Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / From Travel Club to STR Powerhouse – South Africa's Euphoric Leisure

Transcript

From Travel Club to STR Powerhouse – South Africa's Euphoric Leisure · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

0:00
Welcome to the House Planet Playbook, your go to guide for
0:03
mastering short term rentals. In this special series, we're
0:07
sitting down with 30 of the world's top property managers to
0:11
uncover what really drives success in the vacation rental
0:14
industry. You'll hear their stories, learn
0:17
the key lessons they've picked up along the way, and discover
0:20
the game changing tech they use to deliver five star guest
0:24
experiences. If you're serious about growing
0:27
your STR business, you're in the right place.
0:30
We've also developed an e-book featuring the stories of every
0:34
manager in this series, and you can download it for free.
0:37
Head to House Planet dot Club to find out more.
0:41
In today's episode, we're chatting to Dean Mclucky from
0:44
Euphoric Leisure, which is based in South Africa.
0:47
Stand by for a deep dive into the unique challenges of
0:50
property management in the Rainbow Nation, including the
0:54
threats of regulation. Also here why you should always
0:57
take advantage of a good crisis and discussion cover the
1:00
essential tech which helps Dean to manage 100 rentals.
1:09
This special series is brought to you by House Planets and
1:12
hospitable, the smart AI powered property management software
1:16
trusted by hosts worldwide. With hospitable, you can
1:20
automate guest messaging, sync calendars across platforms and
1:24
manage your rentals with ease. All from one powerful, easy to
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1:31
short term rental on autopilot, try Hospitable today.
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Visit hospitable.com/houseplanet to see how the platform can save
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you time, reduce stress, and maximize your earnings.
1:43
Dean, thank you for being. Part of the Host Planet
1:46
playbook. Let's start with.
1:47
You tell us where you're located and.
1:49
How many rentals you manage? Amazing.
1:52
James, thanks for having me. Yeah, so I'm based in the
1:56
Drakensburg in South Africa. So we've been up here for a
2:00
couple of years. We were based in Joburg for
2:02
seven years and then it was a nice little COVID blessing took
2:06
us to the Drakensburg. So yeah, we've been here for
2:09
since 2020. And yeah, we're coming up on
2:12
just over 100 properties under management at the moment.
2:16
So how did you get started? How did you get involved in
2:19
short term rentals? To be honest, it was a kind of
2:23
mistake. I, I actually started a travel
2:28
club business in AI think it was about 2016.
2:33
And then I was actually watching a Netflix show called Stay here.
2:37
I'm not sure if you've ever seen, if you've watched it.
2:39
Yeah, no. So it's a, it's a, it's a really
2:42
cool show with, with the two presenters.
2:45
They go around and teach people how to, you know, generate more
2:48
revenue and create better guest experiences in their, you know,
2:51
in their Airbnb. And it actually at the end of 1
2:54
episode, like there was a little pop up banner that popped up on
2:57
the episode with a Logify logo. And I was quite intrigued and I
3:02
was like, what, what is this about?
3:03
So I went and googled it and and learned that it was a property
3:06
management system, you know, piece of software.
3:10
And I thought, well, this could be quite a cool thing for our
3:12
travel club as a way to be able to facilitate bookings for our
3:15
members, etcetera. Anyway, I started a free trial
3:18
and then, you know, somewhere along the line we had someone
3:21
ask us, you know, to manage one of their homes.
3:25
And it literally started like that.
3:27
Like there were, there were really wasn't the intention
3:29
initially to start a property management business And we
3:32
suddenly started managing a property and then there was
3:34
another one and it just sort of snowballed.
3:37
And from there, you know, so yeah, it's, I mean, that was in
3:41
20 beginning of 2018. And then we sort of ticked along
3:45
for a couple of years. I was, I was sort of busy doing
3:48
a couple of things at the same time.
