Shifting from Self-Management to Property Management Using Automation Tools

Here at Lifty Life, we love iGMS! Our company would not be where it is today without the support of our friends at iGMS and their brilliant software solutions we enjoy. The Lifty Life story goes back to 2014 but my introduction to iGMS started in 2018 through a different company, Leavetown Vacations, and Jetstreamtech.

Background

I was first introduced to iGMS in my professional career as the Revenue Coordinator at Leavetown Vacations and its sister company Jetstreamtech. Leavetown and Jetstream integrate tens of thousands of hotel and resort units into vacation rental sites via API connections. Leavetown wanted to divide their Airbnb accounts into hundreds of separate accounts but needed a solution for managing multiple accounts, cue iGMS!

Flash forward to today and iGMS is critical to operating Lifty Life, a premier vacation rental management company in British Columbia! 

We utilize iGMS to list on multiple vacation rental sites, manage guest communication, create guest reviews, organize cleanings, and report to homeowners. However, the greatest benefit we receive from iGMS is an amazing partner! They are an accessible, professional, and helpful team that truly enjoys helping property managers. The iGMS blog is among the best in the industry, the helpdesk team is unmatched, and the leadership is simply unreal and customer-centric!

Challenges

Lifty Life had no shortage of challenges prior to iGMS. Before iGMS, we were self-managers of our own Airbnb properties but when we began to contract homeowners we knew we had to step up our game. Processes that worked for self-management wouldn’t scale or operate smoothly for our growing company.

Forgetting to send check-in and check-out messages

Before iGMS, we were frequently guilty of sending late check-in details but now we have a seamless automated process that sends messages on time, every time! In addition to automated check-in and checkout details, we send automated “thanks for booking” and “sad to see you cancel” messages. Even if a guest makes a reservation in the middle of the night, our automated message will thank them exactly 11 minutes later! Now guests praise us for how fast we respond and how reliable we are.

Mismanagement of cleaners

Lifty Life also struggled with managing remote cleaning teams. It can take a lot of time to message cleaning schedules and instructions but with iGMS the process is so simple. Now our cleaners have full visibility of the calendar, including when reservations are modified or canceled. Likewise, Lifty Life can see when cleaners have completed tasks, allowing us to offer early check-ins to our guests without checking with our cleaning teams.

Finally, the Tasks Report has been a great resource for cross-referencing invoices with completed cleans. Verifying cleaning payments now only takes minutes!

Limited reach across multiple sites

Lifty Life had been wary of listing on multiple vacation rental sites prior to iGMS. We focused just on  Airbnb but wanted to expand our channels to Vrbo without overcomplicating our processes. iGMS has made it simple to expand our marketing reach while removing the risk of double bookings and minimizing the need to log in to our Vrbo account. Without iGMS, I’m confident we would still be exclusive to Airbnb and lose out on the opportunities gained from being a multi-channel business.

Results

We have been extremely happy with the support and partnership that iGMS has provided to our business. iGMS has been more than a software provider; they have gone above and beyond to become a crucial marketing and business development partner. 

We estimate that iGMS has helped us save about 80- 90% of our time in regards to sending general messages and dealing with cleaners.

Their focus on continuous improvement has created an amazing product that can help large and small property managers. I’m always astounded by their new amazing features and updates which both simplify our business and provide new revenue opportunities.

iGMS has become a critical tool for the operation, scaling, and automation of Lifty Life Hospitality. The removal of trivial tasks from our operation has freed us up to focus our business on providing excellent service to both our customers and homeowners.