A Guide to Prepare Your Short-Term Rental for Reservations Post Covid-19
COVID-19 Awareness: We recommend checking the World Health Organization’s website for the most accurate and up-to-date information.
It goes without saying that the Covid-19 pandemic will reshape our lives in ways we can not begin to imagine. But, as property Owners and Hosts, we have to anticipate the future of short-term rentals (STRs) NOW in order to prepare for reservations post-Covid.
As STR Hosts, first and foremost, we are business owners. If you’re like us, you will not be receiving any federal or state small business relief. Which is why revenue driven businesses, like STR owners, should be working on disaster plans, without the promise of outside help.
If you’re just starting out as a Host, we recommend you download our printable New Listing Inventory Checklist, Cleaning Checklist & Restocking Checklist to ensure you’ve prepared each space of your listing for success.
All 3-Checklists are also available as a bundle & ON SALE NOW.
What will the new normal of short-term rentals look like post-Covid?
Can we weather the storm of local event cancellations, interpret government restrictions, market our listings despite a recession and lack of disposable income or anticipate traveler heath concerns?
Reservations will return to your inbox.
Will you be prepared?
John and I have come up with a few forward thinking ways to navigate the ever changing landscape of the STR industry and are sharing:
A Guide to Prepare Your Short-Term Rental for Reservations Post Covid-19
Mitigate Host Health Concerns
First and foremost, your health and the health of anyone what aids in welcoming guests to your property is top priority. If you’re not healthy, ready and able to manage the reservation process, the whole system falls apart.
Focusing on your health will inevitably trickle down to the health of your guests. Here are a few suggestions to start with:
24 Hour Rule
The CDC recommend waiting 24 hours before entering a space occupied with someone what may have been exposed to Covid. As Hosts, John and I assume everyone may have been exposed, so we strictly practice this 24 hour rule.
Check Your Supplies
Maintaining a steady stock of supplies is essential for hosting, but may also be difficult as inventory and access are suppressed.
Before accepting any future reservations, ensure that you can keep cleaning products, paper towels, hand sanitizer and toilet paper appropriately stocked.
There’s no sense accepting a reservation that you can not adequately accommodate, as this will likely lead to a negative review.
Even if you are not personally cleaning your properties, you will want the following items to enter and check your listing between reservations.
Here’s a checklist of Host essentials that should be adequately stocked before accepting a reservation:
Disinfectant wipes
Household disinfectant
Hand soap
Hand sanitizer
Disposable gloves
Face mask
Tweak Your Property Listing
It’s a FACT that a catchy listing title and well-written description can increase revenue. Which is why tweaking your description may be an important first step in welcoming guests to your Covid conscious property.
Perhaps there are areas of your listing that can be reframed to further appeal to cautious travelers.
For instance, these existing property attributed could be perceived as “Covid conscious”:
Privacy: Isolated in the woods. Full house exclusivity.
Location: Private beach access. Walking distance to shops and stores.
Amenities: Separate bathroom. Private entrance.
Once you’ve done an assessment, edit your listing description to highlight the features of your listing that could appeal to wary travelers that may have virus prevention top-of-mind.
Personally, we do not think it’s necessary to specifically mention Covid in your description.
Focus on the positives of your listing, not the negatives of the virus. Highlighting a few features that will help guests mitigate their own fears and concerns about Covid-travel without focusing on the pandemic specifically.
As an alternative, you may choose to simply share new information with guests that actually reach out with an inquiry. Remember, communication is key. If you decide not to tweak your listing, be sure to share any changes to your listing (in writing) before confirming a reservation.
Assess Your Nightly Rate & Minimums
Keeping a finger on the pulse of supply and demand for short-term rentals in your area could be key to your future success. As a next step, we suggest assessing your nightly rates and minimums.
Do a general “traveler” search on Airbnb/VRBO of other similar STR listings in your area and determine how your rates compare.
Can you determine the general number of STR available?
Have listings reduced nightly rates or increased nightly minimums?
Are competitor calendars open for reservations?
Another amazing resource we use is AirDNA. We use AirDNA as a platform for staying current with Covid trends, changes in rates, occupancy and a ton of other information.
Specifically, AirDNA just released new product features to explore booking trends and rates during COVID-19's recovery period. These new charts and metrics offer a significant advantage to property managers and hosts looking to stand out.
They have a free subscription or paid options that can help make powerful management decisions.
For John and I, we know the “bottom” nightly rate we are comfortable advertising. We have assessed our profit and loss, and know at what point we would rather not host than risk welcoming guests just looking for a cheap stay or perhaps, even a place to quarantine.
This is also a great time to determine your minimum stay parameters. We have actually done away with 1-night reservations after determining that a thorough Covid-19 cleaning was far too tedious for sometimes less than a 12 hour stay.
