Professional Photography

We’ll increase your occupancy and the price you can charge with professional photography.

Will I need to pay an additional fee for your professional Airbnb photography?

We won’t charge you an additional fee—it’s all part of our service. If you join us as a full-time host, we’ll provide photography and lockbox installation free of charge. For our flexible hosts, there is a $250 onboarding fee for photography and lockbox installation.

How many photos will you take?

Our listings usually consist of around 15 to 30 photos. Quality above quantity is our top priority when uploading room images. Depending on the size of your property, we’ll take as many photographs as necessary to showcase your home. We want to give potential guests a sense of your space without overwhelming them. So, although Airbnb allows a maximum of 100 photographs to be uploaded, we’ll select two to four shots of each room. We’ll perfect the best photographs using professional editing software, and our expert team will choose the stand-out cover image.

The first 5 photos are the most important—perhaps even the ‘make it or break it’ moment for users viewing your listing. They appear before your potential guests click into your listing’s full photo collection. They’re the sneak peek into your Airbnb’s unique personality, so we’ll make sure to showcase your property’s best features first.

Does Airbnb allow the use of professional images taken outside of the platform?

Yes, Airbnb allows photographs taken by any professional service to be used on their platform. We’ve listed over 6,000 properties with our expert photography team.

Listing Creation

To help attract the right guests for your property and increase the number of bookings, we’ll set up and write your listings on multiple platforms. We’ve got data from thousands of properties, so we know what works best.

How quickly can you list my property?

We can have your property up and running in under a week. The amount of time it takes to list your property will depend on how quickly you can provide us with key information. If you’re committed to the process, it’ll take no time at all.

Can I help write my Airbnb listing description?

Of course—you know your property better than anyone else! We’ll work closely with you to get the information we need to create a perfect listing for potential guests. You’ll be in touch with our onboarding team while we create your listing, and you can easily upload information about your rental property via our host dashboard.

Which booking websites will you list my property on?

The websites we list your property on will vary, depending on the length of let you’d like to advertise your property for. Our lettings strategy combines short-term, medium-term, and long-term lets to maximize your revenue.

You’ll be able to discuss with your account manager which durations you’d like to let your property for, and you’ll also be able to update your preferences via our digital host dashboard. If you’d rather keep your property off a certain platform, just let us know.

We use the following booking websites for our short-term listings: Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, and Expedia. For longer lets, we can list your property on the following websites: Zoopla, HomeLike, RightMove, Spotahome, Morning Croissant, CityLets, NestPicks, and UniPlaces.

Can I use Houst if my property is not already listed on Airbnb?

Without a doubt! We’ll take care of listing your property on Airbnb (and other websites if you like) from start to finish.

Do I need any certificates?

We may require specific documents depending on the market in order to list your home with us. We do, however, expect your property to be fully compliant with all local health and safety regulations, as well as any government rules and regulations. We recommend that you contact your gas and electricity suppliers for an up-to-date safety inspection and that all fire and carbon monoxide alarms are operational before hosting.

How long will it be until I start earning?

If you’re ready to get started straight away, we’ll list your property within a week. Once your property is listed (and you’ve set your property’s availability), you’ll be able to accept your first booking. You’ll receive a payment following each guest check-out, rather than on a monthly basis.

Price Optimization

A core part of the Houst difference is being able to increase how much you earn from your property. Behind every great pricing strategy is a lot of data and great human minds—we have both.

How can I make more money from my rental property using Houst?

We pride ourselves on two key strategies—shown to increase our host’s earnings by up to 30%.

Firstly, we’ve developed our very own pricing software that takes into account city-wide occupancy rates, travel trends, property location, events, seasonality, competitor pricing, and other factors. Our data strategists ensure that your revenue is maximized all year round.

Secondly, we utilize multi-platform listing across a range of booking sites and combine short-lets with long-lets to maximize your earning potential. Did you know short-term rentals earn up to 3x more than traditional long-term rentals? You can enter your address into our calculator to get an earnings estimate.

How can I keep track of my earnings?

You’ll be given access to your own personal host dashboard, which you can access online via your mobile or desktop. Your dashboard is updated in real-time and provides you with an in-depth overview of your listing and its performance.

Here, you’ll find all past and future bookings, an interactive calendar to show your property’s availability, and a timeline of your earnings. We’ll also log any invoices and payouts in the billing section of your dashboard, which can be exported into Excel for easy management.

How does your price algorithm work?

Our pricing analysts compare your property to an extensive list of stays in the area, both manually and using our smart pricing software. We’ll set the best price for your property relative to the market, taking amenities and listing characteristics into account.

Our algorithm factors in market-wide holiday rental fluctuations such as seasonality, major events, rental demand, and revenue growth. We know when major events are taking place nearby or if prices are unusually high, so we’ll automatically increase your nightly rate during these dates in line with the increased demand. We’ll also automatically adjust your nightly rate depending on how far away the booking is, increasing the likelihood of last-minute bookings to ensure your property isn’t left empty.

