VRWS Leadership Interview of the Day

Describe your career in the vacation rental industry and how you reached your current position in the company.

I have been in the industry for over 20 years! Before I joined Key Data, I spent 19 years at Awaze as Sales Director, managing distribution through third parties, including partners, travel agents and in the latter decade, the OTA platforms. I have loved seeing the industry develop and grow and genuinely can’t think of a better industry to be part of. I was introduced to Key Data by a dear mutual industry friend and I was excited to join the team as VP of Business Development for EMEA in November 2022 with a mission to lead the expansion of Key Data internationally. I love working with all elements of the industry, with its ever evolving landscape and feel privileged to get to work with people and companies covering all geographies.

In your opinion, what are the main current challenges in the vacation rental industry, and how do you think your company can help overcome them?

The industry is faced with so many challenges and covid taught us that we should always expect the unexpected. External macro economic factors such as the cost of living crisis,  has directly impacted both customers and owners alike, causing a pressure cooker squeeze between consumers wanting more for their money, and owners needing more income to meet the ever increasing costs. Property Managers are left juggling the two! In addition, the threat of more regulations coming into the industry and the concerns over the global climate which saw wildfires wiping out whole communities means that it’s a tough landscape to navigate. So it’s never been more important to use data to understand both your own performance and to benchmark your performance against the rest of the market. Key Data offers powerful Business Intelligence and benchmarking tools and is used globally to help Property Managers optimise their performance. 

What are your expectations for the 2023 edition of VRWS in Barcelona, and what makes you particularly interested in attending this specific edition?

We are excited to be attending! We want to introduce Key Data to the wider global industry and listen to the data challenges from a broad spectrum of property managers, both in size and location. I strongly believe that face to face meetings are the best way to understand how we can best work with the industry and we know that key decision makers will be attending VRWS. We will welcome the opportunity to meet and connect with as many people as possible both in the exhibition space and in the networking events. 

Could you provide a brief preview of what attendees can expect from your participation during the Vacation Rental World Summit?

Key Data will be presenting some market trends and data insights which are always widely anticipated. As 2023 draws to an end all eyes look ahead to see what 2024 has in store. We will be presenting forward looking data in addition to reflecting on the 2023 season. We are looking forward to meeting people at our booth and will happily show people a demo of the Key Data Dashboard or chat industry and market trends. In addition we are always delighted to meet with our industry peers and PMS partners too and expect a few days of high energy and insightful chat. Of course we will be mingling at the social events in the evenings too and can’t wait to see everyone in Barcelona.