Cleaning and Maintenance of Short Term Rentals

Rakesh Tiku

Francois: Rakesh Tiku is the president and CEO of Infield Solutions and Internet of Things. So, an IOT company that leverages technology to increase revenue and the profitability of your real estate investments. One of the areas that I learned about is the fogging that Infield Solutions offers and it's great like HVAC ducts sterilization, all that fun stuff, which is really relevant when you're hosting Airbnb.

I heard one of their presenters mentioning one furnace, two units. During COVID that may not be the best-selling feature, but if you have Infield Solutions expertise, you're able to fog these and Rakesh, I'll invite you to tell them more about this. Cause you're the expert. Welcome. 

Rakesh: Thank you very much Francois. I'll attempt to be the expert then. So, I'm going to talk about two things. Yes. I run a technology company. We do commercial real estate primarily but several of the solutions that we have are very relevant to maximize the profitability and revenue for all of our members.

I was a member of the RE club a few months ago to maximize our real estate investments, right for short-term rentals. Fogging is something very interesting. So, we've partnered up with a company called Steriplus, SteriPro and we've actually started fogging short-term rentals in Muskoka cottage country as most of you likely know.

And what we found is that the fogging is a very effective way to a deep clean shock, clean a building, a house, a rental property. A lot of the sterilization processes that people are using frankly aren't very effective. Most people use saline or alcohol and whatnot. I heard of the five-step cleaning and all that.

Frankly, if you use things like dry fogging, except for physical cleaning, you really don't need to do anything else for disinfection or sterilization. This product is quite phenomenal and it's cost effective. The nice thing about fogging as well as its non-corrosive. So, if you have electronics, if you've invested into lights and appliances and TVs and projectors, and the like the fogging will not corrode the electronics, which is a problem with alcohol and salient sterilization solution.

So, that's one thing the success actually has been very good in the cottage country area of Muskoka so far. I think we've done about 14 properties and several of them, we just have a recurring contract with them after every rental session a crew goes in and fogg's on the owner's behalf UV air, like air sterilization. Same concept, but now you have something built into the ducks and it's constantly cleaning the air. What's important with the fogging and the UV is that it's not just a COVID or some sort of pandemic, it's any pathogen that even kills bedbugs, mites, termites, things like that as well.

And it is non-toxic so UV air sterilization is great. Pretty effective, but inexpensive solution to sterilize the air and both these, the fogging and the UV air sterilization are great marketing points. Not only do we clean, but we actually go that extra step to ensure safety and cleanliness.

The other great thing about both the fogging and air and UV air sterilization, it gets rid of sense. So, you may have a non-smoking property if somebody smokes. It could be tobacco or marijuana or something else. This gets rid of all those scents. 

I think there was some question about pet friendliness, one of the challenges with pets besides physical damage. Of course, it is a dander and that musty smell that pets can leave behind both these solutions get rid of. So, there's a lot of plus points beyond the obvious, which is keeping COVID out of the space. 

We also have something called connected cubbies, which is great for short term temporary storage. So, I heard a mention of digital keypads and noise sensors and things like that. This is a line with that thinking is how do you automate and make as convenient as possible your properties and are secure? It could also be that you have personal possessions in a property that you're part-time renting out.

Where do you keep your property secure? So, these connected cubbies are great for that sort of thing. Water leak and flood detection. I think commercial insurance is a great idea for any property that you own, especially rental properties. But what do you do when there's a water leak or a flood in your property?

One, do you know how to deal with it? So, these are things that we address with a very smart, intuitive simple platform that actually informs the property manager owner of a property when a leak of flood is occurring and you can actually dispatch a plumber real-time within the application to solve the problem.

We're also able to remotely shut off the water to the property or the area where the leak is occurring to minimize damage. There's also the great potential to reduce your premiums, 5 to 10% with several leading insurance companies. I'm actually not allowed to mention insurance companies because it's not a formal thing, but we actually worked with half a dozen.

So, those are four examples of how we would suggest one could utilize technology to maximize your profitability.

Francois: That sounds amazing. To all those listening, there's tons more as well Infield solutions, you have all kinds of solutions and yet here's how to get a hold of Rakesh and Infield solutions.

We really wanted to tie in how the fogging is great and the solutions you offer for short- and medium-term rentals, more of that. So, thank you so much for your time.