Why Europe’s RMS Adoption Lags North America

1. You started your journey in this industry as a vacation rental housekeeper and built your way through operations, copywriting, and property management before landing in revenue management technology. How does that ground-level experience shape the conversations you have today with enterprise operators across EMEA, and is there a moment where it has genuinely changed how you approached a deal or a partnership?

My experience in property management gives me patience and empathy for what many operators go through. In sales and business development, you’re often the first person an operator stops responding to when things get busy. While this can be uncomfortable from my side, I’m much better able to keep this in perspective and recognize the pressing matters my prospective clients might be dealing with. While sometimes I give them space or focus on being helpful, it also helps to send outreach that can’t be ignored. One moment stands out: I was close to signing a new partner when he stopped responding during a busy period, so I ordered a kit from his local football club, then rewrote one of their chants with his name in it. I recorded myself singing it and emailed it to him, successfully cutting through the noise to get the deal signed!

2. Wheelhouse was selected as Casago’s exclusive revenue management platform following the Vacasa acquisition, one of the most significant consolidation moves in North American vacation rental history. What does a partnership at that scale require from a revenue management software (RMS), and what does it signal about where enterprise-level pricing strategy is heading?

The first requirement of a partnership at this scale is a structured onboarding. Wheelhouse trained 500 Casago team members across revenue management, owner sales, and owner retention, onboarding 35k units in just four months – an expansion of the same process we offer all new clients. From there, our software is designed to specialize pricing based on each operator’s unique strategy, portfolio and markets – this flexibility was key to such a large and multi-market org choosing Wheelhouse. As for the future of enterprise-level pricing strategy, there are some major decisions that inform the approach. Is revenue managed centrally, or at the locality level? Is one RMS used, or several? What ratio of revenue managers to properties optimizes for revenue versus cost efficiency? While ownership & operating models often determine the answers, AI is the disruptor and the catalyst. Ultimately enterprise-level RM strategy should strive for efficiency and integration. Efficiency in how the revenue team is structured, and how software and AI enable scale. And integration in how these efforts are interwoven across teams and tech: portfolio growth, owner retention, marketing, and distribution. An enterprise-grade RMS should enable teams to execute regardless of how they determine the above.

3. You are Wheelhouse’s first growth hire based in Europe, tasked with building market presence across EMEA and APAC from scratch. What have you found to be the biggest difference between how North American operators and European operators think about revenue management, and where is the gap in adoption most pronounced?

One major difference stems from a significantly greater proportion of vacation rental agencies in Europe (as opposed to full-service property managers), who offer only the digital operations on behalf of “self-catering” owners. For agencies, their property owners often have more influence over price points and whether rates are dynamic, which curtails adoption of dynamic pricing software, and thus sophistication of RM strategy. Furthermore, Europe has few regionally-founded RMS providers, more discerning & cautious buying cultures, and fragmentation across language, PMS tech & regulation, all of which further contribute to slower professionalization and RMS-adoption curves compared to the US. This is most visible in the comparative lack of density in the talent & third-party consulting markets, though it’s changed markedly in recent years. Most interestingly then, the biggest adoption gap is at the largest enterprise scale, where sheer portfolio volume compounds the challenges above, and change management becomes the real roadblock. When your direct booking segment is heavy, you price at the weekly instead of nightly level, and you’re managing many thousands of properties and property owners, adopting a next-gen RMS comes with significant headwinds.

4. Wheelhouse positions itself as a Revenue and Growth Platform rather than simply a pricing tool, covering portfolio growth and owner retention alongside dynamic pricing. For a property manager who already has a pricing solution in place, what is the conversation that actually moves them to reconsider?

While Wheelhouse is not right for every operator, there are several common reasons one might switch to Wheelhouse. First, we are cutting edge, recently launching our APIs & MCP for AI builders. Second, we use design to make complex software easier, faster, and more effective to use. The difference starts to add up for those managing 50-100 properties, and becomes acutely meaningful above that. Third, we provide professional revenue management account support, and even full-service revenue management, for clients who know they need dynamic pricing, but lack the time or capability to use it successfully. And finally, we have a wonderful team full of good heart, true industry expertise, and an infectious culture, making us people that operators want to work with! 🙂