Julian Sage:                         00:00                     In this episode we’re talking about if something breaks in your Airbnb short term rental unit and how to respond to that, so stay tuned.

Julian Sage:                         00:07                     Vacation rental machine helps hosts just like you learn how to start grow and scale your short term rental business. The show’s all about creating systems that help you automate your business, give any more time and money freedom. If you’re ready to start living the vacation rental life that subscribed to this podcast today, come and join us on our Facebook group, the host nation where we’ll be talking about starting automating and scaling a short term rental business. Now onto the show.

Julian Sage:                         00:34                     Hey, what is going on host nation? I am with Jon Bell and today we are talking about what happens when something breaks in your unit. Now this is a very high turnover business. There’s going to be a lot of things that are being used very frequently and things are also going to be shaken and moved. A lot of stuff comes undone and your guest is going to be in these homes when something bad does happen. They’re going to be there when something breaks. It’s just a matter of time. So how do you respond to those types of situations to one, protect your reviews and make sure that you are able to keep a good review. And then how do you respond to that incident in a timely manner. So Jon, what has been an experience that you’ve had with something breaking and how have you handled that type of situation?

Jon Bell:                               01:15                     All right, so as you said, this is a high turnover business. Chances of something going wrong is very high, not necessarily within the first year that you have a place, but definitely right after that time, things should really be looked at if you haven’t had a standard regimen of maintenance. Things that can go wrong as the season change; the heating or AC could not work. Maybe you’re in the springtime and you don’t really need either one but the wintertime comes and the heat is just not where it needs to be. These things are normally discovered by guests because you don’t stay there. And what happens when somebody says it won’t raise above 68 degrees inside of the place. That is really an emergency type situation. How do you handle that? One, you, immediately, if that’s a message, I would suggest you get on the phone and you handle it with some urgency, at least in your tone, you express to them that you definitely want to get it resolved.

Jon Bell:                               02:24                     Either you want to go out, maybe you go through some resolution steps with them or you say, “Hey, I’m going to get somebody out there next day,” and you do that. You do as you say you’re going to do, make sure you set the right expectation that this person is not going to arrive at the crack of dawn. They might really only get there right before lunch, so give yourself some time to make sure that that person can get there, but make sure you have somebody go even if that means you go personally and you try to resolve it and then you already scheduled somebody to come a little later.

Jon Bell:                               02:59                     It’s really about just being there with the guests. You almost have to be along with them feeling the exact same pain. I make every situation feel like it is the sky falling. Like, “Oh my God, I cannot believe that this has never really happened. Let me get out there. You know what? I’m going to send somebody there right away.” You really got to jump on these things and the magnitude of things that could happen could be vast. I’ve recently had a couch break because of, I don’t know what in the world was going on. That’s one key thing to this business. We don’t know what our guests are necessarily doing behind closed doors, at least we shouldn’t because we shouldn’t have cameras that are really looking at them doing anything. How do you resolve a broken couch before somebody else comes in? This stuff really takes a lot of organization and just practice and knowing how to, Hey, what’s the quickest way for me to get this resolved? I have experienced those things and a lot more.

Julian Sage:                         04:03                     Jon, I think one of the very frequent ones that people see a lot is let’s say plumbing issues. A lot of guests, for some reason, they like to stick things down the toilet that shouldn’t be going in the toilet and maybe that’s the only toilet in the unit and now they’re without it and they’re messaging you and they’re saying the toilet’s clogged. How do you respond to something like that?

Jon Bell:                               04:20                     Well the first thing I would hope that they do is try to plunge it. What’s funny is I’ve actually never really had this question or even an issue with my guest. I have had a slow drain in the shower. When that stuff happens, then I do go out or have somebody go out and possibly pour some Draino down the drain. Or I just let the guests know, “Hey, if it’s really that important, I can send somebody right now.” And normally what they say is, no, it’s not that important. You can just have it resolved once I check out. And the reason why I jumped to it just as fast as so I can get that answer just because I want to know if it’s really that important to them, then yeah, I’ll definitely get out there and I’ll get it resolved. But if they tell me, “Hey, it’s just not that big of a deal,” that also means for me that it won’t make it in my review.

Julian Sage:                         05:13                     Jon, a lot of people’s first thoughts when a situation does come up and there’s a potential for a negative review because something’s happened is quickly people say, “I have to be able to discount it. I have to discount my stay,” and I have to give them some something off. That’s not your first step when something bad does happen though, right?

Jon Bell:                               05:29                     No, it’s not. I think of resolving the issue first as quickly as possible before compensating in any type of discount because people will say things that aren’t necessarily true.

Julian Sage:                         05:44                     So Jon, let’s say a plumber or someone is coming and you need to be able to schedule that time for them to be able to go in and repair this issue right away. How do you handle when a guest is staying there and another person is going to be coming into that space?

Jon Bell:                               05:57                     Sometimes you know, it doesn’t hurt to extend maybe dinner or some other alternative. Maybe if you’re around a special attraction, “Can I get you a ticket to this thing? And it will be resolved by the time you get back.” Offering something like that normally does help ease things. Normally, I offer first the places that I’ve worked out discounts. So for instance, if I’m going to be offering dinner, I’ve already got a coupon with a popular restaurant that my guests go and use that says “You can get a free appetizer.” Well, maybe I don’t give them that coupon. I just say, “Hey, just go. I’ll take care of you. I’ll make sure you get a free appetizer.” Really, I didn’t give out much. I gave out what I already pre-negotiated with this vendor and I’m still sending them a client. I still know that they’re going to do their job and have to give the guests a good experience. So again, that still goes into a good review.

Jon Bell:                               06:56                     All right hosts, question of the day. What’s the biggest break or maintenance issue you have experienced? Leave your comments down below

Julian Sage:                         07:04                     And until next time, host nation. Keep on hosting. Hope you hosts found value in this episode. If you did, please go on over to iTunes and leave us a review that would greatly support the show. If you’d like to connect with Jon the community, and I then go on over to our Facebook group, the host nation. Talk to you hosts in the next episode. Keep on hosting.