3:50
And then just before COVID, I sort of made a decision to
3:53
actually sort of cut the other opportunities and just really
3:56
focus on this, on this business. And yeah, from there we've we've
4:00
really scaled quite beautifully over the last couple of years.
4:03
So, yeah, good. You know, you know, when people
4:05
tell you like you need a focus and like you're like, yeah,
4:08
yeah, I can do all these things. And then and then you eventually
4:12
learn the hard way and then you do it and then you get the
4:14
results and everyone tells you I told you so.
4:17
So yeah, that's that's sort of how we got here.
4:21
So what has that learning curve been like when when you look
4:24
back now, how much knowledge have you gained over the last
4:27
few years and between between then and and scaling to 100
4:30
properties now? Yeah, it's been, I mean, it's
4:34
been wild. I mean, the, you, there's no, I
4:38
say in this industry, there's no, like, there's no days that
4:42
are like the same as another day or there's always something,
4:45
there's always something new in the space.
4:47
And, you know, I think that even if you've been doing it for 10
4:51
years, 15 years, 20 years, like you, you always, you, you can
4:55
always learn something new. And I, I've always, I've always
4:58
sort of adopted that, that sort of mentality when it comes to
5:02
when it comes to learning. And so, you know, we, we, we've
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learned from a lot of other players in the space.
5:09
You know, I've, I've found that going to, going to short term
5:12
rental conferences and surrounding yourself with other
5:15
property managers has been a game changer as well.
5:18
You know, in, in our market, a lot of people don't really
5:21
collaborate. It's there's like small pockets
5:24
of, of operators that are quite open and are willing to share
5:28
what they're doing. And so they, their failings and
5:31
some of their lessons and some things that are really working
5:33
for them, but, but it's not a common thing.
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And so, you know, I found that attending conferences and for
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us, you know, we've got one conference, a short term rental
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conference that happens here in essay called scale, which I know
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originated in, in, in Barcelona and their scale conferences all
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over the place. But you know, that that's,
5:54
that's also been an amazing thing to, to attend and to sort
5:59
of get involved in because, yeah, just, you know, you get so
6:02
busy working in your business, it's nice to go to these sort of
6:04
events and, and learn from other property managers.
6:07
And, and like, sometimes you go there and like one person says
6:10
one thing that like, you sit there and you and you think to
6:14
yourself, I can't believe we haven't done that.
6:16
And that one little thing can literally change the trajectory
6:19
of your your business. So there are lots of lots of
6:22
learnings and lessons over the years.
6:24
How is the STR space developing in South Africa?
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You mentioned there that there is one conference.
6:30
It's, it's interesting because when I look at our website
6:33
figures, for example, in recent months, probably the last six
6:35
months, the UK is our biggest market, but South Africa
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actually has been #2 So it feels like there is a kind of a thirst
6:42
for, for learning and knowledge in South Africa in relation to
6:45
STR. 100% Look, I think that, and I keep saying this to a lot
6:50
of like technical providers of people that have tech businesses
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in the short term rental space, keep saying to them, guys, I
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know that you think South Africa is just this small little market
7:00
in the bottom end of Africa that no one should worry about.
7:03
But because it's such an underserved market that so many
7:08
STR managers and hosts like really are, are, are, are dying
7:12
For more information, more solutions because we don't, we
7:16
don't have them here, you know, and a lot of, a lot of these
7:19
tech providers are, are, are building their solutions for the
7:23
US market or the European market.
7:25
And, you know, like a simple thing like payment gateway
7:27
integrations. You know, it's one of those
7:29
things that black is being such a challenge for South African
7:32
property managers because strap is the payment gateway that
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everyone seems to integrate with, but they don't serve the
7:39
South African market. And so it, it means that we've
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been excluded from so many different solutions and we've
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had to become resourceful and we've had to go and like really
7:48
look for other solutions. So I think it's sort of forced
7:52
us as a, you know, as an industry in Southgate to, to be
7:56
super practice, right? Because you know, if if you
7:59
don't, you just sort of get stuck in the same thing that
8:01
everyone else is doing and and you just, you get average
8:04
results. You mentioned there that the
8:06
payment issue, What are the other challenges that people are
8:09
facing in South Africa? Look, at the moment, we've
8:14
started to experience a lot more regulatory pressures, you know,
8:18
and it's, it's sort of sprung out of Cape Town because Cape
8:22
Town's a maker for short term rentals.
