Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Why Dubai's Vacation Rental Market is Different

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Why Dubai's Vacation Rental Market is Different · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Welcome to the House Planet Playbook.
• 0:02
  Your go to. Guide for mastering.
• 0:04
  Short term rentals In this special series, we're sitting
• 0:07
  down with 30 of the world's top property managers to uncover
• 0:11
  what really drives success in the vacation rental industry.
• 0:15
  You'll hear their stories, learn the key lessons they've picked
• 0:18
  up along the way, and discover the game changing tech they use.
• 0:22
  To deliver 5. Star guest experiences If you're
• 0:26
  serious about growing your STR. Business.
• 0:29
  You're in the right place. We've also developed an ebook
• 0:32
  featuring the stories of every manager in this series, and you
• 0:36
  can download it for free. Head to House Planet dot Club to
• 0:39
  find out more. In today's episode, we're
• 0:42
  chatting to Christina Korineva from Daifi Homes in Dubai.
• 0:46
  Stand by for a deep dive into the unique challenges of
• 0:50
  property management. In the UAE.
• 0:52
  Including why getting the air conditioning temperature just
• 0:55
  right is absolutely essential. This special series is brought
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• 1:36
  Christina, thank you for being part of the Host Planet
• 1:38
  Playbook. Let's start.
• 1:40
  With you. Tell us where you're located and
• 1:42
  how. Many rentals you manage.
• 1:45
  Hello James, thank you so much for having me.
• 1:48
  I'm based in Dubai in United Arab Emirates and my company is
• 1:53
  managing 50 properties at the moment.
• 1:56
  Fantastic, and tell us how long you've been in Dubai and why you
• 2:01
  decided to go and live. There I'm I'm living in Dubai
• 2:05
  since 2009 and I moved here when I was working in hospitality.
• 2:11
  So this is how it all started. I worked for all the major, you
• 2:15
  know, hotel chains and that's why I moved here.
• 2:20
  And how did you make the switch to short term rentals?
• 2:24
  What convinced you to set up your own management company?
• 2:28
  It was quite natural being from hospitality.
• 2:33
  And then I worked a considerable number of years in project
• 2:37
  management and at some point I was looking for a property for
• 2:41
  myself. And then I saw another company
• 2:44
  doing short term rental and I thought, you know, it's, it
• 2:46
  looks interesting. I like it.
• 2:48
  Maybe I, I can do it. Maybe I can do it better than
• 2:51
  what I see now. And then it was kind of a
• 2:54
  natural move. So what convinced you to start
• 2:58
  then? What were the things that
• 2:59
  weren't going well with the other property management
• 3:02
  companies that you thought you could do better?
• 3:05
  I saw the property that had everything to be, you know, a
• 3:09
  perfect short term rental. But the maintenance was very
• 3:15
  poor. The design was very poor.
• 3:17
  I mean, half of the lights were not working.
• 3:21
  Half of the pictures, you know, were pent, I don't know, broken.
• 3:26
  So it wasn't really taken care of.
• 3:28
  While the property itself, the real estate was really
• 3:30
  beautiful. And then I thought, OK, so
• 3:32
  somebody is renting it out. Probably, you know, it, it, it
• 3:37
  has a lot of attraction. You know, the location was good,
• 3:40
  the property is good. Dubai is very busy, but then
• 3:43
  it's a very poor service. And coming from mostly, you
• 3:47
  know, five star hotels, you always have this like very high
• 3:51
  standards. So, and I already had the
• 3:53
  knowledge how to do it because I was in operations and then I was
• 3:58
  in sales and hotels as well. So it all kind of, you know,
• 4:02
  gave me the confidence that I, I know how to do it.
• 4:06
  And what are the main challenges of managing short term rentals
• 4:11
  in Dubai? How do you think it's different
• 4:12
  to other parts of the world? The competition is really high
• 4:17
  here. Short term rental business is
• 4:21
  regulated business and it's encouraged, you know, to to rent
• 4:26
  your property on a short term basis.
• 4:28
  It's very different from other places where, you know, now, for
• 4:32
  example, you, you have some restrictions in Dubai, it's
• 4:36
  quite the opposite. So while it's a very busy place
• 4:40
  that attracts a lot of tourists all year long, you, you have a
• 4:45
  number of short term rentals growing every day and the number
• 4:50
  of hotels is very high here, very so many brands here.
• 4:54
  So you have to maintain this, you know, service, you have to
• 5:00
  maintain your relations with the owners if you if you're not
• 5:03
  managing just your own property. So it's very complex.
• 5:08
  And the one more thing I would mention that is very, you know,
• 5:12
  down to earth challenge that we're facing is often a
• 5:16
  maintenance, especially the AC because it's a very hot climate
• 5:20
  here. So you have to service the AC,
• 5:22
  you have to be prepared. The season is coming.
