Airbnb Management Software: Why Use It and How to Choose One

Airbnb property management software is a perfect solution for busy hosts looking to ease their workload. At the same time, it helps increase the efficiency of their business operations.

In recent years, the popularity of Airbnb has skyrocketed. To keep up with the intensifying competition, Airbnb hosts have become a lot busier. More people are taking the plunge to start their own vacation rental business.

To stay ahead of the curve, many rental property owners are using business automation. Discover the top 7 benefits that Airbnb management software can offer your business.

What Is Airbnb Property Management Software?

Hosting is an extensive job, especially if you manage more than one short-term rental or have them listed on multiple vacation rental platforms. It can become a headache to keep on top of all the repetitive, daily tasks required for property management, even for experienced property managers.

Airbnb management software is a special tool that helps hosts and property managers to automate day-to-day tasks, streamline operations, prevent human error, and save costs.

How Does Airbnb Property Management Software Work?

Airbnb property management software provides a connection between your property listings and the software itself. If you have multiple listings and run your rentals on a number of vacation rental sites, this type of software allows you to manage your properties from one place by organizing them within a centralized dashboard.

In addition, it offers various functions that automate vacation rental management tasks. In a nutshell, they include:

• Guest messaging
• Real-time calendar synchronization
• Reviews creation and send-outs
• Cleaning management
• Team and task management
• Pricing management, and a lot more.

With these tasks taken care of, hosts can focus on business growth and scaling.

What Are the Benefits of Using Airbnb Property Management Software?

1. Ensures flawless guest communication

Airbnb guests expect on-demand customer service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no matter if you’re managing multiple properties or not. Responding to messages at all hours of the day can eat away at your time.

To handle guest communication, you might already have considered extending your team by looking at property managers.

In fact, an Airbnb host sends about 2,500 messages per month in response to guests’ inquiries. Meanwhile, Airbnb management software can automate over 70% of these messages.

Automated responses ensure flawless communication with your guests. Guests will receive instant and accurate responses to their inquiries at any time of day.

By automating responses, you can reply to more inquiries and get more reservations thanks to property management.

Airbnb management software can also trigger and time automated messages. This allows you to keep your guests informed even when you are physically unable to respond to them. Some Airbnb management software solutions offer a property management mobile app allowing you to reply to your guest messaging on the go.

Another time-consuming task is to keep up with inquiries received from multiple accounts. Airbnb management software with a Unified inbox organizes all messages in one place. This way, you can send responses from the software without logging in to your Airbnb accounts.

With automation, you will be able to deliver better property management customer service with less effort. For example vacation rental software, such as iGMS, saves hosts up to 70% of time on communication. iGMS automated messaging will free up your time so you can focus on business growth.

Try iGMS in Action

Another essential feature is the ability to track and improve guest communication. iGMS offers an exclusive add-on feature called PROtrack that auto-assigns guest support agents to message threads and monitors their productivity in real-time.

By refining your guest communication and increasing its effectiveness, you can boost your response time and Airbnb ranking.

To further polish your guest communication strategy, check out our other helpful resources:

Airbnb Communication Strategy: 7 Rules for Glowing Reviews

The Art of Airbnb Messaging: 8 Proven Ways to Enhance the Guest Experience

Airbnb Etiquette 101: Helpful Hints from Superhosts

2. Helps to grow the number of your reviews

Most Airbnb guests don’t bother to leave reviews after their checkout. Recent studies show that only 20% of guests take the time to leave reviews without Airbnb’s reminders.

If you want to grow the number of guest reviews, you should be the one to make the first move. Once you leave feedback for your guests, Airbnb will prompt them to review you in return.

The more reviews you have, the more trustworthy you’ll look in the eyes of potential guests. Additionally, having many positive reviews improves your listing’s position in the search results.

However, busy hosts don’t have much time to write reviews. Moreover, writing reviews doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Airbnb management software can automate your reviews making the review-creation process easier. Reviews should always be seen as a vital part of the property management process.