8:25
It's one of the largest short term rental destinations in the
8:27
world. And I think it started, it
8:32
started off the back of, you know, rising property costs.
8:38
And I know that if you look at Barcelona, for example, like
8:42
there's been widespread sort of conversations and, and uproar
8:47
around it, it becoming unaffordable for locals to live
8:50
there, right? And that and they talking that
8:53
all of to, you know, everyone like the rise of short term
8:56
rentals and just taking over the the city.
9:00
Now, Cape Town is a very different study and there's so
9:04
many other factors that are at play.
9:06
But that's sort of been the narrative is that short term
9:09
rentals are squeezing out long term, long term rentals and
9:12
making it more and more expensive.
9:14
And as a result, locals can't afford to live there.
9:16
But the reality is, is that Cape Town is attracts so much foreign
9:20
investment. And so there's so much it's like
9:24
money coming from from outside the country and acquiring assets
9:27
and properties in Cape Town, short term rentals is just a
9:31
part of that overall thing. But but if you go and look at
9:34
the, the average property prices in along the Atlantic seaboard,
9:38
it's not owned by S Africans that are, you know, driving up
9:42
these prices. And in fact, the prices of a lot
9:44
of these properties are really like, it's, it's only really
9:46
affordable to a lot of foreigners.
9:48
But that has been enough to now create a lot of, a lot of talk
9:53
and, you know, and, and now it's put some pressure on on
9:56
government to, to start regulating the short term rental
10:00
space a bit more. And that's, it's, it's really
10:03
becoming quite a concern. I mean, recently we had another
10:07
municipality, not actually in the Western Cape, but in Kwazu
10:10
Natal, they've rolled out some new bylaws, you know, in terms
10:15
of their, their special planning scheme and they wanting to now
10:21
enforce or they're wanting to basically the, the change of
10:25
legislation when they wanted to dictate that anyone running an
10:30
Airbnb in a residential area will need to apply for special
10:34
consent in order with the municipality, they have to apply
10:38
now. That's a whole legal process to
10:40
go through. So the, the, the cost to
10:42
actually go through that process is going to now radically
10:45
increase, you know, the, the just the general operational
10:48
cost for a short term rental property and it's going to
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squeeze so many operate like people out of the market.
10:55
And so these are the things that are starting to now surface and
10:57
and we sit there thinking like why on earth is this happening?
11:01
And I think that, as I said, there's so many different
11:03
factors, but one thing that I that does often come to mind
11:06
because it's the thing that, you know, creates a lot of emotional
11:10
reactions from people is, is unruly guests or noisy guests
11:14
that are, are coming and visiting these places.
11:17
They're in residential areas and they're not necessarily abiding
11:21
by the rules or being respectful of, of the state rules.
11:24
And, and as a result, they create some disturbances and
11:28
they frustrate the neighbors. And now the neighbors, you know,
11:30
have a couple of those experiences.
11:32
And, and now they chalk it off as, you know, short term rentals
11:35
is a bad thing. And, and as a result, you know,
11:38
we need to get these guys out and, and, and the reality is it
11:41
is such a small percentage of people that are, you know,
11:45
behaving like that, but you know, it, it feels and like it's
11:50
a lot more, you know, so, so that's been, that's sort of been
11:54
some of the big challenges that we face that we're facing in SAS
11:57
are sort of the, I guess, difficult or unruly guess.
12:01
And, and as a result, I think additional pressures on, on, on
12:05
regulators to, to do something about it.
