Airbnb Tips | Unexpected Bathroom Maintenance You'll Definitely Encounter! | Tim Hubbard

We are back. Thank you for joining me again for another week. I've got a great topic this week. Well, you might not think it's super great, but I will tell you it's super relevant to you and it is an important one. We're talking about wear and tear, specifically in the bathroom. And if there's one place that I can guarantee you at your property that's going to get used is it's the bathroom, right? So the more a certain space gets used, the more wear and tear it's going to have. Now of course that depends on how we have our bathrooms set up, but there are a few items I know, I know you are probably going to have a couple issues with. There are a few things that we need to keep around for our bathrooms that maybe you don't want your guests to see. And there's one replacement item I can almost guarantee you do not have that you want to have on hand if you haven't been doing this for a long time. I bet it hasn't coming up yet, but I can bet you it will. So let's just go ahead and get right into it. Welcome to Short Term Rental Riches. We'll discuss investing in real estate but with a specific focus on short term rentals. Quick actionable items to acquire, manage and scale your portfolio. I'm your host, Tim Hubbard. Our bathrooms get used a lot, right? Much more than say a little reading nook or an office or a spare bedroom or something. One of our properties, our bathrooms are getting used and that means there's going to be a little more wear and tear. So we know in the short term rental world we have a little more wear and tear on our properties. I've talked before in prior episodes of budgeting for this. Go back and check those out. We'll put the link in the show notes for that. But just a ballpark. If you have a three bedroom property, for example, you might want to reserve like $100 per room per month for maintenance items, things like that. And now the cool thing is the more properties we add in our portfolio, the lower the reserve we need for each of these properties because the chances of all these things happen at the same time isn't that high. Right? So the more properties we have, the lower reserve we need more per property. But just general ballpark, that's a pretty good figure. So what needs to be maintained in our bathrooms? Well, one that stands out more than other are towel racks. You know you've been to a place where the towel rack, it's a Little loose. Maybe it's come off the wall before, and you can see where it used to be installed in another spot. So towel racks get used a lot because they've got the towels on them and they also have pressure going on because people are pulling on the towels and sometimes they're, you know, putting their arms or their hands on the towel rack. So you've got to make sure that your towel rack is installed in a really secure spot in a stud. If you have drywall in the bathroom, it's got to be installed in a stud. Now, an alternative to a towel rack are just towel hooks, and those are much easier to install. You know, they don't have to be in a level spot because they're just individual hooks, right? So those are a lot easier to install instead. So consider that if you've had problems with your, with your towel bar, the other option is like a towel rack, you know, and that can go behind the toilet against the wall, and those can be a little more secure. While we're on the subject of towels, actually, there's kind of, you know, two ways to do this. You can either leave your towels on your bed, then you know your guests are going to find them, or you can leave them nicely rolled up or folded in the bathroom, where your guests will surely find them as well. Now, we like to leave them in the bathroom just because if we leave them on the bed, the guests are going to move them. They maybe, you know, we leave two towels on the bed and it's just one guest, they're definitely going to move both of them. They might throw them on the floor. And so we've got to wash them all every time. Now, if we have a bathroom stocked with a bunch of towels and they're nicely rolled up, it's easy for us to know if they haven't been used, if they're not laying on the floor or anything like that. But if you have any doubt, any doubt at all, make sure you wash them. Right. So we like to use towel racks, and I think they look really nice having a. Having a bathroom with some nicely rolled towels or hanging towels on your rack. Just gotta make sure your rack is installed in the right spot. So that is what one maintenance item that you will surely have an issue with if it's not installed properly. Another maintenance item that's bound to happen in your bathroom is in regards to drainage, a backup. The shower's backed up, the toilets backed up. That one's never fun, right? So there are some drainage options. Now, if you're doing a renovation, they sell drains that can go in your shower, for example, that have a little hair catcher and a little trap right underneath the drain. You just pop the top off and your housekeeper can make sure that that's cleaned out every time. Now, you got to make sure you talk to your housekeeper about that, right? Because if that little trap fills up and you have no one cleaning it out, well, then your, your drain is going to be backed up or your shower is going to be backed up, regardless. So I think those are helpful for keeping items in the drain that shouldn't be going down