The Vacation Rental industry has grown tremendously in 2021 due to the increased demand induced by working from home, longer vacations and domestic travel. The market size is $71B and estimated to grow by 10% annually over the next 5 years.
Hostaway has built a unique ecosystem of tools to facilitate this growth. The Hostaway Property Management System, helps automate and simplify the short-term rental management process.
SourceForge recently caught up with Marcus Rader, CEO of Hostaway, to discuss the future of the travel industry and real estate.
CEO at Hostaway
What is Hostaway and how did it start?
Hostaway was founded in 2015 with a bold vision of changing the travel industry. We believed that working from home, globalization, the sharing economy and flexible work were here to stay. With a background in technology and real estate, we looked into the short-term rental market and found a massive potential for property managers to scale up their business. At the same time we noticed a lack of tools that help them achieve that.
Hostaway doesn’t only offer a short-term rental operator tools for marketing, sales, staff training, accounting, owner reporting, reputation, communication and payments, it also includes one of the largest marketplaces in the industry with more than 100 integrated software providers, ranging from data insights to website builders and smartlocks. Hostaway is also a preferred or premier partner of the main OTA’s such as Airbnb, Vrbo, Expedia and Booking.com. We serve thousands of property managers around the world and are known as the fastest growing company in the vacation rental space.
Why is it important to have the right tools for vacation rental property managers?
Unlike a hotel, short-term rentals don’t have a front desk or an on-site staff to fix issues. At the same time, most parts of the transaction take place online. As a result, setting and meeting the expectations of the guest is critical to becoming successful. The number one factor influencing a guest’s expectations when booking a holiday home are its reviews, and ensuring every aspect of the guest stay is smooth is critical to achieving this.
At the same time, you need to run a back-office that ensures owners are getting paid, that properties are maintained and cleaned and that all guests have their questions answered. This can be automated at scale using the right property management software.
Who is your typical Hostaway customer?
We have property managers in most countries of the world, and they range from a few properties to several thousands of properties. There is one unique aspect though – they all come to us because they are planning to grow. This is why our tools are tailored so that property managers can adopt them as their needs grow and develop. We want all our property managers to achieve exponential growth.
How has COVID-19 impacted the vacation rental industry?
Although 2020 was stressful, the long-lasting impact has been massively positive. The consumer demand has shifted in favour of vacation rentals and it shows no signs of going back. With working from home, many employees are looking to work in different parts of the world and short-term rentals allow them to do exactly that. Meanwhile, many locations have seen a lack of tourists and decided to make regulations easier. At the same time, a record number of families have bought a second home which increases the need for property management.
What will the future of real estate look like?
What we’re currently seeing is that big private equity is moving into the real estate space, and working on more flexible allocation of capital. At the same time, more people choose a nomadic lifestyle rather than finding their forever home. This means that the demand and supply for second homes and vacation homes will explode in the coming years. Short-term rentals also won’t compete with locals in big cities any more. Instead, we will see more purpose-built short-term accommodation – like hotels, but with multiple bedrooms and full kitchens.
Which trends are you working on right now?
As mentioned, COVID-19 has had a long-lasting impact on the travel industry. When consumer demand changes, it moves with enormous force but it takes some time. COVID-19 accelerated all these trends. For one, people take vacations with their families but they rent an entire home within driving distance. Instead of flying to a city, they bring their family and friends to a cottage nearby. Corporate travel has also changed – companies can close deals without having to travel around the world and instead spend the travel budget on retreats for the employees.
At the same time, the demand for longer stays is here to stay. When so many no longer have to be at an office, they can go on vacation and if they like the place, they can stay for a month while working from there. We are constantly improving our product to reflect these trends.
Why do property managers choose Hostaway compared to other solutions?
Personally, I think our company values are aligned with the success of our customers. We don’t sell software. Instead, we partner with property managers and help them become even more successful. Running a business is complex, and we have both the technology and the people to help our customers automate and learn everything they need to grow their business. Our background in technology has helped us build one of the most reliable and flexible softwares on the market, but property managers stay with us because of our support and our reviews reflect that.
What are some of the features you’ve built recently?
As the demand for designated short-term rental buildings increase, we launched our platform for multi-units that allows more efficient management of them. With the increased demand for longer stays, we have improved our invoicing and marketing tools to allow for longer stays. As more and more families buy their second homes, we have also improved our software that works for property owners, by building owner statements, financial reporting and owner stays. And as always, we continue to make improvements to our highly rated mobile app. But the number one feature that has won multiple awards remains our support – we’re always there to help our customers because that’s a core value for us.
How can companies get in touch with Hostaway?
Every property manager is unique. We partner with property managers to unleash their full potential. We can quickly evaluate if we are the best solution for you and provide you with a quote when you schedule a demo with us, or you can contact our sales team directly.
About Hostaway
Hostaway is a unique all-in-one vacation rental software for ambitious and bright property managers. Built from technology expertise, it offers deep channel integrations with premium partners such as VRBO, Booking.com and Airbnb and a marketplace of over 100 software partners. Hostaway’s award-winning customer support helps users scale up their businesses through managing marketing, sales, accounting, reporting, payment and communication all in one place. To learn more visit hostaway.com.
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