Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Spreadsheets and WhatsApp Don't Scale (Find Out Why)

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Spreadsheets and WhatsApp Don't Scale (Find Out Why) · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Welcome to Turnover Tactics, the brand new six part series from
• 0:04
  Host Planet and Turno. If the time between guest days
• 0:07
  feels like a chaotic scramble, you are not alone.
• 0:11
  Turnover is often the biggest bottleneck in any short term
• 0:15
  rental business. It's where reviews are won or
• 0:18
  lost, and where profit either flows or leaks away.
• 0:22
  Over the next 6 episodes, we're giving you the complete
• 0:24
  professional blueprint for mastering this critical phase of
• 0:28
  operations, show you how to automate your scheduling,
• 0:32
  guarantee quality control, and build a reliable team so you can
• 0:36
  scale your business without the stress.
• 0:39
  In this episode, Turnos Director of Partnerships Christina
• 0:42
  Vassell will discuss how to build the ultimate STR tech
• 0:46
  stack. Turnover Tactics is brought to
• 0:48
  you in collaboration with Turno, the all in one cleaning and
• 0:52
  turnover management platform built specifically for short
• 0:55
  term rental hosts. If you've ever scrambled to find
• 0:59
  a reliable cleaner or wasted hours managing schedules, Turno
• 1:03
  changes everything. With their global cleaner
• 1:06
  marketplace, automated scheduling, and real time
• 1:09
  updates, you'll never stress about turnovers again.
• 1:13
  Whether you manage one property or 100, Turno helps you stay
• 1:17
  test ready effortlessly. Simply scan the QR code if
• 1:21
  you're watching on YouTube, or click the link in the show notes
• 1:24
  to get started. It's time you let Turno take
• 1:27
  over. Christina, thank you for joining
• 1:34
  us on Turnover Tactics. When we talk about a tech stack
• 1:39
  for STR professionals, what do we actually mean?
• 1:43
  Yeah. I would say when we're talking
• 1:45
  about your tech stack, we are talking about a bunch of
• 1:50
  different connected systems that are running everything from your
• 1:55
  reservations to your operations. So think like you're cleaning
• 1:59
  your housekeeping, your maintenance fees to the
• 2:02
  financials and owner payouts and and all of that.
• 2:05
  It is not just a bunch of apps or features that you have
• 2:09
  patching up a different pain points.
• 2:13
  It really is just different tools that are coming together
• 2:16
  and effectively communicating with each other.
• 2:19
  And when we break this down a little bit further, the number
• 2:24
  one thing is going to be the source of truth.
• 2:26
  So like your PMS and your channel manager, if you're
• 2:29
  managing like one to two properties, typically all you
• 2:32
  really need is your source of truth is like the main
• 2:35
  distribution platform. So in most cases, it's like
• 2:38
  Airbnb and then your operations piece.
• 2:41
  But once you get to a certain property count, it is First
• 2:44
  things first, your PMS or your channel manager.
• 2:47
  Most cases, especially in today's age, your PMS is your
• 2:51
  channel manager. Then you have your operations
• 2:54
  tool. So like a turn out running
• 2:56
  everything from inspections, cleaning, maintenance, the
• 3:01
  repair components, all of that communicating effectively with
• 3:05
  your PMS to then your guest experience tools.
• 3:08
  So your guest messaging, in a lot of cases your PMS will have
• 3:12
  the messaging piece already built in, but in some cases it's
• 3:17
  not, that's not true. So messaging super important,
• 3:20
  especially just because your ratings on the channels rely on
• 3:25
  that just with how fast you're responding to your guests, to
• 3:28
  your digital guidebooks. So any upselling features that
• 3:31
  you're doing or recommending things to your guest that lives
• 3:36
  there. Your property access.
• 3:38
  So how they access your property from gate codes to the actual
• 3:42
  unit itself with door codes might even see like smart
• 3:46
  thermostats. That is part of it also.
• 3:49
  And then other functionalities like your dynamic pricing tools.
