I doubt there’s any rental property investment owner who wouldn’t want to increase their income. We all want that for ourselves. After all, the industry’s revenue has a growth rate of 10 percent annually, making it one of the most reliable sources of income.
The problem is that we often aren’t willing to make the changes needed to make that vision come to pass. We somehow expect the changes to just happen. But unfortunately, that’s not how it works. The fastest way to increase your short-term rental investment income is to make changes for the better and add value to your property.
How to Increase Your Short-Term Rental Income
As the popularity of rental property investments continues to grow, short-term rental management is turning from a side hustle to a full-fledged business.
Experts from Techvestor stated that growth and increased earnings in real estate are usually achieved by acquiring new properties. Expanding the size of your portfolio helps to boost revenue and it’s often easier to optimize your existing income streams.
In this article, we look at ways that can help you increase your short-term rental income.
1. Automate Your Rental Tasks
Time is money and the saying couldn’t ring truer than when dealing with short-term rentals. If there’s a faster way of losing revenue, it’s when you’re spending hours on lengthy administrative tasks and other activities that can be automated.
You may want to cut down on long-term property management costs and get more breathing space for creative marketing. If that’s the case, it will be wise that you start using various automated software. They will help you in taking care of the cleaning, checkouts, reviews, and more.
You can also choose to take the multi-channel distribution route. That can either be through websites like Airbnb or property management systems. The use of software helps to make the most boring tasks run on their own as you concentrate on scaling the business. You also get the time to implement better short-term rental marketing strategies.
Note that investing in a property management system will take a significant amount of your revenue. But if you want to continue growing your real estate passive income, it is the right step to take.
2. Use Photography that Sells
Appealing and accurate photos are the best business cards that you can ever get. That’s if you intend to market your rental property investment online.
The web is well-known for its short attention spans. As such, there’s no better way to capture and hold that attention than to take beautiful and professional photos of your short-term rental investment.
Correspondingly, crafting a compelling listing description to go with the photography is necessary. It will help to market your property and convey the experience of staying there. It shows the guests exactly why they should choose your rental property.
To produce photos that effectively market your property, you’ll need more than a good-quality camera. Photography meant for marketing purposes is a job best left to professional photographers.
That’s because they know how to best use natural and stage lights in taking clear and appealing photos. They also know how to stage the home in a manner that conveys the “feel” that you’d like to get across.
These are the kind of details that can take your short-term rental investing from great to exceptional. Thus, it’s recommended that you budget for a professional photoshoot. But if you prefer doing all the photography by yourself, play around with the lights and clear out the clutter.
Opt for a hotel-like staging and remember to take separate pictures and use different décor for the winter and summer seasons.
3. Encourage Longer Stays
You may be investing in vacation rental property but the location isn’t a tourist destination in summer. In such a case, you have more reasons to push for longer-term stays. This will help you to get a higher occupancy rate with a guest turnover. There will also be a more predictable short-term rental income.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, various organizations adopted remote and hybrid working arrangements. This has given workers a lot of flexibility and they love it. Due to remote work, guests are now staying longer at vacation homes.
You can attract these kinds of clients by giving them weekly or monthly stay discounts. When you do, you must ensure that you provide the feature for longer-term stays. That should include but not be limited to:
- Kitchen amenities
- Cleaning supplies
- More linen and towels
4. Provide Early-Bird Discounts
Evaluate your pricing strategy. You can then consider offering discounts several months before your high season. Let your clients know about it by announcing it in your listing description.
Travelers nowadays book much earlier. A 2021 study on travel planning, for instance, shows that 59 percent of respondents made plans for 2022 by booking two to five months earlier. This is compared to less than two months in advance for the years 2020 and 2021.
Providing discounts helps to attract those early birds. It gets your calendar filled long before the summer sets in. That’s especially if you’re investing in vacation rental property. You’ll have enough time to prepare for the influx once the summer sets in. you can take time to purchase additional inventory and hire extra help if necessary.
Remember to set a limit on the time that clients can avail of the discount. In exchange for a cheaper rate, you’ll need to set strict policies on cancellations. This way, you don’t end up short-changing yourself.
5. Be Flexible
You’re likely to see a lull in bookings when peak seasons come to an end. As such, it’s more important that you be flexible during such times.
To get enough bookings and keep your revenue as high as it was in the peak season, you’ll need to lower your rates. This will enable your rental properties to stand out. As a result, off-season travelers will be able to choose your property since it’s the cheapest option.
Along with regular engagements and positive reviews, your rental property investment will attract more guests. It will also stay booked up throughout the season.
Conclusion
Buying a rental property and operating it is one of the most profitable ways of making money. By choosing the right model and marketing strategies, you’ll turn your next real-estate passive income into a recession-proof and money-making machine.
If you’re ready to take the leap and see how profitable rental property investment is, make use of these strategies. You can be sure that you’ll be on your way to a financially sustainable future.