The top 5 tradespeople Airbnb properties need

For every owner of an Airbnb holiday rental that is being managed it is important to understand what tradespeople are available or that you have as your preference to ensure your home is kept in good condition.

Maintaining an Airbnb holiday home

Our Airbnb property management company can help a home owner maintain their property. As part of our service we give you a range of options when it comes to getting access to the right tradespeople that are often needed.

One of the first decisions you have to make is whether you will manage this aspect yourself or let our Airbnb property management company do it all for you. If you live close to the property being used as an Airbnb you will need tradespeople to not only clean it after every booking but also provide maintenance services.

If you live close to the Airbnb property you might consider doing it yourself but of course there is the time and amount of work needed that may not be justified. Keep in mind most expenses relating to a rental property get considered when doing your tax return so there might be commercial benefits to using tradespeople.

Contracts for tradespeople for Airbnb properties

One of the important things to consider if you engage any tradespeople to do any type of work on your Airbnb holiday rental property is what type of agreement or contract is in place. For some services maybe you get pricing & booking details via their website so the details & information will be made available through the booking process.

In other situations it might be a phone call conversation or eMail that organises & confirms a service. What is critical to keep in mind is how clear that information is and whether anything has been written professionally that can be used as a contract or agreement that clearly outlines the terms of the engagement. This doesn’t have to be a legal contract drawn up in triplicate-it just needs to set out expectations and fees very clearly.

Let us give you an example;

A gardener might be engaged to trim all the trees as well as cut the grass around the Airbnb property which sounds like a good service to have completed and is very common.

What you have to make sure of though is that any debris or rubbish removal is included, so instead of the gardener just leaving everything in the front or back yard, they take all the rubbish away once the job is completed.

It is an easy assumption to make, but some don’t include rubbish removal as part of their service and we have had to help owners sort out a mess left behind by a tradesperson before.

Professional Holiday Homes is an Airbnb property management company in New South Wales that has built a large database of trusted tradespeople in a variety of trade services that can be used to look after your property repair and maintenance requirements.

We provide this service to make it easy to manage your Airbnb property whether you live nearby, in another suburb or state. This reduces the hassle and complexity of getting the right people to service your Airbnb.

The other benefit is that we have a relationship with the various tradespeople which means we have more negotiating power when it comes to pricing, lead times and responsiveness compared to you doing it on your own. 

Important tradespeople for Airbnb properties

So just what are the most critical tradespeople you have to consider if you are going to try maintain and clean an Airbnb holiday rental property? Here are our top five that you must consider;

1 Cleaners

The most important resource you will have are your cleaners because after every single booking the Airbnb property must be cleaned for the next guests arriving. Therefore it is vitally important that you select the right one, the cleanliness rating on Airbnb can effect booking conversions by as much as 30% if the rating is below 8 out of 10.

So what are some of the considerations to go through to have the right cleaners to manage your property?

• Experience – What experience they have and ask them to supply references. Anyone can become a cleaner but not everyone does a good job at it!
• Quantity – We ask them how many holiday homes they clean in the area. As a rough guide an average holiday home (3 bedrooms) will take 3 hours to clean. If they are cleaning more than 20 holiday homes they may be overloaded and standards may start to drop.
• Location – We check where they live. The closer they are to your holiday home the better. That way they can assist with any last minute issues that guests may have.
• Beds & towels – If you are supplying linen and towels be sure to ask how much they charge per bed or per bundle of towels.
• Property walkthrough – Walk them through the property showing them where you keep supplies and linen. If you can’t be there in person provide them with access via your key safe and ask them to call or skype you so you can walk them through it (you can always change your key safe code afterwards).
• Other services – Sometimes cleaners will also mow lawns, keep gardens tidy and perform maintenance – ask them what other tasks they can perform. It can be more convenient to have them do all of the jobs if it means less people going in and out of the property.
• Responsiveness – We ensure that they have an email address that they check regularly. With online property bookings the norm, it will be simpler for us to be able to forward booking emails onto them rather than having to text or call them. We also ensure that they provide alternative number(s) to reach them if needed
• Checklist – We ensure there is a strict checklist that is followed, many may not have this but if we make sure our cleaners employ a checklist to make sure a standard is achieved for every Airbnb we manage.

An example from one of our Airbnb property owners 

“We got into a difficult situation with a cleaner who was on an hourly rate. She was spending so much time at the property that our cleaning costs started to skyrocket. Upon further investigation, we found out that she was performing excessive and unnecessarily cleaning tasks to try to improve her income. We created a checklist clarifying exactly what was required per clean and switched her onto a fixed fee per clean which resolved the problem.”