• 3:54
  So shout out to a couple of couple of them just being like
• 3:57
  wheelhouse price labs beyond pricing like having that also
• 4:01
  really important, especially when you're thinking about
• 4:03
  competition and being competitive in certain markets
• 4:08
  to payment processing, accounting, reporting, quality
• 4:13
  control tools that also help out.
• 4:15
  But all of these different pieces are part of your tech
• 4:18
  stack that is unique to every single host and has its own
• 4:22
  strategy within itself. But these are all the tools that
• 4:25
  are are part of that and and helping day-to-day operations.
• 4:29
  I think you've just explained it really well there and it just
• 4:31
  goes to show there is so much tech out there and new tech is
• 4:36
  being created all the time for the STR space.
• 4:40
  What problem does a proper tech stack actually solve for hosts
• 4:46
  do you think? It solves so many headaches and
• 4:53
  the stress that can come about managing everything on your own.
• 4:58
  So just a proper tech stock is really going to help reduce the
• 5:01
  manual coordination that it takes to do everything as well
• 5:06
  as possible operational risks. Something that I actually used
• 5:12
  to be APMS consultant before my time at Turno.
• 5:15
  So I worked with so many hosts that the number one thing they
• 5:18
  would come to me was I'm here today having this conversation
• 5:22
  because I am experiencing so many double reservations and I
• 5:27
  need to eliminate that. And a proper tech stack that is
• 5:31
  communicating to each other has the right integrations and it's
• 5:34
  not there's no delay or lag times or anything like that is
• 5:38
  helping reduce the amount of double booking that hosts are
• 5:42
  seeing, the amount of missed cleans that can be occurring.
• 5:46
  It's giving them the opportunity to have faster response times to
• 5:50
  their guests. It's a lot less putting out
• 5:54
  fires. And it's just creating proper
• 5:58
  systems in place so you can start focusing on other areas of
• 6:02
  your business, like a marketing strategy or reaching out to new
• 6:05
  owners. Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:08
  Putting those proper systems in place and and that often
• 6:12
  involves a lot of automation. I mean, a lot of these tech
• 6:15
  tools, they're trying to save you time and money basically.
• 6:20
  But when it comes to automation, what do you think the biggest
• 6:23
  misconception is that hosts have about automation?
• 6:28
  Yeah, I would hear this all the time.
• 6:30
  It, it was, I thought if I bought this tool, I was just
• 6:34
  going to set it and forget it. I wasn't going to have to like
• 6:38
  spend time in it still. And that's not true.
• 6:40
  And especially in this industry, that's one of the beautiful
• 6:43
  things about our industry is there's that human touch, right?
• 6:47
  And automation isn't supposed to completely replace that.
• 6:51
  Automation is supposed to help make things quieter and make
• 6:55
  your day-to-day easier, but it is still supposed to allow.
• 7:02
  It's supposed to give you time back at the end of the day.
• 7:06
  I was working with a host who before they started using, turn
• 7:09
  out they were spending anywhere from like 11:50 hours on the
• 7:13
  manual coordination of the operations piece.
• 7:16
  Like they had the PMS tool, but the PMS tool didn't have the
• 7:20
  proper operations piece. So they were still spending so
• 7:23
  much time. And when they implemented an
• 7:26
  automation's tool, like turn out, it actually reduced the
• 7:29
  amount of time they were spending weekly from one to two
• 7:32
  hours. But they still had to go in and
• 7:34
  just make sure things were good, make sure their team had
• 7:37
  everything that they needed, answered any questions.
• 7:40
  It was just giving them those 10 hours back so they could like go
• 7:43
  focus on other parts of their business.
• 7:45
  Let's talk about scaling and maybe the breaking point now.
• 7:50
  I mean, at what point does managing properties manually
• 7:54
  start to breakdown? I used to, this is a good
• 8:00
  question, just because I used to consult with properties under
• 8:04
  that 50 unit threshold on the PMS side and the one to two
• 8:09
  units. They were safe, right?
• 8:10
  They were still obviously doing things manually and all they
• 8:14
  really needed to focus on was reservation coming in, turning
• 8:17
  at the property. But where you started to see
• 8:19
  things really start to break down was at the three to five
• 8:24
  property count. And the reason being is because
• 8:27
  they had multiple properties and now they were no longer just on
• 8:32
  Airbnb, they were on Airbnb, they were on VRBO, they were on
• 8:36
  booking. And now they were implementing a
• 8:37
  direct booking strategy. So they had a multi distribution
• 8:44
  operation with all of those properties incorporated into it.