• 5:25
  You, you know, sometimes you have have to service the, the AC
• 5:29
  beforehand before the complaints start.
• 5:32
  So this is something that you learn here and I'm guessing
• 5:36
  every region or every city, it has its own, you know, special,
• 5:40
  special kind of challenge. So for us, it's mostly
• 5:43
  maintenance. What are the owner expectations
• 5:48
  like in Dubai and what are your top tips for making sure you
• 5:52
  keep the owners happy? The expectations are super high.
• 5:59
  Of course, Dubai is booming, the real estate market is booming
• 6:06
  and investors coming from all over the world.
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  So the expectations are very high.
• 6:11
  But of course we we have to be realistic.
• 6:14
  We have to know that it's all about supply and demand and the
• 6:19
  service that you provide. Obviously, the property also has
• 6:22
  to be unique, but the, the basics that are also essential
• 6:30
  are proper maintenance and nice, you know, design and the good
• 6:38
  property management company that is honest with you, that gives
• 6:41
  you transparency, you know, that gives a good, provides a good
• 6:44
  service to both the owner and to the guest.
• 6:48
  So this, this are the essentials, but they're also
• 6:51
  everything you know. Maintenance very important.
• 6:54
  As you say, getting, getting the AC right is absolutely
• 6:57
  essential. I I know from spending ten years
• 6:59
  in the Gulf that you don't want to be there if there's if
• 7:02
  there's no AC, especially in especially in summer.
• 7:05
  Moving on to. Guests then.
• 7:08
  What is the? Typical guest like in Dubai,
• 7:12
  who's the usual traveller and how do you ensure that you
• 7:15
  deliver a great guest experience?
• 7:18
  The guests are really from all over the world.
• 7:22
  There are, you know, season for different kind of guests.
• 7:27
  Obviously during some religious holidays or during GCC holidays
• 7:34
  will have a lot of visitors from Saudi Arabia, from Bahrain, from
• 7:40
  Oman. That is just a neighboring
• 7:42
  country. So naturally it brings a lot of
• 7:44
  people to Dubai as well as a number of European tourists also
• 7:50
  is growing every year. There are a lot of Russian
• 7:53
  tourists here. There are a lot of Americans.
• 7:55
  So it's, it's very diverse. I would, I would, you know, we
• 8:02
  just were talking about they see, it's funny, but most of GCC
• 8:05
  guests, they would want to, to have AC set to super cold
• 8:10
  temperature before they arrive. So that is something you know,
• 8:14
  you know, you, you see your guests coming from Saudi Arabia,
• 8:18
  just put your AC to the lowest because they would really
• 8:21
  appreciate it, which can be so different from the guests who
• 8:25
  are coming from Europe or when many of them wouldn't even use
• 8:30
  the AC because they have the idea that, you know, I can just
• 8:33
  open the window. So it's, it's, it's really
• 8:36
  different. But we, we adjust to, you know,
• 8:40
  we, we collect the feedback, we know our guests.
• 8:42
  So this is how it works. Yeah, the the AC is so
• 8:46
  important. I think I got used to about
• 8:47
  usually 18 degrees, 18° at night.
• 8:51
  This is like the. This is like the warmest.
• 8:53
  If you're from GCC, this is. This is just, it's not enough to
• 8:58
  cool down, you know? Yeah.
• 9:00
  So what? Are you maybe your top few tips
• 9:03
  for delivering an outstanding guest experience in Dubai?
• 9:08
  Fast and transparent communication with guests.
• 9:12
  This is the key. We it's very important to set
• 9:15
  the expectations. I think it is very important to
• 9:19
  be very realistic about your properties, the guests, they
• 9:25
  need to see what they're expecting.
• 9:27
  And of course, we, we try to anticipate, you know, any, any
• 9:33
  needs. We, we want to be very helpful.
• 9:35
  We have guidebooks. We create different videos on
• 9:39
  how to use appliances. Again, because people come from
• 9:42
  all over the world here. So there is not one answer, you
• 9:46
  know, that is, you know, for everybody.
• 9:49
  It's not everybody is familiar with water heaters or how to use
• 9:52
  the gas stove or how to reset it.
• 9:54
  So just preparing everything in advance just to having all the
• 10:00
  useful tips, information about the property, clear and fast
• 10:04
  communication and of course, cleanliness.
