VRWS Leadership Interview of the Day

How would you describe your career path and what led you to start Superhog?

“After working in the corporate world, I dived into short-term rentals in 2010. Participating in the explosion of the industry, I’ve always looked to solve the big industry problems. I started by co-founding the industry’s first dedicated insurtech, GUARDHOG. After witnessing the damage guests could cause and being on the receiving end of it myself, we founded SUPERHOG, a plug and play risk management platform that prevents incidents happening in the first place.

SUPERHOG, based in London, Barcelona, and Texas, has gone from strength to strength. Our most well-known product, Know Your Guest provides property managers with the risk management tools they need to stop parties and prevent property damage. Fully white-labelled we seamlessly integrate into the pre/post-booking guest journey. It also enables property managers to implement an automated deposit and deposit waiver scheme that creates a material new revenue stream. Their technology benefits from $5m of financial protection meaning that if a guest causes damage, they will pay for it. There are no other tech business that provides this level of guarantee. SUPERHOG won Best App/Website solution at the Shortyz in 2022, the industry’s most prestigious industry worldwide awards.

As a serial entrepreneur, I also run and manage a small portfolio of short-term rentals.”

“Sustainability is the future of travel”, a recent LinkedIn post of Superhog says. Why do you think that?

“The covid pandemic brought the short-term rental industry, indeed the whole travel industry, to a standstill. It also highlighted something we have long suspected; namely, too much travel is bad for the environment.

Now as we sit in the relative calm between two storms, two pandemics (flu and energy) our wanderlust remains, but we as consumers must make more thoughtful, conscious travel choices. I’d encourage people to travel less often but for longer. To explore areas closer to home and to linger in them. To think about the journey as part of the adventure and to avoid flying where possible if alternative options are realistic.

The global system will change, it has to change, it is changing. Until the multinational corporations have invested and invented carbon neutral travel it’s up to us to be more responsible and conscientious of our decisions. How we travel in the future depends on how we want to live in the future.”

Let’s say for the purpose of the interview that Superhog is exhibiting at an in-person event. A property manager approaches you to find out more. How would you describe the benefits Superhog provides?

“Great question. First, I’d ask them what they are doing right now in terms of active risk management. Most property managers I speak to basically bet on something not happening, leaving it up to someone else to make that call. So then I would explain how we will enable property managers to take more bookings by utilising more channels, reduce nuisance as well as create new revenue.”

VRWS 22 is about to land in Porto. What do you expect from the overall experience?

“For me VRWS is about networking, listening and innovating.

Networking with my peers, listening to my customers and the market, and constantly innovating and evolving what we do to make short-term rentals safer for everyone.

I don’t think I’m going to be disappointed!”