• 8:48
  So that's where it was like, OK, now I'm juggling multiple
• 8:51
  calendars, now I'm juggling multiple cleaners for these
• 8:54
  properties. And maybe there's now same day
• 8:56
  turnovers. That's when everything just
• 9:00
  started to become a little bit more chaotic and when they were
• 9:03
  having to find something that was allowing them to scale and
• 9:07
  continue accepting new properties.
• 9:10
  I can completely believe this as a host myself.
• 9:15
  What do you think of the first warning signs that a host has
• 9:19
  outgrown? Probably using spreadsheets and
• 9:22
  WhatsApp groups. The first warning sign I would
• 9:29
  say is the back and forth communication with your team or
• 9:32
  not knowing like I sworn I sent this message or or I could have
• 9:37
  sworn I saw that we confirmed that this property was turned,
• 9:42
  but now I can't find that message.
• 9:43
  So it's the back and forth of confirming or receiving
• 9:47
  notifications about the status of a property.
• 9:50
  That is a big warning sign that it doesn't need to be that
• 9:53
  chaotic, right? There should just be 1 area
• 9:55
  where you can go and confirm those details because that also
• 10:00
  makes you a little bit more of a micromanager with your team.
• 10:04
  I was at a conference last year in Arizona, probably one of my
• 10:08
  favorite conferences here in the States.
• 10:10
  And I was speaking with this host who I was going back and
• 10:15
  forth with her cleaner actually on payments.
• 10:18
  The cleaner who was her number one cleaner was like, hey, I
• 10:22
  haven't been paid in the last month.
• 10:25
  Could I be paid? And the host was right in front
• 10:28
  of me. She's like, I kind of sworn I
• 10:29
  paid her. Like she was going through text
• 10:31
  messages, She was going through emails, she was going through
• 10:34
  just everything trying to find this payment.
• 10:36
  And what ended up happening was the host had actually paid
• 10:42
  another cleaner thinking it was this cleaner that she owed money
• 10:45
  to. So she had paid this one cleaner
• 10:47
  in advance, and she was, in fact, behind a month on this one
• 10:51
  cleaner. And that was a big red flag
• 10:54
  during that conversation was, OK, you've missed a clean on a
• 10:58
  really good cleaner. So now there's a possibility you
• 11:01
  lose this cleaner, but the big thing is now you have to do a
• 11:05
  bulksome payout. And did your budget allow for
• 11:08
  that? Were you expecting that?
• 11:10
  Did you use those funds already to maybe purchase something for
• 11:13
  the property? Like do you even have those
• 11:15
  funds available? And this all could have been
• 11:17
  eliminated if we had, if she had implemented something already to
• 11:23
  prevent that. So she was definitely ready for
• 11:26
  that next phase of growth. Definitely, yeah.
• 11:28
  With automations and systems, it would have prevented it.
• 11:31
  And I was thinking as well there, you know, I think a sign
• 11:34
  that you're growing is that, you know, if you're using WhatsApp
• 11:36
  and spreadsheets and this kind of thing, if you need to contact
• 11:39
  your cleaner about a turnover and you forget to do it and then
• 11:43
  a guest arrives and the clean hasn't been done, that's
• 11:46
  probably a surefire thing as well.
• 11:49
  To notice that you you need a bit of help.
• 11:51
  You need a bit of tech and automation moving into like the
• 11:54
  PMS side of things. And and we've touched on this a
• 11:57
  bit, Christina, but it's worth I think reiterating, you know, why
• 12:01
  should the PMS be the foundation for any serious operator out
• 12:06
  there? I'd say your PMS is your source
• 12:10
  of truth. It is seriously the backbone of
• 12:14
  your operations. Like when you log in for the
• 12:16
  day, you're logging into your PMS and you're seeing typically
• 12:22
  like a main dashboard that's saying here are all the
• 12:24
  reservations I have for the day, here are the reservations for
• 12:27
  the week, the turnovers, maybe maintenance or problems that I
• 12:31
  need to get addressed. It is that one source of truth
• 12:35
  that is setting you up for the day.
