Communicating with owners is one of the most crucial, yet dreaded, aspects of short term rental property management. But it doesn’t have to be so bad! Here are three tips for turning those owner conversations from the worst to the best part of your week:
Be Proactive
Because these conversations are generally dry and full of what is not working and, we know many property managers avoid them at all costs. Therefore, any conversations that are had are usually in response to a negative owner outreach. You've all been there: an owner emails to complain about revenue achieved last month, or calls to criticize a booking that recently came in for shoulder season, and you find yourself reacting to their assessment versus coming prepared with your analysis. Get ahead of the problem by setting up regular touch points where you lead the conversation - informed owners will complain less and be happier By being proactive, you will retain more owners, which will lead to acquiring more owners - thus paying dividends in the years to come.
Be Clear About the Cost of Owner Stays
Let us see if you've heard this one: your owner is complaining about revenue declines year over year. And when you check the peak season schedule, you see that your owner of a 6 bedroom beachfront home in Destin decided to stay in the property during July 4th week. While it's completely okay and normal for owners to want to enjoy their properties during popular times, it's up to you to explain that this costs money! In order to get in front of these potentially difficult situations, we suggest you or your owner relations team inform your owners on the very real costs of using their property during peak season.
Be Data-Driven
You know how it goes - pulling owner statements manually is hard, cumbersome and not insightful. So it's easiest to just look at the bare minimum of performance - number of reservations, total revenue, commission and fees. But there is so much more of a story to be told!
While many owners are accustomed to these rote conversations, we suggest you use Beyond Pricing to enrich these touch points. Owners will love to hear about more than just revenue - talk about occupancy, ADR, revenue per available night, lead time, length of stay - and how each one of those metrics look year over year and against market data. You'll quickly find your owners engaging with you in a more meaningful way as you two use the time to analyze these data and what is working and not working.
Owner conversations can turn from dreaded into much anticipated events in your day - by being proactive, clear about the costs of owner stays, and using insightful data from your Beyond Pricing account, we know you and your owners will be more satisfied and enriched.
Not using Beyond Pricing yet for your owner conversations? Contact us now to learn how we can help you turn those around!
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