We live in a connected world. Vacationers usually don’t want to give up modern conveniences when they travel, even if they could. But perhaps more importantly, today’s technology can help YOU, the property owner and manager, to ensure the security, safety and profitability of your short-term rental business.
As travelers move online to book their entire vacations, property managers must become more tech-savvy. What are you waiting for? We’re here to help! We’ve curated this list of 8 technology options that can help you make your guests’ stay a happy one and your day a smarter one.
1. Noise Monitoring
Many areas have noise ordinances. But even if such a law doesn’t exist in your area, some guests can be a bit thoughtless regarding how their noise affects neighbors. The last thing you need is either police or HOA trouble. NoiseAware provides Indoor Noise Monitoring and Outdoor Monitoring with sensors. NoiseAware works like a smoke detector, but for noise. The simple plug and play sensors track the decibel levels at your property and send an alert via text or email if the noise levels exceed your chosen threshold level. It does not record audio, to protect guests’ privacy.
2. HVAC Control
Some guests want the indoor environment to be toooooo cold or tooooo hot – costing the property owner lots of money and wasted energy. Nest Thermostats allows owners to control a home’s temperature settings remotely. Additionally, Nest shows you how much energy you use in a daily and monthly report, so you can analyze when you use more energy and understand when and how to use less.
3. Smoke + CO Alarms
Avoid potential tragedy and install wireless smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Smart detectors like Nest Protect will send an alert to your phone if there’s a smoke or carbon monoxide alert, allowing you to quickly check up on your tenants and make sure everything’s OK. Nest Protect also checks its own batteries.
4. Digital Payment Collection
Getting checks in the mail for security deposits or meeting up with a guest to collect the final payment upon check-in is too “old school” in today’s connected society. Utilize a general payment app like Venmo. These are very easy to set up, connects quickly to your bank accounts and eliminates the need to mail or drop a check making paying rent easier for everyone.
5. Electronic locks
Stop worrying about a guest losing the house key, or, worse, copying it and causing a security concern. A digital smart locking system lets you create virtual keys for your guests, providing instant remote access to your home. Systems like RemoteLOCK are completely controlled and managed in the cloud and even integrate with Airbnb and HomeAway. You can create, delete, generate and manage guest codes from a phone or computer and deliver to guests for the time of the rental. With a remote locking system, you can offer 24-hour check-in and you won’t have to wait around for late visitors to arrive.
6. Digital House Manual
Ditch the three-ring binder that offers up old menus and worn out brochures of local attractions. A digital house manual makes a lot more sense. Flipsnack is one option. Digital Guides are easy to make and you can send them to your guests electronically, avoiding printing costs associated with a paper guidebook. And you can update information without any fuss. Airbnb has a collection of digital guidebooks for 23 of its top destinations. We think these are great examples of what you can offer your guests: https://www.airbnb.com/things-to-do
7. Video Doorbell
Video doorbells such as Ring allow you to keep an eye on a property without intruding too much on the privacy of your guests. You absolutely need to disclose the existence of these doorbells to guests prior to booking, but since they’re outside and can be set to only notify when someone rings the bell, guests can consider them less intrusive than other camera setups.
8. Bookfull
Let our FREE rental property management software do all the booking and management work for you. Bookfull brings all the pieces of vacation rental property management together so you can actually get things done without breaking the bank. We make it easy to manage your properties and reservations with auto-response emails, channel management, reservation management and the ability to set seasonal pricing. Also, Bookfull gives you full access to manage several different smart home technologies. Check us out!
Do you have any other ideas? What technologies do YOU use to help you run your rental business?
