The 8 Most Common Problems During a Guest's Stay | The STRR Podcast #98 | Tim Hubbard

My team and I have managed almost 9,000 reservations to this date, which means we've managed almost 17,000 recorded guests. Probably more than that because not everyone records all their guests that are coming. And to communicate with all these guests, we've sent and received over 140,000 messages. That is a ton. I know, but don't get freaked out because we didn't send all of those. It's not that much work. We talk about that a lot on this show. A lot of those were automated, but a lot of them weren't as well. So this week I want to break down for you guys the top eight issues, questions, concerns that arise while your guests are staying at your property. So while they're staying there, not before, not after. And then we're also going to talk about five little bonus emergency ones that may come up when you're running your short term rental. Let's jump right in. Welcome to Short Term Rental Riches, where we'll discuss investing in real estate, but with a specific focus on short term rentals. To help you build wealth faster with as little headache as possible.

We are going to break down communications this week. This is part two of a three part series. A couple weeks ago we talked about top questions you will get before your guests arrive at your property. Top inquiry questions. This week we're going to talk about the top eight issues that may arise or very likely will arise the longer you run a short term rental. Now, not necessarily issues, but questions concerns, things that are going to pop up while your guests are at your property. And if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you know that my team and I have managed a heck of a lot of reservations. And to communicate with all those guests, we've sent retrieved over 140,000 messages. A lot of those were automated, but a lot of the ones that weren't automated were these questions issues that we're going to talk about this week. So let's go ahead and jump in. All right. And these aren't necessarily in order of most common, but they are. Questions are going to come up. So number one has to do with entry. We can't get in the door, we can't open the door. We can't find the door, we can't find the key, your digital door locks not working, something's happened with the entry and your guests are either having trouble getting into the property or maybe they couldn't find it. So that's number one. You're going to get asked this question a lot. So some of our older Guests, for example, don't have as easy of a time with the digital locks. Some people don't read the instructions, so they go to the wrong unit. So you will get asked that one. Number two, what is the WI fi password?

We put this everywhere and yes, people still ask it, but along with this question, we're going to kind of lump some of these together. Maybe someone just says your WI fi is not working or your WI fi is slow, so you're going to get questions around the WI fi. I highly recommend you make your WI FI password super easy. So ours is just relaxing. For example, don't make it like XJ capital O, you know, number sign. People are going to mess that up. So make it really easy to lessen the questions that you get and also make it easier for your guests. Number three, where do we park? Again, we put all of this info in our instructions in our digital guidebook. It's all over the place. But unfortunately, people don't read a whole lot. And the longer I do this, the less I think people are reading. Number four, can you bring us more linens, blankets, toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, whatever it is, can you bring us more supplies of something? So this is going to pop up at one point or another as well, or it may just be someone's asking for where you have more of it if it's already stored at your property. Number five, I can't get the blank to work. This could be the coffee machine, this could be the oven, the stove, an induction stove, the tv, Netflix, you know, whatever it is. I can't get blank to work. Usually that's centered around appliances of some sort. Could be laundry as well. Number six, and this is a common one, and this is probably the number one reason for bad reviews, but it has to do with cleaning. So you're going to get questions about cleaning no matter how clean your unit is. Everyone's got different standards and it's going to happen, believe me. There might be one single hair in a 5,000 square foot vacation home. You might have a guest ask you about it. So you're going to get questions around this, but it might come to you in different ways. So for example, a guest might smell some sort of cleaning chemical and want to know exactly what you use, because maybe they're allergic or they're sensitive to a certain cleaning chemical. Maybe they found a spot on a linen or something and they have an issue with that. Or maybe, maybe you just drop the ball and your unit's not that clean and they want a refund or they want to move to another unit. If you have a multi unit complex, so you're going to get questions around cleaning, just be prepared for that. Number seven, there's an issue with your actual unit and your guests ask if they can move. Do you have another unit available in town? We happen to have a lot of units in the same areas, so sometimes we can do this. But it could be for whatever reason, maybe it's too bright or they don't like the mattress, or they're just not comfortable with the place. It wasn't what they expected. No matter how well you put your pictures and your description, sometimes people show up to a place and it's just not what they expected. So they may ask you if they can move or if they can just straight up cancel their reservation. And number eight, this goes in line with number seven, but again it's if there was an issue with the property, can we get a refund? So people will ask that, or maybe they stayed for a couple days and the reservation changed or they had an emergency and they had to go somewhere and they want to cancel, they're going to ask if they can get a refund. Even though you have strict refund policies in place, they're still going to ask you if you're willing to negotiate with them on that. And that's up to you. Okay, so those are eight questions, issues, concerns, things that are going to come up in one way or another and your guests are going to ask you at some point. So we've got five little bonus ones here. And these are more emergencies. So these aren't going to happen. Hopefully these never happen. But I can promise you when you start doing thousands and thousands of reservations, pretty much everything's gonna happen. So not to freak you out, this is very, very rare and they're all manageable. So number one of the five, the hot water heater's not working, the AC is not working, a maintenance issue, that's what we're talking about. And this can be an emergency. If a guest is in town for a weekend and it's super hot outside and your AC goes out, well, they're gonna, they're gonna have to move. You can't sleep in 100 degree weather, you know, so you will have maintenance issues pop up. Number two, there's ants on the ground or I saw a cockroach or there's a giant spider somewhere. So we're talking about pests. These are going to come up too. And some people get a little freaked out easier than others. Some Properties have more pests if we're out in the forest versus an inner city.

But be prepared. That's something that's going to come up. Might want to have a pest policy. We have a lot of. We have a pest policy on a lot of our properties. Just keep up regular maintenance. So that will come up. Number three, what if a neighbor has a party or a neighbor is too loud? Well, that can come up too. And that can be sort of an emergency, right. If someone's trying to sleep and they're in town for work or whatever it is and their neighbor's super rowdy, well, I think that's kind of an emergency. It's something that needs to be handled last minute so that can come up. Number four, this hopefully never happens, but it's possible and that is robbery or vandalism or something happens to the property. If you're in an inner city area, probably more likely that a car gets broken into or something like that. Hopefully none of your properties get broken into while a guest is in there. That would be no bueno. Not good. But it is possible. So we need to have policies in place to answer these questions if things do come up. And number five, hopefully this one never happens to you guys and I knock on wood. I really hope I'm not jinxing myself here, but after almost 9,000 reservations, no one has gotten injured on our properties. Gosh, I feel like I just jinxed myself. Hopefully I didn't. Of course we have insurance and everything to cover this, but yeah, what if someone gets injured on your property? Nope, I take that back. We did have someone injured, but it was self inflicted. I'll save that story for another time. So yeah, what if someone slips? If you're an area with a lot of snow, just got to be cognizant of these things that can happen. So if you're in this for the long run, these questions, these concerns are going to come up. So it's better that you have the answers for them up front versus trying to come up with them on the cusp, especially if it's one of these emergency ones. So I hope you guys are doing great out there. Hopefully your portfolios are doing well, staying booked, earning high revenues. And until next time, have a wonderful day.

Sam.