For example, iGMS enables you to create templates for guest reviews. This means that you won’t have to write reviews from scratch for every guest. Don’t worry, there won’t be any difference between an automated review and the one written by you.

iGMS also saves you time by allowing you to send reviews automatically via the system. This feature is convenient for managing multiple listings across different vacation rental platforms.

To learn the best practices of creating guest reviews, as well as tactics to increase their number, explore this list of our useful articles:

How to Write Airbnb Guest Reviews [Examples Included]

Generating Vacation Rental Reviews With Post-Departure Emails [Full Guide and Templates]

Bad Airbnb Reviews: How to Turn Them into Your Weapon

Airbnb Guest Reviews: An iGMS Formula of Happiness

3. Boosts your Airbnb ranking

Setting up a listing on Airbnb is not enough to make your business profitable. Airbnb uses an algorithm to rank listings in its search results to help guests to find the right listings for their needs. To attract potential guests, your listing should be visible on the first pages of the search results.

The algorithm factors in various aspects of your vacation rentals, such as the number of reviews, response rate, and so on. Updating your calendar regularly is also essential for ranking high on Airbnb. However, if you manage several Airbnb rentals on your own, it can be difficult to pay attention to each listing.

Vacation rental management software can have a positive impact on ranking factors. For example, by automating your replies, you can enhance your response rate. Also, reviews automation can bring you more positive reviews. Thus, using a property management tool could help your listing to move to the top of the search results.

Finally, implementing dynamic Airbnb pricing can help to improve your listings’ rankings. Dynamic pricing tools help to keep your rates competitive and your listings relevant. Each time your listing receives a new price, Airbnb ranks it again, and it appears higher in the SERP results.

Find out how to improve your ranking on Airbnb by reading these dedicated articles:

Airbnb SEO: 10 Proven Tips to Boost Your Ranking

Airbnb Ranking: 7 Techniques to Boost Your Airbnb Traffic

10 Unique Tips to Ranking Among Airbnb’s Best Listings

4. Synchronizes your calendar in real-time

One of the biggest positives of property management is the ease of process. If you list your property on several platforms, it can be a headache to keep the calendars in sync. That’s why finding the solution to keep all your bookings in order can be a lifesaver.

Luckily, automated channel management can relieve your anxiety about receiving double-bookings. Utilizing a software solution allows you to manage multi-channel listings from one dashboard.

If you get a rental booking on one platform, the same dates will be blocked out on the other platforms. The same goes for making alterations. If you or your guests make any changes to the booking, they will apply across all your platforms.

5. Helps to manage multiple Airbnb accounts

Airbnb doesn’t allow hosts to own and operate multiple Airbnb accounts as per their rules. That said, some hosts still chose to do so. When managing more than one property, it can be annoying switching between accounts.

Airbnb management software eliminates the constant need to log in and log out of your accounts. And whether you’re a channel manager, you work for a property management business or you work in the vacation rental industry, services that save time are worth their weight in gold.

No matter how many listings you have, Airbnb management software can organize them in a single Multi-calendar. This way, you can keep track of all your bookings in one place. You’ll also be able to make adjustments to your calendar or update your listing via the dashboard.

6. Coordinates your teams more efficiently

The greatest benefit of Airbnb software is that it grows your business independently. Automation helps you to make the most out of what you already have.

Using Airbnb management software for vacation rentals such as iGMS, you can boost productivity and reach your business goals faster. This is the case whether you manage your rentals yourself or have a team of support agents.

iGMS ensures the smooth coordination of your teams or subcontractors. You can invite your support staff to join your software system and share work tasks with each member.

By utilizing software, you can create automated schedules. Moreover, with tools like iGMS, you can also auto-assign cleaners to specific properties. Cleanings are scheduled after each checkout, and your cleaners will be notified automatically. You can track who’s busy and who has already completed a job. This means you won’t have to deal with missed cleanings or maintenance issues anymore.