• 12:38
  And then everything from that is just is complimenting it.
• 12:42
  So especially if you're wanting to kind of take hosting to the
• 12:45
  next level, having that one area just to see everything is, is
• 12:50
  really going to set you up for success.
• 12:53
  So what actually goes wrong in real life when calendars,
• 12:57
  cleanings and systems don't sink?
• 13:00
  I'm thinking here that, you know, those hosts and property
• 13:02
  managers out there have got a few properties.
• 13:04
  They know that they need tech, but maybe haven't taken that
• 13:07
  leap yet. What's happening?
• 13:09
  What are they experiencing? Yeah, I, I think what they're
• 13:12
  probably experiencing is they are the tech that's keeping it
• 13:18
  all together, which isn't something you want to do long
• 13:22
  term. It's probably extremely
• 13:23
  stressful and chaotic. You know, they are the workflow
• 13:27
  at the end of the day. So I think for starters, even
• 13:31
  before you go into calendars to the cleanings and the rest of
• 13:34
  the systems, I'm thinking about like, OK, where are the
• 13:40
  reservations are coming from? Like Airbnb, BRBO booking.
• 13:43
  If that is not effectively communicating with your
• 13:46
  calendar, there's a possibility you're then missing
• 13:49
  reservations. There's a possibility of a
• 13:53
  double reservation that is occurring.
• 13:55
  And if a guest is showing up to your property when another guest
• 13:58
  is there, you're then probably having to pay out of pocket to
• 14:01
  put them in a hotel or find another property to put them in,
• 14:05
  which it's very likely you're going to receive a negative
• 14:08
  review from, which can kind of hurt your business.
• 14:11
  And it's hard to bounce back from that.
• 14:14
  So that's kind of like the first issue that I think about.
• 14:16
  And then from there, if it is effectively communicating that,
• 14:21
  but then your calendar isn't communicating to your turnover
• 14:24
  system like Turno, then there's a possibility of, OK, well then
• 14:28
  your cleaners aren't getting the updates that they need.
• 14:30
  Like maybe they needed to arrive a little bit earlier to a
• 14:33
  property just because they did an early check in late check out
• 14:37
  or they're arriving now late to the property, which you don't
• 14:40
  want your cleaners bumping into your guests.
• 14:42
  They typically don't like that. And then, you know, bookings are
• 14:47
  not triggering the correct operational updates that are
• 14:50
  needed. Payments aren't clearing on
• 14:53
  time. You're chasing information from
• 14:56
  guests as well. All of these things need to be
• 14:59
  communicating effectively just so you're not going back and
• 15:03
  forth and and seeing what is missing.
• 15:06
  A. 100%, yeah. I mean, the last thing you want
• 15:09
  is that call from a guest saying, hey, your place hasn't
• 15:11
  been cleaned when there is help out there, there's automations
• 15:15
  out there that can make sure that that's happened.
• 15:19
  So what does a good integration unlock that most hosts
• 15:24
  underestimate, do you think? I would say the the easiest
• 15:31
  thing is it it helps with automatic job creation if a
• 15:37
  booking does change. I would say a lot less manual
• 15:41
  handoffs. Once those reservations are
• 15:46
  coming in and everything's communicating effectively to
• 15:49
  another, it's automatically creating those turnovers for you
• 15:53
  with all of the details that the cleaner is going to need.
• 15:57
  So it's a lot less back and forth and all you're really
• 15:59
  having to do is answer any questions that they might have
• 16:03
  or confirming any last minute details that they're needing.
• 16:07
  It's also supporting with consistent data, so like what
• 16:10
  are the dates of the stay? How many guests are going to be
• 16:14
  arriving? Any notes that they provided you
• 16:16
  with? It's just helping you set the
• 16:19
  right expectations and a lot less micromanaging.
• 16:23
  And everyone wants to feel like they're doing a good job and,
• 16:25
  and they're owning what they're doing.
