Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Small Issues Build Up Fast | How AI Catches Them First

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Small Issues Build Up Fast | How AI Catches Them First · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

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  Most short term rental damage doesn't come from one big
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  disaster. It's death by 1000 cuts and most
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  managers don't even realise it's happening.
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  In this episode of Host Planet Bite Size, powered by Host
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  Fully, I'm joined by Sam Parks from Rapid Eye, his company.
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  Analysis, cleaning and inspection photos using AI to
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  help property managers spot damage drift and changes over
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  time. If you manage short term
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  rentals, this conversation could completely change how you think
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  about inspections. Let's get straight into it.
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  Sam, thank you for joining us on House Planet Bite Size.
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  Let's start by explaining what your business does.
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  Yeah, so we use the new advancements in AI to help hosts
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  detect damages and detect any changes in the tons of photos
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  they're currently taking. We also allow cleaners to take
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  videos and inspectors to take videos, so we can analyse that
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  with AI. Excellent.
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  All right, so based on your research, then please share your
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  top operational insights for property managers when it comes
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  to inspections and damage tracking.
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  So. So let's start with insight #1.
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  Yeah. So first thing we realized, like
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  we went into the industry thinking, you know, if we detect
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  damages, problem solved, right? Like that's, that's the end of
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  story. But we realized is it, it really
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  matters who we communicate with and how we get that information
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  to that person. Like each property management
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  company seems to have such a different way of doing this.
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  Some individuals have like remote people, some people have
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  just inspectors that go into each house, right?
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  But each time, like there's this amount of knowledge that just
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  gets stuck in each individual's head, right?
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  Like you have an inspector who knows that that damage was
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  already there, but like nobody else does.
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  And like that guy leaves. And so one thing that for what
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  we do, right, is we're trying to make these damage insights
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  actionable. And so understanding that has
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  been like a huge unlock and getting it to the right person.
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  But for like, like hosts, I'm sure it would be super helpful
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  to just like, have your inspectors write this stuff
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  down, like keep it in a system of record that's easy for a new
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  inspector to come in. Like it sounds obvious, but when
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  you miss that, like you have a house and you have a new
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  inspector come in and they just don't know what's new.
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  So yeah, that that's one thing that we've noticed.
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  Excellent. Just tell us and just explain to
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  us how your system actually works.
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  If you were trying to sell it to a property manager right now,
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  how would you explain it? Yeah, so a lot of the property
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  managers we work with already take hundreds of turnover
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  photos. Some people have like hundreds
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  of thousands in their, you know, operations platforms.
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  And So what we do is we go and analyze like the entire history
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  of a property, find out all the previous damages, talk to
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  inspectors, figure out what is already there.
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  And then we're able to see any changes, any damages with AI
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  from new turnover photos that come in.
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  And we flag those and send it to the right person on your team so
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  that they can actually, actually review it, right.
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  Because most of the time, a lot of these companies have tons of
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  photos and they can't review all of them, right?
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  Because there's just so many. They're managing so many
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  properties, they're taking so many photos.
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  You can't review all of them. So we try to make that, you
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  know, actually actionable and actually possible to review all
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  of them with the help of AI. Yeah.
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  Excellent. All right then, so share with us
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  insight #2. Yeah, yeah.
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  I guess like second insight is that like for the people who are
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  taking, you know, matter ports, right, for the people who are
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  taking hundreds of photos, right, you have so much
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  information in there, right that can be used to help your
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  business, right. Like that, that information is
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  just sitting there. And I think what we found is
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  that like most companies just like accept this and like move
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  on and let it sit there and they, they save it, but they
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  don't do anything with it. And so like, I guess this is
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  part of what we do, but like using that information somehow,
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  right? Like we can ingest matter ports
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  and use that as a baseline to see what's changed from that
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  matter port. We can use listing photos,
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  right? And like, I guess just like
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  thinking about new ways to use like this really good data that
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  you've already collected. And yeah, yeah, that's that's
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  the main thing. So basically, so So what was the
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  kind of the light bulb moment when you were setting up the
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  business when when you realize that there's all these thousands
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  and thousands of photos being taken every day, but but
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  nobody's really doing anything with them.
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  Yeah, I mean, I guess like kind of two light bulb moments.
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  First light bulb moment was my Co founder manages vacation
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  rentals in Outer Banks and he kind of saw like how hard it was
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  to keep track of all these things and was like OK, let's
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  use our computer vision knowledge to try to help solve
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  this. But then when we're doing
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  customer discovery and talking to these these bigger companies
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  just like hearing about how many photos they take and just like
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  how that just like exponentially scales right Like it one
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  property is one thing and then it gets to two and then it gets
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  to three and then as it gets to like hundreds it's just like
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  exponentially hard to keep track of that and seeing that they
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  just weren't using this. I remember I was on a call with
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  somebody and saw like, I think it was like 600,000 photos in
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  their OPS platform. And I was just like, Oh my God.
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  Like it's just impossible. It's impossible to manually
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  review this. And like, the fact that they're
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  trying is awesome and proves that it's valuable.
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  But like, can we make this easier, you know?
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  Yeah, I'm thinking from my own experience and, and my cleaners
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  and turnover team, they'll share photos after every single
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  turnover. And do I go through and
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  meticulously look at every single one?
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  No, I don't. I just assume that everything's
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  all right. So, so yeah, I, I, I completely
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  get it. OK, then, quick one before we
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  get to tip 3. This episode is powered by House
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  Fully, the property management platform trusted by professional
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  hosts and managers around the world.
