Podcast Understanding The Vacation Rental Market Vacation Rental Resources and Tools http://traffic.libsyn.com/cottageblogger/VRS071_-Airbnb_Management_Services_With_Guesty.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS It only seems a short while ago that Airbnb was seen as a platform for home owners who wanted to make a few dollars renting out a room in their place to a short-term tenant. In fact when I listen to the episodes of VRS with Jasper Ribbers of Get Paid for Your Pad and Glenn Cooley, moderator of the New Host forum on Airbnb, my questions show I was seriously ignorant of the reach of this juggernaut that is the Airbnb experience. Earlier this month at the Cottage Life Show in Toronto, I lost count of the number of people who stopped by our agency booth and mentioned they had ‘airbnb’ed’ over the winter. From city breaks across Europe to more traditional US snowbirding locations, whole-home rentals via the listing service are becoming part of the vacation planning strategy for more and more travelers. With this spectacular growth has come a barrage of add-ons and peripheral services to help hosts manage their listings. Tweet: #AirBnB Management Services for your #VacationRental @CottageGuru @Guesty http://ctt.ec/MKhl0+ pic.twitter.com/CXvCpGyuFa From key management and linen supply to concierge services and dining experiences, there seems to something to support home owners in every aspect of the management of their Airbnb business. So, when I heard of Guesty via the Afford Anything blog, I was intrigued by what they were offering…..and then I saw the commercial! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM_Py1zbsXY&feature=youtu.be&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=video As a home owner who has experienced the call at midnight from a guest wanting to know how the microwave worked, and the Christmas Eve incident where a guest was ‘stranded in the shower for 2 hours’ because the water stopped running, the scenarios in the commercial were strikingly familiar. The thought of having these situations managed and resolutions co-ordinated at a cost of 3% of the rental rate is tempting. Not only that but Guesty will do a wide range of other tasks such as responding to emails, screening guests and follow-up at the end of a rental period. Currently Guesty integrates with Airbnb but there are plans to expand into other listing platforms in the future. I talked with co-founder Amiad Soto and Director of Marketing, Nathan Tobin and we explored: How the concept of Guesty was born out of hosting issues the founders encountered The services offered to hosts How the system works to support Airbnb hosts What makes this a location independent service The costs involved What’s next for Guesty And much more……. Links mentioned in this episode Guesty Airbnb VRS041 How to be Successful in Airbnb with Glenn Cooley VRS029 How To Get Paid For Your Pad with Jasper Ribbers Afford Anything – The Airbnb Experiment Pricing Tools Compatible with Guesty There are two other tools that help with Airbnb pricing, BeyondPricing and PriceLabsCo – both of which are compatible with Guesty (we have customers who use each of these services). BeyondPricing: https://beyondpricing.com/ PriceLabsCo: https://pricelabs.co/ General Market Research In terms of general research into the market, a good resource to consider for this kind of research is the following: http://rentingyourplace.com/a/AirDnA-Airbnb-Data-and-Analytics.html. This company, AirDNA can provide custom research/market reports that may prove helpful in your decision making process. Trends in Short-Rerm Rental Space Vacation Rental Real Estate sales are booming. More and more, both investors and individual real estste buyers are considering whether their purchase would be Airbnbable (*I can’t find this word online – let’s make history and coin the phrase here and now!) Interviewee Bios & Contacts Amiad Soto, CEO and co-founder – veteran of the Israeli Air Force, industrial engineer by training, founded Guesty with his twin brother Koby Soto in 2013, and got early backing by Y-Combinator the same startup accelerator that Airbnb and many other tech companies went through Nathan Tobin, Head of Marketing – former journalist, lawyer by training, has been an Airbnb host since 2011 and has hosted on 3 continents (People interested in learning more about Guesty should get in touch with Nathan or just visit guesty.com) https://twitter.com/nathanatobin https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathantobin Where you can find Guesty: Website Twitter Facebook Google+ LinkedIN
