Serviced Accommodation (SA)

There's nothing particularly new about the concept of serviced accommodation or "SA" other than the term itself.  Traditionally SA has simply been referred to as short-term lettings or even holiday lettings depending upon the type of property and its location of course.

With the advent of Online Travel Agents or "OTAs" such as AirBnB and Booking.com the short-term lettings market has been transformed.  Never before has it been so accessible for landlords to access such a large market of guests looking for short term accommodation; guests who could potentially be interested in staying in their properties.

1. Everything begins with the advertising and marketing of your properties. You should always have your own website designed and built professionally which serves as an online reference point; never solely rely on third party websites and OTAs because ultimately you want to own your own traffic.
   
2. Ensure all advertising channels are as informative and profiles are complete.  For your own site engage the use of an SEO company who can target specific phrases that buying traffic i.e. potential guests might search for when trying to find your property.
   
3. Depending upon the type of property and its location you will find different channels and OTAs work better than others; for holiday lets AirBnB works very well for the tourist market and for inner city corporate stays you may find more luck with Booking.com.
4. Beware of those guests who contact you from more than one channels trying to get the best deals and sometimes offering to pay cash.  Dependent upon your cancellation policies you may find they are playing the OTAs against each other in order to avoid any financial commitment and end up costing you a lost booking and turning away other genuine guests.  If the guest finds you on AirBnB then beware if that same guest suddenly makes an enquiry via Booking.com or another channel.
5. Ensure that all guests sign your own terms and conditions in addition to any they may have agreed to already with the OTAs.
6. If in doubt about the genuineness of any guests a good test is to ask for a security deposit.  Anyone dubious will most likely not proceed and if they do at least you have some security in the event of damage.
7. Keep your calendars synced across all channels.  There are two ways to do this; use a full blown channel manager (quite pricey) or use an dedicated serviced accommodation website solution that has in-built centralised booking management and an iCal export facility that can be linked to most major OTAs via a simple URL.