• 16:27
  And the last thing they want to do is is feel like they're being
• 16:29
  micromanaged. And so those integrations and
• 16:33
  like that proper tech stack is really solving for that.
• 16:37
  Yeah, and I would really encourage people out there.
• 16:40
  I mean, I've been there myself using, you know, WhatsApp
• 16:44
  manually replying to guests all the time.
• 16:47
  You would be amazed at how much automation can save your time
• 16:51
  and just make your life just a bit calmer and a bit easier.
• 16:56
  It's just going to make life easier for you as a property
• 16:58
  manager. All right then, Christina.
• 17:00
  So I mean, as we've kind of discussed, there is so much tech
• 17:05
  out there, but what's the difference between just adding
• 17:08
  more tools every week, every month and actually designing a
• 17:12
  proper system that suits you as a host?
• 17:16
  I'd say the main difference is if you're, if you're just adding
• 17:21
  a bunch of tools just because you have an immediate pain point
• 17:25
  that needs to be solved, you could just be creating a lot
• 17:29
  more noise and a lot more tabs that you don't have to go in and
• 17:33
  manage versus kind of taking a step back and, and designing
• 17:37
  something that that works for your business.
• 17:40
  And this question makes me think about a property manager that I
• 17:45
  consulted with in Gulf Shores, AL.
• 17:48
  And when they originally came to me, they had 11 different tools.
• 17:54
  Granted, they had less than 50 properties.
• 17:56
  They had 11 different tools that they were using.
• 17:59
  And in some cases, these tools actually had an overlap.
• 18:03
  And so in the initial conversation, I'm like, OK, tell
• 18:05
  me your entire tech stack today. Tell me what this was solving
• 18:08
  for, how much time you spend in it.
• 18:11
  And let's see, like, what we can eliminate.
• 18:15
  And what we learned was they were just looking for a quick
• 18:19
  patch of the specific pain point they were going through in that
• 18:22
  season. And in some cases, they weren't
• 18:23
  even using it. They were actually just
• 18:25
  continuously paying for a subscription that they no longer
• 18:27
  needed. And we were able to then kind of
• 18:31
  sit down and say, OK, let's look at all of your your top five
• 18:34
  pain points. What can we solve with the PMS?
• 18:38
  And then what can we solve with the other tools that you are
• 18:41
  needing that will complement it? Yeah, 100%.
• 18:44
  I think you've probably answered this question, but I mean, how
• 18:46
  can a host tell if a tool deserved to be in their text?
• 18:50
  Like, I mean, doing that review and realizing that you're not
• 18:53
  using something but still paying a monthly fee for it, that's a
• 18:55
  pretty good place to start. Yeah, I would there's, there's a
• 19:01
  couple questions you need to ask yourself, right.
• 19:04
  Is this tool obviously like you have your your PMS system at
• 19:08
  this point, but the additional tools that you're bringing on
• 19:12
  then you need to think about, OK, is this tool helping me
• 19:16
  remove a repeated manual stuff that I'm doing, especially one
• 19:20
  that is like super time consuming.
• 19:22
  Is this, is this doing it yes or no?
• 19:24
  Then from there it's OK. Does it does it integrate with
• 19:27
  my PMS and communicate the way that I need it to do?
• 19:31
  If it doesn't let me go find another tool.
• 19:34
  Or if it has a little bit of a lag time, maybe there's a
• 19:38
  different tool. But that is a big piece because
• 19:42
  if they are not integrated correctly to to each other, then
• 19:45
  you're having to manually do that outside, which is probably
• 19:49
  gonna cause a lot more headaches.
• 19:51
  And then another thing would probably be, would it still work
• 19:56
  as I continue growing and scaling my business?
• 20:00
  You don't want to just implement a tool that helps you at 5
• 20:04
  properties. You want to think if you if
• 20:06
  you're really wanting to continue growing is when I get
• 20:09
  to 10 properties, is this tool still going to help me
• 20:12
  effectively? Because I want to repeat those
• 20:15
  processes so I can continue just growing My Portfolio a lot
• 20:20
  easier than having to start over at 10.
