When you’re first starting an Airbnb business, there a lot to learn. I have been hosting since 2019 when I bought my first short term rental property. One thing that I have learned over the years is that having great Airbnb host tools in place to help automate as much as you can is key.
Being an Airbnb host starts with great hospitality. There is really no way to completely eliminate the human interaction in the short-term rental industry. But, having systems in place to automate or semi-automate certain aspects of an Airbnb business will really help streamline the day to day work. Add one or all of these Airbnb professional hosting tools and you’ll be ahead of the game.
In this post, we’re going to talk all about the best Airbnb tools that are really worth it. I am personally using all of these in my own short term rental business and am here to share everything that I’ve learned along the hosting journey.
Most of these third party offerings are free or cost minimal to get started. Full property management systems can become expensive and are sometimes unnecessary by adding a few of these Airbnb professional hosting tools to your toolkit!
TurnoverBnb
TurnoverBnb is the best and smartest way to find cleaners, automatically share your Airbnb calendar for scheduling, make payments, and get status updates during each turnover.
Originally, I heard about TurnoverBnb from my very first cleaner I used. She cleaned my first Airbnb property for about a year before she decided to move out of the area.
When she notified me that she wouldn’t be able to take care of my turnovers anymore, she told me about an app called TurnoverBnb. I instantly loved the concept and couldn’t wait to check it on.
I was in need of a new cleaning company pretty quickly. That same day, I signed up for a free account and searched the marketplace on TurnoverBnb. The search results returned so many reliable options in my immediate area for cleaners that specialized in short term rentals – it was perfect!
Within 2 days, I found a new cleaner, interviewed and hired them, and connected them with my Airbnb calendar through the TurnoverBnb app.
If you’re just starting and looking for a new cleaner, using the TurnoverBnb channel manager for cleaners is reliable and quick.
This is definitely one of the must have tools to use for all of your Airbnb listings. One of the best parts is that it’s free for property owners if you find a cleaner from their site! If you use rental property managers, they would also benefit from this tool for Airbnb hosts.
Oh and it’s not JUST for Airbnb. They are also integrated with VRBO and other vacation rental platforms.
They have a great app that you can use if you’re on the go. Enable notification and find out when your cleaners start each project.
Here’s a little video I did for their Instagram page last year!
Wayfair Professional
Wayfair Professional should be a known thing for everyone to sign up for! It’s free for any small business owner (like us Airbnb hosts!) and can give amazing discounts on items to furnish, stage, and stock your property. This is a must-have tool and costs 0$ to create an account.
I’ve always used Wayfair to find décor for my own home and continued to use it when I started my Airbnb business. Wayfair professional takes it to a whole other level with it’s short term rental specific selections, discounts for professional accounts only, and dedicated customer service team.
Use Wayfair Professional to find everything including bedding, mattresses, kitchen essentials, and more.
They also offers special financing for professional members. There are options for a credit card or bank account specifically designed to fit your short term rental business needs
Stessa
Stessa is a hidden gem tool to help you keep track of your rental income and expenses. It’s simple, easy to use, FREE, and can integrate with most of your online banking systems and credit cards.
Essentially Stessa is a system designed specifically for any type of rental properties (not just short term rentals) to track, categorize, and report your income and expenses.
You can add each property that you manage and/or own in this single platform. You’ll have to ability to see your numbers for your entire portfolio or at an individual property level.
This is one of the property management tools that has saved me valuable time from day 1. You NEED (yes, need) an easy way to keep track of the money coming in and going out, especially for tax time.
Tracking Airbnb income, repairs, and capital expenses consistently will only help in the long run… and you will be very happy you did! I wrote a whole post about this topic here.
I’m sure there are other more complex revenue management solution options out there but this one is by far my favorite for it’s simplicity.
Canva
What is Canva exactly? A free or professional level tool to create customized graphics.
Why do you need something like this tool as an Airbnb host? As you may already know, there is a need to create material for each Airbnb property like a house manual, rental guest signs, and social media posts for marketing.
Canva is a free way to have a template for each of these items and be able to re-use them for future properties! They also offer a premium version that includes more photo options, templates, and fonts.
Facebook Groups
Don’t overlook this free tool if you think it’s silly off the bat! Finding a Facebook Group for other short-term rental hosts in your immediate area or state can be really beneficial.
