MAINTENANCE
Your Short Term Rental needs all the regular maintenance that you do at your home right now. This includes the regular upkeep of HVAC’s, plumbing systems, appliances, lawn care, pest control, etc. but also includes other not so obvious (but important) measures needed to keep guests safe and satisfied with their visit.
Through the years, we have determined that the best approach to maintenance is to be proactive about the items that we know are going to need to be taken care of on a regular basis. To accomplish this, we have developed a comprehensive preventative maintenance schedule aimed at maintaining top-notch conditions for our guests throughout the year. We believe this is not only the best approach to caring for your investment, but also allows us to get ahead of issues before they happen, reducing costly repairs and guest refund situations.
At the core of our maintenance plan is a regular Quarterly Service that tackles a list of recurring maintenance items in addition to 2-3 rotating annual maintenance items. The service includes a Quality and Safety Inspection of your entire property that documents current conditions as well. This service would be similar to taking your vehicle in for a “tune-up” where the oil gets changed and everything is checked on to make sure it is working properly. Costs per service vary based on type, size, location, and age, but in general it is a much more economical approach to bundle everything together into a single trip than to complete each item independently. Juggling maintenance schedules with guest reservations can be tricky, but this approach also ensures work always gets done and does not interfere with booking calendars and reduces the opportunity for a maintenance issue to occur during a guests stay.
Outside of the Quarterly Service, you can expect us to complete Touch-up painting 1x per year, Deep cleaning 2x per year, HVAC Servicing 2x per year, and Plumbing servicing 1x per year. Houses with exterior upkeep will need additional maintenance such as regular Lawncare and pest control as well as annually pressure washing, gutters cleaned out, and maintenance of shrubs, mulch beds, and trees.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW — 2025 Preventative Maintenance Schedule
Why is routine maintenance so important?
Wear & Tear Will Happen
As an example: A 2-bedroom home in Knoxville, with an 75% occupancy rate, can easily host between 70 and 90 different reservations annually. This translates to over 300+ individuals staying at your property each year. Even the most considerate guests will inevitably contribute to some wear and tear on your home and furnishings. Keep in mind, guests are experiencing your property for the first time and are eager to explore every nook and cranny, test the limits of each amenity, and will even check the labels on furniture to see where it came from. Normal signs of usage, such as wall scuffs, floor scratches, loose handles and hinges, stains on carpets and upholstery, scratched furniture, and the need to regularly replace batteries and lightbulbs, are all typical in the lifecycle of a short-term rental. In order to keep guests happy, we need to address these items regularly.
Heightened Guests Expectations
In many cases, guest’s checking in have been visualizing their trip for weeks, or months, and can’t wait to enjoy all that your unit has to offer. Safety, cleanliness, and comfort are essential to meeting basic expectations, but more and more guests are looking to be “WOW’d” when they walk into their rental and, depending on (their level of expectations/or what type of day they have been having!) they may be tempted to pick apart anything that takes away from their experience. Things that some guests might view as “quirks” and “character” often become a reason for a different guest to ask for a refund. “Like New” is the standard for what guests are expecting in a short-term rental. Available amenities, cohesive styling, and decor also play a large role in guest expectations, but lack of maintenance (even small stuff) can have a large impact on guests experience.
The Compounding Effect
As expected, maintenance issues do happen on occasion and we do our best to resolve them as quickly as possible. But once one issue is reported, it is very likely we will hear from the guest a second (or third & fourth) time and 99% of the time, it’s because the guest is upset about issue #1 and has now started looking for further ammunition to be better postured to ask for a refund. We have learned over the year to navigate guests like this, but our goal is to eliminate issue #1 from ever occurring, creating more satisfied guests and reducing refund scenarios for our owners.
Online Travel Agency’s Review System (AirBNB, VRBO)
If you're a fan of the comedy 'Talladega Nights,' you might recall Will Ferrell’s character, Ricky Bobby, famously declaring, “If you’re not first, you’re last!” This line humorously captures his over-the-top approach to success. While I respect his winning spirit, this extreme mindset can help illustrate the stringent nature of the Airbnb and VRBO review systems. In these platforms, receiving a review of anything less than a 5-stars can lead you to feel like you’ve been penalized, and the platforms may even send notices threatening suspension if you receive consistent reviews that are less than 4-stars. It’s not just guests who expect perfection; online booking agencies set the bar equally high.
Maintenance FAQ’s
What should I budget for preventative maintenance each year? As a rule of thumb, you can expect around 5% of rental income to go towards the maintenance of your property. This can be higher for larger properties and older homes that have not been previously maintained, and less for newer construction homes, and condos/apartments that do not have an exterior to maintain. You can also expect to need to address larger ticket items such as staining a worn out deck or fence, and replacing furniture items every 3-5 years as wear and tear sets in, and or styles change.
Can I do my own maintenance? For the most part, we will handle all preventative maintenance and anything minor that comes up without contacting you. This ensures that the work gets done quickly and efficiently between guest schedules, and allows us to know when and how work was completed. Internally we need to be consistent with the systems we have set up to keep track of everything so that nothing gets miscommunicated, or lost. We will be sure to get your approval if a cost is expected to go above $300. If you would like to plan any larger work items at the property that involve you, or 3rd party vendors, we’d just discuss that best way to go about getting the work done so not to interrupt other schedules.
What about Service Calls? On occasion, there is a need for us to send a Handyman out to your property for an unplanned maintenance item. This generally includes issues such as unclogging a toilet, troubleshooting an appliance issue, picking up overflowing trash, replacing a damaged or missing amenity, or fixing disconnected wifi. We do our best to walk guests through these issues on the phone first, but if unable to resolve with them remotely we will then use a handyman service, or an in-house team member, during next available business hours to fix the issue. This happens about 1-2x per month.
In more extreme situations, such as a power outage, Heat/AC not working, water leaking, or sewage backups, we do send out an On-Call Manager to assess the situation immediately and assist the guest by either resolving the issue themselves, contacting a 3rd party vendor, and/or relocating the guest to another available property. We always prioritize protection of the property and guest safety, and avoid the “wait and see what happens approach” in these situations.
When possible, we use our team to handle these maintenance issues which allows a Service call to be $50 instead of $100+ from a handyman service, or other vendor. However, we do have to charge $100 for after hour & weekend emergency situations. We also bill down to the 1/2 hour, and take pictures of work when appropriate.
