Hundreds of vendors have rushed into the STR market with very cool tools to handle one operational aspect of running a vacation rental business. The issue is property managers don’t only have one responsibility to cover – they have dozens!
We’ve identified 10 functionalities which are essentials, must-haves. You cannot run a modern conciergerie without them. We should know, because our sister company is the largest STR property manager in Europe, the world’s top tourist destination. These essentials are:
- Channel Manager
- Pricing system
- Task allocator
- Universal inbox
- Review monitor
- Payment processing
- Invoice producer
- Direct-booking
- Owner space
- Ancillary upsell services
There are specialist vendors for each of these areas. They have varying capabilities, and limitations which are either geographical coverage, or language, or currency or compatibility with other systems. It’s rare to find any two which offer complete compliance in the area you operate, much less 10 separate vendors who meet the unique needs of your market.
Plugging several vendors into the same socket is not only the least efficient structure, it’s also the most expensive. STR consultancy AJL Atelier has compiled a list of 420 tools, a maddening number. Their survival depends on charging property managers, eating into their profits. Deploying but a handful of them can easily tip a business from the black into the red.
Up until now, property managers have pieced together a tech stack for these critical areas from disparate providers. What we see is that deck of cards collapsing in on itself. Sync issues, poor data feeds, bugs, errors, downtime and lost connections are rampant. These miscommunications between incompatible software lead to double-bookings, low/no conversion, cancellations, refunds and low ratings.
Fortune 500 businesses have armies of tech staff to deal with such complexities in big organisations. Property management companies are for the most part small businesses with zero developers on the payroll. They are short-staffed with nobody available to handle these situations, or when they do, the person is ill-equipped with the tech know-how to solve them. They are totally reliant on the vendors they’ve chosen, who often point fingers at each other, leaving mission-critical issues unresolved for months.
By embracing a unified approach, property managers can reduce the risk of technical challenges, improve the guest experience, and ultimately, drive success in the competitive vacation rental market.
At RentalReady, we believe all the essentials to run your property management business should be under one roof. A PMS should offer a true all-in-one suite where all core elements are native. The user experience should be seamless, the functionality advanced, the reliability bulletproof. You should be able to have all of your support requests handled by one company, who supplies a single point-of-contact, fully responsible for addressing not only your technical needs, but also providing insight and advice to improve your business.
All those who agree are invited to examine RentalReady to determine if we have accomplished these goals. Contact us for a no-commitment consultation and free demonstration.