Pillar 2: The Systems That Fuel Our Homeowner’s Success
An Introduction to LocalVR's Systems
In our 4 Pillars of Property Preservation blog, we took a look at how each of the 4 pillars uphold LocalVR’s promise of property preservation and provide long-term value to homeowners.
Today, we’ll get a closer view of the second pillar of our success, Systems, which all work in tandem to ensure that homeowners are getting the best care possible for their properties. In our eyes, this pillar is an essential part of supporting homeowners and providing the means for high-quality care that will maximize profits and maintain the value of our homeowner’s properties for many years to come.
Maximizing Revenue–Systems for Revenue Management
In order to maximize profits for our homeowners and improve overall booking rates, LocalVR implements systems for tracking revenue along with other important analytical information so that we are constantly improving our processes and strategies for improvement.
To achieve this, we’ve created an analytics dashboard that tracks important metrics like occupancy, average rates, booking lead times, and other historical data. With this information in hand, we gain better insight into why properties might not be performing the way that we expect.
Our revenue management system also gives us the ability to compare the performance of our rentals with other short-term rentals in the area. When one of our properties isn’t performing comparably with other rentals, our system flags these negative metrics. We are then able to use this helpful data to put into place ironclad strategies to rectify these issues and improve our overall metrics. For instance, if your booking rate is much lower than the competition, we utilize this system to diagnose the issue and pull levers to increase your rate such as widening our marketing exposure, offering promotional discounts, making our cancellation policy more flexible, etc.
How Guest Vetting Helps Us to Prevent Bad Apples From Staying At Your Property
At LocalVR, we prioritize long-term value by attracting and renting to high-quality guests. The more high-quality guests that stay at your property, the less damages you’ll incur, meaning that your property’s value will be preserved for years to come.
To achieve that end, LocalVR implements a three-tiered screening process that helps minimize the probability of low-quality guests while attracting high-quality guests for longer-term stays. While it’s impossible to filter out every single bad apple in the bunch, our process allows us to do the best we can to minimize the chance that low-quality guests will ever be able to step foot onto your property.
Our Three-Tiered Guest Vetting Process
1. Screening to Filter Out Unqualified Guests
Guests must meet certain specifications such as our age requirement, having verified account information, and no negative reviews. We also have a minimum stay requirement, meaning that they must plan to stay for at least that duration in order to qualify for booking our listings.
2. Qualified Guest Verification Process
After passing the first screening, potential guests must answer questions about their stay, such as why they are in town, how many people are in their group, and if they agree to the house rules. These questions help us to determine if the guest is a bad apple or a scammer, as most of the time those types of guests won’t put much effort into answering the questionnaire. To further protect your property, we also ask for a copy of their ID as well as a signature on a thorough rental agreement.
3. Smart Technology for Better Guests
The final step in the process is using our smart software to scan a guest’s credit card and flag cards that have been declined a number of times recently. This helps to screen out scammers or low-quality guests.
Pulse Check Every Step of the Way
It’s important to us to not only ensure that your home is being taken care of as it should be, but also that our staff is able to meet expectations, which is why we implement a regular pulse check on the health of our systems and operations.
If, for instance, regular cleanings on your home aren’t being completed during the time allotted for them because our cleaners are overwhelmed with properties to take care of, we will be able to mend that issue by providing more resources (in this case, hiring more cleaners) to make sure that cleanings are completed. Or, if our account managers are falling behind on responding to owner messages, our pulse check helps us to determine if we need to hire more help to guarantee that owner communication is handled in a timely manner.
It’s essential to the health of our systems that we are always getting more insight into how we can do better for our homeowners, and pulse checks are a critical part of the systems pillar for that reason.
How White-Glove Cleaning and Post-Checkout Inspections Help Retain Your Property’s Value
In order to ensure our homes are in pristine condition for each and every guest and to catch any damages or signs of wear and tear as soon as possible, we use a custom built software for post-checkout inspections and our white-glove cleaning services.
White-Glove Cleaning Services
Our cleaning staff works hard after every guest checkout, completing a thorough cleaning and disinfecting of the home as their first priority. Laundry is done off-site at a special laundromat that uses COVID-fighting cleaning products and tools, and all household items are restocked after each and every guest.
Advanced Photo-Supported Inspections
During the onboarding process, photos are taken of every area of the home to demonstrate a property’s perfect pre-rental conditions, and then these photos are put into our in-house inspection software. This software creates photo-supported cleaning and inspection checklists that help us to stage the property in pristine condition and conduct any routine maintenance a home may need.
After every checkout, these photo checklists help to hold our team accountable for the property’s condition as well as to record evidence for damage purposes.
How We Deal With Damages
After the home is cleaned, a thorough inspection of the property will be performed using these photo checklists to catch any damages that may have been caused by the previous renters. If we discover damage to a short-term rental caused by the guest negligence, LocalVR will cover the cost of a repair or replacement up to $3000 using our damage waiver policy.
Our Commitment to Owner Communication
The final key to the Systems pillar is LocalVR’s commitment to owner communication. We’ve heard horror stories about owners not getting a response from their management company for days when a problem arises. To LocalVR, that is unacceptable.
We strive to respond to our homeowners within 1 hour of a message during normal business hours. Another aspect of building a strong relationship with owners is billing fairly. That’s why it’s our pledge to never charge our property owners for anything that takes less than a half-hour onsite to fix.
Learn More About the LocalVR Difference
Property management companies can sometimes be a nightmare to deal with, which is why at LocalVR we’ve put so much emphasis on keeping our systems and operations running smoothly. Through our guest vetting process, regular pulse checks on the health of our systems, technology-supported cleaning and inspections, and our commitment to owner communication, LocalVR does things differently than other property managers. Our insight into each of these aspects of our Systems pillar helps both us and our owners to succeed in the long-term, meaning more revenue in your pocket at the end of the day without any of the worries that would typically come along with it.
For an overview on how LocalVR can make a difference for your short-term rental, take a look at our Program page to learn more.