What’s in it for my referral/friend?

A $300 referral bonus for you and Free Photography and Onboarding for your host friend. Follow link for details.

Multiple Listings

To maximize your bookings and revenue potential, we’ll list your property on multiple platforms. Our platform means your calendar is synced across them all, while you enjoy great returns. We also use a strategy of short, medium, and longer-term lettings to help ensure occupancy all year round.

How quickly can you list my property?

We can have your property up and running in under a week. The amount of time it takes to list your property will depend on how quickly you can provide us with key information. If you’re committed to the process, it’ll take no time at all.

Can I help write my Airbnb listing description?

Of course—you know your property better than anyone else! We’ll work closely with you to get the information we need to create a perfect listing for potential guests. You’ll be in touch with our onboarding team while we create your listing, and you can easily upload information about your rental property via our host dashboard.

Which booking websites will you list my property on?

The websites we list your property on will vary, depending on the length of let you’d like to advertise your property for. Our lettings strategy combines short-term, medium-term, and long-term lets to maximize your revenue.

You’ll be able to discuss with your account manager which durations you’d like to let your property for, and you’ll also be able to update your preferences via our digital host dashboard. If you’d rather keep your property off a certain platform, just let us know.

We use the following booking websites for our short-term listings: Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, and Expedia. For longer lets, we can list your property on the following websites: Zoopla, HomeLike, RightMove, Spotahome, Morning Croissant, CityLets, NestPicks, and UniPlaces.

Can I use Houst if my property is not already listed on Airbnb?

Without a doubt! We’ll take care of listing your property on Airbnb (and other websites if you like) from start to finish.

Guest Vetting

Your safety and the security of your property are our top priority. We screen all guests and, after hundreds of thousands of bookings, have also built up our own database of good and bad guests.

How do you screen potential guests?

There are three key steps to our guest vetting process. Firstly, we always use official ID verification software to check that your guests are genuine. If the booking is taken through Airbnb, this is done through Airbnb’s own verification process. If the booking is through another platform, we use a third-party verification platform—giving you peace of mind (and more bookings!) when listing on multiple platforms.

Secondly, we use an application programming interface when taking payments from guests, allowing us to automatically identify any fraudulent activity.

And lastly, our expert team is trained in identifying potential red flags. Our pros manually cross-reference guest details to triple-check a potential guest is genuine before accepting a booking.

Guest Check-In

Easy self check-in is a top priority for guests, and the Airbnb algorithm loves it too! So we provide a free Lockly smart lock to all new hosts who join us.

My property can’t accommodate a wall-mounted or railing lockbox—what do I do?

If your property isn’t suited to a wall-mounted or railing lockbox, we offer a smart key exchange service. This service would usually cost just over $20 per month, but it’s covered by our pricing plan!

We use a secure, third-party key exchange service, with over 4,000 key collection points open 24/7. We’ll send the key collection code and location to your guest in advance, so they can simply walk around the corner and collect their key.

We also track your key’s journey—so we’ll know whose hands it’s in at all times.

Are my keys safe in the lockbox?

We use two different kinds of lockboxes, depending on whether we’re installing a wall-mounted or railing lockbox. The security of your home is our top priority, so we’ve made sure our lockboxes are secure.

1. For wall-mounted lockboxes, we use the Lockly smart lock, which has advanced security features to keep your property safe.
2. For railings, we also utilize the Lockly smart lock system, ensuring your keys are always secure and easily accessible.

To be completely safe, your keys are only tagged with a unique home code, and we keep spares locked away in our office too. It’s also good to note that the lockboxes are almost always empty. Either your guests or our cleaners will have the keys—the lockbox is used only on changeover day.

How easy is it for guests to use the lockbox?

Our self check-in process is easy. We provide guests with a mobile-friendly lockbox guide, including: a map of the area, a step-by-step picture guide, written instructions, a diagram of how to use the Lockly smart lock, and a telephone number for our support team.

We’ll send the lockbox code via an online portal, which expires at the end of their reservation.

Linen and Toiletries

Guests always remember how good the sheets are! We provide hotel-quality linen and a high-quality laundry service. Our housekeepers know all the perfect touches for an enjoyable guest stay.

Are there any other linen and toiletries costs to consider?

We’ve built a transparent billings page so that you can keep track of all your incoming and outgoing payments via your host dashboard.

Our linen services are included in your payment plan—so you won’t need to pay anything extra. Likewise, the cleaning fee for our housekeeping services is covered by your guest. We’ll set the cleaning fee according to how many bedrooms you have and whether additional beds (i.e., sofa beds) have been used.

