Partner With Towns Property Management, Inc.

Towns Property Management Inc. is a truly full-service vacation rental management company located in Asheville, NC. We’re dedicated to setting a new benchmark for vacation rental stays by providing the most affordable and convenient rental experience to both homeowners and guests. Our goal is to provide a consistent, high-end experience like one would expect at a fine hotel, while retaining the unique benefits and authenticity of a vacation rental home.

Companies like HomeAway and Airbnb operate listing websites that market vacation rentals to guests all over the world. However, these listing sites do not do things like: expertly craft and manage property listings; push your listing to 50+ vacation rental sites (e.g. HomeAway, VRBO, Airbnb, etc); have a team monitoring and adjusting booking rates to best meet demand; manage availability calendars; answer guest inquiries and responses immediately; complete in-person property inspections after every stay; manage light property maintenance; provide professional housekeeping; gather guest reviews; provide a Homeowner Dashboard (e.g., monitor success, adjust availability calendar, see who comes and goes from a property, learn what updates are being completed to a property); etc.

Towns Property Management Inc. does all of this and more as a vacation rental property management company.

We take care of everything. Although many vacation rental property managers claim they do it all, we manage every aspect of keeping your vacation rental booked and ready for guests (and you). It is our mission to help you earn the most revenue possible.

Towns Property Management Inc. handles everything from taking photos, writing your rental property listing description, and marketing it to potential guests. We also manage reservations, guest inquiries, payments, communications, check-in/check-out and entry into your home with our proprietary digital technology.

Your home will always be guest ready since we provide professional housekeeping, upkeep and more. We dispatch emergency maintenance, and provide 24/7 local guest support.
When we say we do everything – we actually mean it.

Our contract is an open-book and does not contain any onerous clauses. It’s straightforward and includes a 30-day opt-out clause. This means that if you are not happy with the service for any reason, you can leave with a month’s notice.

Getting started is easy and risk-free. We can activate homes that are existing vacation rentals in a few weeks if everything is ready to go. Our contract has no minimum term, volume commitments, or start-up fees. Normal activation includes shooting new photos, creating a detailed listing, setting pricing, activating advertising on the main internet channels and beginning to take reservations – all in as little as a few weeks! This can take longer depending on the homeowner’s schedule, or if a home is in the process of being converted from a residence or long-term rental.

Yes, we will help in any way we can. Whether it is helping you secure licensing, to meeting movers, the cable company, etc. We can have a Towns Property Management Inc. representative help you smoothly get through the process.

No, as with so many things, Towns Property Management Inc. will coordinate any and all sales taxes for you. We collect the taxes, put them into our owner’s escrow-style account, and remit on your behalf. Each reservation has taxes added to the amount of the rental – so when you see a rental dollar amount, you can rest assured that we have collected and will remit tax on top of that – you do not need to send us extra money to pay taxes nor do you need to file with your lodging authority.

No, however we do require that all homes that wish to use Towns Property Management Inc. are year-round rentals. There is no problem with an owner, friends or family using a rental for weeks or even months at a time, however if you plan to only make it available occasionally then your home probably isn’t right for our program. We also reserve the right to cancel a homeowner agreement if the home is predominantly unavailable for bookings.

Yes. Guests expect a fully-functioning home, complete with furniture in good condition, appliances, cookware, dinnerware, internet, TV, as well as an ample supply of bed linens, towels, and typical consumables like light-bulbs and batteries. We will work with you to make sure that you have everything in place. Internet connections are required at every home – TV can be optional in certain rural areas. Nicely decorated homes tend to command higher rentals and we always encourage owners to have a home that shows well. A good test of whether or not you need to have something in your rental is to put yourself in a guest’s shoes… If you were staying somewhere for a week-long period of time, what would you expect to have in that rental home… That is what we aim to provide to guests for their stay.

A landline phone is not necessary unless you wish to have one for your own personal stays, or you are in an area with no cell reception. We do require high-speed Wi-Fi to be available.