there and causing a bigger backup where you've got to call a plumber or something like that. So drainage is an issue. I'm gonna come back to drainage. I got a couple tips for that. But the third one, the third maintenance item, that if you haven't been doing this for a long time, it probably hasn't popped up yet, but I bet you it will. It's a toilet seat. Yeah, a toilet seat. Now, they're all made differently. There's plastic ones, there's wood ones, there's cheap wood ones and cheap plastic ones and. And expensive wood ones and expensive plastic ones. But if you have a plastic one, chances are one day a guest is going to sit on it and break it. If it's a wood one and it's not really high quality, depending on the chemicals that your housekeepers are using, it's probably going to take the paint off your toilet seat, so it's just not going to look that good. And then you want to replace it then, too. So a toilet seat, they're not expensive. Make sure you get one that fits your toilet and just have a backup laying around now, out of sight from the guest. Right. Or if you have a little storage spot, put it in there. But toilet seat, it's one of those things, and it's one of those things that we need. So if a guest comes in and they don't have a toilet seat or the toilet seat's broken, then that's, you know, you're gonna have to fix it right away. One more note on toilet seats. I know you've probably encountered this too, but when we sit down and the toilet seat moves a little bit, it's not tightened underneath. So they sell certain toilet seats now that have. That are much more secure, the. The two bolts in the back that hold it to the toilet. Spend a few extra 15, 20 bucks and get a toilet seat that you're not going to have to change as often, and that doesn't become loose. So that is one item that if you haven't been doing this for a while, it's probably going to come up. Another thing that happens too is the toilet seats are in the bathroom. A lot of times we're doing our hair in the bathroom. Curling irons, for example. Sometimes the curling irons gets. Get put right on top of the toilet seat and it's going to burn it or melt it if it's plastic. So go pick up an extra toilet seat, have it around. You'll thank me the day that it does break and you need to replace it really quickly. So those are three items. Now, let's come back to drainage. There's a couple things we want to have on hand for our guests, but we don't want our guests to see them. That's one, a plunger, and two, the little scrubber for the toilet. Now, why do we not want our guests to see these items? I'm just going to say it. I'm just going to go right out there and say it. Because when they see a plunger, they're thinking of poo. Yeah. They're thinking of feces. Of someone using that plunger in a toilet. Because the only time we need to use a toilet plunger is when the toilet's clogged. Right. So, yeah, a little gross subject, but that's exactly what our guests are going to be thinking. And we don't want them thinking that because that's going to be a bad experience for them. So make sure you have a toilet plunger and a scrubber, but don't leave it right next to the toilet. If you do have a nice size vanity, you can tuck it back in the corner, maybe even cover it with a bag or something like that. So it's not out there and it's not something that we're seeing. Now, the other thing that I've seen too, is that the little toilet scrubbers, they come with some cool little kits now where you can just have them both in the same thing. But if you pick those up sometimes, the toilet scrubbers, and there's actually water underneath the scrubber because it's been used recently, maybe by your housekeeper. That's gross, too. Your guests don't want to see that. None of us want to see that. So if you do have the scrubber, make sure your housekeepers and your housekeepers are using the scrubbers. Make sure. Make sure they're cleaning those and they're putting them out of sight and they're covering them up in a place where your guests aren't going to see them. We don't want our guests seeing that stuff. Now one other last quick tip for you. When it comes to drainage, something really easy to do is have a bottle of Drano or something, some sort of drain blockage liquid that you can have a housekeeper pour down a drain if it's starting to get a little slow, but it's not backed up. It's really easy to keep a bottle of that somewhere. You know, it's not super expensive and it can really help if it's just like a hair clog or something, one of the sinks or in the shower and you follow the directions. With Drano, that stuff can can really help and save a call from a guest or save you from calling a plumber when you didn't actually need to call plumber to come out and snake out a drain. So, you know, not, not the most exciting topic this week, but this is stuff that's just going to happen. Doesn't mean you have to deal with it personally. But whoever you have managing your properties for you, they need to know these things and your housekeepers need to know these things. So I hope you guys are doing really well out there. Thanks again for joining in and I will see you in one short week. Take care. If you're looking for a ton of free resources, well, you can check out the links in the show notes or or head to our website restmethods.com where you'll find free guides, house rules, and my ebook on finding the best short term rental properties. Thanks for tuning in.