12:08
But yeah, look, I think we, we all try and be, we're all trying
12:12
to be as proactive as possible and participate as much as we
12:15
can in, in the conversations with, you know, with policy
12:18
makers to try and ensure that, you know, regulatory changes
12:23
that are made are, are actually solving the right problem and,
12:26
and not just having a knee jerk reaction and, and copying what
12:29
other countries are doing. Because we think, OK, well,
12:33
Barcelona has introduced this ban or this country is not
12:36
introduced, not capsule. We must do that.
12:39
And then and then, you know, poor decision making, they can
12:42
can literally wipe out billions of rents in terms of of
12:46
opportunity in the country if if not handled property.
12:49
Yeah, regulation biting everywhere.
12:51
And I think one of the frustrations here in the UK is
12:54
that regulation is being introduced without knowing the
12:57
data, without knowing exactly how many short rental sorts of
13:01
rentals there are and what and what kind of impact they're
13:03
having on on local economies. I mean, do you find that the
13:06
threat of regulation has kind of brought the industry a little
13:09
bit closer and and helped to, you know, unite other property
13:13
managers to talk about what what you do about it?
13:16
100% I mean, we, we, we're seeing businesses that normally
13:23
would not engage with one another at all because they're
13:25
competitors now, you know, engaging and sharing information
13:28
and, and like collaborating on WhatsApp groups and forming, you
13:32
know, forming voice groups to, to, to now go and engage with,
13:37
with regulators. So 100% it's definitely having
13:40
that effect. And look, I think that it's for,
13:44
for me, I've, I've been involved in an industry before that was
13:49
very much tied to, to legislation.
13:51
And the sunset clause of that piece of legislation came up and
13:56
everyone anticipated that government was just going to
13:59
continue to extend it. And, and to the shock of
14:03
everyone, they just turned around and said, no, we're
14:05
actually not continuous. And, and overnight they wiped
14:08
out a whole industry. And so I've had that experience
14:12
and I've seen it first hand, you know, and I think The thing is,
14:15
as S Africans, we're all very hopeful people, you know what I
14:19
mean? Like we, we deal with so many
14:20
challenges that we, we build a resilience.
14:23
And I think that we all, I mean, I'm, I'm generalizing, but
14:27
naturally quite optimistic, But sometimes that can be to our
14:31
detriment when certain real existential threats are, are
14:34
coming at us and people are too complacent.
14:37
So it has been positive to see that short term rental property
14:41
managers and hosts are taking action.
14:44
There's been the establishment of the South African Short Term
14:48
Rentals Association, SASTRA. So you know, these, these, these
14:53
professional bodies and, and these collections of, of, of
14:56
businesses that are, are, are coming together to say, look, we
14:59
understand that they are challenges, right?
15:02
Include us in the conversation and let us tackle it together
15:05
because we are, we are the most equipped to actually deal with
15:08
these because we these issues, because we deal with them every
15:11
single day. And I think that is key to to
15:16
introducing effective policy because I think that a lot of
15:19
the time, exactly what you've said now is like a lot of these
15:22
policies are made without actually understanding the data.
15:27
You know, they read like a news article or, you know, some sort
15:31
of journalist. Some journalists have now
15:32
published something that maybe has a bit of a bias, but not
15:35
really substantiated with real facts of what's what, what's
15:39
actually causing these things. And then that that gets that
15:42
information gets taken and, and, and that that is then used to,
15:45
you know, to introduce a new policy that actually doesn't
15:47
solve the real problem. So I think yeah, 100%, I think
15:51
that all of these things are are definitely uniting a lot of
15:55
property managers in our space. That's one good thing to to come
15:59
out of it, that's for sure. So.
16:01
So what makes your brand? Stand out from the competition.
16:06
Look, we, we really like to, we, we really have a big focus on
16:11
the experience, right. So we talk a lot about how do we
16:13
elevate the experience, not just for our home owners and our
16:17
guests, but all of our stakeholders.
16:19
How do we create a better agent experience, you know, for
16:22
people, our agents, how, how do we make it easier for them to
16:26
book with us, easier for them to work with us?
