What Do I Get For Your Airbnb Property Management Fees Cape Town      

Introduction

You have chosen your short term rental agency in Cape Town or wherever. You have asked all the questions but not the costs. And you want to know how much they charge for their services. What you must know is “what you get for your Airbnb property management fees Cape Town your rental agency charges”. 

They tell you they charge x% commission as a service fee and there is also a management fee. What? 

Let’s clarify how CapeHolidays provide functions for its Airbnb Property Management Fees Cape Town;

1. there is a management fee, which the guest pays most of, then there is an administration fee or service fee.
2. This agency service fee is what we will tell you all about today. It is calculated as a fixed percentage you pay per reservation. The x%.
3. There is a fee Airbnb charges.

Today, we will tell which functions CapeHolidays provide in exchange for the x%? (Service fee or admin fee as clarified above). 

Well, let’s assume you have time. 

Let’s start with the most obvious; marketing. 

Marketing Function: Airbnb Property Management Fees Cape Town

We promote and sell holiday stays in Cape Town. But this is a one-dimensional view. We sell an experience. We are a team with the owner. But we cannot sell it without trust. 

Our ability to sell a trustworthy stay is where we measure our success. The more evidence of trust the more guests stay with us. This creates demand. 

High short term rental demand in Cape Town leads to higher occupancy. And then we can increase rates which increase occupancy and income to the owner. 

We exclusively market and advertise through Airbnb. We also do direct reservations for returning guests. But we prefer Airbnb because it has all the guarantees to limit risks for owners and guests. 

We are always looking for additional avenues to market and sell but choose carefully. 

Note: It’s great to maximise owners income but never while exposing the holiday home to abuse. To do that we must have a successful pricing strategy. 

Pricing Strategy Airbnb Property Management Fees Cape Town

This is a continuous activity. Every week we do adjustments; either up or down. We work on demand. 

Most agencies use pricing tools to set rates automatically. Obviously, there are rules or boundaries set for these tools. It would make our life a lot easier not to adjust rates. It takes time to do it our way. 

We prefer the investment of our time and intimate knowledge of supply and demand; the cheapest rates are set two weeks in advance. This is because we expected these to be reserved already. Something went wrong; a cancellation or too high an expectation. 

Three to six months in advance and we set our best optimistic Airbnb rates. And a year from today we will be optimistic. If we get a reservation far in the future it’s time to increase the rates we set for this period. 

Combining dynamic Airbnb rates with long stay (max 28 days) discounts gives you the magic to increase income with less (expensive) changeovers. And with digital nomads the current trend, we have lots of long stays (28 days). 

Direct Booking Site: Airbnb Property Management Fees Cape Town

I mentioned returning guests and our various direct booking sites. These sites copy Airbnb and were created and are maintained to bypass Airbnb fees and get more for the owners.

Update Details On Sites

Undefined, or unidentified issues with your Airbnb home set expectations that will blow up in your face. We continuously improve the listing descriptions and rules to lower expectations. 

Guests would give us feedback, “the photos undersell the house. It’s a lot prettier!” Then we need to consider new photos. Or, 

“We loved our stay but the wind was bad!”. We will immediately add to the listing that guests should not be surprised by strong winds during the season. 

Other details to update are the calendar, rates, discounts etc.

Listing A Home: Airbnb Property Management Fees Cape Town

After we qualify the owner we can start the process to verify the home. 

Verify The Home Airbnb Property Management Fees Cape Town

We will meet with the owner and do an inspection of the house. Obvious issues are easy to identify. Like general maintenance of the house, age of the interior, cleanliness of the home. 

We check the location. For example, we were offered a 5-star property across from a fancy strip club. And we denied. Why? We must inform potential guests of the area and the club. This could affect the type of guests we attract. It’s just not worth it. 

After the initial inspection, another check is done on things like linen, cutlery, crockery, safety issues and general cleanliness. 

If the house passes the inspections we can present the T&Cs to the owner. 

Agree on T&Cs Airbnb Property Management Fees Cape Town

The T&Cs are a great opportunity to set mutual expectations. The owner’s obligations are set out. And we try to explain our functions as the responsible agent for the house. 

Also, T&Cs are not static. With experience, we improve and simplify it regularly. 

Staging And Photos 

Depending on the interior of the home we assist with simple staging. (Tips on staging)

Any elaborate staging or remaking of the interior carries a charge and will be discussed with the owner.

Photos are then taken by a professional interior photographer at a cost to the owner. The photos belong to the owner. 

Describe Airbnb home

A thorough description is critical. The guest must never be surprised. 

For example: if the home is on a horse farm explain the uncommon things you’ll find on a horse farm. You are trying to discourage guests who cannot tolerate horse neighing. Tell them the good and the bad. 

List The Features 

We then compile a list of all features; the number of bedrooms, size of beds, showers, baths, pool, oven, microwave, Netflix, Wifi speed, parking, and the list continues. 

Guest Reservations: Airbnb Property Management Fees Cape Town

Activities surrounding guest reservations never stop. It’s 24/7. 

They say the early bird catches the worm. Therefore… 

When we get a notification we immediately respond. Obviously, during the night there is a period where none of us is awake. 

Enquiry, Vetting and Accepting 

We either get a reservation request or receive an instant booking. 