• 20:23
  Looking ahead then, what should serious operators be building
• 20:26
  towards now in order to stay competitive?
• 20:30
  I'm not going to be the one who like super hypes up AI, like I'm
• 20:34
  seeing it all over social, but I do think AI is important just
• 20:38
  because like we are seeing more adoption amongst short term
• 20:41
  rental managers and and operators as a whole.
• 20:44
  Something I'm looking at from that perspective is how is that
• 20:49
  going to help with like the guest communications component
• 20:51
  and the operational piece? So I'm, I'm really excited to
• 20:55
  see AI read messages and then immediately like it can see a
• 21:01
  message from a guest that says like, hey, the bathroom was
• 21:03
  still a little bit dirty. Well, that AI creates a task
• 21:06
  that notifies the cleaner and they can like go in and offer to
• 21:09
  clean it up. Or maybe it's afterwards, but
• 21:12
  it's creating those automatic tasks already so that we don't
• 21:17
  have to then go back in and and do that manually on our own.
• 21:21
  I think that would be great, yeah.
• 21:22
  I mean, if the cleaning team is alerted straight away when any
• 21:26
  guest mentions anything related to cleaning, I think that would
• 21:30
  be that would be really, really useful.
• 21:32
  So I'm looking forward to seeing that soon.
• 21:35
  Finally then Christina, what did the best operators consistently
• 21:40
  get right across different markets?
• 21:43
  And I'm sure you've seen some great examples of people
• 21:46
  utilizing tech with all the different property managers that
• 21:50
  you've you've worked with over the years.
• 21:51
  I'd say the best operators, what they consistently get correct
• 21:55
  every single time is they have the right tech stack in place,
• 21:59
  right? They've thought about their
• 22:01
  overall operations and they're not just cash and holes on a
• 22:06
  sinking ship. Now they're going, OK, I have
• 22:09
  everything that I need to now let me think of like my backup
• 22:11
  plan. So they have a backup plan B&C
• 22:15
  especially like around turnovers.
• 22:18
  So they don't just have like that one cleaner that they rely
• 22:21
  on that does an amazing job. They now have backup cleaner B&C
• 22:26
  who can come in and, and save the day, especially like in peak
• 22:29
  season when things are a little bit chaotic or if someone calls
• 22:32
  in sick. They have that in place.
• 22:35
  And they're also looking at all of the data that's available to
• 22:39
  them, right? They're, they're looking at like
• 22:41
  their readiness rate, they're looking at reoccurring issues on
• 22:45
  a property and, and resolving them quickly rather than
• 22:48
  allowing them to continue. They're looking at just
• 22:52
  everything that's available to them just to take their business
• 22:55
  to the next level. Fantastic.
• 22:57
  Yeah, that consistency and having the backup plan and even
• 23:01
  a backup plan for the backup plan sounds like a great tip to
• 23:04
  me. Christina, it's been a real
• 23:06
  pleasure. Thank you for joining us on
• 23:08
  Turnover Tactics. Thank you.
• 23:10
  That's great. All right, that's a wrap for
• 23:12
  this episode of Turnover Tactics.
• 23:14
  Huge thanks to Christina Vassell there for her insight on the STR
• 23:18
  tech stack. Don't forget, if you're ready to
• 23:20
  stop the chaos and start treating your operations like a
• 23:24
  profit centre, get in touch with Turno, the all in With their
• 23:33
  global cleaner marketplace, automated scheduling, and real
• 23:36
  time updates, you'll never stress about turnover again.
• 23:40
  Whether you manage one property or 100, Turno helps you stay
• 23:44
  guest ready effortlessly. Visit turno.com for further
• 23:47
  details. Scan the QR code if you're
• 23:50
  watching on YouTube, or click the link in the show notes to
• 23:53
  get started. It's time to let Turno take over
• 23:57
  and remember. For more vacation rental
• 23:58
  education, head to Houseplanner dot Club, where you can sign up
• 24:02
  for our newsletter, listen to our podcast, and download a
• 24:05
  suite of ebooks for hosts and property managers.
• 24:08
  Thanks for tuning in to Turno over Tactics.
• 24:10
  Until next time I'll be hosting.