16:28
The same thing with our cleaning companies, You know, how do we,
16:31
how do we create better, more efficient systems for them
16:34
whereby they, they found it an absolute pleasure working with
16:38
us, right. So, so I think that the
16:40
experience side is something that we focus a lot of, a lot of
16:43
our attention on. In addition to that, we, we,
16:48
we're quite a young team from a always joke about this, like
16:53
when I talk to new homeowners is that I'd say that the average
16:56
age of our, of our staff in, in our company is probably 1520
17:00
years younger than the average property management company in
17:02
our country. So with that comes, you know, a
17:06
bit, a whole lot more focus and emphasis on tech and innovation.
17:11
So that's really been core to everything that we've done from
17:14
day one is how do we leverage the best tech to enhance the
17:18
extents, you know, and how do we use that tech to drive greater
17:22
efficiency and allow us to do more with less?
17:25
You know, we, you know, what I found is, and I and I know that
17:29
a lot of property managers out there with less than 30 to maybe
17:32
50 properties. You know, it's a grant when you,
17:36
when you've got a smaller portfolio that you, you're not
17:39
really at that stage where you, you're profitable enough where
17:43
you can have a fully fledged team that handles each different
17:46
facet of the business and you know, you're doing a lot of the
17:50
stuff yourself. And so I think with that, the
17:54
fact that we were in that space for so long, we had to be super
17:57
resourceful and like tech was an obvious, was an obvious thing
18:00
for us to, to get more leverage. But yeah, we've really, we've
18:04
really tried to focus on, you know, ensuring that we're taking
18:08
on homes that fit the brand. So we, we, we really try and
18:11
focus on upmarket, upmarket holiday homes.
18:14
Is, is, is our sort of primary focus.
18:17
But we've also ventured in and taken more suburban homes in, in
18:22
places like Joburg. You know, we never really
18:25
thought of, of managing properties in Johannesburg.
18:27
It's a, you know, it's a city and you know, most of our homes
18:30
initially were on the coast, but then we found that, you know, a
18:34
lot of those Joburg properties have really high occupancy rates
18:38
and they actually do really well as short term rental properties.
18:41
So, yeah, I mean it's, it's sort of evolved over time, but I, I
18:45
would really sort of say that our our big differentiate has
18:48
been a massive focus on the experience and and really being
18:52
like a tech driven driven company.
18:56
What are your top three tips for delivering A outstanding guest
19:00
experience? OK.
19:02
So I'd say the first thing I would say is, is really trying
19:08
to anticipate the guests need before it's actually voiced.
19:13
I think that goes a long way is is really trying to anticipate
19:17
what are the what is the sort of experience that a guest is going
19:20
to have when they're coming into a property and what is maybe
19:22
some of the frustration? What time of the day are they
19:25
generally arriving there? What are they thinking when
19:26
they're out and like really try and hone in on the finer details
19:30
because like a seamless experience seems seamless
19:34
because all of those small things have been attended to.
19:37
So I think really being proactive, because that's really
19:40
what hospitality is. It's, it's, it's about being
19:43
proactive, not reactive, right? So I think that would be the
19:46
first thing that I would say. The second thing I would say in
19:50
terms of really enhancing a guest experience would be really
19:56
focusing more on the overall experience and sort of
19:59
localizing estate rather than just focusing on the property.
20:04
And it's always easier said than done, particularly as you scale
20:07
you have more and more properties, but people don't
20:12
just want to stay in a nice house.
20:14
They also want to experience the destination.
20:16
They want to eat at the local restaurants or they want to, you
20:19
know, do the must do activities. So I think that really taking
20:24
like taking consideration. Of what are the must do things
20:29
in that particular area that's going to create a memorable
20:31
experience? I think is, is, is a no brainer
20:35
because you know that if, if you're able to sort of round
20:39
that whole experience up with all these other things that are
20:43
outside of what you're necessarily offering, But that's
20:46
going to, that's going to create that, that memory for that
20:49
particular guest or for their family.