• 10:06
  It's always #1. Yeah, making sure it's a clean
• 10:10
  rental, 100%. Those, those first impressions
• 10:13
  when people arrive. What do you think makes your
• 10:16
  brand stand out in Dubai? We, we took a lot from, I
• 10:21
  brought a lot from hospitality. So we often have, you know,
• 10:27
  things like courtesy calls, which I know many short term
• 10:30
  rentals. They, they, they don't do it
• 10:32
  because they think, you know, people maybe want to have more
• 10:35
  space and, but I feel in Dubai for us it is very important.
• 10:38
  Many people they know most of the guests at this point.
• 10:43
  They know that there are companies managing the units.
• 10:47
  It's not always individual hosts.
• 10:49
  So some how this sets the standards even higher.
• 10:54
  So this already became a hospitality business here.
• 10:58
  So we have to we have to introduce, you know, extra.
• 11:02
  So we, we do this courtesy calls, we, we, we treat every
• 11:11
  guest as a VIP and the same applies here for the owners.
• 11:16
  I think this is also very important and that helped to
• 11:19
  grow number of units that we manage.
• 11:22
  And we get a lot of referrals because we pay a lot of
• 11:26
  attention to the owners. We hear them out.
• 11:29
  We, we always give them feedback about what is happening not only
• 11:33
  inside their apartment, but often, you know, in the
• 11:36
  community, in the building. Because at the end of the day,
• 11:39
  most of them, they bought these properties as an investment and
• 11:44
  then they expect high ROI. And it's very helpful to know,
• 11:48
  you know, that there might be something not inside their
• 11:51
  property exactly, but in the community that can be improved.
• 11:55
  And the most of them, they really appreciate it because
• 11:59
  they know they, they, they can influence the community.
• 12:02
  They can, you know, contact their developer representatives
• 12:08
  if there are any issues that can be resolved and some things can
• 12:11
  be improved in the building like swimming pools, gyms, saunas and
• 12:15
  facilities like this. You mentioned there the the word
• 12:19
  of mouth, has that been the biggest tool in terms of growing
• 12:22
  the number of properties or have you done much marketing to to
• 12:26
  grow the brand out there? It's, it's proven to be the
• 12:30
  best, you know, too, because of course we, of course we do
• 12:34
  marketing, but we also grow naturally, you know, very, there
• 12:42
  are a lot of referrals and I find it easy.
• 12:46
  I'm not running after as as the founder of this company and
• 12:50
  someone who's very involved, I'm not running just after the
• 12:53
  number of the properties because the number can be achieved quite
• 12:57
  high. There are so many properties in
• 12:59
  Dubai, but growing and sustaining this number, it's
• 13:04
  very important. And most of the owners we work
• 13:07
  with, they came through referrals or they, they got to
• 13:11
  know about the company, but and then they stayed, you know, for
• 13:13
  three years with us. If somebody called you up and
• 13:17
  said oh I want to start managing rentals in Dubai, what would
• 13:21
  your tips be to them? Prepare yourself for, for, for
• 13:27
  lots of a lot of hard work and there are a lot of regulations
• 13:32
  here. You you want to comply, you want
• 13:35
  to follow all the standards again, prepare yourself to
• 13:42
  become an engineer because you have to learn about, you know,
• 13:45
  all the, all the, you know this technical things in the
• 13:50
  building. And it's a very interesting,
• 13:53
  very exciting, very challenging business.
• 13:57
  So it's not something for sure I would recommend to someone you
• 14:01
  know who just wants to do on the side or someone who thinks it's
• 14:06
  quick, you know, some kind of money that he can make for sure.
• 14:10
  No, if you're ready, if you understand your responsibility,
• 14:14
  you can do it. It's it's very realistic, but
• 14:17
  you have to be prepared. What has been your biggest
• 14:21
  lesson learned since you started the business?
• 14:27
  The biggest lesson learned, well, I guess this been a while,
• 14:34
  but when I started I had an kind of a different, you know view of
• 14:40
  how this would be and it's it's proven that this is as I said,
• 14:47
  this is here, it's not a real estate business.
• 14:51
  This is hospitality business people are very important.
• 14:56
  Your stuff is your asset. You you can't grow without
• 15:00
  having a reliable team and just patience.
• 15:06
  Surely you need to have a lot of patience.
• 15:09
  Hospitality, people and patients.
• 15:11
  That makes a lot of sense. What do you love most about your
• 15:15
  work? I love to see these great
• 15:19
  reviews, you know, after, after a hard day or there's like some,
• 15:23
  you know, busy operations and then you have a guest who checks
• 15:27
  out and he just writes this wonderful things and you think,
• 15:30
  oh, it's, it's just all worth it.
• 15:32
  And we, we had one of the highlights.
• 15:36
  We had a celebrity, an American, very famous singer staying in
• 15:42
  our property and we didn't know beforehand because it was booked
• 15:46
  under, you know, a family member name.
