Intro
[00:00:00] Liam: Hi everybody. Welcome to the new episode of the Boostly podcast. This is the podcast that gives you the tools, the tactics, the training, and most importantly, the confidence so you can go out there and get more direct bookings. Today, we're on the mini-series where we shine the Boostly spotlight onto interesting businesses and people who can help you with your hospitality journey.
[00:00:21] And today we've got a very special guest. We've got Joe Siart. Is that correct? Have I pronounced that correct, Joe? That's correct. Yes. Cool. He is the MD of Rental Ready, and we're going to be talking about the end-to-end structures of how you can structure your business and also a slightly different point of view to what you normally get.
[00:00:41] So this is going to be interesting for you. It's going to help you. Joe, welcome along. Thank you for joining me.
[00:00:46] Joe: Oh, thank you, Liam. I'm very pleased to be on the show, a long-time listener, you know, a first-time guest.
What is Rental Ready?
[00:00:52] Liam: I'm excited to do this. So for the people who haven't heard of Rental Ready, can you give yourself a sort of elevator pitch?
[00:00:59] Can you introduce us all to it?
[00:01:01] Joe: Sure. Um, the Rental Ready, um, PMS, uh, property management system was born out of, uh, Guest Ready. Uh, Guest Ready is, um, uh, has grown, uh, phenomenally and maybe we'll get into that story later. Uh, to become the number one, uh, STR, uh, property manager. Uh, urban, uh, in, in Europe. Um, in, uh, eight different countries and, uh, you know, serving more than 4, 000 properties in, in those, uh, those countries.
[00:01:28] Uh, but very early on, they discovered that um, The available tools. Uh, to them in the marketplace, uh, didn't scale, uh, the way that they, they needed to, to serve thousands of properties. So they decided to build them, build their own. So this was built, um, first of all, in house, uh, to handle, uh, guest readies, uh, needs, um, and then about four years ago, uh, we decided to, uh, offer this, uh, as a SaaS platform to other professional property managers.
[00:01:54] Um, and that's, uh, where we are today. Can
[00:01:56] Liam: you take us into the history of the business?
[00:01:58] Joe: Uh, yeah, the history of the business, uh, is just that, I mean, it's, it's, it's one of the amazing, you know, success stories, uh, entrepreneurial, um, uh, within Europe. Um, as you may know, uh, Europe is already like the number one tourist destination in, in, in the world.
[00:02:12] Uh, and each market is, uh, is quite, uh, different. Uh, but GuestTrip decided to go full force and open up in, you know, uh, more than a dozen, uh, countries almost simultaneously, um, with all of their, uh, sets of, uh, um, You know, compliance issues, um, you know, market issues, uh, and, and, uh, and such. So really, um, taking the bull by the horns to, to, to go and deal with, um, with all of these, uh, uh, issues in the different markets and, um, what they discovered.
[00:02:42] It is that the, um, you need to adapt, um, what, uh, what your operational systems are, uh, to each market. And you need to, um, have a very efficient system internally to, uh, to manage all of these, uh, um, uh, you know, countries and, uh, the properties in the different countries. Uh, so, um, they had kind of like outgrown, uh, some of the systems that they had been using, uh, that were, you know, available systems.
[00:03:09] Um, I mean, the industry is not. Uh, young, uh, some of the, um, uh, PMS, uh, have been out there for 20 years now. Uh, so, um, some of the technologies can get a little bit, uh, you know, sort of long in the tooth. Uh, and, uh, so, um, uh, guest ready said, um, it's just not, uh, doing it, uh, for us. Um, we're gonna not try to, uh, piece together, uh, the different, uh, solutions that are out there.
[00:03:33] We're gonna. Build ourselves. It started through an acquisition with a company called B and B Lord in Paris, which is a very successful property manager that had a system that they were, you know, starting to develop, but it accelerated at that point too, um, to manage, you know, all the different properties that they had and the listings in such and build it out with all the different elements that you need operationally to run.
[00:04:01] Uh, property management, uh, business, uh, for, for short-term rental.
Who’s the ideal host
[00:04:04] Liam: And who would be the ideal kind of host if, if somebody's listening to this and thinking, you know, I need some systems in, in place, who would be perfect kind of host, who, who is your service speaking to
[00:04:19] Joe: most? Uh, we're speaking more to sort of, uh, professional, uh, property managers, uh, so, um, multi-owner hosts or, uh, uh, property managers that, uh, might have, um, you know, um, more, more properties and probably a more complex, uh, system that they have to, uh, to deal with.
[00:04:37] So our sweet spot is between about 20 properties, uh, under management, uh, to about, uh, you know. let's say 70 or 100 properties under management. Um, at that point, um, and many property managers tell, tell this to, to me, I was just speaking one to one in, um, uh, Paris or Leon that was saying this, um, to get to profitability, either you gotta be just like really, really, really efficient, uh, for all of our, all of your operations, or you need to get to about, you know, 50 properties to, uh, to, to do that.
