Setting up STR to be more "hands off"

[Justin Knighten]

I'm new to the STR game with 2 rentals, and they've gotten to where they are requiring a fair amount of input. One is in our front yard, the other is about 45 minutes away. I'm a firefighter, and can generally handle any non-emergent maintenance (and don't really mind doing so), and the accounting/paperwork sides of things aren't a problem, I can find a few hours a week to take care of that. The burden at this point is being responsive to messages, booking inquiries and the like. My wife was helping, but she starts a new job this week. Days I'm off work, I can handle it, but if I'm at work, I shouldn't be spending the day on the phone dealing with rental issues. My sister is a stay-at-home mother and is open to being what it looks like most are calling a "co-host". She'd be the person that answers messages and such when we're unable to. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips on how we could set this up to get us out of the business? I'm unsure of how the pay would work for this as well. It doesn't seem that it would take a lot of time from her, just a few minutes here and there, mostly being available when something comes in. Thanks in advance for any help!

[Jefferson Brown]

Hey Justin!  Just my two cents here but we just put up our 8th property in Florida (I live in Utah) and I might have some tips for you.  After 2 or 3 properties you really start to feel the tug of the inquiries on your personal life so we hired someone on Upwork and pay them $20 per booking to manage the inquiries and call the maintenance person when needed.  They speak perfect English and have phenomenal customer service skills.  Its really improved our business and allowed me to spend more time with my family.

I can't stand the thought of paying someone 20-30% of topline revenue to do this.  That could mean thousands of dollars per month for a single property and its just not worth that.  Let me know if you want some help in setting that up.