20:51
And that's going to be a positive sort of association
20:53
that they'll have with your brand.
20:55
So, so that would be the second thing.
20:57
And then the third thing I would say, and this is maybe a little
21:00
bit more on the when things don't go right, because
21:02
sometimes sometimes you can, you can really, you can turn a not
21:07
so good experience into a really phenomenal experience in the way
21:11
in which you handle it right. So sometimes things don't go
21:15
according to plan. Sometimes you drop the ball,
21:17
sometimes a guest arrives, they're having a bad day,
21:19
whatever it is. But I'd say the third thing is
21:22
that when dealing with these situations where it hasn't gone
21:25
according to plan is, is to listen.
21:30
I think that so many of us are like rushed to a solution, want
21:33
to make excuses, justify why it's not like the way it is.
21:37
And I would say that that just listening and empathizing and
21:43
becoming the champion of the solution for a potential guess
21:48
can really forge much stronger relationships than a positive
21:52
experience. Because what I've found in in
21:55
over the years of, of, of doing this is that when someone comes
22:00
and stays with you and this and they stay seamless.
22:03
They haven't really had much of much interaction with you as a
22:06
brand, as a company that come and it's been smooth and, and
22:08
they leave. But when something goes wrong
22:12
and you and your team step up and you guys, you know, you do
22:16
more than than that than the guest expects you communicate
22:19
better than they expect you just you over deliver on that front.
22:23
What I've found is that 9 out of 10 times you can turn that
22:27
disgruntled guest into your biggest fan, because what's
22:31
happened is that they've had, they've had a, a not so good
22:34
experience and that's triggered some sort of emotional reaction.
22:37
And now they're upset. And, and, but that, that it's
22:41
from that emotional place that allows you to actually forge a
22:44
much stronger relationship with them.
22:46
Because often that, you know, when people have said, they
22:48
sometimes say things that don't mean or, you know, that they
22:51
just get a bit ahead of themselves.
22:52
And, and when you handle that situation well, often those
22:57
people will turn around, they'll reflect and they'll be like, I
23:00
maybe didn't handle that best, but these guys were amazing,
23:03
right? And, and they can't believe that
23:05
sort of this, I mean, and, and once again, that they feel
23:08
closer and more like bonded with you.
23:11
And I think that that also like tying back into a guest
23:14
experience, it may not have been super smooth, but you can
23:16
actually really turn a bad experience into into a really
23:20
memorable one that that that turns that guest into a raving
23:24
fan. Definitely you have that
23:27
opportunity to turn a negative into a positive and and they're
23:30
the ones often knew who will give you the best reviews as
23:32
well. If you if you go the extra mile
23:34
and and turn things around quickly and no doubt about it.
23:38
Dean, then, so your your. Biggest lesson learned since
23:42
becoming a property manager. So look, I'd say probably
23:46
carrying on from that last point is never waste a crisis.
23:50
You know, I've, I've found that we've, we've unpacked so many
23:56
opportunities on the back of a crisis.
23:58
So like use an example that I've just used now, it's like if
24:02
you've got a something's gone wrong, someone dropped the ball,
24:06
whatever it is, But I guess that's it be able to really over
24:09
deliver and, and and create a solution for that guess.
24:12
Like as we said, you turn them into a raving fan, leaving
24:15
greater views and they come back.
24:17
But, but taking that, you know, a step further, when another
24:20
scenario, you know, double bookings is every property
24:23
managers not because it takes about five times more work to
24:28
remedy a double booking than you know, if, if you didn't, then
24:32
just getting a booking in the 1st place and trying to manage
24:35
that, that experience from a guest at that point.
24:38
But double bookings are always a good example where if we, we've,
24:42
we've had us, we've had situations in the past where,
24:45
you know, something like that's happened and now we've had to
24:47
scramble to find another place for a guest in a, in a
24:51
destination that we may not have any more properties because we,
24:55
we have a national portfolio. So we're not a destination
24:58
specific property management company.
