As bookings tend to drop off in the November and December months, many might think it a strange time of year to be introducing new properties. However, this week our team have been working on getting not one but three new properties live. And whilst it is a much quieter than usual time of year for OTA bookings it is often a good time of year for to get maintenance done on existing properties (if they they don’t have bookings), and indeed to set up some new ones. Of course these new units aren’t frivolous choices but strategic decisions based on empirical evidence from our last couple of years trading and building up our understanding of the market we serve.
Chris and I have come a long way since the early days of rushing round multiple stores to furnish properties, building furniture, ironing valances/curtains and similar reactive tasks. Whilst there will always be little niggles and bumps in the set up process, what we are capable of now is a lot more swift and efficient from those early days. Those in the community with a few units up and running will I’m sure agree that getting your set up process to something fairly slick only comes from working through those early experiences of learning through some mistakes.
With a thorough checklist and a trusted power team many hands really do make light work. Timing is everything and planning a way to have minimal back and forths to the property and minimal downtime is key. Just like Brian Tracy telling us that “Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution”, the same is true in the set up of SA units.
The mechanics of getting three properties live this week (with the dynamics of each respective deal) alongside everything else we have going on means engaging a bit of a 2 step approach. In other words the completion points for this week and next week look like this:
This week (the quick start)
-maintenance fixes (often required on older rental property
-bulky furniture and enough items operate the property installed
-deep clean and linen on
-enough DIY pictures taken (along with using some existing pics from similar properties) to get listings live on OTAs
-all insurances, utilities etc in place from the week previous
-direct promotion to existing clients from the week previous
Next week (fine tune)
-soft furnishings and artwork installed
-any final checks/maintenance
-professional photography done/slot confirmed
-listings refined
-continued direct promotion
You can see a couple of brief videos here from the end of this week capturing an overview of the set up stage shortly after the Fusion furniture deliveries.
[Excuse the amateur selfie filming with picture on it’s side making you put your head sideways – get perfect later right?] Listings went live on Friday and one of the new properties has just received it’s first booking. 🙂