A reservation request tends to be someone uncertain about something and requests more information or a guest who did not qualify for instant booking. 

For example, they want to stay longer and ask for a discount. Or they confirm the Internet speed. 

Guests who fail instant booking have no or few reviews or have poor reviews. We have to conduct our own verification by asking questions. Most times these guests are not accepted. 

An instant booking for automatic qualifying guests is easy. But, we have an obligation to verify the guest after the fact. If we are not happy with any aspect of the check we can cancel the reservation penalty-free. 

With a reservation request we also verify the guest; ask questions and read their previous reviews other hosts have left. If all is good, we approve. 

Welcome and Things To Do eBook For Cape Town 

As soon as the reservation is confirmed the guest gets notified immediately where we thank them, give them a list of what to expect and when to expect it. 

We also share a comprehensive Things To Do eBook. The ebook explains first-day arrival info; where to shop on their way to the home, money, etc. Then fun things to do per suburb and other general information. 

Extra Guest Requests 

Guests require cots, then they want us to recommend restaurants, others need shuttle services. These requests are 24/7. This is why we created the things to do ebook. But not all read it.

Actual Arrival Departure

This is mostly a management function but from an administrative point, we have a few functions. For example:

• Get the guests’ arrival info. 
• Share the information with the hosting team. 
• Share the address of the house and host contact details with the guest. 
• After departure, send an email to the guest thanking them for staying and asking them to give us a 5-star review. 

Reviews: Airbnb Property Management Fees Cape Town

Feedback: Guest behaviour and reviews. 

The host shares their impression about the guest’s behaviour and we review each guest. 

Airbnb Guest’s Review

As soon as the guest reviewed us we thank them for the review and address objections they may have had during their stay. 

Each review and guest rating is emailed to the team and owner. 

Management: Airbnb Property Management Fees Cape Town

The management function (interface with guest and home in a physical sense) is separate from these administrative issues relating to managing the property and guests. 

Schedule cleaning roster

Depending on the arrival and departure date, and length of stay the management team gets a schedule to clean the home. 

Maintenance Schedule

Planning for maintenance is scheduled and discussed with the management team. 

Maintenance Incidents

Unplanned maintenance issues can have a devastating impact on guest relations. And a team of dedicated maintenance providers are on standby to fix problems at short notice. Planning these with guests involve the management and administrative team. 

Additional Services: Airbnb Property Management Fees Cape Town

How do our Homeowners and staff get paid? What about issues we prefer to avoid if we could? 

Guest Incidents

A small fraction of stays ends up with a guest not behaving well. Or they caused an accident by breaking something. 

Occasionally, a guest may have an objection. Or very infrequently we may have to intervene when there are noisy guests or neighbours having an issue. 

Complaints

By having a system to continuously improve the home guest complaints are very few. Some may suggest upgrades to pots or cutlery or sharpening knives. 

Breakages or losses. 

Small breakages occur. Losses may occur. Linen may be stained. 

In these cases, the host gathers evidence and get quotes to fix or replace the items. The administration team then liaises with the guest to pay. If the guest refuses to pay Airbnb is involved and they decide. 

Extra Requests By Owners. 

• Assist foreign owners with getting bank accounts. 
• Pay monthly property running costs for foreign owners. 
• Pay owners vacation costs from the kitty when required. 
• Create invoices for the banks for non-resident owners income to authorise the release of the funds. 
• “Hi, I need to find an attorney!”, or an accountant. Please recommend.

General Payments and Costs:

As soon as a reservation is made the owner is notified; the arrival and departure dates, the name of the guest, and the confirmed payment for the reservation. 

The income cost statement is updated with the owner’s income, and the change over fee is credited to the owner. 

As soon as a changeover occurs the owner statement is debited. And any other cost for essentials, maintenance, running costs is debited. 

The income cost statement is always current. And the owner can view all past, current and future incomes, costs and occupancy 24/7.

Receiving money

Guest stay payments are released 24 hours after the arrival. Then it takes a few days to receive the money. 

Payout To Owners

It’s then allocated to the owner and payment updated on the income cost statement. And the bank transfer is made. This is normally within 24 hours give or take weekends. 

Training of hosts and owners: 

We cannot achieve our goals if our hosts and owners are not educated. They must understand our strategy. And without their support, we will fail. Training is a continuous effort; via our newsletters, our internal WhatsApp groups and one on one feedback. 

Summary 

I am sure you have a better idea now what functions we provide regarding Airbnb property management fees Cape Town:

We have, first of all, explained the difference between the management function and the service function. 

The management function is the physical activities regarding the house; maintaining and improving it, then we this writing is all about the service (or admin) functions. 

• The management function’s cost is mostly covered by a once-off guest paid fee. 
• The service fee is the x% paid by the owner to CapeHolidays performing all of the functions above. 

Measure Of Success Airbnb Property Management Fees Cape Town

Whatever function we perform we do this to ensure a 5 star home; at all times the home must improve within reason. 

We expect all our functions to generate a better income for the owner. But we cannot achieve this without ensuring happy guests. And we measure our success in positive reviews and 5-star ratings from each guest. 

P.S. Obviously the above does not explain all the functions we provide managing the home and looking after guests. That article we can write.