25:00
So we have properties sort of spread across the country.
25:02
Some, you know, we have more properties in some destinations
25:05
than others. So you might have a situation
25:07
where now you only have two or three properties in one
25:09
destination, you have a double booking, you don't have anything
25:11
available. But in those, in those
25:15
situations, we've been able to now, now because you have to,
25:19
you're now being resourceful. You're phoning like you're
25:21
phoning the, the general manager of the estate, you're phoning
25:24
everyone that you know, like, hey, listen, do you know someone
25:26
who ultimately could, you know, could assist?
25:29
And in that we gather a whole bunch of other homeowner needs
25:33
and and then you're now suddenly doing a booking in that and that
25:37
a new homeowner's property filled with a relationship and
25:39
then suddenly that turns into a new listing opportunity.
25:43
So yeah, I think that that would be my biggest essence.
25:45
And, and is, is really like whenever there is a crisis going
25:49
on is just just take a step back and take a deep breath and then
25:53
go, all right, like, where's the opportunity here?
25:56
And to be on the lookout for it because they're, they're always
26:01
there, right? If you have the right mindsets.
26:04
Great advice I think. What do you love most about
26:08
hosting? Sure.
26:11
So look, I think from, from a hosting experience, I think it's
26:17
just, it's, it's delivering a great experience to people.
26:22
You know, I don't know, I don't know how much people typically
26:26
travel in the UK, but in South Africa, you know, most people
26:31
have anywhere from 15 to 20 days of leave a year, you know,
26:36
sometimes a bit more than that. So often people are travelling
26:39
like a proper big trip, you know, they're doing once twice a
26:43
year, you know, sort of your middle income families,
26:46
obviously high income families are travelling much more.
26:48
But really to deliver an amazing experience to someone where it's
26:51
like the thing that they've really looked forward to for the
26:54
whole year for six months and it's, you know, different, like
26:58
different family members now sort of getting together.
27:00
They haven't seen each other for a long time, whatever that is.
27:03
I think it is a really cool and rewarding thing, you know, don't
27:08
have to say, you know, just seeing, just seeing the
27:11
positivity that come that comes from from it is, is really cool.
27:18
So we've got some quick fire questions now then so.
27:21
Which PMS do you use? So we we're with larger fire for
27:26
a long time. We've actually recently now made
27:28
the move across to boom. Oh wow, exciting.
27:32
Yeah, the the AI powered PMS. Which?
27:36
Which dynamic pricing tool do you use?
27:39
We use Price Labs. One of our sponsors.
27:43
Fantastic. You talked quite a lot.
27:45
About tech at the start. So what's the piece of tech that
27:49
you couldn't live without? Undoubtedly Zapier and Airtable.
27:56
So I'll give a little bit of context there quickly.
27:59
So I mean, I guess with in, in the, in the STR space, we all
28:05
have slightly different needs and every piece of tech doesn't
28:08
always cater to your exact needs.
28:10
And I found that Zapier just allows.
28:13
So for those people that don't know what Zapier is, it's, it's
28:15
a, it's effectively like an integrator for the layman, where
28:19
you don't need to be a developer to be able to integrate
28:22
different piece, different pieces of tech or different
28:24
software. And so one of the challenges we
28:28
had earlier on was with homeowner reporting, how do we
28:31
effectively report to homeowners?
28:33
Because as you scale to manually do that every month was just was
28:37
never going to be a solution. And someone suggested to me that
28:40
one day, why don't you just export all your data from the
28:44
PMS into a table and then you can just cut the slice and
28:49
create different views. And that was like the initial
28:53
idea and it was a game changer because it allowed us to
28:56
literally explore all the data and you create different views
28:58
and give links to owners and it's been a game changer.
