Rental Ninja is a side app for Booking Sync. It brings many extra functionalities such as: invoicing, mobile app, statistics, advanced team management, arrivals management, tasks management. I will explain how I use Rental Ninja daily to save time.
I use BookSync (PMS/Channel Manager) to manage my vacation rental activity. I have often searched more advanced features than the ones offered by the software. Namely, to automate the numerous tasks related to the rental activity. I first started to “tinker” with Typeform and Zapier in order to automatically collect the guests’ arrival times as well as their emails. I wanted to save time managing check-ins.
Before using Rental Ninja
I tried to automate owners’ invoicing with Zapier and Google Sheets. I then tried to assign tasks to check-in personnel and cleaning staff using Zapier and Evernote. All this was more or less efficient and it lacked standardization and the updates from Zapier to Booking Sync.
Then I started to use Rental Ninja. First, in order to use the app to connect with field teams. That way, they could access key information on the go about the guests and their stays. They could also produce a report after each departure with pictures of degradations (if any) and ID scan upon arrival.
Let me explain how I use Rental Ninja daily and the benefits for my vacation rental business :
Automate owners invoicing with Rental Ninja
After summer season, I finally took some time to take a closer look at the ‘invoicing’ feature and it’s brilliant! Up until then, I would update daily a shared Google spreadsheet so owners could follow their rental activity according to each stay. This spreadsheet was my basis for monthly invoicing. With the growing activity, it became incredibly time-consuming.
Automate owners invoicing
Rental Ninja is fully integrated with Booking sync. You can automate the owner invoicing process with data collected and generated in Booking Sync.
Recipients
During the Invoicing app on-boarding, you will create your first recipients (if you have already created Owners, you will have the possibility to turn them into recipients). It is important that anyone who’s meant to collect money within your activity be named a recipient: owners, team members, yourself.
Strategies
The next step is to define a strategy for each beneficiary. The tools adapt to your organization from the simplest to the most complex.
You can decide that a given owner gets 80% of the amount for a rent (if your commission is 20 %). The owner gets x% of the fees/services and y% taxes.
You need to do the same regarding yourself and for your team (cleaning, check-in).
Statements
Once your strategies are defined for each beneficiary, you can create your rental statements (on whichever time period you chose -monthly for instance-). This report will aggregate and distribute data fetched on BookingSync for a given owner, for a given period.
Payments
Depending on previously defined strategies, the amount for each one will be distributed and you will be able to initiate a payment for each recipient. Making these payments will enable automatic invoicing.
Rental Ninja allows you to send the invoice directly to the recipient (owner, team) with the possibility to include an attachment or not.
You’ve understood it by now. At the end of each month, only a few clicks will generate invoicing for owners, cleaning staff, check-in staff and your own commission.
Automate check-ins management with Rental Ninja
One of the latest features from Rental Ninja is the possibility to contact travelers prior to their arrival to request useful information to welcome them:
-
- estimated check-in time
-
- means of transportation
-
- email confirmation (to collect the real one)
-
- Confirmation of group composition (adults, children, babies)
- ID scan
You can set the number of days separating the emails (requests and reminders) from the arrival of the guest. Emailing includes your business name with the logo so as to limit email bouncing.
Once the form is filled, a comment with the collected data is added to your BookingSync reservation. To also receive a notification on your Rental Ninja app to inform you about the added comment and the new arrival time, if applicable.
The guest’s email address is also added to the email field in the traveler’s file
Without automation, this is a tedious task. You could use pre-recorded messages on each of your portals to ask for relevant information. You could use the new unified inbox by BookingSync. Some use Smartbnb to automate but it is difficult to keep this step both as autonomous as possible and integrated with an existing communication workflow.
Guest App
The logical follow-up to the pre-check-in is to give access to the Guest app before arrival. Thus sharing important information about the stay.
The guest will find booking informations (booking number, amount due, payments made). But there will also be useful; tips you will have added to the Accommodation Guide.