7. Saves time on routine operations

Time is your most valuable currency! So, it makes sense to use it wisely. Doing routine operations over and over again is unlikely to help you grow your business.

The days of manual assignment and supervision of all routine tasks are long gone. Today, hosts can achieve much better results by using software that saves time.

Automating daily operations will allow you to devote more time to activities that will scale your business. In turn, scaling your business is crucial for increasing profitability.

Vacation rental management software doesn’t erase the hard work of running an Airbnb business, but it does make it easier.

To get savvier with business automation, feel free to explore these helpful guides:

Vacation Rental Management: 8-Step Guide to Business Automation

Airbnb Automation: 6 Ways To Put Your Business on Autopilot

How to Find the Best Airbnb Management Software for Your Business

Airbnb management software is a tool that you will use on a daily basis. That’s why you should devote some time to find the right solution that suits your needs. Follow these steps to select the best option available in the market.

1. Identify your needs and goals

Identify which areas of your business you struggle with the most. Some areas you could look at include guest messaging and calendar syncing. By pinpointing your needs, you will be able to decide what features to look for in your vacation rental software.

2. Compare different tools

Dig deeper to identify the pros and cons of various tools. A good idea is to check real user reviews on comparison websites such as Capterra, GetApp, G2, and so on. Read reviews to find out what kind of experience customers had when using these software tools.

3. Try it before you buy it

Before you make the final decision, you should try the options that you’ve selected in action. This way, you’ll learn more about the functionalities of each tool and see what downsides they have.

It’s beneficial if a tool offers a free trial option and doesn’t require any setup fee. In this case, you can try its features in action and determine if the tool is the right fit for your business.

To make your search for the best Airbnb management tool easier, check out these helpful articles:

Free Vacation Rental Software: How to Find the Best Solution

New E-book: How to Choose the Airbnb Software for Your Business

4. Innovation potential

Some property management software services offer a range of additional features. These include digital marketing services, direct booking website builders, seo and marketing services, and task management. When searching for your ideal property management system, be sure to investigate whether or not it offers additional benefits for Airbnb property managers. Having a direct booking website builder, in 2023, is critical. Without one, your vacation rental properties may not be as successful as possible.

Even if you’re the property manager and not the property owner, always thoroughly investigate the innovations of the property management system that you are considering.

Put Your Business on Autopilot with iGMS

How about utilizing an all-in-one software solution to tackle your routine tasks? Check out iGMS, a vacation rental software for hosts that puts your business on autopilot.

With iGMS, you can manage all your Airbnb accounts via a single dashboard. Besides Airbnb, iGMS is also integrated with Booking.com, Vrbo, and other platforms.

Key features and benefits:

• Managing multiple accounts and listings on the top OTAs from a single interface
• Synchronizing reservations across multiple platforms to eliminate the risk of double bookings
• Organizing messages into a single feed with a unified inbox
• Improving communication with automated templates and triggered messaging
• Automating the process of guest reviews
• Creating and coordinating cleaning tasks with live tracking to completion
• Creating your own direct booking website
• Managing direct bookings using a direct booking management toolkit
• Processing payments securely via integration with Stripe.
• Creating essential reports on your business results within minutes
• Adjusting your pricing in a smart way through integrations with PriceLabs, DPGO, and Wheelhouse

Try iGMS Now

Conclusion

Airbnb management software for vacation rentals and automation tools are indispensable assets for busy hosts. Not only can they increase the efficiency of your business, but they can also help cut down on your expenses.

Airbnb management software doesn’t need big investments or expanding your team. At the same time, it keeps your business under control by handling routine operations. It’s a perfect time to opt for Airbnb management software to reap the rewards of automation.

About the Author

Callan Riddles is the Content and Social Media Specialist at iGMS. Callan has a passion for finding new ways to help vacation rental businesses thrive. In her free time, she loves to travel, read, and experience all the new things that life has to offer.