RueBaRue

How to Grow a Property Management Company

All ambitious property managers are in the business of expanding their operations, but how they expand often determines their success.

You can grow a property management business by focusing on getting new clients and retaining current ones, but without optimizing your internal operations, your business will stagnate.

For example, having all the customers in the world doesn’t mean anything if your system can’t support them, or can’t keep them happy.

That’s why sustainable growth is more than just about implementing property management marketing ideas . You also have to think about how your in-house operations support your overall marketing and business objectives.

Fortunately, with the help of communication automation tools, you’ll be able to maximize vacation rental income . By providing the same, consistent quality communication to all of your guests, you’re improving guest satisfaction and increasing repeat bookings.

If you’d like to find out more about how to grow your property management business by improving productivity and increasing ROI, read on.

ruebarue-cta-happier-guests-book-a-demo

6 ways to grow your property management business

1. Automate your guest communication

Property managers know how time-consuming answering common guest questions can be, like “Can we get a late check-out?”, “What’s the wifi password?”, and “How does the washing machine work?”

Responding manually to the same questions over and over can get repetitive and wastes your time. Instead, consider automating your guest communication to free up time better spent on scaling your business.

Guest communication software can help you:

You can also use RueBaRue to help guests efficiently report problems, or to automatically deliver guest surveys, door codes, instructions, and more bytext or email. Furthermore, you can offer guests the chance to extend their stays for a discounted price. This allows you to fill gap days in your calendar and maximize occupancy.

In addition to growing your business by sustaining excellent communication with guests, it’s also important to build and maintain a strong rapport with property owners .

Nurturing existing relationships will do wonders to boost ROI as it’s more expensive to acquire new leads and bookings than it is to nurture existing clients (more on this below).

Outstanding communication with your property owners will help fuel an infinite loop of happy guests, resulting in better reviews and repeat business, resulting in more happy guests and homeowners.

With RueBaRue, you can soon automate your owner communication, which can be paramount to constructive relationship-building, scaling your property portfolio, and achieving your booking rate targets with features like:

  • SMS automation
  • Digital guestbooks
  • Local area guides
  • Guest reviews
Screenshot of RueBaRue's scheduler feature

Scheduler feature example. Source: RueBaRue

By utilizing RueBaRue’s guest communication platform, you’re guaranteeing your guests and owners a standard of consistent, clear communication that sets you apart from other property management businesses and increases your chances of repeat business.

2. Build a hospitality brand

Branding your business is an important step in your marketing strategy. It not only helps your target audience recognize you but also helps them remember you. For instance, when a guest daydreams about a relaxing vacation in your destination, they should envision themselves staying at one of your rentals.

To effectively compete with hotels and other property management companies, you need to build a memorable brand for your business and apply it across everything you do.

A good brand represents a group of characteristics that can be identified time and time again. So, define what traits best communicate your company’s goals and values.

For example, your property management company might have a solid website and social media following, and send out email newsletters and blasts, but do they all reflect your company’s core principles? Do they all follow the same color scheme and flaunt your logo? Are they unmistakably recognizable? Can you clearly define how they’re interconnected and relevant to your brand?

When building a brand for your vacation rental business, consider these factors:

  • Your property type and specifics (e.g. condo, single-family, location, property themes, and more)
  • Your audience (e.g. property owners and guests)
  • Your desired niche (e.g.resort and vacation homes)
  • Your digital marketing strategies and marketing objectives
  • New guest experiences and services in your pipeline

Defining these particulars will help you revamp and realign your brand to your messaging while enabling you to pinpoint the right person for the right vacancy.

person using their phone for communication

Photo by John Tuesday on Unsplash

3. Market to guests

Having great occupancy rates while growing your property portfolio requires a comprehensive marketing plan. An effective marketing plan should involve generating valuable content that gratifies your target audience’s needs and matches your brand story.

However, to determine the needs of your target audience, you first have to define it. Consider the specific goals and pain points of your guests, then use that information to develop a resonating message—eliciting an emotional connection from your audience on the right channel, at the right time.

With targeted, personalized messaging, your guests will feel heard and appreciated, which increases guest satisfaction rates and review scores. Think about incorporating guest reviews into your marketing plan, using their words of praise in your favor.

4. Market to property owners

To effectively market your company to property owners, position yourself as a valuable authority on the topic of short-term rentals in your area.