When you’re having a problem with a guest, have a question about local regulations, or are looking for a new cleaner or handyman…. posting a question in a Facebook group will really help!
A lot of counties will have other local hosts that grouped together to start a Facebook group. For example, my short term rental properties are all in Palm Beach County and there is a group called Official Palm Beach County Airbnb Host Community.
Joining one of these specific to your area, they will also post about local events for sharing ideas.
Automated Message Templates
The good news is that Airbnb has built in scheduled messaging now! When I first started hosting in 2019, this wasn’t a feature yet. About a year later, this screen for “scheduled messages” became available and I couldn’t wait to set it up.
This allow you to create message templates that you want to send to guests for certain scenarios. You can set a schedule for the timing of when it’s sent out.
This is one of my favorite Airbnb host tools that is already built into the platform! The only drawback is that if you’re also listed on other places like VRBO, this is not available yet.
They are also property specific so you can have different automated messages for each Airbnb property on your account.
You’ll definitely let the guest know that you care by sending thorough information. Get better reviews because of it, too! You can manage these on the website or on the Airbnb app.
There are a lot of different scenarios where you may need to send out a scheduled message. To start, I recommend creating the following messages and setting an automated schedule:
- Booking confirmed message: Send a thank you message one a booking is confirmed. This lets the guest know that they are welcome at your property.
- Check in information: Send a comprehensive message one day prior to the guests check in with things like house rules, address, parking information, and how to access the property.
- Check out message: Send a message the night prior to the check out date with things like check out procedures and a “thank you for staying” note.
Smart Pricing Tools
Pricing your Airbnb can be a tricky subject. There is no clear cut answer on what your price should be every single day of the year. Depending on your market, you may rely on seasonality or weather, and things can fluctuate year to year with the economy.
AirDNA Smart Rates can help you put your pricing on auto pilot. This is a paid feature but you can sign up for a free trial and test it out for yourself. They take it beyond pricing and include occupancy, rate, and lead time information too.
Market demand is one of the top things to keep an eye on for your pricing strategy. It’s hard to predict this manually. You want to get the best price per night that you can.
That’s why using a dynamic pricing tool that uses data to set your pricing is one of the best tools you can invest in.
NOTE: Airbnb does have it’s own built in “smart pricing” feature but I do not recommend using this. If you do, keep a close eye on what price guests are booking at.
On another topic, AirDNA is also my go to software for analyzing potential properties. They’re using well thought out machine learning to predict how well a certain place will perform on Airbnb. I definitely recommend looking on here before purchasing anything.
I always use the AirDNA rental software. It’s a great market research tool for everything, not just it’s smart pricing module.
Smart Devices
By adding any smart devices to your short-term rentals, you are enhancing your control and visibility to the property without being there. This makes managing an Airbnb remotely a whole lot easier.
One of the most important smart devices to use are rental friendly smart locks. The days of a physical key exchange with your guests should be over. Use a keyless entry with a keypad lock for easy self check in for every renter.
Most smart lock options for Airbnb will be Bluetooth or Wi-fi enable. You can see when guests enter and exit your property making it easier to see check ins, check outs, and when your cleaning team arrives.
Recap of our top Airbnb tools to start using today!
- TurnoverBnb – Find, manager, and pay your cleaners
- Wayfair Professional – Short term rental furniture and decor at discounted prices
- Stessa – Manage your Airbnb finances
- Canva – Create materials like house manuals and social media
- Facebook Groups – Get ideas from other like-minded hosts in your area
- Automated Message Templates – Send repeated guest communication like check-out procedures automatically
- Smart Pricing Tools – AirDNA: Nightly prices set up with the market and travel fluctuating
- Smart Devices – Create more visibility to your property without being there like with a keyless entry smart lock
We hope you enjoyed this post! If you know a fellow Airbnb host who needs some of these tools, share this with them!
Sam Hirst
Tuesday 12th of September 2023
Hey Melissa!
I love the article! It is very well written and explains how these tools help very well.
I just wanted to let you know about our new hosting tool called IntelliHost (https://intellihost.co) which is a listing optimization software for hosts. We launched just 5 or so months ago, and have already been able to help thousands of hosts across the world.