How to Automate your Serviced Accommodation Business
Managing a serviced accommodation business can be incredibly rewarding, but it also comes with its fair share of challenges—especially when you scale up. I learned this first-hand while overseeing a 105-apartment block in Peterborough, valued at £11 million. Initially, it was either sold off or let on conventional AST’s, but I successfully convinced the property owners to convert a third of the units into serviced accommodations.
This move unlocked immense revenue potential - by the time I left these 35 properties were almost matching the total revenue from the other 70 units, but it also revealed the complexities of managing a large-scale operation. Busy periods quickly highlighted the risk of double bookings, late check-outs, and rooms not being adequately prepared on time. Fortunately, automation was the game-changer that transformed the chaos into a well-oiled machine.
In this article, I'll share my experience and walk you through how to automate every aspect of your serviced accommodation business to avoid common pitfalls, streamline operations, and improve the overall guest experience. By focusing on keywords like "how to automate my serviced accommodation business," we'll explore best practices that can give your business a competitive edge.
Why Automation is Crucial for Serviced Accommodation
Managing serviced accommodations can become overwhelming, especially as the number of units increases. Without automation, you face challenges like:
Double Bookings: Booking overlaps can lead to dissatisfied customers and potential financial losses.
Late Check-outs: Inconsistent check-out times can delay housekeeping and disrupt the next check-in.
Room Readiness: Ensuring rooms are cleaned and stocked promptly is crucial for maintaining a high standard.
These issues can harm your reputation and drain your resources. Automation helps to manage everything from bookings to guest communication, payments, and maintenance with greater accuracy and less manual intervention.
Booking Management: Streamlining Reservations to Avoid Double-Bookings
In my experience, double bookings were a frequent concern during high-demand periods. To avoid this, I turned to property management systems like Smoobu, which centralized all my reservations across multiple platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo. Smoobu syncs availability in real-time, preventing double bookings while managing all guest communication from a single dashboard.
Competitors to Consider:
Uplisting: Offers channel management, automation tools, and a central calendar to prevent double bookings.
Guesty: Provides a wide range of features for booking management, automation, and integrations with major booking platforms.
Lodgify: Focuses on creating custom websites and managing bookings from multiple sources, ideal for boosting direct bookings.
With these systems, you can set up automated booking confirmations, cancellations, and reminders for guests, eliminating the risk of human error.
Automating Guest Communication for a Better Experience
Consistent communication is essential in the serviced accommodation business. Automation tools like Smoobu and Uplisting allow you to set up templates for:
Booking Confirmations: Automatically send a confirmation message as soon as a booking is made.
Pre-arrival Information: Schedule emails or SMS messages with check-in instructions, property details, and local tips.
Post-stay Follow-ups: Send automated thank-you emails and encourage reviews to boost your property's online reputation.
These automated interactions not only enhance the guest experience but also free up your time, allowing you to focus on strategic growth.
Smart Check-In Solutions: Reducing Manual Interventions
To streamline the check-in process, consider installing smart locks and self-check-in solutions. These systems allow guests to check in at any time without needing staff assistance, reducing late-night callouts and operational costs. Popular options include:
August Smart Lock: Integrates with booking management systems and provides temporary access codes to guests.
Yale Assure Lock: A reliable smart lock with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, perfect for remote access control.
Nuki Smart Lock: Known for its easy installation and compatibility with various property management systems.
Smart locks eliminate the need for manual key handovers and allow you to monitor entries and exits remotely.
Housekeeping Automation: Keeping Rooms Ready Without the Stress
One of the biggest pain points in managing serviced accommodation is ensuring that rooms are cleaned and prepared on time, especially during busy seasons. Housekeeping automation tools like TurnoverBnB integrate with property management systems to schedule cleanings automatically when guests check out.
Key Features of Housekeeping Automation:
Automated Scheduling: Sync check-out times with your cleaners' schedule to ensure prompt room turnover.
Checklists and Reports: Provide cleaning staff with digital checklists for each unit, ensuring nothing is missed.
