5 ways for short-term rental managers to deal with the coronavirus crisis

As we all know, the coronavirus crisis is having a huge impact on the short-term rentals industry. With the lockdown in place, travel has reduced significantly, and bookings have taken a big hit. Here are five ways in which you can weather the storm and come out the other side ready to continue growing your business.

1. Get familiar with cancellation policies

A lot of guests will be cancelling their future bookings at the moment - so you’ll want to be familiar with your OTA’s revised cancellation policies. Airbnb, for example, has introduced new more flexible extenuating circumstances for cancellations of bookings made before march 14th, that allow both hosts and guests to cancel without the usual penalties. This means that guests won’t be charged for cancellations, and you’ll be able to cancel bookings without your Superhost status progress being affected.

2. Accommodate health and essential workers

With healthcare workers coming out of retirement, many NHS and essential workers are having to self-isolate from their families, and are turning to short-term rentals. Ensure your properties have everything a worker would need for a longer stay - think food provisions, ironing and washing facilities, and a TV with a Chromecast or Amazon Fire Stick. This isn’t a regular holiday though, and many NHS workers won’t have the budget for an expensive stay. Some larger managers have offered up their properties for free. If you can’t afford this then at least offer a discount to thank them for their service.

3. Use government schemes

The government has now introduced the furlough scheme to protect jobs. You can place your employees on the scheme, where the government will fund up to 80% of their wages, up to £2500 a month. Your employees are not allowed to carry out any work for you whilst on the scheme - effectively they will be on paid leave. 

Many Airbnb hosts use the platform to help pay their mortgage, and other schemes such as mortgage holidays can help with this in the meantime. 

4. Use the time to improve your property

With bookings down, now is a better time than any to improve your property and really add value. If you were planning on doing any big upgrades, such as installing a new kitchen, then you’ll still have to wait until social distancing is over to be able to get workers in - but if you need to add a lick of paint or there are any maintenance tasks such as simple plumbing or simple repairs that need doing, now is a good time to try and do them yourself. 

5. Try out new things and prepare to bounce back

The short-term rentals industry is resilient and predicted to bounce back quickly after the crisis is over. With the need to cut costs and with all but essential travel being restricted by the government, now is a good time to try out new things and put yourself in a better position for the future. Use this time to look at your operations and see what is costing you. Try out a new property management software if you’re not happy with the one you’ve got. If you usually meet guests in person, try out a service like KeyNest to keep to social distancing rules. Or invest time in new marketing strategies, like creating a direct bookings website, and you’ll be able to recover quickly once we’re back to normal.

KeyNest is a key exchange service with 4000 locations worldwide, letting you let guests in remotely and give access to cleaners and maintenance staff.