The rise of online platforms such as Airbnb and others like it has given rise to a host of property management services offered by concierge services. These service providers help property owners to their short-term lettings and optimise their income. In an ever-changing regulatory environment, these companies face a number of challenges, including optimising their reception processes and automating the deposit-taking process.
How were concierge services born and what need do they meet?
In France today, a majority of homeowners say they are prepared to put their property on a private rental platform. According to Airbnb, millions of bookings are made every day via their website. The success of these platforms is benefiting many players, including online concierge services.
These companies were born out of the collaborative economy and offer turnkey services to maximise income from renting out property to private individuals. A simple Google search reveals an abundance of offers. Although all the concierge services seem to offer similar services at first glance, their offerings can vary, depending in particular on the level of range of the accommodation.
The principle is to take care of all the time-consuming aspects of managing a rental property in exchange for a commission or via a subscription system. Services include managing the arrival and departure of travellers, housekeeping, cleaning of linen, writing adverts on rental websites, and managing interactions with travellers.
Calling on a concierge service is a real advantage when it comes to getting the best possible service. good ratings and an attractive profile on rental platforms.
What kind of challenges do concierge services face?
Concierge services operate in an ever-changing regulatory environment. As they are closely linked to short-term rental platforms, they are directly affected by new regulations. For example, major cities may require individuals renting out their property via a platform to register with the local council to check that the legal rental period for principal residences has not been exceeded.
In addition to this regulatory environment, these companies face a number of challenges in meeting increasingly demanding demand. They want to optimise their rental and reception processes. Among the tools available to meet these needs, channel managers can be used to automatically update the various distribution channels used, such as synchronising the availability of a rental across several platforms.
When a property is rented out, a deposit is taken almost systematically to protect it against incivilities. Optimising the management of security deposits is a major challenge for most concierge services. Solutions such as Swikly have been developed to meet this need. Swikly allows you to secure and automate all the processes of taking deposits, taking deposits without debit and even payments secured by 3DS.
At a time when cheques are obsolete for taking deposits and standard bank card imprints do not meet the needs of concierge services in terms of time and security, Swikly offers a simple and practical alternative. Swikly's secure deposits are valid for several months from the time the tenant accepts the deposit. The limit on the tenant's bank card is not affected by a request for a Swikly deposit, and the money is only debited in the event of incivility or damage. Swikly also handles any disputes and debt collection.
Each time a deposit is requested, Swikly instantly checks the identity and ability to pay of the tenant to avoid scams or problems with the use of the rented property. Through this digital deposit request, concierge services can also benefit from an additional marketing contact point with the tenant, generating additional sales. The time at which the deposit is taken can be used to sell additional services, such as a taxi service, luggage management or the delivery of hot croissants on Sunday mornings. Swikly makes it possible, in a single step, to secure a deposit and collect the price of these services, thereby optimising the customer experience. In addition to managing deposits, Swikly can also be used to collect tourist taxes.
Given the volume of deposits and tourist taxes managed by concierge services, Swikly offers to fully automate the online deposit request process for holiday rentals by integrating easily with the market's channel managers or via API.
