Onsite management versus the Welcome Ready difference?
You decide.
Welcome Ready proudly manages units in Rolling Surf Resort (King’s Beach), Surf Air Resort (Marcoola), Verve and The Sebel in Maroochydore, all of which operate under onsite management. Many property owners and investors choose Welcome Ready because traditional onsite management fees are often extensive. Once administration costs, marketing charges, service fees, and ad-hoc expenses are deducted, the advertised “low percentage” quickly escalates into a substantially higher commission rate than expected.
A common frustration among property owners in managed resorts is the lack of transparency. Instead of promoting each property individually based on its unique condition, features, furnishings, and décor, onsite management typically pools listings together. As a result, when a booking is made, the guest may be allocated to whichever property the manager prefers, often prioritising those that benefit the management company most. In some cases, onsite managers even hold investments or silent partnerships in certain units, creating a serious conflict of interest for owners seeking a fair and consistent return on their investment.
What makes us different?
Here, the founders of Welcome Ready Melanie and Verena answer a few of the most frequently asked questions regarding property management in resorts over on-site management.
We chatted with owners from 5 of the Sunshine Coast’s prominent resorts to gather feedback on their experiences with on-site management.
Here we answer the most commonly asked questions from owners looking to move from on-site management to Welcome Ready.
Who decides who stays at my property?
Onsite Mangement
Onsite Manager and staff decide where to put potential guests when a booking comes through, where not all units are individually advertised.
Welcome Ready
Potential guests view your property’s details, features and availability, and they decide if the property suits their needs.
How is your property viewed and marketed to potential guests?
Onsite Mangement
The complex’s internal booking website.
Some may use other booking channels such as Airbnb, Stayz and Booking.com.
Owners have an ‘advertising fee’ deducted as a percentage on monthly statements but the distribution of these funds is also unclear.
Welcome Ready
We advertise your listing on each hosting channel including Airbnb, Stayz, Homeaway, Booking.com, Expedia as well as our own bookings website. Welcome Ready provides an owners portal login that provides real time data for your bookings and where they are coming from as well as your expected net revenue from each booking.
We never charge any additional advertising fees.
How can you make an owner booking and what are the associated costs, if any? What visibility do you have with the current bookings for property?
Onsite Mangement
Little visibility is provided, unless you specifically ask when you are at the front desk and they can advise you.
In some cases, you as an owner must phone or email directly to your complex to see when your unit is vacant.
Welcome Ready
Owners are given a unique owners portal that provides real time data for your bookings and where they are coming from, as well as expected owner net revenue (after clean & linen fees, as well as management fees). You are also able to make your own bookings on the portal directly.
What kind of occupancy can you expect throughout the year? What does the reporting look like? What statistics if any are given?
Onsite Mangement
Would need to be calculated based on reports provided. Often times there are no statistics given.
Welcome Ready
On average we achieve between 70-90% occupancy across all our properties over the calendar year. You are provided with a monthly owners report for each month’s bookings, which marketing channel they were booked with and your net revenue. Our owners portal also allows you to stay up to date with number of booked nights, owners net revenue, occupancy, and average advertised nightly rate.
How is cleaning and linens handled? What is the resolution process when a clean is disputed by a guest or an owner (ie. when not up to standard)?
Onsite Mangement
There is often no resolution process, which results in low overall cleaning standards and complaints from guests.
Welcome Ready
We reach out to guests on a number of different occasions to invite them to share comments and concerns about the condition of the property, any service or maintenance issues and our cleaning standards & practices. We pride ourselves on high response times should anything require further attention, and will often have our team attend back to resolve issues as they are identified.
Our cleaners are proactive in identifying and addressing potential areas of concern before guests do, which is documented by our team at each turnover.