These Guides can have text, photos, links, HTML. they can be multi-lingual and you can create a PDF version to send via email or print.
These Guides can have text, photos, links, HTML. they can be multi-lingual and you can create a PDF version to send via email or print.
Teamwork with Rental Ninja
The Rental Ninja mobile app is very useful for various aspects and uses
With the Staff
I have generated an access for the people contributing to the activity, whether it be cleaning staff or anyone usually or temporarily managing arrivals.
My request to people managing arrivals:
-
- take a picture of traveler’s ID
- add a comment if anything happened during check-in: a guest question or something that was noticed while touring the property.
Having lots of information helps in resolving a dispute during or after a stay. I also ask the cleaning staff – whether the guest has left or not- to take a picture of potential damages or heavy soiling. Those pictures will come in handy if the deposit must be used.
Simplify relations with Owners through avec Rental Ninja
As I explained earlier when discussing invoicing, I used to share a Google spreadsheet with each owner so they could follow their bookings.
Along with Rental Ninja’s auto invoicing feature, I created an access for each owner which enables them to install the mobile app.
This ‘owner’ access is already implemented, with specific rights pre-defined. They are well suited for owners but you can add extra rights if necessary.
With this, each owner gets a smartphone notification with every new booking. They have key information to block some dates if need be.
Automate tasks and maintenance management with Rental Ninja
Here is a new feature I was lucky to test with an early access. It’s task management.
The app is simple yet again, but darn effective. It naturally completes the Rental Ninja ecosystem.
Mission & tasks
You will be able to prepare missions which include specific tasks. You can request a photo to carry out the task.
For example, the mission “Departure cleaning” includes the following tasks:
-
- Ventilate the flat
-
- Quick inspection
-
- Clean the fridge
-
- Empty the trash
- …
Or a “check-in” mission would include:
-
- Greet travelers
-
- Visit of the premises
-
- Give welcome bag
-
- Ask for departure time
-
- Give advice on what to do nearby
-
- Give keys
- …
Once missions are created, you can plan and distribute them automatically.
By selecting:
-
- Which rentals are concerned by the mission?
-
- How long before arrival must it be carried out?
-
- How long after departure must it be carried out?
-
- What is the priority level?
-
- Must the mission be double-checked after completion (by you for instance)
- Who gets to carry out the mission?
Concerning the attribution of the mission, you can assign it to a particular person (among your Rental Ninja team) or to anyone with a specific role and linked to the rental.
This way, if you work with various people on the same accommodation, each will be notified of a new mission and can choose to take on that mission -or not- using the smartphone.
The web interface for this functionality gives a view of bookings and missions (distributed or not). It allows you – if you chose to do so- to check the missions labeled as ‘done’ (by looking at the picture taken in the accommodation by the staff).
This new feature is really major. I don’t know about you but I used to spend huge amounts of time organizing schedules for everyone and collecting feedback on what had been done in each accommodation.
Mission templates come in very handy for new staff as it helps them plan their work. I also find this to display accountability toward owners. You show you have a precise process, maybe even specific to their house (if it has some particulars)
Rental Ninja Pricing
Last few pieces of information on Rental Ninja pricing:
The Starter version costs 2€ / month / rental and it offers statistics as well as the mobile app (to collaborate as a team and give access to owners).
The pro version costs 4€ / month / rental and gives all Starter functionalities + invoicing + task management (as well as further updates and new features).
Subscribe to Rental Ninja 30-day free trial
What brings me Rental Ninja
To summarize, the tool keeps its promises and allows me and my team to save valuable time, but above all to improve processes and make communication and everyday life more fluid and enjoyable. Thus, the total integration with BookingSync is really well thought out and this is certainly due to the fact that the creators of Rental Ninja are themselves in vacation rental business in Barcelona, users of BookingSync.
Rental Ninja costs 80€/month. You can do the math!
Please feel free to contact me for more information on how I use Rental Ninja. I will gladly help.
