Hiring a Local Service Partner
Many people who own vacation rental properties on the Outer Banks do not live in the area, which means it is impossible for them to clean the property, do maintenance and basic upkeep, supply keys to the renters, or to take care of any of the basics. How do they take care of these things? They will need to hire local service partners on the Outer Banks that can help them to take care of these tasks and others.
What Types of Local Service Partners Do You Need?
Ideally, you will want to have companies in place that can take care of all the property’s basic needs since you are not in the area. Let’s look at the most important service partners you will need for your rental.
Housekeeping
When your guests arrive at the vacation rental, they expect that the home they enter will be clean and that they can just start to enjoy their vacation. If the home is not clean, they will leave a bad review, and they will not likely be coming back, even if you give them a refund. Therefore, you need to have an expert housekeeping company that can come into the property and makes sure that everything is nice and clean.
You need to make sure that the company you hire can provide a full cleaning service, and that they have enough staff on hand that can provide you with cleaning
Landscaping
This is only essential for those who have front and/or backyard areas that need to be maintained. The landscaping companies can mow the lawn, trim the hedges and help to provide a better overall appearance to the property. You never want your guests to arrive and to think they need to hack their way through a jungle just to reach the front door or to access the yard out back.
The landscaping company can send out people to the property on a schedule, such as every two weeks, to make sure it looks inviting to guests.
Maintenance
Even though you hope that nothing ever goes wrong with your property, you need to have a local maintenance professional that can come into the property and take care of any problems that do arise. This could be anything from a problem with the plumbing or the garbage disposal, windows and doors that do not lock properly, to repair broken windows, and similar issues that might occur.
With maintenance, you do not need to have them on a schedule, naturally. Just contact them when the property needs some sort of repair, and make sure they have access to the property.
Since you are not in the area, you might want to ask if you can have before and after photos of the repair, just to make sure everything is up to your standards.
Property Management Companies
Are important, as well, and they can take care of a range of different things for you. They can be your point of contact for the guests and handle any issues they might have. If you do not have a lock box or a numbered keypad for entry to the property, they can provide the guests with the keys they need.
In addition, you will find that many of the property managers will have contacts for housekeeping, landscaping, and maintenance, which could make it even easier for you to have those local service partners ready to go.
How to Find the Right Local Service Partners
Of course, you also need to make sure that you know how to find the local service partners to work for your property. You will find that the same basic steps to hiring each of the different types of partners are essentially the same.
One of the first things you should do is speak with any other people you know in the area. If you know others who rent out properties, they may be a good source for finding each of these types of service partners. If you do not know any other vacation rental owners, you can still ask people in the area about trusted housekeeping and maintenance companies, for example.
If you cannot find any local contacts that can help, you can always use the Internet to find companies in the Outer Banks area that provide these services. Read their websites and then narrow down your choices to those that meet your requirements. However, before simply hiring them, you will want to get in touch on the phone or through email.
Ask them how long they have been in the business, what services they are capable of offering, how quickly they can take care of the property, and what fees they charge.
It is also important that you check the reputation of the company. You can do this by looking at online reviews. You want to make sure they have a good reputation in their field and that they can follow through with what they promise. Use the same due diligence that you would when you are hiring people to work on your own home, and you should not have any trouble finding great local service partners.
As mentioned, if you are working with a property management company, they can likely help you with finding the other service partners. Whether you are going through property management or not, take your time and find the best partners in the area that can serve the interests of you and your property well.
Even if you live in the area, you might find that having local service partners is a good way to minimize the amount of work that you will need to put into your property. They can take care of the hard work for you, and then you will simply need to do a walkthrough after their service to make sure they did a good job.
When you have a great team in place, whether you are in the area, you will find that owning a great vacation rental is easy.