How Sarah Went From Having Zero Property Experience To Building A Scalable Management Machine With Boostly
Sarah didn’t come from a property management background.
She’d spent the last 15 years in higher education and didn’t understand property beyond her own homes.
But one day, her husband suggested I take on a little part-time gig managing short-term rentals.
Little did she know that “little part-time gig” would consume her life!
“I had to learn an entire industry overnight.”
They bought a business with 24 properties under management, and Sarah quickly discovered the branding, IP, and website were a mess.
She had to learn the entire property management business overnight, and she quickly realised how much of a problem relying on the OTAs was.
“The [OTA] fees are eye-watering!”
But the fees weren’t the only problem. Unfortunately, Sarah experienced something every host or manager dreads when using OTA:
Despite the police being called and a clear breach of rules, Airbnb still refunded her guests.
This was the final straw for Sarah.
She lost all trust in the OTAs and knew that the only way she could scale her business would be through direct bookings.
Sarah’s husband first heard about Boostly via a podcast. And although having a Boostly site sounded exactly like what they needed, they weren’t sold on signing up right away.
“We had to really kind of think hard about the cost.”
But the more they found out about Boostly, the more it became clear that they just had to take a leap of faith:
“I don’t feel like it’s all on my shoulders.”
Boostly didn’t magically turn Sarah’s business into a direct-booking machine overnight.
But it did give her…
…Control to create a seamless guest booking experience.
…More direct bookings, saving her thousands every year in OTA fees.
…The hands-on support to solve the complex dual-domain issues that arise from running a business operating in both Australia and the UK.
And more importantly…
Boostly has given Sarah and her husband the foundations to smoothly scale their books over the next 2-3 years without worrying if their systems will accidentally break one morning.
Sarah admits that growth in her line of work looks more like:
“Five steps forward and two steps back.”
But thanks to Boostly, those steps forward are built on systems she owns and controls, not platforms she has to fight for and be at the mercy of.
If you have big plans for your STR business (or property management company) over the next few years, and want to scale easily with more direct bookings, more repeat guests and less dependence on the OTAs…
