Short-term rental leases in Santa Monica!
The apartment community is located across from the Santa Monica beach and owned by a large REIT. The property is unique with 54 furnished apartments. Nightly short-term stays are not an option because Santa Monica is considered one of the strictest municipalities for short-term stays. Vacation rentals, any stays less than 31 days, are strictly prohibited. The onsite management team used short-term marketplaces (i.e HomeAway, VRBO, Airbnb, etc..) in the past but without much success.
The property began piloting our platform in July 2017. The management team posed the following challenges for the pilot:
The property had listings for some of their apartments on HomeAway and VRBO. The management team didn’t see much activity from the listings, and they were time consuming to support. We were challenged to increase the amount of leases from HomeAway, VRBO, and see if Airbnb could generate activity, too.
In July 2017, our team added content to the platform to support posting community and unit data for 50+ apartments. In August, we published the listings to Airbnb, HomeAway and VRBO.
From August 2017 through July 2018, we have booked 36 reservations of 31+ days or more. The gross net bookings for the property have been $218,000. To date, we have paid out over $170,000 for in progress and completed reservations, and another $48,000 for upcoming move-ins.
Our Concierge team is responsible for interacting with all potential guests. The Concierge team responds to inquiries from potential guests seven days a week. The onsite team is not involved with a guest until the guest is booked by us.
A key focus for us is attempting to work within a client’s existing lease process. When a new reservation request is received, the Concierge team reviews the property’s availability and confirms the request after successfully completing a TransUnion criminal background check. The Concierge team provides the site team with all necessary information about the guest and occupants so the onsite team can put together their regular lease agreement.
In the first year, we booked 36 reservations for the property. The property’s Daily Availability Report is used by the Concierge team to coordinate availability and pricing. Inbound inquiries and reservation requests are cross-referenced against the availability report and discussed with the site team to make sure units are available prior to booking. In the near future we will be fully integrated with the property to provide dynamic pricing and availability updates.
