Professional Property Management Benefits
A discussion that takes place with many property owners who are interested in assigning their apartments in Athens to Cloudkeys short-term rental management.
Professional and Private Property Managers in Short-Term Rentals
In the context of our meetings with prospective client properties to be included in the Cloudkeys short-term rental property portfolio, the discussion focuses on various issues with regards to the apartment or other property they have under ownership.
The commission a property management company charges is understandably in the owner’s mind.
This commission is the decisive factor in their decision to assign the property to one company over another.
Or on the decision by the owner to list the property themselves on short-term rental platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com and manage all work required themselves. the creation, promotion and management of the property listing., the cleaning, the pricing policy, etc.
On this page we analyze the parameters that property owners are focusing on and the real parameters that differ among property management companies.
Not all property management companies are the same
Each company has its own policies concerning several issues that relate to the property, the owner, the work required and the financial and tax representation structure in terms of the partnership with property owners.
For example, some companies charge property management as a service, with the relative VAT added, while others rent the property and pay the owners in the form of property rental income, something which is more beneficial for property owners in terms of tax and tax structures.
Check-In Management
Let’s start by one of the key differentiation factors of Cloudkeys compare to other property management companies. The check-in process.
Even though the short-term rental platforms have been pushing hard for complete automation of the check-in process, Cloudkeys considers very important not to use Lock-Boxes with codes.
- It is a serious security issue. The popular lockbox solutions on the market can be easily opened without a code even from young children with no special technical knowledge. A short Google search is highly revealing.
- Would you leave the security of your own home to such solutions after watching these videos?
- Credit card payment management. We consider passing the guest credit card from the POS machine as a highly important security mechanism. This way the magnetic “footprint” of the card is being validated.
- ID Verification and number of guests. Guests frequently make reservations for third-parties or try to book for 2 people, while staying 5, thus reducing the income of owners.
We must focus on these issues that not only affect you as the owner but also all residents in the building the property is located in.
When it comes to security, Cloudkeys enforces a strict policy. It has to do with our relationship with the owners assigning their property for us to manage.
At this point, we must add the lack of professional experience in the short-term rentals sector from “professionals” who do not know all the real parameters when suggesting a solution.
We remind you again that not all property management companies are the same. There are key differences that can not be compared based on the commission that each company charges owners.
Property management without a lockbox
Cloudkeys always welcomes travelers at the property in person, offering a hospitality experience that can not be compared with others or a lockbox.
See our services in detail:
Tax treatment
Every Cloudkeys property owner is being onboarded based on their legal and tax requirements, which may be different in a case by case basis.
Our team is very willing to discuss the optimal solution in relation to the property income, always according to the existing legal context.
Tax and Fiscal Treatment of Short-Term Leases
Real estate income tax issues are treated differently, depending on the legal status of the property ownership. For example, if you are a private owner you can not use expenses to reduce your taxable rental income.
Therefore the type of financial relationship between the property management company and the owner is being dealt with on an individual case basis.
Property Management through Property Leasing
In this case the owner subleases the property to the property management company. The property manager pays the rental amount for the monthly short-term rentals in the form of a specific rental amount or in the form of a variable monthly rent.
The difference between a pre-defined monthly rental amount and a variable one is very important for owners. Especially in relation to how property expenses are handled.
Current property law in Greece only accepts expenses to be deducted from taxable income of up to 5% of the monthly rental amount.
If the property belongs to a business entity, with the right business structure all expenses, including the property management company’s commission are recognized by the tax authorities.
Property Management as a Service
There are cases where property management companies charge as a service, which incurs 24% VAT. There are also other issues arising from such a partnership.
This fee includes all the individual services required to host guests, such as cleaning, reservation management, promoting the property, hosting and of course the technology that enables the management of digital travel websites such as Airbnb.
For private owners there is no way to claim back VAT. Also for private owners, the taxable income includes the full amount that the guest was charged for making a reservation at the property.
In case the owner is a business entity, the tax treatment is similar to the previous scenario.
Hospitality Management
Another important issue, primarily relevant to private owners who wish to manage the property themselves, is the management of the multiple layers of hospitality.
From simple issues, such as check-in hours to more complex issues, such as the management of guest requests and guest expectation management.
Cloudkeys, having successfully managed thousands of guests in its Athens apartments and having worked with hotel businesses in this sector, has advanced “technical knowledge” in terms of hospitality management.
Some examples from owner stories on various discussion forums are indicative of why this technical hospitality knowledge is important.
Calculation of Check-in Arrival Time:
International travelers do not know Athens well or at all.
They consider that within 30 minutes of their landing time at the airport they can be at the property to check-in. Of course, this is impossible to achieve.
Many private hosts complain that they had to wait for long hours to welcome the guests at the property.
Reservations management is highly important for the success of an investment in short-term rental property.
Guest requests for Early Check-in / Late Checkout
Many travelers want to check-in early in the morning because they arrive on a morning flight or a very early morning ferry boat and they also want to leave later on their checkout date because their flight is late at night.
If the guest requests were to be accepted, the property had to close its availability for bookings a day before and a day after the reservation, because if another reservation is made, the property will not be ready. Many private hosts do accept these demands, losing some of their precious time, revenue and be subject to other problems like psychological pressure.
Guest expectation management is key to responding to such demands and other “difficult” situations. Many hosts, like we did when we started our hosting business journey, can not imagine the situations they will have to deal with.
Even managing a single apartment can become a full-time job. And sometimes more. The lockbox solution is a smart choice, but includes a great risk, as we mentioned above.
Risk that is not as simple.
Hospitality Experience
Cloudkeys has gained key experience from hosting thousands of guests, offering an unmatched hospitality experience to travelers.
Hundreds of public reviews from guests speak by themselves.
Meet the right hospitality solution for your property in Athens.
There are many benefits but specialization is the essence.
There are hundreds of private hosts that lease their properties as short-term rentals. Typically on a single platform – Airbnb.
The commission of a property management company may seem high. The discussion must be focused on the performance. Some private owners who were hosting on their own before signing up to Cloudkeys report a more than 40% income increase.
For private hosts with one or two short-term rental properties, the cost for using technology and tools is unaffordable. Also, there are short-term rental platforms that do not accept private hosts anymore.
There are property management companies that use very low pricing for the properties they manage, by arguing that “this is how the algorithm works”, despite the fact that they don’t have any education qualification in Advanced Maths.
Finally, we hope that with this content we have contributed on how you can evaluate the right solution for your property.
There are hundreds of issues.
We chose only a few examples for not writing a long essay.
The choice is yours.