If you’d like us to re-stock toiletries for you, we’ll take care of purchasing the items and placing them in the property—but the cost will be charged to your account. You’ll find an invoice for this on your host dashboard, so you’ll know exactly when you’ve been charged and what for.

Guest Communication

Responding to guests as quickly as possible is the key to getting more bookings and maintaining a good reputation. Our teams respond 24/7/365 and are trained to deal with all questions and issues both before and during stays.

What is Airbnb’s policy for communicating with guests?

Airbnb asks that hosts respond to guest messages and inquiries within 24 hours; the quicker, the better.

If a guest requests to stay at your property, Airbnb gives you 24 hours to accept (or decline) the request before it expires. This means that a speedy response time is vital when it comes to accepting booking requests. If you miss a request, Airbnb suggests you offer the potential guest a special offer and ask them to re-send their booking request.

If a guest inquires about your property, Airbnb again asks hosts to respond within 24 hours. The difference here is that the inquiry won’t expire, but a slow response will significantly reduce your response time rating. In turn, Airbnb openly states this will lower your property’s position in search results. Alongside this, a quick response means your potential guest is more likely to book, as they’re already interested but want more information first. Similarly, Airbnb advises that hosts can send a special offer to entice those inquiring and also send a direct invitation to book.

How does Airbnb calculate response rates?

Airbnb gives hosts both a response rate and a response time. Your response rate reflects the percentage of booking requests and inquiries you’ve responded to within 24 hours over the past 30 days.

Your response rate is most important, as it affects where your property ranks in search results and also impacts your Superhost status. Your response time is the average time it took you to respond to any messages over the last 30 days. If you respond to a message after 24 hours, your response time will increase. This doesn’t affect your search results as such, but may discourage potential guests from booking your stay. However, it’s handy to know that the time you take to respond to any follow-up messages from guests doesn’t impact your host response time.

Maintenance

Our housekeeping team takes photographs between each guest stay and reports on any maintenance items. If it’s a small item, we’ll fix it quickly. If it’s something that needs repairing or replacing, such as a washing machine, we can arrange this for you.

Will you consult me before carrying out maintenance?

When you join us, we’ll ask you whether you’d like us to resolve maintenance issues immediately for you, or if you’d like to be contacted first. You can update this preference at any time via your digital dashboard, and you can also allocate a budget for various types of repairs.

If anything in your property needs repairing, our housekeeping team will alert us as soon as they notice the problem and provide photos. We’ll upload a report to your digital dashboard to keep you updated. Depending on your preference, we’ll either resolve the issue immediately for you or your support team will get in touch. If you’ve asked us to resolve any issues immediately but we can’t repair the problem within your allocated budget, we’ll get in touch to discuss your options.

What happens if a guest damages my property?

If a guest damages your property, our housekeeping team will alert us as soon as they notice the problem and provide photos. We’ll contact the guest via the platform they booked through and request they pay for the damages. If a guest declines to do so, we’ll raise the case with either AirCover or GuardHog, depending on the booking site.

Property Insurance

Bookings through Airbnb are covered by AirCover, while other bookings are covered by your insurance policy.

What happens if a guest damages my property?

We have thorough screening processes in place, so it’s unlikely that a guest will damage or steal from your property. However, if a guest does damage your property, our housekeeping team will alert us as soon as they notice the problem and provide photos.

We’ll contact the guest via the platform they booked through and request they pay for the damages. If a guest declines to do so, we’ll raise the case with either AirCover or GuardHog (depending on the booking site). As long as the guest is liable under the insurance policy, you’ll be reimbursed.

Will my personal home insurance cover my rental?

Most standard home and landlord insurance won’t give you the cover you need for letting a property via Airbnb or other short-term rental websites. You’ll need to have a specialist short-term let insurance policy to ensure you’re fully protected.

Long-Term Property Management

What services do you offer?

Our comprehensive range of property management services includes tenant screening, rent collection, property maintenance, lease management, financial reporting, and more. Our goal is to handle all aspects of property management efficiently, allowing property owners to enjoy passive income without the hassle.

How do you screen tenants?

We conduct thorough tenant screening processes that include background checks, credit checks, rental history verification, and employment verification. Our aim is to find reliable tenants who will treat your property with respect and pay rent on time.

What are your fees?

Our fees vary depending on the services required. Our standard management fees are 8% + GST. We offer competitive rates and transparent pricing. Contact us for a personalized quote tailored to your specific needs.

How do I know how much rent I’ll get?

Our property management team conducts a thorough market analysis to determine the optimal rental price for your property. We consider factors such as location, size, amenities, current market trends, and comparable rental properties in the area.

How do you handle rent collection?

We have streamlined rent collection processes in place to ensure timely payments from tenants. In the event of late payments, we follow strict procedures outlined in the lease agreement.

How often do you inspect properties?

