As the holiday season rapidly approaches, it often marks one of the busiest periods for many vacation rental managers (VRMs). The primary goal is to ensure guests enjoy a stress-free Christmas vacation, while VRMs and their maintenance teams aim to avoid unnecessary disturbances or call-outs.
Vacation rental maintenance can be streamlined by integrating smart property solutions. Automation helps to ease the workload during the festive season and proptech can prevent unnecessary call outs — a huge advantage to companies that may be operating with skeleton staff during the holiday period.
Given that 86% of millennial renters favor properties equipped with smart home technology, implementing these solutions in vacation rentals will undoubtedly appeal to guests.
Leveraging property technology in short-term rentals enables smarter work, not harder. It simplifies the check-in process, accelerates turnover days, enhances guest comfort, and anticipates maintenance needs, all contributing to a successful and efficiently managed holiday season.
Keyless access
Managing rental property check-ins is a time- intensive task for VRMs. With the advancement of access technology, most guests would now be surprised to be handed a physical key.
First impressions are crucial. The prevalence of lost or stolen keys can lead guests to question their safety and the rental property’s commitment to their security. Eliminating keys reduces costs and saves time for VRMs.
Keyless smart locks can be easily installed on properties and enable VRMs to provide guests with a contactless check-in experience by providing a unique, safe access code. Guests can now start their vacation faster while VRMs are no longer required to physically be present at the property to manage a key exchange, a perfect solution for every holiday season.
Turnover time technology
Turn days are made simpler with smart home technology. Upon a guests’ departure of a short term rental property, the property management system (PMS) can immediately notify housekeepers to prepare the property for the next guests, using their unique code for access. The time spent by housekeeping in the property can be monitored and the inspector will be automatically notified when cleaning is complete. Once the property is ready for the next booking, the status will be updated on the PMS and the next guests are informed automatically that they are able to check in.
The automation of this process significantly reduces the workload on the VRM, offers guests a faster and seamless service, and allows staff to focus on tasks that directly enhance the guest experience.
This is particularly beneficial during the Christmas season when there are often less staff available and turnarounds are frequently needed.
Guest-friendly automated HVAC
Properties that have a smart HVAC system installed can significantly improve guest satisfaction. The temperature of the rental can be set to a comfortable level for their arrival and, the moment they check out, the thermostat will move onto an energy reduction mode, conserving energy and reducing costs.
The integration of this advanced heating and cooling system ensures that empty properties are never heated or cooled unnecessarily – eliminating the need for staff to manually adjust the system onsite.
Any issues the guests may have with the smart thermostat during the festive season can be conveniently resolved remotely via the VRM’s phone and issues can be tended to without physically going to the property.
Predictive maintenance
Integration of smart HVAC and water solutions into short term rentals not only saves VRMs money by identifying inefficiencies but also enables predictive maintenance, which is particularly beneficial in the holiday season.
Intelligent HVAC monitoring is able to create a blueprint of what is normal within a property. It then automatically alerts VRMs if it has detected an abnormality. Maintenance teams can then schedule a service if required at a time that is convenient, rather than emergency maintenance after the HVAC system has failed.
Smart water solutions use water leak detectors with built-in temperature sensors to notify VRMs if the pipes within the property are leaking or freezing. This allows managers to alter the temperature to prevent frozen pipes or shut off the water valve to prevent any damage remotely.
This proactive maintenance approach helps avoid breakdowns, schedule maintenance and prioritize work based on the severity of the issue, preventing unnecessary call outs over the Christmas period.
Want to find out how smart property management solutions can improve employee satisfaction? Read our latest blog on why smart solutions are key to boosting employee satisfaction in your short term rental business.