[00:05:10] But to scale, Um, you need to, you know, have the right tools in place to, uh, uh, to do that. Um, so, um, that's, that's about, uh, where, where we sit in terms of, um, you know, um, the, the sort of the, the sweet spot people who have, um, uh, maybe have a direct connection with Airbnb and booking or people who have tried sort of, um, you know, these, uh, uh, lower, um, feature tools, and they want to move up to something sort of enterprise level.
[00:05:42] And so that can go all the way up to 300, 400 properties. That's, that's where we have some of our clients, but it can, it can range from, you know, 20 up, up until that, that range.
What makes Rental Ready special Â
[00:05:54] Liam: What would you say is the, the things that make Rental Ready special? What is it that, without giving away the secret sauce, what is it that Rental Ready has done?
[00:06:07] so much better than the
[00:06:08] Joe: competition. Um, well, you know, I think that remains to be seen if we're better than the competition. That's really for the, uh, for the market to, uh, to decide. Um, but, uh, we're proud, um, that, um, that we consider ourselves to be a true end to end, a true all in one, um, uh, PMS, uh, meaning that all the essential elements, we like to say all the essential elements are under one roof.
[00:06:34] Uh, when, when you're at, uh, rental ready, um, so this, uh, includes, uh, not just, uh, the channel manager, um, not, uh, just, uh, you know, um, uh, a pricing algorithm, uh, unified inbox, uh, task allocator, um, unified messaging. I mean, all, all the things that you would consider to be sort of like basics, you cannot live without, you have to have these things to run your business, that's where we, um, consider that we should as a PMS, uh, deliver that, uh, to, to our customers.
[00:07:06] And so that, that is within our, our system. Now, um, we probably wouldn't, uh, win a contest is like best of breed, uh, for, for all of these. Um, uh, you can get. Uh, probably a better, uh, unified, uh, uh, messaging system from, uh, from Dove. You can probably get like a best, better, uh, you know, guest experience, uh, uh, thing from, uh, um, from, uh, Iago, who's a, who's a, who's a partner of ours.
[00:07:31] You can get better pricing from, uh, from a price lab or, or B or beyond. But if you need the basics, if you need everything and, and, and everything there too, to start with, um, Rent ready would be a, a great place to, to start to, to, to look. Mm-Hmm.
Advice for the host’s Listening
[00:07:46] Liam: what are your thoughts and advice for hosts listening around, you know, the software stack that they could have?
[00:07:52] What would you say is the path the industry tends to recommend versus what, what your
[00:07:57] Joe: views are on it? Um, I, I might it a bit, uh, controversial, uh, here at, at, at, at this point. Um. But, um, I, I liken, um, you know, the sort of, um, tech solutions world, um, today, uh, with the kind of like, uh, the, the wild west or like, uh, you know, how you might buy a car more than a hundred, a hundred years ago.
[00:08:23] So, um, uh, a very, um, good, um, Um, uh, consultant called, uh, AJL Atelier, uh, put together a list of 420, uh, tech tools, uh, that are out there in, in, in the marketplace. And if I'm a property manager, I look at that and I'm, I'm just, um, uh, very, um, you know, frightened and, uh, and disillusioned. By by the by the whole thing.
[00:08:50] Um, isn't there somebody out there who's like a hospitality business like me, who is going to weed through all of this and see just what I need? Um, I've worked for, you know, many, you know, SAS platforms in many different industries before. And, um, uh, therein when I was working in ad tech, you know, advertising and technology, there was a very common term, which is called the tech tax.
[00:09:16] So the tech tax means, uh, you know, that to, um, uh, be in, in, in this industry, you need to give so much money, uh, to Google, to Facebook, uh, to, to all these, this other tech, uh, tech companies just to have table stakes to, um, Uh, to play in this game, and I don't believe that to go back to the car analogy, uh, imagine, you know, you go into your dealer and you say, um, I'd like a car, please.
[00:09:44] And they say, sure. And what they bring out is a motor. And you say, I can't get anywhere with this. Uh, this guy's got no wheels. Oh, we're integrated, with a company that makes tires. Oh yeah. Yeah. But, but where am I going to sit? Oh, we, we have this, uh, great, uh, integrated company that, uh, that makes, uh, the, the seats in the interiors.
[00:10:03] Um, and we've got another company, a different company that works on the chassis and stuff like that. Um, I think that's madness. You know, you should be able to get it. A car from a company. Now, if you want to, if you don't like Firestone, you'd prefer Michelin. Uh, get that if you want a better car stereo system, um, get to get another company, but you should be able to go to one company and drive off with a solution, which could be improved certainly.
[00:10:34] Uh, but, uh, but that solution works. And, um, if it's good enough for, you know, the number one, uh, uh, short-term rental manager in Europe, it might be. As is good enough for you
[00:10:46] Liam: having a blast. Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee. Like Bruce Lee. 'cause it's so hard on the tea's loose leaf. I looked up those rhymes.
[00:10:54] Don't write it. Just do it loosely.
