COVID-19 has hit the travel industry hard, and for many property managers, the path forward is difficult to see. Why are so many guests cancelling? Why are our owners pulling their listings? And is there anything we can do to make sure our businesses survive this incredibly difficult time?

At Properly, we’ve done our best to put together some answers for you.

Our CEO Alex wrote a letter to our customers earlier this week. We’re reprinting it here as a commitment to the entire industry: Properly pledges to create and distribute all the information we can to help our industry.

We started with an essential COVID-19 Disinfection Checklist, which follows the CDC, EPA, and World Health Organization guidelines for disinfecting residences. This checklist is available for free in the Properly app.

Sign up for a free account and access it immediately.

We followed it with a new resource: Everything Property Managers Need to Know About COVID-19.

What else is Properly doing to help? Read this letter from our CEO to learn more:

Dear friends, 

I know that all of you are worried about the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus on your businesses. Properly’s mission is to deliver peace of mind to everyone in the vacation rental industry, and we take that mission seriously.

It’s a difficult time to deliver on that mission, but I’d like to take some time to make an attempt in this letter by providing a clear path forward. 

A quick word in advance: I’m aware that some of you are in cities that are in full lockdown at the moment, and that the plan of action I lay out here can’t be implemented immediately. 

However, there is a future ahead of us. Those who have been isolated for weeks will desperately need an escape and a refuge. If we start planning now, we will be well-situated to meet them with safe, well-equipped, and welcoming sanctuaries, and make our industry the standard-setter in professionalism, consistency, quality and hospitality.

I’ve spoken to countless industry professionals over the last week, and here are the biggest concerns that come up over and over again: 

• What can I do about guests who want to cancel? 
• How do I convince my owners not to take their properties out of circulation? 
• What can I do to protect my business over the coming months? 

Here’s are the tools and resources we’ve already created for you to address these challenges: 

• Everything Property Managers Need to Know About COVID-19. This FAQ page includes in-depth information about your most pressing questions and links to all our downloadable resources. It will be updated continually over the coming weeks. 
• COVID-19 Disinfection Checklist and Peace of Mind Checklist for All New Users. Both checklists are available immediately to new users of the Properly app, and have been delivered to all our existing customers.
  • The COVID-19 Disinfection Checklist follows the best practices recommended by the CDC, EPA, and WHO for disinfection, and can be sent along with your own turnover checklist. 
  • The Peace of Mind Checklist combines the COVID-19 checklist with our basic turnover for a complete all-in-one turnover checklist you can use immediately. 
• Remote Inspection Onboarding Fees Waived. While you can double-check your cleaner’s work by reviewing verification photos in the Properly app, you may not have time to do it right now. Our Remote Inspection team can take on this task for you – and we’re waiving onboarding fees for the next two months to make it easier to start. Click here to talk to our team about starting Remote Inspection.
• Templates to Communicate with Guests, Owners, and Service Providers. We know you’re working hard to keep your businesses afloat, and it can be very difficult to draft reassuring proactive messages. That’s why we did it for you. Click here to get our free communication templates that can be modified easily to fit your business.
• 24/7 Support for Anything You Need. Our global team is already working 100% from home from our locations in the USA, Europe, Asia and Oceania. They’ve all been informed about best practices to flatten the curve and can help you implement any of the new systems above. Contact us by chat on our website anytime. 

We are speaking with industry leaders and professionals to provide you with best practices, easy ways to implement new processes, support and education for your staff, and helpful strategies to communicate with your guests and owners so that they keep faith in your business.

You can sign up for our ongoing newsletter to receive updates on all of these resources here: Properly Informed Newsletter. 

If you take nothing else from this letter, please remember this: none of us are helpless. We can rise, individually and as an industry, to this occasion. If we refuse to live in fear, take active measures, and forge a clear path forward, short-term rentals will not succumb to this crisis – they will become a respite from it. 

Six months from now, people will still feel uncertain and cautious, but they will also badly need escape, relief, and joyful experiences with their loved ones. Vacation rentals, holiday homes, cottages, baches, villas, flats, and apartments around the world offer a compelling alternative to crowded hotel lobbies, and a welcome sanctuary after the crisis has passed.

Our industry will bounce back, and it will be stronger than ever. 

It won’t be immediate. It won’t be tomorrow. But this future is coming. So let’s get ready for it. 

Let me close by offering any help that you might need at this time. Is there information you would like to have? Guidelines for your team? Infographics? Workshops? If there’s anything I personally or that my team at Properly can offer that would give you a little more peace of mind over the months to come, please let me know. 

Otherwise, we’ll keep delivering the best resources we can, as long as this crisis lasts. 

With warm regards, 

Alex Nigg
Founder & CEO
Properly, Inc. 

Please spread the COVID-19 Disinfection Checklist to your fellow professionals in the industry. We truly believe it will be a powerful tool for managers during this difficult time, and we want as many people as possible to use it. You can access it by setting up a free account here and looking in your Checklist Library. No credit card or commitment is required – it’s completely free.

It’s the least we can do to help – but we’re going to keep doing more. Sign up for our newsletter for regular updates on new resources.