Interview Questions
As you conduct your due diligence on other co-host companies, consider asking these questions.
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What kind of due diligence are you conducting on guests that book and what does that process look like for direct bookings and bookings through marketing platforms such as Airbnb?
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How often are you updating pricing and what's your pricing/length of stay strategy for each individual home to drive higher revenue and occupancy?
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What are you doing to make sure you have the best chance of landing on the first page of Airbnb/VRBO? How often are you analyzing that data and what kind of decisions are you making for each individual property you manage based on that data to help meet or exceed the owners goals for the property?
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What's your process for paying owners out and when can I expect to receive my payout for stays that hafve been completed?
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What kind of financial reports do you have available for owners so we can see revenues booked and some information about the future stays?
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Something has been broken... what's your process for collecting reimbursement and replacing? As the owner, how involved do I need to be in this process?
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What would you consider to be the "perfect" home to manage?
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​Stay Occupied Vacation Rentals Responses
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What kind of due dilligence are you conducting on guests that book and what does that process look like for direct bookings and bookings through marketing platforms such as Airbnb? All booking guests must pass a background check. Failure to fill out the appropriate questionaire for the background check, or a failed background check will result in a declined booking request. In addition, guests without a 5 star review on their booking platform are not able to book. For your home, we would initiate a minimum booking age (our recommendation would be 27 years old but happy to change that if you wish).
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How often are you updating pricing and what's your pricing/length of stay strategy for each individual home to drive higher revenue and occupancy? ​Pricing and length of stay restrictions are updated daily and we revisit your overall pricing profile several times a month to match market demand and keep your occupancy high while also charging a rate that best represents the luxury quality experience that is offered to guests.
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What are you doing to make sure you have the best chance of landing on the first page of Airbnb/VRBO? How often are you analyzing that data and what kind of decisions are you making for each individual property you manage based on that data to help meet or exceed the owners goals for the property? Every property is analyzed using several tools. We leverage RankBreeze (www.rankbreeze.com to see exactly where we land on the Airbnb rankings and compare against other similar homes. In that tool we also comparing prices and length of stay and can view our booking calendar against the competition. We also track occupancy comparison data in our dynamic pricing tool (Pricelabs). Outside of these tools, we use Airbnb Insights and VRBO Performance insights (tools within those platforms to see how we stack up when it comes to page views, conversion rates (conversions into a booking), occupancy, nightly rate, and booking lead time. This data is collected weekly and then updated on the marketing pages based on what the data tells us. Changes are then tracked over the next week to see if we've improved/increased bookings and average rates. This process is recorded and monitored on a weekly basis.
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What's your process for paying owners out and when can I expect to receive my payout for stays that hafve been completed? On the 15th of the following month, owners will receive their monthly statement and the payout will occur via ACH or Wire transfer.
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What kind of financial reports do you have available for owners so we can see revenues booked and some information about the future stays? Owners will have access to the booking calendar (where they can also view nightly rates. They also have access to reports that show each individual booking, where it came from, what the payout is. In addition, they have access to a monthly revenue report which shows the total revenue for the month, the revenue source, and the total cleaning fees.
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Something has been broken... what's your process for collecting reimbursement and replacing? As the owner, how involved do I need to be in this process? We collect photos and videos after every check out. Should something break, we can submit a quote to Safely Insurance and typically receive reimbursement within 3-7 business days. We can then replace the item. The owner does not need to be involved, but we will communicate/report the incident to the owner. This insurance has no deductible and can cover up to $25K in a given year.
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What would you consider to be the "perfect" home to manage?​
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At least 3 bedrooms that sleeps at least 6 people comfortably​
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Access to local attractions, beach, or waterfront is ideal clients
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Pool or Hot Tub
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Air conditioning is a must
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Full house generator
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The home must have a projection to $60k in revenue or more a year
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