What to Know about Running an Airbnb from Another Country
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It’s easier to operate an Airbnb in your own country where you can easily access the property yourself and fix problems personally. However, there are some great opportunities for growing your business and earning a lot more money if you are willing to expand your business to other countries.
If a property opens up in another country, and you can afford it, why not consider adding it to your Airbnb business? You may be scared about the added responsibility or about the different rules that might apply. There is no need to be scared if you know what to expect and if you have a plan for how to operate the property remotely.
You Will Need a Property Manager
If you can’t visit the property yourself and inspect it, fix issues, keep it clean, and handle customer complaints, you will need someone else to do all those things. Many Airbnb’s are run well enough remotely that the owner has very little to do with the physical property. You can do the same thing with yours, but you will need someone to oversee some of the physical aspects of the location. If there is a problem, you don’t want to be scrambling to find someone who can take care of the issue.
You should have someone already assigned the job of watching over the property, even if they don’t do this as a full-time job. You can hire someone parttime who is willing to visit the property when there is an issue, to inspect it after each guest leaves, and to do regular maintenance on the place. You want this to be someone who is trustworthy and who will handle most of the issues on their own without bothering you about minor problems.
Hire Professional Cleaners
You should also have the property cleaned professionally, and it is best to clean it after each guest. This will keep it looking nice and tidy for the new guests as they come in. It is important to leave them with a good impression so that you get good reviews and your property ranks well on the Airbnb service.
You have to be careful about the cost of this service, so make sure you choose an affordable Airbnb cleaning service in NYC or wherever your property may be. Consider a few different services and pick the one that seems the most reliable and cost effective. They will likely only have to do minor cleaning, especially if you leave instructions for the guests about tidying up after they leave. You can ask them to take out the garbage, put the bedding into the washing machine, and pick up all their trash. If you give them simple rules and use the Airbnb service regularly, it should be easy to maintain the property and keep it looking spotless. There may never even need to be a time where it requires deep cleaning, or if there is, it should be very infrequently.
Make Most Operations Automated
It will help you to automate most of the management tasks required for running a foreign Airbnb. The reason for this is because your guests may be needing services at a time when you are fast asleep, since they might be in a much different time zone from you.
It would be sensible to automate the payments, check in and check out, and even messages. Set all of this up ahead of time so that you are not being constantly bombarded by requests when you are busy, you are trying to relax, or you are asleep. There are a number of automation tools you can use to handle these tasks for you. Of course, you want to be hands on for those tasks where your personal touch is required, but for everything else, consider having it automated. This will make things go smoother for you and will take a lot of the responsibility off your shoulders in regards to managing the property.
Have a Maintenance Team on Standby
Your property manager may be able to do some of the maintenance for the property, and the cleaning team might be able to fix a few issues as they see them, but you still need a dedicated maintenance team. There will be some problems that will crop up from time to time that require specialized maintenance care. If there is a burst pipe or an electrical short, a skilled repair person is the best choice. You will want the problem fixed quickly and professionally rather than opting for a cheap fix that will cause more problems later on.
Your maintenance team could be just one person, but they will have to know how to fix electrical and plumbing problems and be able to do any painting, woodworking, and other fixes that are needed from time to time. Like the property manager, your maintenance team may not need to be on standby all the time but may only need to be called in periodically to deal with issues as they crop up.
A word of advice, though- you should have your maintenance experts inspect the property every so often to look or issue before your guests find them. If you wait for a guest to report a problem with a leaking pipe, they will probably leave a bad review for you. It would be better if your maintenance personnel could find the issue while no one is staying at the property and fix it so the next guest doesn’t even know there was a problem at one time.
Final Thoughts
Running an Airbnb property remotely can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be stressful or frustrating. The tips we have provided here should help you manage your property well, even if you can’t be there personally to oversee it. You want happy guests, good reviews, and a property rental business that runs smoothly. If you plan to do these things ahead of time, you can have all of that.