No, that’s up to each owner. We understand many owners do not want to allow them and that’s fine. We do charge guests an additional non-refundable $75 rent per stay for up to 2 pets to ensure that the home is fully cleaned. This fee gets paid as additional rent, so the majority will go to the owner. Any damage caused by a pet will be taken out of the deposit. However, if damages exceed the deposit we will seek additional funds from the guest. Please take note that we are not able to prohibit service animals.

You will get a monthly statement from us that details out how much rental revenue you earned, includes details on revenue we collected, as well as any charges that you have incurred during the month (for example if you want it cleaned for your own stay, or if you had us install a new TV, etc.) Our team will be happy to guide you through your owner statement.

We currently pay owners once a month. Expect to receive an owner statement and a direct deposit to your bank account on the 15th of every month. This statement and deposit will cover all guests that check-out during that month. If you have a guest crossing over one month to the next, the payment for that reservation falls in the month they check-in.

We use the very best professional property management software available on the market – a very secure and reliable management solution for professional managers to push your rental to over 50+ booking sites. It is backed by a publicly traded company and works very well for enabling all aspects of guest bookings and payments.

We list your home everywhere guests are looking for rentals! In addition to our own site, we’ll automatically get your property onto the major listing sites:

We also synchronize your availability calendar so every site shows the right rates and availability all of the time. We believe no other property manager markets more than Towns Property Management Inc. – after all, if we don’t book up your home we don’t make any money either! Each site has a slightly different business model, but in general most have a fee that gets charged to the guest. Of course, all bookings on the Towns Property Management Inc. website have no additional cost associated with them.

Many owners have already created listings. We will work with you to migrate your listing over to our managed account. We will also professionally rewrite the listing if necessary, improve the photos or take new ones, and synchronize the pricing and calendar across all of the many sites on which we list your rental.

No. In preparation for listing your home, Towns Property Management Inc. uses the latest technology to capture photos and a digital floor plan, as well as create a virtual tour, which we have found to be a key selling point for potential guests. When captured, our highly trained team of expert photo editors make sure your home looks fantastic on every listing site.

You can call us and we will book your property for you, or you can view your availability and book online through our Owner Dashboard. There is absolutely no charge for this and we even schedule cleaning when you leave so it is ready for the next guest. We bill you on your owner statement for the cleaning.

Owners often ask how pricing is set for each rental. First, we set an initial price for each unit for each day of week, and time of the year. Midweek days might get set at one price, and weekends at another; holidays and peak periods may be set higher, and off-season prices could be set lower. We set these initial prices based on several factors like input from each owner, characteristics of the home (size, amenities, location, recent remodels, etc.), comparable home prices in the area, and guidance from our local General Manager.

We use a dynamic pricing program. Once in the program, we watch the performance of your unit and make pricing adjustments as needed. The key is to monitor and adjust pricing up or down based on actual market demand. This is where Towns Property Management Inc. excels. We monitor conversion rates of your rental at initial pricing and adjust up or down according to how well the rental is booking. It is an ongoing process that is always a top priority.

•  Here are just a few examples of the many ways we adjust your pricing to make you more rental income:
  • If your home is booking more quickly for comparable times of year than other homes in your area – this may be an indicator that your price is too low, and we may adjust it upward.
  • If your unit has last minute availability, and has openings within the next two weeks, we may apply different levels of discounts to try and get that last-minute traveler who is used to getting a last-minute deal.
  • If we notice large periods of time that are farther in advance that have lower than expected occupancy, we may adjust the price down. As occupancy fills in, we may adjust the price back up.
• There are several other ways we make changes, and a lot of different places we look for data. At Towns Property Management Inc. we monitor the market availability calendars on sites like VRBO and HomeAway, we use pricing reports from AirDNA, we receive hotel pricing reporting from RateGain, STR and benchmark every home’s inquiry and reservation volumes against historical numbers and comparable homes.

No, our cleaning fees cover laundry service for linens.

No, you don’t need to worry about it, Towns Property Management Inc. makes sure your home remains stocked. We supply an initial set of amenities, so when guests arrive they don’t need to head straight to a market. This set includes a couple rolls of toilet paper per bathroom, a roll of paper towels, small sizes of soap, shampoo, and conditioner, and dish soap in the kitchen. Towns Property Management Inc. buys hotel amenities in bulk and restocks these for every stay. Rather than having the owner manage and maintain, Towns Property Management Inc. bills the owner only $25 per stay to completely restock all the items.