Communication: Automatically notify housekeeping teams of changes or cancellations to avoid confusion.
With automated housekeeping management, I was able to reduce turnaround times and improve guest satisfaction by ensuring rooms were always ready on schedule.
Automated Maintenance Management: Staying Ahead of Repairs
To keep your serviced accommodation in top condition, automating maintenance tasks is a must. I recommend using platforms like Breezeway, which allows you to set up maintenance checklists, automate inspections, and manage repairs efficiently. This ensures that issues are dealt with promptly, preventing them from escalating into costly problems.
Automating Pricing for Maximum Revenue
Dynamic pricing tools can significantly increase your revenue by adjusting rates based on demand, local events, and occupancy levels. In my own experience, dynamic pricing solutions helped us capture additional revenue during peak seasons without having to manually adjust rates.
Recommended Pricing Tools:
PriceLabs: Offers data-driven pricing suggestions and integrates with major property management systems.
Beyond Pricing: Known for its intuitive interface and powerful algorithms for short-term rentals.
Wheelhouse: Provides customizable pricing strategies with detailed analytics to maximize profitability.
Automated Marketing: Attracting More Guests with Less Effort
To maintain a steady flow of bookings, use automation to market your serviced accommodation effectively:
Email Marketing: Automate email campaigns to previous guests with special offers and loyalty discounts using tools like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign.
Social Media Scheduling: Use tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to automate your social media posts, showcasing your property’s features, local attractions, and guest testimonials.
PPC Campaigns: Utilize tools like Google Ads to run pay-per-click campaigns and retarget previous visitors with automated ad campaigns.
Automating marketing efforts saves time while ensuring a consistent flow of leads.
Automating Payments and Invoicing
Collecting payments manually can be time-consuming and prone to errors. By using payment automation tools, you can collect payments securely and generate invoices without any manual effort. Integrate platforms like Stripe or PayPal with your property management system to automate this process.
Benefits of Payment Automation:
Secure and instant payments
Automated invoicing and receipts
Easier tracking of income and expenses for accounting purposes
Data Analytics: Measuring Success and Optimizing Operations
Finally, leveraging analytics tools can help you measure the success of your automation efforts and identify areas for improvement. Property management systems like Smoobu and Uplisting provide in-depth analytics on occupancy rates, booking channels, revenue, and guest demographics.
Key Metrics to Track:
Occupancy Rates: Monitor how well your units are performing and identify low-performing periods.
Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR): Calculate the average revenue generated per room to measure profitability.
Guest Satisfaction: Use automated follow-up surveys to gather feedback and improve your service.
Managing a serviced accommodation business can be a daunting task, but automation makes it manageable and scalable. In my experience, using automation tools transformed a high-risk operation into a seamless and efficient business. By implementing booking management systems like Smoobu, automating communication, utilizing smart check-in solutions, and streamlining housekeeping, you can reduce operational headaches and focus on growing your business. These tools not only help avoid common pitfalls like double bookings and unprepared rooms but also give you the power to scale your operation without losing control.
If you’re looking to take your serviced accommodation business to the next level, automation isn’t just an option—it’s a necessity. Leverage the available technology, learn from industry best practices, and you’ll be well on your way to maximizing efficiency and profitability.
With the right automation tools in place, you can achieve peace of mind knowing that your business is running smoothly, even during the busiest times.
Using AI to Triage Guest Issues: Automating Communication and Streamlining Operations
AI technology has advanced to the point where it can play a crucial role in automating guest communication and triaging issues, making it feasible to manage a serviced accommodation business without a large team. By leveraging AI, you can handle a significant portion of guest inquiries, complaints, and requests, ensuring that only the most complex or urgent issues require human intervention. This enables you to scale your Airbnb or serviced accommodation business more efficiently, without having to hire numerous employees for 24/7 support.
How AI Can Triage Guest Issues
AI can be trained to understand common guest issues, interpret the context of inquiries, and determine the best course of action. Here's how AI can make a difference in guest communication:
Automated Response to Common Queries:
AI chatbots can be integrated with your booking platforms or website to handle frequently asked questions (FAQs) such as check-in times, parking information, Wi-Fi details, or directions to the property.
