Peak at the podcast episode
[00:00:00] Mark: What was the, the first thing that, that you, that, that stood out to yourself when you've looked at that report fresh with your eyes?
[00:00:08] Marcus: What, uh, what stood out is something that I think everyone is aware of and also Simon mentioned. It's more competitive out there. There's a lot more supply, but there's also a lot more demand.
[00:00:21] Mark: What else stood out in the report from you looking at it again, from like fresh eyes, looking at this report, how, how, how else has this
[00:00:29] Marcus: report hit you? One of the really interesting aspects there was AI adoption and specifically how. How larger property managers are using it more than smaller property managers.
[00:00:42] Having a blast, gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee likes Bruce Lee cause it's so hard and the T is loose leaf. Making up those rhymes, don't write it, just do it loosely. If you want my respect, you better put it directly. Mmm, here are the words in the podcast, that's what comes next.
Intro
[00:00:58] Mark: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and welcome wherever you're tuning in from.
[00:01:02] around the world. My name is Mark Simpson, and I give hosts all over the world the tools, the tactics, the training and the confidence to boost your direct bookings. I have got a very special little, uh, insert from a recording from the book Direct Virtual Summit that we hosted a few weeks ago. It's a fireside discussion with Mr.
[00:01:21] Marcus Rader of Hostaway. Uh, he shared some phenomenal tips and a little sneak peek. To the, uh, Hostaway short-term rental, 2023 report. So without further ado, let me flip the screen and let's hear from the man himself.
[00:01:35] Marcus: Thank you very much for having me on here, Mark. Uh, so my name is Marcus, uh, Raider from, uh, Hostaway.
[00:01:41] I'm the CEO and co-founder of Hostaway, which is a. A PMS that got, uh, for those who didn't know it before this year, maybe the news about the 175 million we raised sort of established that, yeah, we're, we're one of the biggest players in the world when it comes to vacation rental technology, my job and my dedication and passion for the last eight years that I've been working on this is knowing everything I can about the vacation rental space, both technology.
[00:02:12] Um, properties, real estate, macro trends, and of course the landscape of OTAs. And, uh, thank you, Mark, by the way, for leading, leading the battle for direct bookings. Um, uh, I'm actually, we have a bit, um, a bit of a surprise here because we, we do an annual survey, uh, among our clients and we, we haven't released anything before because our marketing team has been very lean.
[00:02:38] But this year we're going to release our 2023 short-term rental report tomorrow. And I'm going to be able to give some, some data there. And, uh, yeah, well, we'll get back into that later, but that's, that's who I am.
How many currently using the platform?
[00:02:52] Mark: How many listings are currently, or properties or businesses are currently using your, platform, would you say just on, on average guests?
[00:02:59] Marcus: It's, uh, it's crazy because it's grown so fast in the last two, three years. We're now over a hundred thousand, uh, properties. And, uh, almost 10, 000, uh, property managers are using us. What
[00:03:12] Mark: was the first thing that you, that stood out to yourself when you looked at that report fresh with your eyes?
[00:03:21] Marcus: What, uh, what stood out is something that I think everyone is aware of, and also Simon mentioned. It's more competitive out there, there's a lot more supply, but there's also a lot more demand. But what I found interesting was that more than, uh, I think, I think it was 70%. Well, we'll see the exact numbers tomorrow said that it's, you know, either the same or more competitive than last year.
[00:03:48] But then when asked, okay, what about your ADRs? The average daily rates, remember these respondents, these are not based, on facts. You know, if someone asks, are you making more money this year than last year? It doesn't mean that they go and look at their bank accounts. No, they give a spontaneous response, which is why I find this type of data so much more interesting.
[00:04:12] Uh, then let's say real, uh, qualitative data that you get from example, uh, transparent and air DNA, which analyze all the data. But they only analyze the facts, not the feelings. And in business, a lot of decisions are made based on feelings. So what was so interesting to see was that most people felt that the ADRs were the same or slightly higher this year than last year.
[00:04:41] And the reason I find that fascinating is that quite often what, uh, what people do is they come up with a narrative. That's easy to stick to but then there's also reality and sometimes those don't match So to to try to put it fairly, uh, Or say it as simply as possible things are better this year than last year, but people think
What else stood out in the report?
[00:05:05] Mark: Um, what else stood out in the report for, from you looking at it again from like fresh eyes, looking at this report, how, how else has this report hit you?
[00:05:14] Marcus: So one of the really interesting aspects there was AI adoption and specifically how, how larger property managers are using it more than smaller property managers. I think AI. Is something that should be on everyone's minds right now, no matter, uh, what type of work you're doing, whether you're a property manager or maybe you're a, you're a dentist or car mechanic, this should be on top of your mind because, um, especially if you're running a business and a small business, uh, you are going to have to find the tools to become more efficient.
[00:05:54] Because when it comes to vacation rentals, the demand and supply, they're, they're pretty good. They're not, uh, artificial, you know, they, they live. If more people book, there will be more rentals available. And if nobody's booking, rentals will go offline and so on. Now, what it means is that your competition can move in any day.
[00:06:15] And they might be doing things more efficiently, which means it could mean that they can do things better and cheaper than you can. And this is something that, uh, I was surprised that I think 52 per cent have tried or use regularly AI tools. We didn't host away. We, um, we were, I think we were the first PMS this year to, launch our, um, Chat GPT or open AI-generated responses to guest questions.
[00:06:48] And at first I was quite sceptical. How's that going to work? How's, how's, how are they going to know the responses, but actually, it works well overall. Um. But, but this is something that property managers should keep in mind because especially as you run a bigger business, when you start having five employees, that's when, you know, hiring your sixth employee versus buying a tool that, uh, that helps your current five do the work of six or maybe seven people can make a massive financial Uh, difference and that will give you the edge over the competition.
Anything else from the survey
[00:07:25] Mark: So we've got AI we've got sentiment. Um, are there any other things that you've been able to pull from the report that surprised you are looking forward to 2024 that you go? Okay, well, this is where this data or this, this is where this trend is going. Is there anything else you're able to pick out of the survey?
[00:07:43] Marcus: So something that was, uh, for me, uh, I'm very biased, I'm in the software space, uh, but I was very excited to see, uh, both good news and bad news. So the good news is that, uh, over 80 per cent of, uh, the property managers that were surveyed, we, we questioned their challenges. And you can see that all in the report when it's released tomorrow, uh, check out Hostaway.
[00:08:06] com. Um, but 80 per cent of them said that, uh, the biggest. Solution for the struggles in their business was software, uh, which, which is great and, and you know, that mark as well. Sometimes when you have a problem, there's software to solve it. Um, but the real interesting part was that one of the biggest pain points that businesses had was also software.
[00:08:35] And, uh, that's, that's of course, the reason I'm smiling is that where. We're fairly new in the industry. We're not 20 years, 20-year-old, uh, the company running on 20-year-old technology and we're, we're killing it. There's, there's a lot of property managers switching to Hostaway right now to get the latest technology.
[00:08:56] But it is, it is a challenge because you need to make sure that it works for your business. And, um, I can say at Hostaway, we use over 60 different technology platforms and sometimes I just wish. That there could be, you know, a little bit of consolidation. Like, why do we need all these tools to do these different things?
[00:09:17] But I think that's where we're moving towards in the, in, uh, the occasional mental software space. There's going to be one. You don't need to use 50 tools. You need to use maybe two or three. And that's, uh, that's it. Or, for some of them only one.
[00:09:33] Mark: Having a blast. Gonna get it on the Boostly podcast.
[00:09:36] Boostly. Let Bruce Lee 'cause it's so hard on the tees loose leaf, making up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely.
