VRWS Leadership Interview of the Day

1. What do you do for a living and which part of your job do you enjoy the most? 

Hi, I’m Joe, the managing director at RentalReady, the enterprise PMS. I’m responsible for marketing, sales and customer success. 

What I like best is speaking with STR property managers about their business. These are amazing entrepreneurs, overseeing all aspects of properties, owners, guests, personnel and systems, often with only an associate or two to share the burden. There’s so much they need to master, requiring deep skills in areas which are often diametrically opposed. Seriously, do you know anyone who’s a wizard at both number-crunching yield management and guest-facing customer service? I truly admire their courage. 

2. How does your company innovate or adapt to the evolving needs of the vacation rental space? 

There’s no doubt our industry has become more professionalised. PMCs who adopt pro practices inevitably grow, and those without stagnate or disappear. 

But what gets little coverage in our space is how quickly PMCs outgrow their tools. Many software scripts, plug-ins and mini-apps started when STR was young, when folks only had a couple properties to manage, and no great pressure to optimise. These quick-and-dirty bits don’t cut it today for pro PMCs. The software that got them here won’t let them go any further.

That’s where RentalReady comes in. As the only enterprise-level PMS, there is no limit to your growth. Our clients manage several hundred to several thousand properties. Large portfolios are inevitably more complex, with greater diversity in property types, spread wider geographically, served by several layers of personnel both internal and external, who must deal with differing regulations, compliance requirements and operational puzzles.

RentalReady meets these challenges head-on with the most complete solution in the industry. One example of this is our Multi-office configuration capability. Villas on the coast are nothing like downtown flats. So why do most tech vendors make you treat all your properties the same way? No more. RentalReady is the only PMS which allows you to group properties by location, or type, or however you like, and apply specific rules for your chosen set. Different policies. Separate staff. Original attributes. A level of customization unseen elsewhere.

If your ambition is to scale your business to the size of a hotel chain or multi-site resort operator, RentalReady can remain your reliable partner every step of the way.

3. How do you view the various predictions about AI’s impact on society, ranging from dystopian scenarios to transformative advancements, and how does your company approach or integrate AI technology? 

Does RentalReady have AI? You bet! It’s embedded within our platform, without any need for integrations. We believe AI is best when it’s practically invisible for the user. After all, AI is a feature, not a product.

AI is only ever useful when it interrogates a rich data set. Most property management companies unfortunately deploy a disparate tech stack with multiple STR vendors that don’t collect much information, and certainly don’t share it with each other. This configuration makes for a poor data set. AI plugged into this digital desert cannot even answer the simplest of queries.

The RentalReady PMS has the absolute deepest data set in the industry. This means our AI can answer questions that the others can’t. Example: about the property and its amenities. Most PMS’ only sync a dozen fields to OTAs, when Booking.com for one, can accept upwards of 50 fields. RentalReady captures more than 200 fields about each property. This is a massive exponential leap versus the alternatives. 

At VRWS, we plan to announce a staggering figure representing the number of queries our AI has treated successfully and completely autonomously.

4. What would you like to achieve by attending the Vacation Rental World Summit 2024 in Porto with your company? 

We’re hoping to gain more notoriety by being associated with the premier trade show for our sector. RentalReady still has low brand recognition versus other vendors.

Strangely, some buyers think because they’re getting a name brand, they’re making a safe bet. Tech doesn’t work like that. 

It’s not like Persil for laundry detergent. Lloyds for banking. Bosch for power tools. L’Oréal for personal care. Tech moves faster than any of these industries. Established players are always overtaken by upstarts. 

A couple years ago, nobody had heard of ChatGPT from OpenAI, now #1 in their category, flying past Google even. The new state-of-the-art is more likely to be delivered by an unknown. We’re hoping many VRWS delegates will take a look at RentalReady for the very first time. 

RentalReady has only been commercialised since 2019. That’s five short years. Even VRWS is twice as old as we are!

What has RentalReady done since our inception? Built-out the most complete all-in-one offering in the land. Dominated the enterprise space serving STR property managers with massive portfolios. Satisfied the most complex appetites for optimised operations, and PMCs hungry for innovation.

We want to be in the shortlist of every PMC’s consideration set. If VRWS can help us draw eyes for closer inspection, we promise every attendee will see their time was well-spent.

5. What are your passions, including any hobbies or sports, that you enjoy discussing and sharing with others outside the professional setting?

I’ve written three books. I love the nonfiction genre. When I become fascinated with a certain topic, I just can’t stop until I research it thoroughly and organise my thoughts on the pages.

My latest is entitled My Property Payday– Turn your Spaces into Rental Income 

The sharing economy has opened up tremendous possibilities for homeowners to escape debt and create wealth. Most people think this is just about Airbnb, but it’s far, far bigger. This book dispels popular misconceptions, and opens unexpected revenue streams to a population under increased financial pressure. 

For instance, the concept of ‘Spaces.’ Homeowners don’t have only 1 asset, but perhaps a dozen: rooms, a terrace, a garage, an attic, a pool and more. Each of these spaces can be rented separately, creating multiple revenue streams. Some spaces can be rented two or more times in the same day.

Also, a home isn’t just about accommodation. It can be rented for activities, or parking, or storage, or events or creative productions. The book reveals 101 uses for which someone might want to rent space. The pages unveil the platforms, the tools and the providers who can help. 

You can read a sample or pick up a copy here: https://books2read.com/u/bW8kLG