To stay competitive, owners and property managers of short-term rentals are waking up to the merits of upgrading properties with the latest technologies.
As travel picks up again, turning your rental into a smart home has become non-negotiable. Allow us to elaborate on the why:
- There is a huge demand for rentals this summer, especially as work-from-anywhere is becoming part of the new normal. And smart home tech can help you service this demand by driving efficiency, while enabling guest satisfaction.
- Gen-Z renters have higher expectations of their stays in 2021, than in the recent past. Therefore, cleaning assurances, smart home automation and contact-free access are no longer luxuries but necessities.
Ultimately, vacation rental automation helps create efficient, comfortable, and hygienic connected-living spaces.
Read on for the top reasons why short-term rental owners should invest in this tech now.
Benefits of smart home tech for short-term rentals:
Mobile-first and consumer grade home automation technologies offer a myriad of benefits to property managers and guests alike, ranging from quick communication to asset protection, cost-savings and convenience.
Here’s a list of the top benefits that should get property managers hyped about going shopping for vacation rental automation technologies:
- Saves costs and improves efficiencies: Like it or not, you need to cost cut to improve your bottom line. Smart home tech can help do so in the following ways:
- Everything from lights and TVs to security systems, HVAC and pool control systems can be automatically switched off when not in use or based on pre-programmed usage patterns, which helps save energy costs.
- Keyless check in and check out significantly cuts down on staffing time, effort and costs.
- Using smart tech to automatically manage humidity, avoid flooding and alert you about break-ins or gas leaks will ensure that there is no damage to property, thus avoiding sky-high renovation and redecoration expenses.
- Connected systems also prevent home technologies from being overused. They are run only when required, so you can avoid a lot of premature repairs and maintenance costs.
- Ensures guest security and safety: Smart home technologies professionalize the whole vacation stay. It can enhance property safety and cleanliness, using remote-friendly smart locks and security systems, which is especially critical at a time when travelers are choosing hygiene and security over all else.
- Revolutionizes guest experiences: Today, guests are staying for longer at short-term rentals than ever before. So, rentals need to be focused on meeting their every demand in terms of comfort and convenience, even before they voice it. Harnessing property automation will allow rental owners to preempt the guest’s needs and deliver an exceptional experience.
All these advantages considered, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that about 46% of property managers have already incorporated smart technologies into their rentals.
Tips on how to build your perfect tech stack
A smart home can have lots of useful and interesting features that can be added on and fully integrated with each other, from smart locks to thermostats and safety systems.
While the perfect property automation tech stack is always evolving, some of the features that would be good to have at your short-term rental are:
- Operational tech platforms for cleaning: This property automation technology allows you to literally adopt a hands-free approach with the cleaning of your rental. So, you get to remotely control and track the status of rental cleaning and maintenance. Via a handy app, you can stay on top of door codes, directions, work orders, status reports, housekeeping photos etc.
- Smart locks: No more rushing over to the rental with spare keys, at odd hours, because the guest misplaced their set. Smart locks allow property managers and guests to enter the rental and lock it with just a few clicks of an app. It also makes the guest check-in and check-out processes and guest’s order deliveries seamless, and contact-free. Not to forget the added layer of safety it brings to the table, since these digital keys are hard to duplicate or steal and offer a full event history to the property managers to track entry and exit.
- Connected thermostat: When you think of a smart home rental, the first thing that pops to mind is a connected HVAC system that automatically controls the temperature and humidity of the property. Guests love it because the system will make note of their cooling and heating preferences, across the day, and automatically tweak the in-room temperature to suit. And it helps property owners save on energy bills by switching off the HVAC system the moment guests step out of the rental.
- Lighting control: Similar to the connected thermostat, the lighting control ensures that the in-room lighting is automatically set to the preferences of each individual guest. And you may calibrate the lights at the porch to stay on for when a guest returns to the rental late in the night. What’s more, guests and property managers can toggle the light settings of each space, even if they are in a different room or not on the property.
- Noise monitors: Whenever a guest starts a party at your rental, or an intruder enters your home and the alarm sounds, it’s unlikely that property managers (sitting miles away) would be immediately aware of it. But with smart noise monitors, all noises are detected and recognized and instant notifications are sent to registered users. This makes it easy to avoid noise complaints, damage and intruders.
- Water sensors: To avoid flooding, it would help to have connected sensors that continuously scan the rental home for leaks. If detected early on, it can help you save the owner a lot of stress and expenses related to flooding.
- Life safety monitoring: Incredible harm to life and property can be caused by fires, rising CO levels and floods. This is why you need a well-designed alarm system and fire safety system that syncs with your smart home sensors to automatically alert guests and property managers of threats. When in the market for such tech, look for solutions that also offer panic buttons, centralized monitoring stations, and detailed event display and logging.
To deliver a comfortable, safe and productive environment to nomadic work travelers, it’s important to choose innovations in smart home technologies.
Are you ready to explore ways to implement property automation at your vacation rental and capitalize on its many benefits? If so, contact us to find out more here: https://www.pointcentral.com/form-2/
