Onboarding Checklist

New to iGMS and not sure what to do first? Our onboarding checklist can help you on your way to managing your vacation rentals like a pro.

Four takeaways from our onboarding checklist

1. You will save time learning how to use the major iGMS automation tools (we have it all together, step by step, no extra effort).
2. It will jump-start effective communication with guests and keep you in touch with your guests with the help of automation.
3. It will save you resources by coordinating your cleaning activities.
4. It will give you a better view of your vacation rentals and more control over your calendars and reservations. 

Onboarding Step 1 – Automate Guest Communication

Although each reservation and guest is unique, you still need something that will streamline this process of answering dozens of requests and questions on a daily basis. Once your messages have been automated, you can save up to 70% of your time every week on guest communication and use this time for making strategic decisions instead!

Create a smart template:

1. Go to the Properties section and choose the property you want to create a template for. In the Property Editor, click on the Customize button.
2. You will see the Template List (it will be empty if no template has been created yet) where you can create your first template by clicking on the New Template button.
3. In the Template Editor, add a title for your template. For example, Booking Confirmation to thank the guests for their choice.
4. Now fill in the message content with information that your guests will need.

Automate the template:

1. Let’s choose the trigger for our Booking Confirmation template. Click on the button Enable Automation.
2. For the Booking Confirmation template, we chose the Upon confirmed reservation trigger. This trigger sends the message as soon as the reservation is confirmed.
3. Though, we decided to customize the trigger. We set up a delay of 20 minutes for this template and we don’t want to send this welcome message to guests who stay for one night only. To do that, we checked the ‘ignore for one-night reservation’ box.
4. Click Save. It’s all done.

Prefer video instruction? Please check the tutorial.  

Note: If you are experienced at using automation tools, we believe that you will benefit from our article about creating message templates with full descriptions of all the triggers. 

Onboarding Step 2 – Delegate Tasks to Your Team

To help make your vacation rental business run seamlessly, it’s important to share the workload and automate recurring assignments. Clear and organized plans save time and resources while specifying roles eliminates confusion. Once you have completed this step, your team members will be able to see their daily schedules, calendars, and properties they manage. 

Invite your team member:

1. Go to the Team & Members page. Click on the ‘New member’ button. 
2. You should add the personal information of the team member –  his/her name, email and phone number. That’s how the cleaner will be notified about upcoming tasks.
3. Choose the role. In our case, it’s Cleaner. 
4. Set up access to the properties that the person will take care of.
5. Click Invite. Voila!

Create and assign a cleaning task:

1. Go to the Tasks page. You will see the ‘New cleaning’ button. Click on it.
2. Select the property and then you will see the Task card.
3. Specify the number of beds. This provides a cleaner with information about the linen needed.
4. Add regular and specific instructions, for example, the location of the parking, how garbage collection should be done, if he/she should check that all the windows are closed, etc.
5. Assign a cleaner to the task and click Save.

Prefer video instruction? See the tutorial.

Note: If you are experienced at using automation tools, we believe you will find our article on cleaning task automation interesting. 

Onboarding Step 3 – Set Up Your Vacation Rentals

With iGMS, you can connect all of your accounts from various platforms, including duplicates, to manage them from one spot. Once you’ve completed this step, you will increase your chances to have a 100% occupancy rate, while controlling the risks of double-booking. 

Add more vacation rental accounts:

1. Connect more Airbnb accounts
2. Connect Vrbo accounts
3. Connect Booking.com properties

Prevent double-bookings:

1. Enable Channel Manager  – it’s a special feature that merges your listings from Airbnb, Vrbo and most of the HomeAway family platforms and helps you to run them as one property. The article has video instruction.
2. Import calendars from TripAdvisor and other major platforms. This will help you to sync calendars from the mentioned platforms and plan cleanings. The article has video instruction.