Why are SOPs Important for your STR and where to start…

All businesses need Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and that is no different for STRs. SOPs for STR are crucial for a short-term rental and Airbnb businesses for several reasons which I will go into below but first, a quick back story.

We have had our SOPs for STR in our Tokyo Family Stays business before, but we were not consistent with keeping them up to date and it often meant we couldn’t outsource easily. This made it difficult to take weekends off, holidays overseas or even to have our phones turned off overnight. Then the pandemic hit and we had to stop outsourcing as much to stay afloat and pivot in other ways. But now that business is booming again here at team TNC and team TFS we have been reconnecting on our SOPs for STR, updating them and making sure every task has its own system. We are documenting how we do everything from back of house admin operations, adding new properties to our portfolio and of course to our guest facing hospitality. This then creates more freedom for us, as business owners (read more about freedom and other time management hacks for hosts!)

Why are SOPs for STR so important?

1. Consistency: SOPs for STR ensure your operations and hospitality delivery are consistent. By defining step-by-step processes, you can ensure that each guest receives a consistent experience, regardless of who is managing the property at a given time.
2. Efficiency: SOPs help streamline your operations by providing clear guidelines to all team members on how to perform various tasks. They reduce the need for guesswork, minimise errors, and increase overall efficiency in managing your rental property. This allows your team members to solve their own issues rather than always asking for your help and waiting for the answers. Removing yourself as the single point of failure is essential if you want to be able to turn off your phone at night or take your own holidays.
3. Training and Onboarding: SOPs serve as valuable training resources for new staff or property managers. They provide a comprehensive guide to help new team members understand their roles and responsibilities, reducing the learning curve and enabling them to deliver high-quality service from the start.
4. Risk Management: SOPs help mitigate risks by outlining safety protocols, emergency procedures, and compliance requirements. They ensure that your business is operating within legal and regulatory boundaries and help you maintain a safe and secure environment for guests.
5. Deal Negotiations: Showing your operations manuals and SOPs gives confidence to a potential owner or investor you are a professional operator. They can be confident about getting into business with you and helping you to scale and grow faster than you can do on your own.

How to prepare SOPs For STR and how to use them

Now I will be honest – I kind of outsourced our SOPs to other people too – ChatGPT for one, an intern for another, my exec assistant Laura as well. But the best thing we did was work together to create the shell of what we needed and then went from there. We just used simple free tools of shared Google Docs – nothing fancy. Getting started was the hardest part.

I won’t lie…. This work can be tedious but just start where you are at and remember it’s is a marathon and not a sprint. For me, I needed to batch the work and put it into the schedule so it would get done. But just by getting it done, you feel like a professional and perhaps even find ways to optimize your systems to save you time and money.

Here is how I did it:

1. Categories: Create lists of tasks into each category of your business such as guest relations, property acquisition and set up, creating listing, ongoing marketing, back of house operations like cleaning, maintenance and safety checks. The list will grow as needed -I guarantee you will forget some of the things you are doing until you start noticing what you do each day.
2. Create a standard template: Decide on how you want the final version to look and create a template. Keep it simple here and allow for lots of lists and bullet points. For each task in the list, make a blank document with a unique file name and link it back to a “Table of Contents” page for organization. The files can stay blank until you get to them. Just do them when you remember or when you get time.
3. Document Existing Processes: Whenever you do a task, start by documenting your current processes and procedures. Take notes or even dictate the steps as you are doing them into your phone. Go with the bullet point approach rather than creating long paragraphs of text. Or do what I did and have an intern shadow you for a week and take the notes. Or perhaps you can enlist the support of your kids so they can earn their pocket money.
4. Peripheral tools and vendors: Make sure all the software tools and outside vendors you use in your business are clearly listed as well as reporting and finance operations. Also show where things like how software and passwords are managed. Create an org chat for the important people and their roles as well as the licencing and company registrations.
5. Editing final versions: I used ChatGPT to flesh out the text with some standard language at the start and end of each document and format the final versions into a consistent set. You can then add some formatting like bullet points, fancy fonts or whatever you like to really match the brand of your company. Really it is up to you but don’t get too bogged down by busy work but you can easily create yourself a little style guide cheat sheet.
6. Testing: Again, this is great job for an intern or a student. Ask them to go through the SOPs and get them to confirm they are an accurate representation of what you do in your business.
7. Rinse and repeat: You will find more tasks that you are doing that need an SOP. Just keep adding SOPs when you recognise that any part of your work doesn’t have a matching document.

Reclaim your time and quality of life – don’t be a martyr!

Running a busy vacation rental business can really creep into your time and work-life balance. If you are not careful, you will be on the clock 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. This is not sustainable for anybody. Putting on your CEO hat, you can take a bird’s eye look at your business via your SOPs. You can check out what tasks you can outsource or even eliminate and save yourself valuable time and allow you to have a life outside of your business.

When you have written out what you do every day, you might see some tasks that are redundant or that are not actually adding to your profits or guest satisfaction and are really just “busy work”. Don’t be a martyr – I give you permission to STOP the busy work immediately. Trust me – nobody will ever know.

Check out my blog post on Time Management Hacks for STR hosts. One of the tips there is to define the tasks that you can outsource – the tasks that you don’t like doing, shouldn’t be doing or can’t actually do.

How to Outsource using SOPs

Now that you have your SOPs, outsourcing becomes much easier. Here’s an approach that makes sense:

1. Identify Key Areas for Outsourcing: Evaluate which tasks or processes can be outsourced effectively. For example, you may consider outsourcing guest communication, property maintenance, cleaning services, or even accounting and bookkeeping. Make sure the SOPs clearly step through what you do without any assumptions.
2. Research and Select Reliable Partners: Look for reputable service providers or professionals who specialize in the tasks you want to outsource. Read reviews, seek recommendations, and evaluate their experience, reliability, and track record. But also trust your gut to make sure they share your hosting values and understand your vision.
3. Communicate Your Requirements Clearly: Clearly communicate your expectations and requirements to the outsourcing partner. Provide them with the documented SOPs and ensure they understand the standards you want to maintain for your business.
4. Training and Onboarding: Conduct thorough training and onboarding sessions with your outsourcing partner. Share the SOPs, demonstrate how tasks should be performed, and provide any additional guidance or clarifications necessary to ensure they can execute their responsibilities effectively.
5. Regular Communication and Quality Control: Establish regular communication channels with your outsourcing partner to maintain a feedback loop. Conduct periodic reviews and quality checks to ensure that they are adhering to the SOPs and meeting your business’s standards.
6. Continual Improvement: SOPs should not be static documents. Encourage your outsourcing partner to provide suggestions for improvement and make updates to the SOPs accordingly. Regularly review and refine your processes to optimise efficiency and guest satisfaction.

Exit Strategy – Selling your business

Taking control of your business and writing SOPs does seem like an unnecessary task when you are doing ALL THE THINGS as a small business owner. But there are so many benefits for having a professional framework – helping you to scale, streamline, outsource but also one more…. Exiting

You could sell your STR operations as a turn key business or even just sell one of your properties to another STR host, by having documented processes will help you maximise your return on this deal.

By following these steps above you can effectively outsource your SOPs, or start them yourself and hand them over to someone else to help them support your STR or Airbnb business, enabling you to maintain consistent operations and deliver exceptional guests experiences but also exceptional experiences for any of your staff, freelancers, interns or contractors!

Not sure what SOPs you need? Why not jump on a free discovery call for me and I can help you brainstorm some ideas!