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Property Management: The Challenges We Faced and Why Bénoline Exists
The Bénoline adventure began with a simple observation: traditional property and rental management often left owners to fend for themselves when faced with recurring problems. From costly surprises to missed opportunities, we lived through the frustrations of lack of follow-up and lack of involvement from management companies.
Bénoline started by managing our own assets, whether plexes in Montreal or cottages in Lanaudière. It was on the ground that we forged our vision.
The Orgine of Bénoline
As real estate investors, we collaborated with the largest property and rental management companies over the last 20 years (for short, medium, and long-term plexes, condos, and cottages). While we met competent teams for bookings and tenant relations, essential tasks systematically fell back on us.
With one company, we had to manage the purchase of supplies ourselves (toilet paper, soap, etc.) with no follow-up on tenant feedback regarding missing or broken equipment. With another, exterior maintenance (snow removal, lawn care) was our responsibility, as was identifying and coordinating repairs, without ever receiving advice to optimize our properties' profitability.
Real-life experience & impacts
Beyond day-to-day flaws, we experienced situations that directly impacted our income. Here is our Top 3:
1- Unmanaged Maintenance Issue: In a cottage in Saint-Alexis-des-Monts, a water heater broke in mid-winter. The management company had no local contact. Result: 2 days without hot water for guests, a $550 partial refund, a cancellation of the following stay ($900 loss), and $300 in emergency repair surcharges we had to handle ourselves.
2- Lack of Tenant Feedback Follow-up: A 31+ day tenant reported mold in a Montreal condo bathroom. No action was taken. This led to a worsening of the problem, a bad review from the next guest, and a 15% drop in occupancy for two months—an estimated $1,200 loss.
3- Lack of Value-Add Advice: In a cottage in Ste-Émélie-de-l’Énergie, we were never advised on optimizing layout. After coordinating the addition of a wall to create a 3rd bedroom ourselves, we saw a 20% increase in occupancy and a $50-$100 nightly rate hike, generating an average of $1,300 extra per month.
Observation: The Gaps in Traditional Management
The real-life cases illustrate a major issue: after the initial visit, the teams in charge of our properties on a daily basis lacked involvement and did not really know the properties. Their management was often limited to booking and exchanges with tenants. These shortcomings resulted in several observations:
- Unforeseen additional costs, related to emergency interventions or poorly managed repairs.
- Significant revenue losses, due to reservation cancellations, a drop in occupancy or a lack of price optimization.
- Increased stress for us, as owners, faced with the need to manage problems that should have been taken care of by the management company.
Conclusion
This proved the need for proactive management that goes beyond just collecting rent. We created Bénoline because we couldn't find a human-scale company offering true 360° services!
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ℹ️ Here is our full range of offers:
- Platinum 360 LND Management for short term rentals in Lanaudière;
- Platinum 360 MTL Management for short term rentals in Montreal;
- 31 LND Management for medium term rentals in Lanaudière;
- 31 MTL Management for medium term rentals in Montreal;
- 12 MTL Management for long term rentals in Montréal.