Tools like Intercom or Zendesk use AI-powered chatbots that can answer typical guest queries in real-time, minimizing the need for human involvement.
This not only saves time but also ensures a consistent, professional response to common queries.
Issue Categorization and Prioritization:
AI can analyze guest messages to detect the urgency of an issue. Natural Language Processing (NLP) can be employed to categorize inquiries into levels of importance, such as "urgent," "routine," or "non-critical."
AI-powered systems can automatically escalate more critical issues—like maintenance emergencies or booking errors—to the appropriate personnel while managing low-priority matters on its own.
AI triage ensures that urgent guest needs are addressed promptly, while routine inquiries can be handled without human oversight.
Decision-Making and Automated Task Assignment:
AI can recommend the appropriate action based on the nature of the issue. For instance, if a guest reports a malfunctioning appliance, AI can automatically generate a maintenance request and assign it to the right contractor or team member.
AI-driven systems can even monitor response times and follow up with guests to ensure issues are resolved satisfactorily, all without requiring human involvement unless necessary.
Integrating AI with property management systems like Smoobu or Uplisting allows automated scheduling of repairs, rescheduling of cleaning services, or notifying guests if additional assistance is required.
24/7 Support Without Extra Staff:
One of the biggest advantages of AI is that it operates around the clock. Even if you manage multiple properties, AI chatbots can handle simultaneous conversations with multiple guests, significantly reducing response times and improving the guest experience.
AI-driven platforms like Tawk.to, Freshdesk, or Conversica are designed to handle guest communication efficiently, providing automated assistance whenever needed.
AI-Driven Sentiment Analysis:
AI can be trained to recognize the sentiment behind a guest's message. If a guest is expressing frustration or dissatisfaction, the system can prioritize the issue for immediate attention, flagging it for a human manager if needed.
Positive interactions can be used to automate follow-up requests for reviews, feedback, or to upsell additional services or future stays.
This reduces the likelihood of negative reviews impacting your online reputation and ensures that guests feel heard and valued.
Advanced AI Tools for Guest Communication:
Platforms like ChatGPT API or OpenAI provide AI capabilities that allow for natural, conversational interaction with guests. These tools can be programmed to offer more personalized responses, adapting to the guest’s tone and language, thereby providing a human-like experience.
For complex or unique scenarios, AI can automatically alert you or your team, ensuring that no critical situation is left unresolved while still handling 80-90% of routine communication on its own.
Benefits of AI-Driven Guest Communication for Your Business
By using AI to triage guest issues and automate communication, you can transform the way your serviced accommodation business operates. Here are the key benefits:
Cost Reduction: Significantly lower your operational costs by minimizing the need for a large customer service team. AI can handle the bulk of routine inquiries, so you only need staff for unique or urgent situations.
Improved Efficiency: AI speeds up response times, ensuring that guests get timely answers to their questions and reducing wait times during busy periods.
Scalability: As your business grows, AI can scale with it without requiring additional hires. Whether you manage a handful of properties or dozens, AI can handle the increased communication load seamlessly.
Consistency: AI ensures that all guests receive consistent information, reducing the likelihood of misunderstandings or miscommunication, which is particularly valuable in larger-scale operations.
Enhanced Guest Experience: Quick responses and accurate information contribute to a smoother guest experience, resulting in higher satisfaction, better reviews, and more repeat bookings.
Implementing AI for Full Automation in Serviced Accommodation
While human interaction will always have its place, AI can now handle a wide range of guest communication tasks, from booking inquiries to maintenance scheduling and even check-out reminders. By automating these functions, you can manage your Airbnb or serviced accommodation business more effectively, even as it scales.
As AI technology continues to improve, the possibilities for automation will only expand, making it easier for property managers to focus on strategic growth and guest satisfaction without being overwhelmed by daily operations. By investing in the right AI tools, you can build a streamlined, fully automated operation that enhances the guest experience while reducing your workload and costs.