We conduct quarterly property inspections to ensure everything is in order, identify maintenance issues before they escalate, and comply with insurance requirements.

How do you handle evictions?

While our goal is to avoid evictions whenever possible through thorough tenant screening, we understand that sometimes it becomes necessary. In such cases, we follow all legal procedures and work with the tenancy tribunal to manage the process efficiently and in compliance with local laws.

Do you provide financial reporting?

Yes, we provide detailed financial statements monthly. These reports include income and expense statements, rent rolls, maintenance expenses, and any other relevant financial information.

How do I switch to your property management services?

Switching to our property management services is simple. Contact us to schedule a consultation, and we’ll guide you through the transition process, including transferring leases, tenant information, and any existing maintenance contracts.

Do you manage properties in my area?

We manage properties in Hamilton, NZ. If you have a property in this area, we would be happy to assist you.

How do you deal with bonds?

We lodge the maximum amount allowable under the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 for all bonds, which is four weeks’ rent. This ensures that tenants have a financial interest in looking after your property, providing good security should any issues arise during the tenancy. All bonds are lodged with the Department of Housing New Zealand within the legal timeframe.

How do you handle maintenance requests?

We have a dedicated maintenance team available to handle maintenance requests promptly. Tenants can submit requests through our online portal or by contacting our office directly. We prioritize maintenance issues based on urgency to ensure timely resolution.

Tenants

Who do I call for help with problems late at night or on the weekend?

For assistance during late-night or weekend emergencies, call our dedicated support line at 021 880 215. We’re here to help you!

What is the process for renewing my lease?

Our leasing team will reach out to you prior to the end of your lease term to discuss renewal options. If you wish to renew your lease, we’ll provide you with the necessary paperwork and details regarding any changes to the lease terms or rent.

Am I allowed to make alterations or modifications to the property?

Any alterations or modifications to the property must be approved in writing by the property owner or management company. This includes painting, adding major fixtures, or making structural changes. Please consult with us before making any alterations to ensure compliance with the tenancy agreement.

What should I do if I need to terminate my lease early?

Early termination of your lease may incur penalties or fees as outlined in your lease agreement. Please contact our leasing team to discuss your situation and explore possible options for early termination.

How are bonds handled?

All bonds are lodged with Tenancy Services within 23 days of receipt. This applies whether you send the bond in full or in installments.

What are my responsibilities regarding lawn care and maintenance?

Both landlords and tenants share responsibility for maintaining the property. Typically, tenants are responsible for basic lawn care, such as mowing the lawn and watering plants, while major landscaping tasks are managed by the property owner or management company.

What are the policies regarding noise and disturbances?

We expect all tenants to be considerate of their neighbors. Excessive noise or disturbances may result in warnings or lease violations, so please be mindful of noise levels, especially during quiet hours.

How do I provide notice before moving out?

For periodic leases, tenants must give at least 28 days’ written notice to end the tenancy unless the landlord agrees to a shorter time. Fixed-term tenancies can only be altered if all parties agree in writing.

Cleaning Services

What cleaning services do you offer?

Marceve offers a wide range of cleaning services, including end-of-tenancy cleaning, residential cleaning, and commercial cleaning. Our goal is to provide thorough and reliable cleaning solutions tailored to your needs.

How do you ensure quality in your cleaning services?

At Marceve, we prioritize quality and attention to detail in every cleaning job. Our professional cleaners are trained to follow rigorous cleaning protocols and use industry-leading equipment and eco-friendly products to deliver exceptional results.

What does an end-of-tenancy clean include?

Our end-of-tenancy cleaning service is designed to restore your property to pristine condition between tenancies. We perform a comprehensive cleaning of all surfaces, appliances, and fixtures, addressing any areas of concern to meet the highest cleanliness standards.

Do you provide residential cleaning services?

Yes, we offer residential cleaning services for homeowners looking to maintain a clean and hygienic living environment. Our services can be scheduled weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly to suit your needs.

Do you offer commercial cleaning services?

Yes, Marceve provides commercial cleaning services for businesses of all sizes. Whether you need daily office cleaning or specialized cleaning for healthcare facilities, we have the expertise and resources to deliver exceptional results.

What measures do you take to ensure safety and security during cleaning?

We prioritize the safety and security of our clients’ properties and belongings. Our professional cleaners are trained to handle sensitive information and valuables with care and discretion.

How do you handle scheduling and booking?

We use a streamlined scheduling system to organize all cleaning services. For specific requests, you can coordinate directly with our Clean Team Manager.

What are your rates for cleaning services?

Our rates vary depending on the type of service required, the size of the property, and any additional requests. We offer competitive pricing and transparent billing with no hidden fees.

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Get in Touch

For any inquiries or to book our services, please call us at 021 880 215. We’re here to help you with all your property management and cleaning needs!