How a Virtual Assistant Can Streamline Your Airbnb Business
Scaling doesn’t matter until it matters.
If you clicked on this blog, it’s fair to assume you are reaching an inflection point in your Airbnb business. Your responsibility has gone beyond just being an Airbnb Host as you take on more and more properties.
Across all of your listings, you now have to handle guest inquiries, respond to reviews, and more. But now you are spending so much time on these guest communication tasks that you have little time to continue to grow your vacation rental business. Enter virtual assistants.
In this blog you will learn what a virtual assistant does, platforms that post virtual assistant jobs, how much an Airbnb Virtual Assistants cost, and even what alternatives to consider when thinking about bringing on a VA.
Let’s get started. This is how a virtual assistant can streamline your Airbnb business.
What is an Airbnb Virtual Assistant?
An Airbnb Virtual Assistant is a remote worker who offers remote support for your Airbnb operation. These professionals handle tasks ranging from guest communication and managing reservations, to updating the Airbnb listing and handling administrative duties, all aimed at streamlining your day-to-day operations.
Virtual assistants work independently. All taxes and insurance are handled by them, so you just pay them for their labor. You simply hire them to do a particular job, and that's all you have to do.
From your perspective, as an Airbnb host, the value of employing a virtual assistant lies in the time savings and operational efficiency gained. All it takes is a brief onboarding process so they can learn your property management software, booking calendars, and general guest communication tone. After that, you can be sure your virtual assistant maintains your high guest experience standards so you can focus more on scaling your vacation rental business and less on the repetitive administrative duties.
When should I consider hiring an Airbnb VA?
If the stress of managing your short-term rental feels like it’s piling up or you’re worried you won’t be able to scale efficiently without additional help, then it's likely time to invest in an Airbnb Virtual Assistant. But what does this look like? How do you know when you need to hire virtual assistants? Ask yourself these questions:
- Are you spending over 60% of your time handling guest communication?
- Are you reaching a point where you can’t onboard any new properties to your Airbnb business?
- Is your customer service and guest experience compromised by scale?
- Are you losing track of your booking calendar across all of your listings?
- Do you have $500 in your monthly budget to spare?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, it might be a good time for you as an Airbnb host to go find a VA.
How can my Airbnb VA Help With Guest Communication?
Responding to inquiries and booking requests promptly
An Airbnb host can delegate their guest messaging and other assistant services to their VA.
An Airbnb Virtual Assistant can ensure that all guest communication—from sending welcome messages and check-in instructions to responding to Airbnb direct messages, emails, SMS, or phone calls—is managed promptly.
They play a crucial role in coordinating reservations, handling additional guest requests, managing cancellations, and rescheduling, thereby ensuring the smooth operation of your booking calendar.
Handling guest questions and concerns during their stay
Fielding guest questions—at any point in their stay journey—is a key component of delivering exceptional hospitality. This is where the value add of virtual assistants lies.
Guests may have a variety of inquiries that an Airbnb Virtual Assistant can easily manage. These can include:
- Questions about booking inquiries
- Specifics on the property details such as Wi-Fi passwords and amenities
- Clarifications regarding pet policies
- Requests for local area information like the best nearby restaurants or attractions
- Guidance on check-in and check-out procedures
- Raise any complaints or issues they encounter
- Need urgent responses to emergencies
Although answering these questions is a highly repetitive task, it's critical for ensuring guests feel supported and valued. An efficient Airbnb VA can provide quick, informative, and courteous responses, which not only solves immediate problems but also enhances the overall guest experience.
The number one driver of repeat bookings is good hospitality. Consistent and helpful communication by an attentive virtual assistant establishes a reputation for excellent customer service, encouraging positive reviews and repeat bookings for your vacation rental business.
Helping With Property Maintenance and Cleaning
Administrative scheduling is another area where an Airbnb VA can greatly alleviate your workload. They can organize and handle the scheduling of cleaning, maintenance, and repairs.
In other words, virtual assistants can help improve the consistency of your operation to ensure each Airbnb property is always guest-ready. This saves you from the nitty-gritty of day-to-day management by offloading these crucial yet burdensome tasks to a virtual assistant.
How to Find the Right Virtual Assistant
You have made the decision to hire a virtual assistant. Congratulations. You’re life is going to get easier. But where do you go to find the right virtual assistant? And how much should you expect to pay?
Budget
One of the main values of a virtual assistant is the cost. Because they are remote workers, usually in foreign countries, their hourly rate is substantially lower than domestic assistant services.
Talking to our users at HostAI who employ virtual assistants we found that the average rate for virtual assistants that specialize in Airbnb management is between $4-8 per hour. While this rate might seem surprisingly low, it's a fair price for virtual assistants who are based in a Southeast Asian countries.
Where to Find Virtual Assistants
Here are the best places to find people looking to get hired for Airbnb virtual assistant jobs.
- Virtudesk: Choosing Virtudesk for your Airbnb virtual assistant needs means accessing a cadre of highly-vetted and highly-trained virtual assistants. Each assistant is backed by an Account Manager, ensuring a smooth onboarding process and fostering a successful partnership to support your Airbnb business.
- Yes Assistant: Another great option, Yes Assistant employees VAs who have domain expertise in many different areas of the Airbnb business. Whether you want a VA to manage reservations, help with your Listing’s SEO, design your direct booking site, or even help with social media, this is a great option for those looking for Virtual Assistants who can do more than just guest communication.
- UpWork: Upwork is a platform for remote workers to post virtual assistant jobs. A quick search of “Virtual Assistants for Airbnb” will display plenty of options. One posting can be seen above in which this Airbnb VA provides: Update Calendar & Pricing, Review Guest, Messaging With Guest, Respond to Guest Issues, Listing Optimization, STR Virtual Assistant, Confirm Booking Requests, Financial Reporting, Pricing & Occupancy Optimization
- Cohost Market: Cohost Market is a marketplace specifically made for Airbnb and Short-Term Rental businesses. Here you can find many types of job postings, including virtual assistants. This niche marketplace is valuable because you can trust that all of the people on it can handle the virtual assistant jobs you would like them to do.
Drawbacks of Virtual Assistants
While Virtual Assistants have a lot of benefits, it’s also important to address some of the drawbacks. They are:
- Availability: VAs are only available during their scheduled work hours and may not be accessible 24/7.
- Reliability: VAs rely on your guidance and may not provide insights or data-driven recommendations in a timely manner when they don’t know the answer to specific guest inquiries or operational processes.
- Onboarding / Cultural Differences: VAs also take time to onboard. It isn’t going to be an automatic solution. If you have a certain tone in which you like to communicate with guests or different policies across each Airbnb Property, there is a chance your Virtual Assistant might not get up to speed as quickly as you might like
HostAI and Virtual Assistants
We wrote a blog post specifically addressing this comparison: HostAI vs. Virtual Assistants which you can find here. The main difference between HostAI and a VA is that HostAI isn’t confined by a time sheet and is able to instantly match the tone in which you want to communicate with guests. Additionally, HostAI is a cheaper solution with it being a monthly cost starting at $12 per listing.
That said, some of our most successful users at HostAI use Virtual Assistants who set up their HostAI account and then use our platform to manage their operations.
Conclusion
And there you have it. By exploring the benefits of a Virtual Assistant, Airbnb hosts can see that embracing such support not only streamlines their operations but is a strategic step towards growth.
A VA can shoulder the burden of repetitive tasks, from guest communication to property maintenance, allowing you to refocus on expanding your business and enhancing guest experiences. This partnership represents a pivotal shift from day-to-day management to long-term, scalable success in the Airbnb market.
Happy hosting!