• 15:49
  And, and we just got to know like mid of their stay who who
• 15:53
  this actually is. And he was very happy, very
• 15:57
  grateful. It was such a pleasant
• 15:59
  experience. Honestly, like you, I felt very
• 16:02
  proud that, you know, we are hosting this kind of big person
• 16:05
  here and then they are so happy so that that that is a very, you
• 16:11
  know, very nice feeling to to have.
• 16:14
  Always great to get those positive reviews.
• 16:17
  OK, then Christina, we've got a few more quick fire questions.
• 16:21
  Which PMS do you use? We use host fully.
• 16:26
  Host fully excellent. Which dynamic pricing tool do
• 16:30
  you use? Price Labs.
• 16:33
  Price Labs which? Piece of tech.
• 16:36
  Couldn't you live without? I couldn't in in my business.
• 16:42
  I couldn't definitely live without that, hopefully, and pay
• 16:45
  my system, yeah. Fantastic in terms of allowing
• 16:51
  pets at your rentals, yes or no? It depends really on the
• 17:00
  contract. We, we, we rely a lot on the,
• 17:03
  you know, on the owners we work with.
• 17:05
  So some of them are flexible, some I don't.
• 17:09
  Generally by default we have a setting the pets are not
• 17:12
  allowed. But we are flexible if our
• 17:16
  property allows, if we can validate how many pets, what
• 17:20
  kind of pets, how big they are, we can allow this.
• 17:24
  We, we did this in the past and as long as it's properly managed
• 17:30
  and organized and there is a transparent communication
• 17:34
  between the guest and the host, I think it can it, it, it can be
• 17:40
  handled, you know, absolutely with no issues.
• 17:43
  And it's possible. But by default we have a setting
• 17:47
  that says no pads. Yeah, so long as it's not one of
• 17:49
  the exotic pets which you sometimes see in the in the
• 17:52
  Middle East. I've seen there were there was a
• 17:54
  video once of a tiger in a, in the going down the road in, in,
• 17:59
  in Doha. So yeah, you do see.
• 18:01
  These, I mean you, you never know what can be worse, if it's
• 18:05
  a tiger or if it's, I don't know, 7 cats in the studio
• 18:09
  apartments. Maybe the tiger would be better.
• 18:14
  Hot hot tubs yes or no? Not so popular in Dubai.
• 18:20
  So it's rather no because it's either small properties that
• 18:29
  won't fit the the hot tub or it's a larger properties that
• 18:33
  have a swimming pool. So really not a thing here in
• 18:37
  the region. Do you prefer to provide a self
• 18:41
  check in or a personal welcome? 100% I'm for self check in but
• 18:49
  due to some local regulations some properties they require in
• 18:53
  person check in so we do that as well.
• 18:56
  And do you prefer calling somebody a telephone call or an
• 19:00
  AI response? We do call.
• 19:05
  We have both. I mean, we don't have AI
• 19:08
  response, we don't use it at the moment, but we have automated
• 19:12
  messages sent to the guests. They are often very useful, but
• 19:17
  we also do courtesy calls. And I think the courtesy calls
• 19:22
  still the old fashioned way. It really helped us to improve
• 19:25
  our views and our general score so much.
• 19:29
  Yeah, I think making a call is is really important and.
• 19:33
  What's been your? Most memorable moment?
• 19:37
  The The American celebrity this, that was the best.
• 19:42
  Can we say who it is? He's a singer and rapper and his
• 19:47
  name starts with a. That's all I can say.
• 19:51
  Let's, let's, let's see if people can work that out then.
• 19:54
  Final question then, what's your ultimate goal for your business?
• 19:58
  Scaling. I see us managing at least 200
• 20:03
  properties. The first three years been the
• 20:07
  most fundamental. In terms of setting the
• 20:11
  business, setting the team, the processes regulations.
• 20:16
  So it is now the time that I feel is the time to grow and to
• 20:21
  scale yet to maintain. You know that that good reviews,
• 20:26
  that very loyal owners that we work with who trust us to manage
• 20:31
  their properties and, you know, overall maintaining high
• 20:36
  standards and, you know, positive guests, feedback and
• 20:40
  happy guests. This is just that, isn't it?
• 20:45
  A dream of every property manager?
• 20:49
  To keep going, yeah, to keep going and to keep growing 200.
• 20:51
  Yeah. It's a great, great objective.
• 20:54
  Christina, thank you for joining us on the podcast and thank you
• 20:57
  for being part of the House Planet Playbook.
• 21:00
  Thank you so much. It's really a pleasure.
• 21:02
  Thank you. All right, that's it for today's
• 21:04
  episode. My thanks to Christina for
• 21:06
  sharing her journey and being. Part of the.
• 21:08
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