29:01
But from there we, we were then also able to create a whole
29:05
bunch of other automations from Airtable where all of our
29:08
invoicing was then automated from Airtable and we built up so
29:13
many other automation. So everything from like guest
29:16
check in forms and all of that sort of stuff is, is so air
29:19
tables become like our central, our central database where so
29:24
much other things happen automatically from there.
29:27
So those two pieces of tech, I would say if you're not using
29:30
them, really look into it. I'm sure plenty of people will
29:33
check them out allowing pets yes or no?
29:41
If possible, so I say if possible, if the estates, a lot
29:44
of our states don't allow it, but if possible, yes, we found
29:48
that, you know, there's, there's such a shortage of pet friendly
29:51
places at least in, in South Africa.
29:53
And so yeah, if you if you can do it, I would suggest doing it.
30:00
Hot tubs yes or no? Absolutely, Absolutely.
30:06
Self check in or a personal welcome?
30:12
I would definitely lean towards self checking simply because
30:16
close to 99% of our properties are self checking.
30:21
Telephone call or an AI response?
30:25
I'd have to say both, right, simply because I think that they
30:28
both have different purposes. So we call all of our guests
30:33
like we do a confirmation call to just touch base, give context
30:37
as to the pre-check in process, but then leveraging AI for a lot
30:41
of repetitive tasks. And I think that if you can use
30:44
really sophisticated AI that you can teach, you know, if you can
30:48
train it on each of your properties, then a lot of like,
30:51
let's say late night FAQs that come through from guests that
30:55
can be auto responded to. And you know, a lot of these
30:58
solutions are getting really good where you don't even know
31:00
you're talking to an AI. So I would say both.
31:04
Excellent. And your most memorable moment?
31:07
Since starting the business. So I would have to say a recent,
31:14
a recent memory. Well, I guess milestone for us
31:16
is that we, we recently acquired A competitor.
31:20
So it's like sort of a big, a big move for us as a property
31:24
management company. It also just opened up my eyes
31:26
to a different way of scaling, different opportunity.
31:31
And so, yeah, I think the idea of acquiring another business
31:35
has always seemed like such a down the road distant thing.
31:40
But you know, there's lots of different ways to structure a
31:43
deal like that that is creates a win win for both parties.
31:47
So I'd have to say the acquisition of our first
31:49
competitor, hopefully first of many.
31:53
Exciting. A couple of shout outs then.
31:56
So a an individual perhaps in the industry who has helped you,
32:00
is there somebody you'd like to give a shout out to?
32:03
Yeah, I would actually. I got to give a shout out to
32:06
Nick Taylor. He's, he's one of the directors
32:10
at Knox Rentals in Cape Town, just a phenomenal guy.
32:14
I mean, anyone that knows him or engages within the industry,
32:18
like everyone has the same positive, positive things to say
32:21
about him. He's he's one of the guys who's
32:24
really has, you know, he's, he's brought a lot more collaboration
32:28
to the industry and he was very influential in, in getting scale
32:33
to, to come to South Africa. And so, yeah, he's always been a
32:38
guy that I can pick up the phone and, and phone and, and just
32:41
bounce some ideas off and he's always more than willing to
32:44
share. So yeah, that's a big shout out
32:47
to Mick Taylor. Great shout out to her for Nick
32:49
then. Question to finish then Dean,
32:51
your ultimate goal. For your business.
32:55
Look, I would love to, I'd love to scale our business to, you
32:58
know, to 500 plus premium properties and really become at
33:03
the most recognizable short term rental brand in essay.
33:07
I think that's that's really what we're pushing towards at
33:10
this point in time. Yeah.
33:12
Sounds like an exciting journey, Dean.
33:15
Thank you so much for joining us and for being part.
33:17
Of the House Planet Playbook. Great.
33:20
Thanks, James. Thanks for having me.
33:21
It's been a blast. All right, that's it for today's
33:23
episode. My thanks to Dean for sharing
33:25
his journey and for being part of the House Planet playbook.
33:29
Remember, this series is brought to you in partnership with
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34:24
Until next time, happy hosting.