The short-term rental market keeps expanding, driven by the growing demand for flexible and personalised travel experiences. However, this rapid growth brings a major challenge: managing guest and property emergencies around the clock.
Check-ins, technical issues, guest complaints, coordination with suppliers, and compliance with local regulations are just a few of the daily responsibilities of any property owner or holiday let manager — and even more so in today’s ever-changing regulatory landscape.
The key to staying competitive isn’t working longer hours; it’s about optimising operations and maintaining control without overburdening your team or increasing costs.
The Challenge of Unexpected Emergencies in Holiday Lets
Here’s a revealing fact: 83% of businesses in the industry still lack an effective solution to manage their operations 24/7 — especially during nights and weekends.
That means only two out of ten companies have full operational coverage, day and night. The rest continue to struggle, particularly outside of office hours, often leaving their staff on the brink of burnout.
When workload spirals out of control, several problems arise:
- Internal staff are forced to take on-call shifts, leading to fatigue, mistakes, and high turnover.
- Guest experience suffers when there’s no clear protocol for dealing with issues outside business hours.
- Managers face hidden costs from overtime, inefficiency, or poorly resolved incidents.
In an increasingly demanding market, a lack of round-the-clock coverage affects not only guest satisfaction but also your reputation and profitability.
Your guests expect the best possible experience — and if that expectation isn’t met, negative reviews will soon follow, along with all the consequences that come with them.
How to reduce and minimise incidents in your properties
The answer is simple: automate and streamline your processes to make daily management more efficient.
But remember, optimisation isn’t just about cutting costs — it’s about designing smarter, more predictable operations.
- Standardise your protocols: Clear step-by-step guides for check-ins, key management, technical issues, or neighbour complaints help you resolve problems faster and reduce human error.
- Eliminate hidden costs: Identifying where resources are being wasted — such as unnecessary staff travel or duplicated tasks — helps protect your margins.
- Digitise your operations: Find your digital systems to allow yourself to centralise information and reduce repetitive manual work. At Roomonitor, we’ve developed Manager, a control panel where you can centralise most of your operational management while also monitoring your device dashboards in real time.
A clear example of this is using automated alerts and notifications through technology such as sensors or smart devices that inform the manager in real time of what’s happening in each property.
At Roomonitor, for instance, our device doesn’t just monitor noise levels — it also detects smoke, crowding, and air quality.
When the device detects a noise pattern exceeding the set decibel threshold, you receive an automatic alert. The same happens when smoke levels or the number of connected Bluetooth devices surpass the allowed limits, suggesting an unauthorised gathering or party.
Data: Your Greatest Operational Ally
Optimisation is only half the equation. The other half is having real control over what’s happening in your properties — and that’s where data becomes your strongest ally.
Real-time monitoring allows you not only to react quickly but also to anticipate potential problems. Imagine having a device that works for you while you sleep. For example:
- Prolonged noise from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. leads to neighbour complaints about a party.
- The device detects occupancy spikes, indicating possible overuse of resources or breaches of your rental agreement.
- New guests report a strong smell of cigarette smoke upon arrival.
Technologies such as noise, occupancy, and smoke detection devices provide accurate, continuous information without invading guest privacy — effectively becoming an extension of your team.
With this data, you can not only resolve these scenarios faster but also prevent them, ensuring smooth coexistence with neighbours and avoiding unnecessary stress. You gain visibility, insight, and the ability to make quicker, smarter decisions.
Scalability in Holiday Let Management: How to Grow Without Overloading Your Team
The real challenge lies in growing your business sustainably — without overburdening your team.
Scalability requires a balanced structure that combines:
- Technology to automate and monitor operations — a reliable holiday rental management system is key.
- Clear protocols so your team members and external providers act consistently.
- Specialised support to handle incidents and emergencies, even outside of business hours.
Don’t be afraid to outsource. For example, a 24/7 Remote Control Centre allows you to delegate incident management, emergency openings, and alert handling — without needing a staff member permanently on call.
Consider these examples:
- A guest arrives at 11 p.m. and can’t find the keys.
- Another guest shows up at 2 a.m. instead of the scheduled 10 p.m. arrival.
Without clear protocols or a proper structure, these problems can take hours to resolve and often result in bad reviews. With remote support, they’re solved in minutes.
This kind of external structure enables property managers to focus on strategy, while a specialised team — acting as an extension of your business — handles round-the-clock operations, especially during the most sensitive times: nights and weekends.
The result? A more sustainable structure with lower staff turnover, higher motivation, and consistently high-quality service for guests and communities alike.
So, Do You Have Everything Under Control?
Managing short-term rentals can no longer rely on improvisation or extra staff effort. The key lies in optimising processes, leveraging data, and building operational structures that guarantee 24/7 continuity.
This model doesn’t just cut hidden costs and improve profitability — it also enhances guest satisfaction, community relations, and long-term scalability.
The question is: how much of your daily operation is truly under control today? The answer could be the difference between merely surviving — or leading — in the flexible accommodation market.
It’s not about working harder. It’s about working smarter.