2. Gardener

If your Airbnb is part of a unit or apartment complex then the lawns or gardens will most likely be taken care of by the strata contracted service provider. Although if your Airbnb unit or apartment has its own private courtyard then this will normally need to be managed by you. Having a well presented outdoor space can help to increase booking ratios for apartments or units as there is a greater feeling of space.

For homes it is important to make sure that it isn’t just the grass that is cut regularly, especially in summer periods, but added touches like neat edges, bushes trimmed, weeds or low hanging tree branches are taken care of (even ones hanging over from the neighbouring property)

Any gardening schedule has to be adjusted to suit the season, so during Spring & Summer months it will need to be more regular vs Winter/Autumn periods. Guests turning up to an unkempt garden is not a good first impression when you are renting an Airbnb. 

If you want to keep costs down, we can ask for a photo prior to mowing so that you can give the ok as to whether the mow is required but over time you will get a feel as to what mowing or maintenance frequency is required.

An example from one of our Airbnb property owners 

“We hired a gardener to do our lawns and edges and whilst they did a great job they didn’t consider weeding as part of their job! After finding our garden beds and paths covered in weeds we decided to find someone else who would do everything for us.“

3. Handyman

For all the Airbnb properties we manage we see an increase in the number of items that need repair. As you can imagine nobody looks after a home like you would it it were yours. Therefore simple things can break more readily like a curtain rod, door handle or even a window. 

In each instance you want these items to be repaired to avoid bad reviews being left on Airbnb, Stayz or even Google if your property has its own profile. We can help you to ensure a handyman is available before, during or after guests use your Airbnb property.

Most important thing when choosing a handyman for an Airbnb is to really understand what they are capable of. For example they shouldn’t be handling anything relating to the waterproofing of a bathroom due to the legal requirements of that, but it may make sense for them to change a leaking tap. Whilst maintenance is not generally a large ongoing expense you will have small repair jobs that will need to be done over the years.

An example from one of our Airbnb property owners 

“Some of the repairs that we have had to do include replacing flyscreens, fixing door handles, repairing sticking windows, fixing loose screws on chairs and roller blinds that no longer roll. Maintenance isn’t a large expense at our property but it is important to fix things as soon as there is an issue with them.”

4. Plumber

A lot of Airbnb properties that we manage can potentially have plumbing issues like a blocked drain, dripping tap or a failed hot water system which can ruin a guest’s stay. We make sure we have access to a network of plumbers who are very close to each Airbnb location so they are contactable 24 hours a day. 

This makes sure if there are any issues during the day or in the middle of the night there will be someone available to provide a repair or replacement as needed.

5. Electrician

Just like plumbing, electrical repairs are uncommon but they do happen. Guests sitting in the dark are not something that you even want to think about, can you imagine what they would write in their review on Airbnb? 

Simple things like broken light globes can probably be changed either by the Cleaners or the Handyman in most cases. More complex things like blown fuse boxes, power points not working or other major electrical problems have to be handled by a professional.  Just like we do with the plumbers we have a network of electricians who offer 24 hour emergency services just in case something happens in the middle of the night. 

Another thing to consider when first setting up the property is to add extra power points behind the bedside tables, sofa in the living room or even the kitchen to make sure the property is visitor friendly. 

Other tradespeople to consider for an Airbnb property

So we’ve explained the most important tradespeople you need for an Airbnb property and generally speaking you need them all year round, especially for popular properties with a low vacancy rate.

Others that need to be considered are;

• Airbnb property stylists; an interior stylist can help create a ‘look’ for your Airbnb property which can help differentiate it from others available on the market. They can help with a theme, colour & textures to style each room of the Airbnb

• Airbnb photographer; the most important aspect of getting the most bookings is to have great photography of your Airbnb property. Lots of people try taking mobile phone photos but they lack the polish of professional photos. There are thousands of listings online so a great set of photos can make all the difference.

We hoped you enjoyed some of our insights for considering what tradespeople you need to manage your Airbnb property efficiently. It is an aspect that we manage very carefully for each one of our owners to ensure their returns are maximised, there is little to worry about and bookings rates are kept high.

Professional Holiday Homes provides Airbnb holiday rental property management in Sydney and the South Coast of NSW including Wollongong and surrounds, Gerroa, Gerringong, Jervis Bay and Berry.

If you’d like to learn more about our Airbnb property management services we provide a free appraisal and you can even download our free eBook