How to Automate Airbnb to Save Time: A Low-Cost Guide

Owning and managing a vacation rental business (like Airbnb) can be overwhelming, especially if you already lead a busy life and are doing this on the side. This blog post teaches you how low-cost Airbnb automation tools and strategies can save you precious time! Best of all, I’m sharing free options from within the Airbnb app! 

From mastering Airbnb’s built-in features to exploring free tools like scheduling messages and task management apps, this guide equips you with actionable steps to streamline your tasks and reclaim your time as an Airbnb host.

Renting your house, rental property, or room, on Airbnb is a great way to earn (passive) income. You charge potential guests more money than renting it out full-time time and also gives you flexibility if you need to house a family member or friend who is visiting. 

I’ve been in the short-term rental business on the Airbnb platform for 3 years and it’s the best decision ever. I’ve made money to be able to cut back on hours from my business and focus on family, pay off credit card debts, and keep my long-term tenant’s rent low without increasing it these past two years.  I own and operate 7 Airbnb units and spend only a few hours per week managing them.

Managing an Airbnb alongside work, family, and other commitments can feel like a juggling act. New and recent hosts are often spending precious hours on repetitive daily tasks like responding to inquiries, coordinating cleaning, and managing calendars. But what if there was a way to automate these Airbnb processes, freeing up your time to focus on what truly matters – creating exceptional guest experiences?

By setting up the right systems, you’re not just simplifying your responsibilities; you’re also creating a more consistent and better experience for your visitors. Embracing automation can lead to more positive guest reviews and increased bookings, which translates into a more profitable Airbnb business without the need for your constant hands-on involvement.

Automation: Your Secret for a More Manageable Airbnb Business

Enter automation, your secret to a more efficient and time-saving Airbnb business. By automating routine tasks, you can streamline your operations, reduce stress, and reclaim your time. It’s essential for turning hosting from a full-time job to a passive income source. I used to check the Airbnb app 24/7, but now I only open the app 1 hour a day, if at all.

Setting Up for Success

To get started with how to automate Airbnb, first, you identify your specific needs and how much time or money you’re willing to invest. The aim is to choose reliable automation solutions that help you save time and money without compromising the quality of your guest’s experience.

• Things to think about:
  1. Identify Repetitive Tasks: List down all the most time-consuming tasks
  2. Research Tools and/or People: Look for Airbnb-specific tools or bring in help (like a property manager)
  3. Implement Gradually: Start with automating one or two tasks and gradually include more as you get comfortable
  4. Monitor and Tweak: Regularly review the performance of automated systems and adjust them for better efficiency

If you want to learn to Host on Airbnb, check out this post.

Low-Cost Automation Strategies

The good news is that automation doesn’t have to break the bank. Here are some low-cost strategies to get you started:

Mastering Airbnb’s Built-In Features

Airbnb already offers a range of features designed to help hosts automate tasks. These include:

Instant book

Instant Book is when Airbnb automatically accepts all booking requests from guests who meet a certain requirement.

When I started hosting, I would manually accept and approve every new booking. I didn’t trust any prospective guests who wanted to stay at my Airbnb property. I’d heard and read about many horror stories on Airbnb. But I was missing out on money. If you turn off Instant Book, your listing is not likely to appear at the top of search results. 

My fears were completely unfounded as I’d had the best experience with Airbnb hosting. Now Instant Book is an integral part of my booking process. There are minimum requirements that you can set for Instant Book, like:

Instant Book won’t work if guests don’t comply with some of these requirements, they can still send a booking request and it’s up to you to approve or deny the stay.

scheduled airbnb messages

Say goodbye to repetitive communication! This is my favorite tool in the Airbnb App and makes guest messaging so much easier. I used to respond to every new booking with a welcome message and now it automatically does it for me! 

I create personalized messages that are sent based on guest actions, such as:

For example, you could schedule a welcome message 24 hours before check-in, providing check-in instructions, house rules, and recommendations for local restaurants and other common questions using Quick Replies, all within the Airbnb platform.

On your App, go to your Inbox, click on the three lines above All Mesages. Select Quick Replies or Scheduled Messages. You can create as many scheduled messages as you’d like for all your listings and use Short Codes to help fill out information automatically.

smart calendar sync

discounted stays

This one is my best-kept secret on how to Automate Airbnb to Save Time and it has nothing to do with any automation hack. On the Airbnb calendar, you can offer weekly and monthly discounts. My weekly discount starts at 20% and my monthly discount starts at 35%. I go up to 40% and 50% if guests want to stay longer than two months at our rental properties. 

Hiring a Professional Cleaning Company

If you don’t have a go-to cleaner, I recommend getting on websites like Turno to find cleaning crews if you don’t have one or are in a bind. There are many different platforms to find these cleaning companies, like Facebook groups. I have task templates for specific listings to share with the cleaners, so they know how certain units are cleaned and organized.