We have also implemented a 24-hour buffer between reservations to allow for additional cleaning and ventilation of guest rooms.
Protocols for Shared Spaces
Specifically for STR Hosts that have shared listings and common spaces, now if a great time to assess your comfort level (and that of your guest) . For instance, in our home, we have private guest suites with a shared living room, dining room (with a coffee bar and mini fridge), as well as several outdoor areas.
As we navigate reservations in a post-Covid world, we plan to only share the exterior spaces and plan to provide an individual “coffee” setup into each of the guests suites, as opposed to a shared setup.
Each guest suite will now have the following coffee setup:
Edit Your Decor
Yes, decorative pillows, blankets and rugs add comfort to any space, but these accessories may be difficult to disinfect between reservations. Easiest would be to remove throw pillows and blankets from your spaces entirely.
However, these are a few creative alternatives that could be used:
Washable Throw Pillow Covers
Replace decorative pillows with throw pillow inserts, washable covers or non-porous materials. Check the manufacturer’s washing instructions to ensure they are machine washable. Or choose a cover like leather or faux leather that can be wiped/disinfected.
Machine Washable Rugs
Rugs may be one of the most difficult home decor items to clean.
Instead of removing rugs, replace them with a machine washable alternative like those from Ruggable that consist of a decorative rug cover and non-slip rug pad.
These rug alternatives would be great in high traffic areas, areas where pets reside or in areas that children partake in floor-focused play.
Photo: Getty Images/svetikd
Removable Duvet Covers
Gone are the days of simply throwing an unwashed comforter back onto a freshly washed sheets. In many seasonal rentals, this is still common practice.
We are here to tell you that it’s time to upgrade your bedding to include comforters with a removable duvet cover that can be properly washed between guests.
Don’t have the means to upgrade? Here’s what we suggest:
Ideally, you should use a hypoallergenic comforter insert that can be washed every few guests, covered by a duvet that is washed between each guest.
Here’s a great video about changing a duvet cover that every Host should know.
If you can’t upgrade to new inserts and covers, run your existing comforter through a steam disinfecting cycle or have the comforter dry cleaned by a professional. Then, purchase a duvet cover in the size of your existing comforter, and a color/pattern that matches your existing sheet sets.
Assess Your Cleaning Process & Fee
Airbnb had recently announced an enhanced cleaning initiative for Hosts, which you can check out here. Before welcoming guests, now is a great time to assess your existing cleaning protocol and determine if changes should be made.
Cleaning Process
Whether you are personally cleaning or have hired a service, ensure your listing is updated to reflect a “covid clean” job. Take the time to educate yourself or your service of the new standards. Before covid, cleaning was acceptable. Now, disinfecting based on the CDC guidelines should be adhered to.
Part of this cleaning process should also include the addition of buffer days between reservations. Airbnb suggests 72 hours between reservation in order to adhere to their enhanced cleaning protocol.
Download our Cleaning Checklist to ensure you’re prioritizing every space in your home during the turnover process between guests.
Printable Cleaning Checklist
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Printable Cleaning Checklist 〰️
Cleaning Fee
Time is money. Therefore, you should assess the total time it takes to adequately clean your listing and determine if your existing cleaning fee accounts for the new HIGH standard of “covid clean”.
In the long run, guests will understand paying more if it means your listing is meeting a 5-star standard.
Secure Your Guest Amenities
Every Host has dealt with some form of theft. Whether it be a missing hand towels or the disappearance of hand soap, now is a great time to access how you provide guests with essential items like soap and toilet paper.
Here at Content, we have a separate closet with all of our guest amenities. We now keep this door locked and only stock our guest suites with the amount of toilet paper we deem necessary for the guest’s reservation.
Gone are the days of providing endless rolls of toilet paper for a 2-night stay.
No Host wants to limit their guests comfort, but during this current climate, where cleaning supplies and toilet paper are a hot commodity, you have to protect your investments.
Communicate to your guests that you are happy to supply more of any amenity, they simply need to ask.
Provide A Welcome Basket
Yes, of course you’ve gone above and beyond to ensure your property has been properly cleaned between guests!
But, that still doesn’t mean your guests are 100% convinced. Consider if you were the Guest, walking into a rental property. Would you assume all the surfaces had been disinfected?
In a pre-Covid universe, we would never leave cleaning products out for guests. But, in this post-Covid world, we’ve updated our existing Welcome Basket to include a few items that will help guests ease into vacation mode.
Offer Pre-Arrival Grocery Services
Navigating a new area can be fun, but nowadays the simple act of visiting the grocery store is a health concern. For our full house rental guests, we are offering basic, pre-arrival grocery services.
