notified that the rental they booked is ready for check in
- Guest receives a text message to introduce the property owner or manager (with contact details)
- Guest receives smart lock access code
- Rooms are pre-set to an optimal temperature to ensure the guest is comfortable the moment they step into the rental
- Welcome lights turn on when the guest opens the main door (activated by smart sensors)
Guest stay
For as long as the guest stays at your property, you want them to relax completely. For example, if they are already snuggled under the covers at night, they shouldn’t have to be bothered about the likes of adjusting the thermostat or humidity. Thankfully, such tasks can be easily automated.
Smart home tech enables you and your guest to remotely control everything from the garage and front door to security systems, lighting, HVAC, and almost any other smart device. You could even sync with a smart assistant like Alexa or Google Assistant to control the smart devices around the property with voice commands. And guests can program the smart assistant to “wake you up” at a certain time, play a specific radio channel in the shower or periodically order groceries!
Guest check out
Check out involves running through a checklist of tasks like turning off the thermostat, lights, TV and other electronic items. At the same time, someone needs to ensure that the doors are locked and the security system is activated.
Your property management solutions may also sync with your records management systems (RMS) to update your records the moment the guest checks out. And you are notified by text of the check out in real time.
What’s more, some vendors even automatically send personalized emails to guests who recently checked out so as to collect feedback about their stay.
Maintenance activities
Guests come to short-term rentals to get away from it all, especially during the pandemic. In such a scenario, it isn’t acceptible for your cleaners and maintenance staff to enter the property while the guests are still in.
Equip your rental with smart tech and property automation and you won’t have to worry about such things.
For one, you can install smart sensors around the house to detect if someone is home. And then program the smart home to allow for the maintenance staff to enter only when the guests are away so as to maintain social distance. Here are some of the other common features:
- Special, temporary entry keys are assigned to the home services staff – meaning guests rest assured that their space cannot be accessed unnecessarily by the team
- Property managers get updates the moment staff enter or exit the property
Property inspection
Every now and then, you would want your staff to visit the property, and check for maintenance issues and damages – if the security systems, water systems, HVAC etc are all in working order.
To perform these checks, you could remotely schedule the inspection session at a time when the guests are not at home or the rental is empty. Also, when the property inspection starts and when it completes, your management team will get real-time updates. So you have a complete view of who exits and enters the premises and how many times.
Just like for the maintenance crew, the inspection team too can get a temporary guest access code, which really boosts the short-term rental’s security .
To find out more about how smart home technology can power your vacation rental business, check out our animation: The smartest homes on the block take control with PointCentral.