Help answer property owners’ questions and act as an invaluable resource, and more property owners will turn to you for guidance and support—solidifying you as a thought leader in your domain.

A strategized SEO content marketing campaign could be fantastic for growing your business. Note, free tools like Google My Business ensure that your business details show up in Google’s result pages and maps, improving local SEO and as a result, conversion rates.

You can also offer extra services to owners that add to their experience. For example, if you’re using RueBaRue, be sure to market the fact that you use it to owners to show them you’re committed to providing a great property management service. Consider its acclaimed features with added benefits like:

  • Automated, customized messaging
  • Up-to-date information
  • One-click repeat bookings and extended stays
  • Customer satisfaction and recommendation
  • Heightened owner trust
screenshot of RueBaRue's messaging feature

Messaging feature sample. Source: RueBaRue

5. Focus on owner retention

Getting new owners is necessary for growth, but you also need to ensure that your current owners are happy and stay with you.

Vacation rental owner retention not only has the potential to maximize your vacation rental income but also maintain business growth by boosting ROI. In fact, studies have shown that it’s five times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.

So, consider your existing owners as an untapped resource in understanding the benefits of your service offering. Why did they stick with your service? If you can figure out what’s worked, you can begin to re-implement these tactics for other owners.

With guest communication tools, you can also be more diligent about owner reporting. Keep owners up to date on the latest bookings, success stories, maintenance issues, complaints, and pricing, or send them quarterly updates on their property’s performance, to add to their overall experience and build trust.

graphic of person holding up new keys

Photo by Maria Ziegler on Unsplash

6. Consider acquiring other property management businesses

One way for medium to large property managers to grow even bigger is to acquire other property management businesses—and this should be an influence on how smaller businesses develop their operations (as we discuss below).

A good example of this growth strategy is the southeastern US-based property management company VTrips, whose aggressive expansion has been attributed to acquiring smaller vacation rental businesses for years.

There’s no doubt it’s a good time to follow suit. A study by AirDNA found that in the US, short-term vacation rental demand is outpacing growth. Similarly, the gross revenue of short-term rentals is set to increase by 42% in the next 4 years.

Therefore, mergers and acquisitions of successful property management companies are a good way to take advantage of this growing demand.

As such, small, independent property management companies need to consider their technological abilities to stay relevant—or face being acquired by more sizable firms that opt to invest in new technologies and tactics.

If you’re a big property management firm, consider acquisition if you have funds to invest in buying out a smaller company in your area. However, be sure to verify that their property portfolio is in alignment with yours and with your brand so it can be easily rolled into your own.

If you’re a smaller property management business, consider investing in new tools like RueBaRue’s guest communication software, to help you tackle repetitive tasks, like guest and owner communication, to increase revenue and long-term viability.

Growing your property management business: Takeaways

An optimized internal strategy that prioritizes communication, mixed with client retention and acquisition methods, can considerably grow your property management business.

As a property manager, you want your guests and owners to feel they can contact you about anything at any time. So, use excellent communication tools as your property management differentiator.

With the right software, you’re ensuring all your guests’ and homeowners’ needs are met resulting in higher satisfaction rates, better reviews, and more repeat bookings.

And with communication tools like RueBaRue, you can handle repetitive messaging faster, gain more flexibility over your communication and scheduling, and start increasing revenue by offering extended stays and early check-in at the touch of a button. Free up your time to manage more properties and fewer messages.

FAQS

How do you expand a property management company?

Some property management growth strategies that improve productivity and increase ROI include:

  • Automating repetitive tasks as much as possible with a guest communication tool
  • Building up your hospitality brand to stay ahead of the competition
  • Creating a multi-channel marketing plan
  • Focusing on owner retention not only client acquisition
  • Expanding through business acquisition

What makes a property manager successful?

Some features of a successful property manager include:

  • Streamlined guest and owner communication tactics
  • A comprehensive marketing strategy
  • Owner retention strategies
  • Automated messaging
  • Clear, consistent updates
  • New services/tools in their pipeline

Why do I need guest communication software for my property management company?

Tools like RueBaRue guest communication software help property management companies:

  • Increase customer satisfaction and the overall number of bookings and properties that can be effectively managed
  • Save company time, resources, and costs
  • Respond faster to guest and owner communication
  • Rank better in review scores and get guest recommendations

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