We love it when owners stay involved with decorating and improving their home!! In fact, we highly encourage it. Guests want a unique and local experience; your home decor is a great way to provide them a distinctive and homey feeling.

Towns Property Management Inc. uses a very specific type of digitally-coded lock specifically designed for lodging that is known to be the gold standard in the vacation rental industry. They are proven to be reliable, secure and stand-up to harsh outdoor environments. They are very secure with all codes expiring upon check-out. Even our cleaners and vendors can be issued one-time or date and time-specific codes. This means your home is secure, and easy for the right people to access at the right time. Unlike many other managers, we do not cut corners by using cheaper, less reliable and less secure locks and we never hand out keys to anyone. In addition, Towns Property Management, Inc pays a third party verification service to determine the identity of every guest before their reservation can be confirmed.

Each lock comes with the ability to have several master codes set for it at any given time. As an owner you have a master code and can access the property whenever you want. If for some reason you wish to access while a renter is in the property, you may leverage our handy Homeowner Dashboard or contact Management team. Generally, we like to avoid disturbing the tenants but understand there may be times when this needs to be done.

Our Maintenance Supervisor is trained in light maintenance and small HVAC repairs, and will notify you if a maintenance issue requires your attention. This service is included in the $25 janitorial fee. Our staff maintains a 24/7 call center, reservations management, guest support, regular housekeeping scheduling and inspections, dispatch of qualified maintenance personnel, monitoring internet uptime, indoor temperature when equipped, pool temps when equipped, electronic locks, etc.

During inspections we will restock consumable items like soap, toilet paper, shampoo, trash can liners and even perform simple maintenance like changing remote control batteries or light bulbs for lamp fixtures or ceilings either foot or lower in height if spares are available on site and touch up paint.

Towns Property Management Inc. recommends having a local, licensed HVAC service plan in place. It is important to have regularly scheduled services for your air conditioning & heating. We provide air filter replacement and pest control services. These are all included with no extra fees to the owner. In addition, yard maintenance and exterior maintenance are typically the responsibility of the owner.

Towns Property Management Inc. visits and puts out the trash with no charge to you.

No, we have cleaners with us who have proven to be fast, flexible, reliable, and are already familiar with Towns Property Management Inc.’s strict cleaning protocol.

We use credit card processing through our software. Travelers overwhelmingly prefer to pay with credit cards rather than send cash – it is safer, easier, and more secure. We can also take eCheck/ACH Direct Deposit but prefer to use credit cards.

Guests can communicate with us via our website, email, or by phone with our professional Guest Experience team that is available around the clock. Once you book, we’ll invite you to our Guest Portal where guests can view their reservation information, receive their door code for their rental, get directions to your property, get nearby restaurant suggestions, and more. Anyone can download and we encourage homeowners to do so. The application is listed as Towns Property Management Inc., under Towns Property Management Inc. Vacation Rentals.

Yes. Although virtually all guests begin with an email or phone call, we do allow them to view, book, and pay for a property online.

The guest always calls Towns Property Management Inc.. The guest actually never knows the name of the owner for privacy reasons (unless you really want us to tell them). We take the call and dispatch the appropriate vendor. We pay the vendor and then put the bill onto your homeowner statement (taking vendor charge out of the revenue owed to you for that month) – that way you don’t have to worry about paying out-of-pocket for anything unless it happens to be a major repair. Towns Property Management Inc. does not charge any additional fees for these types of emergencies.

Please know that we do have a strict policy of evicting them upon any sign of noise, partying, or over-occupancy. We want guests to enjoy themselves, however, we do not tolerate abuse at your property and contractually have measures in place to evict and charge additional fees.

In an effort to keep your guests and property safe, we will install several types of noise monitors and customize the decimal level settings for your specific property. Our local teams will receive an alert if the noise volume exceeds these settings and address it for you.

Guests pay us directly for cleaning fees, and we pay the cleaners. There is nothing you need to do to schedule or pay them.