Essential Website Features for Starting Rental Property Maintenance Business

Airbnb has given homeowners a great way to monetize their houses by turning them as peer-to-peer rentals. However, this very P2P nature of the marketplace leaves a void in it. For most Airbnb hosts, keeping their rentals ready for guests is a huge pain in the neck. And that’s where short-term rental maintenance service providers like Pillowhomes, Guesty, Proprly, and Urban  Bellhop jump-in to ease the troubles of homeowners.

These technology-driven rental property maintenance platforms are in full swing in American and European Markets. And since Airbnb and other P2P home rental services are continuously spreading their market reach, websites like Pillowhomes & Guesty are in huge demand across the globe. This is a marketplace that aspiring entrepreneurs must watch out for.

So, here are the details – business model, website features, and recommendations – that you would need to build an advanced short-term rental property maintenance business.

Let’s begin by understanding its business model first.

Business Model

In simple terms, this is a marketplace dedicated to provide hospitality services to short-term rentals listed on websites like Airbnb, HomeAway, and VRBO. It basically ensures that listed rentals earn owners more money by attracting more guests. So, like typical hotels need hospitality firms, Airbnb listings need website like Pillow & Guesty.

Here is how things work on short-term rental maintenance platforms:

• Hosts list their rentals on the website by connecting their Airbnb or any other P2P home rental account
• Website automatically calculates rental value (per night) based on the fetched information
• After that, a free onboard meeting is scheduled between host and the in-house hospitality team to learn about hosts’ requirements and rentals’ details.
• Then onwards, the hospitality team handles all the tasks related to rental booking, which include:
• Professional cleaning services before and after guest stay (with the help of local independent contractors)
  – 24/7guest assistance on host’s behalf
  – Guest screening & guest booking management
  – Receiving guests, key exchange, etc.
  – Rental listing optimization on Airbnb, HomeAway and VRBO to attract more guests
  – Updating rental price regularly using a well-worked-out algorithm
• In return of all these services, these websites charge a certain percentage of the income produced by the rental on each booking. (Note that host have to pay professional cleaners separately)

The business idea is particularly very thoughtful since sharing economy (P2P marketplaces) has given rise to the collaborative usage of resources but so far less attention has been paid to the maintenance of these resources.

Now that we have a clear picture of the business model, let’s move on to website features to see how all these services should be incorporated into an online platform, and gather some handy insights for an advanced short-term rental maintenance service clone script.

Website Features

Before we begin to elaborate on various website features and its UX design, let’s first get a rough idea on what ingredients would we need to create such a website. Here is a brief list:

• Content based pages for About, Terms, Policy & FAQ
• An informative ‘How It Works’ page or section on homepage
• A blog that features posts on industry related topics – news, tips, etc.
• A gateway for professional cleaners (independent contractors) to get themselves registered on the website
• OAuth for Airbnb/HomeAway/VRBO (OAuth is an open standard for authorization that allows third-party applications to access limited user information from an online resource. For instance, there are several third-party applications that use your Facebook account information to run.)
• A secure payment gateway that also stores hosts’ credit details.

Alright, that much should do for now. Now, let’s explore the website features at a deeper level.

Also Read: Business Model and Feature Analysis of a Property Listing Website

Homepage UX Focus

Homepage should have everything to engage visitors and build trust. Here are the major homepage highlights:

• Banner image with effective website message with a catchy CTA
• Brief description of different services provided
• How It Works section with an informative video (if possible)
• Under How It Works section also explain visitors how they can save lots of time by using your services
• Pricing details to keep things transparent
• Client testimonials, service reach, and an effective CTA at the bottom of the page (just above the footer area)
• Apart from these, footer area should feature quick links to all your offered services, blog and content based pages, etc.

Overall, your homepage as a whole should set a fine example of UX design implementation. Make sure the clone script you use to build your home rental maintenance website, has such qualities.

Build trust, generate leads & boost sales with good UX design
Check packages

Registering Rental

The listing of a rental should be included in the signup process itself since your target audience includes only those who have an Airbnb or similar listing. You can divide the rental registration process into steps in which homeowners would be required to provide following details:

• Address, basic features & amenities
• Personal and contact information
• Scheduling meeting with the hospitality team
• Setting availability calendar
• property description & photographs
• payment details
• Option to link the account with their Airbnb (or similar) listing

In case the visitor doesn’t already have an account on Airbnb and other P2P home rental sharing website, then offer a feature to assist them in creating one. You can charge users for this service additionally.

Besides that, also offer the feature to list the second rental since most Airbnb users have multiple properties listed on the site.

User Account Options

The user profile should have all the necessary options to enable users manage their activities on the website easily. Here is the list:

• Profile & account management option
• Edit property details
• Manage notifications
• Manage credit details
• Record of all properties
• Record of all reservation (past, ongoing & upcoming)

Features for Cleaners

To run the business, you will need to hire independent contractors for the house cleaning jobs. And it makes perfect sense to use the website for the purpose. The cleaner landing page again should be well-thought-out and engaging like the homepage. The page should feature various benefits of partnering with your website and should also provide the information regarding the basic requirements that are needed to get registered.

The registration process for cleaners should be easy & quick. It should ask cleaners their personal details, professional details, availability, & service location. After that, you would need a team to verify whether the clearer is qualified enough to get listed with you.

Also Read: Build a Textbook Rental Website Around These Features and Business Model

Help/FAQ

Make sure you are ready with a comprehensive FAQ section before launching your short-term rental maintenance website. To simplify matters for users, you should nicely categorize it in different sections & sub-categories. Additionally, also include an option to allow users to ask new questions.

Offer Services as a la carte

Homeowners should be able to leverage your services as a la carte (only one out of many). This can boost your conversion considerably. But also keep in mind that then you would need a larger team to handle the requests. Currently, only NY-based Proprly offers this service. How about including this feature in your clone script?

Partnership with Cab Service

This is yet another innovative feature for this marketplace. Partner with a local car booking service (like Uber) to extend your hospitality service spectrum to airport pickup & delivery.

Friend referral program

Like most ecommerce businesses these days, you should offer a friend referral program. Most existing players of this booming marketplace are missing this feature. By including it in your script you can have an edge over them.

Offer Service to P2P Home exchange marketplace

There is another potential marketplace that all the existing short-term rental maintenance platforms are missing. GuestToGuest, LoveHomeSwap, and Knok create a peer-to-peer home-exchange marketplace, which pretty much is similar to the short-term rental marketplaces. By stepping into this marketplace, a huge amount of opportunities can be unlocked.

How much building a website like Pillow should cost you?
Ask Experts

Conclusive Remarks

All the players of this emerging marketplace primarily target local markets, so, there is no dearth of opportunities for startups in it. Secondly, as of now the future of Airbnb and P2P rental sharing economy is secure, so services of sub-Airbnb-economies like Pillow, Guesty, Proprly (and possibly yours) will always be in demand. So, launching a short-term rental maintenance business, by all means, is a very smart business idea.

If you have already made up your mind for building a clone website on this business model, then pay extra attention to the feature and business model upgrades we have mentioned in the post. Partner with experienced design and development professionals to undertake feature additions and upgrades.

Also Read: Build Platform to Rent Campsites and Open Spaces – Check Website Features and Business Model

Follow this work strategy, and success of your website is ensured, whether you launch it as a competitor of an existing platform or as a counterpart serving a different market.

Have any additional queries? Mention them in the comment section!