Automatic Supplies Deliveries

This one is still in the works for me. I rely on Amazon and Instacart to buy most of my supplies like toilet paper, paper towels, body and hair care, dish soap, detergent, etc. I set up automatic deliveries so we never run low or have to run last minute to the supermarket to grab it.

For a list of my Airbnb Essentials read this post.

Exploring Free or Freemium Tools

I look at business and/or project management tools for my free tools. Several free or freemium tools can further enhance your automation efforts:

Managing a Cleaning Calendar

I use a task management app like Trello to help me coordinate cleaning schedules and supplies with my cleaning team. I assign tasks, track their completion, and ensure my property is always ready for the next guest. This takes me one hour a month to put together this calendar for all my 7 Airbnbs.

Trello is fantastic because I can see all the cleanings scheduled for the month and to whom it’s assigned. I then transfer that schedule to a Shared Google Calendar with my cleaning crew so they can plan their week. Inside Trello, I also have a list of cleaning tasks, routine operations, an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for any maintenance issues, and contact information for every handyman and sub-contractor.

Advanced Automation

As your Airbnb business grows, you might consider paid solutions like Property Management Systems (PMS) that offer even more automation options, like dynamic pricing and automated guest screening.

Dynamic Pricing Strategies

Pricing is probably the most time-consuming part of managing an Airbnb and thus hard to automate. It’s not as easy as a “set it and forget it” situation. There’s a lot that goes into pricing an Airbnb: holidays, high and low travel seasons, tourist attractions nearby, and lowering your prices to fill up your calendar and increase your occupancy rate. I don’t use any dynamic pricing tools for my Airbnb listing. I prefer to offer weekly and monthly discounts to entice travelers to stay with me.

Airbnb also has a nice feature inside the Calendar to set your seasonal rates and availability. You can adjust pricing and length based on rule sets. For example, a 10% nightly rate increase for the summer/winter season (based on your location). This makes the pricing a little more automated. I manually play around with pricing now that Airbnb shows you what other listings in the area are priced at. You want to remain competitive in a slow market.

smart pricing

Airbnb also has a dynamic pricing strategy called Smart Pricing. When you turn it on, it automatically adjusts your nightly price based on market demand. All you do is set a minimum and maximum price per night and Airbnb will adjust it. This tool analyses listing details, market demand, booking data, and guest behavior to give your listing the optimal price where guests will book. 

You can adjust the price if you don’t see it working. I tried it with one listing for a year and although it did help on some occasions, I had to adjust pricing to meet demand (low) manually.

You can also use a mix of software tools that analyze vast data sets to adjust your listing price in real time. For example, prices might increase during peak seasons or around local events while decreasing during slower periods. These are paid tools:

• PriceLabs, Beyond Pricing, AirDNA, etc.

Hire a Property Manager or a Co-Host

I recently hired a property manager/co-host to help me manage the day-to-day, check up on the supplies, and manage the laundry. My property manager is also my co-host, I limit it to guest messaging and calendar view only. They can help with guest communication when I’m at work, at a meeting, or on vacation.

This isn’t exactly how to automate on Airbnb but it sure takes a load off your shoulders. I hire my property manager and co-host on an hourly basis (which I recommend). Other property managers and co-hosts usually charge a percentage of your earnings (15%-20%).

Wash and Fold Laundry Service

This was a game-changer for me and my cleaning crew. I’d have my cleaners wash and dry the linens and towels from the previous guests while they were cleaning. This was not a great use of time, it distracted the cleaning crew from cleaning tasks, and the laundry wasn’t 100% clean or stain-free. It’ll also cause a lot of wear and tear to our washer and dryer. 

So I looked for a local Wash and Fold Laundry Service near my listings and found a great match! Now, we drop off loads of laundry when we clean the units, and pick them up once ready to store at our storage unit. It’s been going great and very affordable! They wash the linens and towels in high heat and take care of any stains.

Additional Automation Considerations in the Home

We talked about how to automate within the Airbnb App and what other platforms you can consider. Now I’d like to touch upon things you can do at the listing.

Smart Home Devices

Consider smart home devices to help you automate your Airbnb such as:

• Smart locks or electronic locks for front doors facilitate self-check-in and checkouts. You share the code with your guests with automated messages at check-in.
• Outdoor lights are on a schedule so your guests never forget to turn them off in the morning and are on at night if the guests ever check in late at night
• Smart thermostats that can sense when guests aren’t in the home so they turn off your AC or heater automatically. 
• Digital Welcome Book: Have a QR code that guests can scan with their smartphones to access a digital version of your house manual and guidebook. A lot of times, guests don’t go through the House Manual on the App. It makes it convenient for them, reduces messaging, and sets expectations on how to treat your home.

I’ve used all of these Free and Low-Cost tools to automate my Airbnb business and this has led to multiple 5-star reviews. Remember, you don’t have to implement all of these at once. It’s always best to test, test, and keep testing until something works for YOU.

Share Your Experience!

We’d love to hear from you! Have you tried any automation tools or strategies for your Airbnb business? Share your tips and experiences in the comments below.