Cady Stokes
*This content is sponsored by Travel Net Solutions (TNS)*
At VRMA Connect in Breckenridge last month, Executive Director of Vacation Rental Housekeeping, Durk Johnson, made the bold statement that housekeeping is the most important service and can have the largest impact on guest experience for your Vacation Rental Management Company (VRMC)—and he is not wrong. One of the most controllable factors when it comes to guest experience you have with your vacation rental software is your housekeeping and maintenance operations and how it communicates and interacts with your property management system (PMS) and reservation system.
Do you require your agents and operations staff to open multiple platforms to get one single message across departments? Or do you have a streamlined software which updates guest accommodations in real time? With industry trends putting guest experience at top of mind over price and location, how your guest feels treated during their stay is extremely important. Having innovative vacation rental software in place for your operations staff and front of house staff to communicate can be the game changer for your guest experience, as well as productivity levels. Learn how your housekeeping and maintenance procedures affect your guest experience.
Streamlined Vacation Rental Software
It is important that your vacation rental software is innovating at the speed the industry is changing, which is at a blistering pace. VRMC are going from 4 to 5 vendors, to one centralized platform creating high productivity rates and increased guest experience. This enhancement plays a large role in your housekeeping and maintenance.
Automate Tasks and Statuses
Having built-in housekeeping and maintenance automation tools in your vacation rental software will be beneficial for your internal and vendor workforce. For example, when a guest checks out of a home, the unit automatically becomes marked as dirty and can send a text message to the housekeeper that the unit is now ready to be cleaned. The housekeeper will move on to cleaning the unit. Once marked as clean, it can send a notification to the reservation’s platform that the unit is now ready to allow check-in for the next guest(s). This will increase guest experience by efficiently being able to communicate the status of their unit.
Powerful Integrated Tools
It is proven that staff who feel empowered with opportunity to grow and learn have higher productivity rates. Arm your employees with a powerful suite of integrated housekeeping and maintenance tools for your property care.
Create a Detailed SOP
It is important to have all teams on the same page when it comes to operating procedures. Having a standard operating procedure (SOP) will create efficient processes to help streamline operations for housekeeping and maintenance.
Implementing tools that work hand-in-hand with your SOP is ideal. Manage the complete life-cycle of housekeeping and maintenance with one simple, intuitive dashboard and reports. Automatically send text messages and email notifications to vendors and employees when work orders are assigned or updated and create tasks and checklists to ensure proper execution every time. Upload reference photos and notes on units for staging accuracy.
All of these components will follow the SOP. When communication, tools, and a centralized platform are utilized for housekeeping and maintenance, guest satisfaction will increase due to timeliness and solutions presented when problems occur.
Housekeeping and Maintenance are Part of the Team
Another point that Johnson made evident when speaking at VRMA Connect, was how important it is to treat your housekeeping and maintenance staff as part of the team. They should feel appreciated and understand how valuable they are for your VRMC to operate at an enterprise level.
Appreciating and recognizing your team in ways that motivate them will reap in the benefits. One of the main points that is impacted is guest experience. When you have happy workers, it creates a positive environment that is contagious. When a guest passes a housekeeper or maintenance team member that is friendly and truly valued for their job, they will create much more pleasant conversations with guests versus an employee who does not enjoy their job or the company they work for. Make sure to reward your housekeeping and maintenance teams so they know the large value they provide to create a successful operation.