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  From powerful automation to best in class digital guidebooks,
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  hopefully helps you deliver a better guest experience while
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  running a more efficient business.
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  If you're watching on YouTube, scan the QR code on screen or
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  hit the link in the show notes to book a demo with Frank Bosey,
• 6:23
  a big friend of our show and one of the nicest guys in the STR
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  space. And don't forget, host Planet
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  listeners get 2 exclusive offers, $500 off on boarding for
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  the property management software, and 30% off digital
• 6:36
  guidebooks for life. All right, back to it, Sam, what
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  is insight #3? Yeah, I guess piggybacking off
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  of what you said, which is like scanning over photos, like what
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  we have realized is #1 like owners just see things
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  completely differently than cleaners and, and how they're
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  looking at the property and what they want to like surface.
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  But the person who's actually looking at the property is the
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  cleaner. And there's this like, kind of
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  like, I don't know, there's this, there's like levels to
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  like, OK, you scan the photos. How much can you actually
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  surface there? Like what are you missing?
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  And like, if you were to just like excruciatingly like look at
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  every single photos, what could you detect?
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  And like you would, you might expect that's like a small
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  difference, but in reality, when you're, when you're scanning,
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  you just cannot detect any of the little things.
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  And it's like that, that difference is so high.
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  And if we can get like the ability for an owner and some,
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  some owners like that, I talked to like genuinely trust their
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  cleaners so much and are able to like transfer this like, I don't
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  know, like owners mindset into their, their cleaners.
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  And that's amazing. Like that's one way to solve the
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  problem for some, some property management companies, they just
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  have a scale that they cannot do that.
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  And so like, yeah, like finding a way to get those values into
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  whoever's looking at the property and not just say like,
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  oh, you know, report this, report that.
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  One way is to, you know, what we're doing and using AI and
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  like instilling those values on that AI.
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  But another way is just like, yeah, trusting cleaners,
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  building that up. And however, like, however way
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  you want to do that. But that's one thing we've
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  realized. Yeah, I think a lot of people
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  we, we, we try to kind of get that mentality across to
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  cleaners like you say, you know, thinking like an owner.
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  But yeah, it's it's a very difficult thing to do and often
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  issues will crock pub. I mean, if an owner kind of goes
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  round there and maybe does inspections and all that kind of
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  thing. But sometimes you'll mention it
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  to a cleaner and they'll be like, Oh yeah, I saw that a few
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  weeks ago, but it didn't get, you know, message, they didn't
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  mention it or something like that.
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  So, yeah, I mean, I guess having this photographic archive, which
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  can instantly say, hey, there's a problem here, that would
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  definitely help. Insight number 4 then Sam.
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  Yeah, another, another insight we've been thinking a lot about
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  is like this idea of using reviews as a metric for like
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  what's wrong with a property? We've seen this in like we just,
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  we just feel like this is like a deeply flawed way of going about
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  it because you know it, it works, it's a proxy.
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  But like the the entire point is to try to prevent those reviews
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  beforehand. And then another thing is like,
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  you know, what percent of guests like leave a review and then say
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  the exact problem with the house, Like not, not, not often.
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  You know, sometimes they don't even leave the review and
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  sometimes they just don't mention it.
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  So like, I don't know, I think like using reviews as a proxy is
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  like a great way. It's like a first step.
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  But like if you can just go to the actual source of truth,
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  right? The things you're reviewing
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  everyday, the things you're cleaners are seeing everyday,
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  you can kind of prevent things before they end up in reviews,
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  which I think is the whole point.
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  So yeah. Yeah, definitely we, we all want
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  to avoid those bad reviews and I, I think I guess the, the
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  point here is that you're giving hosts and owners the opportunity
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  to take action as soon as possible rather than letting
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  things build up. All right then, Sam insight #5.
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  Yeah, yeah. Like Speaking of building up, I
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  think one big realization we had is like we, we thought we were
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  going to come in and like find like these huge things that
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  happen to the property, right? Like huge, like dry hall drywall
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  holes and stuff like that. But what ends up actually
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  happening is like this slow drift of, you know, small things
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  that are just like, again, like, that's why I say like keeping
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  track of these things is like really hard and really important
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  because like, it tends to be that you just lose track of
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  these small things. And then a guest is like, OK,
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  there's a bunch of small things wrong with this property.
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  Like it, it wasn't the experience I wanted instead of
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  like this big thing. And so like just being cognizant
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  of like the fact that like, you know, it's not usually not one
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  big thing. Like it's, it's just a ton of
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  small things. And like, maybe that's why a
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  guest might not leave this interview and maybe might not,
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  you know, message you that something's wrong because it's
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  just like a ton of little things everywhere.
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  And yeah, that's one thing we've we've definitely realized when
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  looking at all of these photos. I can definitely believe that.
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  Yeah. I think all of us as as hosts
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  and owners, there have been times where we've seen
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  something, we know it needs sorting out, but is it a
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  priority? Is it something we're going to
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  block our calendars for to stop, you know, bookings coming in?
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  Probably not. But I think, yeah, it's, I can
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  completely understand that, that mentality.
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  All right then, Sam. So just give us a quick lowdown
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  on Rapid Eye and where people can find out more information.
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  Yeah, I post on LinkedIn quite often.
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  You can love to connect with any property managers.
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  Our website is Rapid Eye inspections.com.
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  Yeah, we would love to, you know, try this on one of your
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  properties. It's super easy to set up.
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  We can sync with any of your PMSS and yeah, just see what we
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  can find, see what damages that inspectors or cleaners have
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  missed. Fantastic.
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  And we'll put all those details in the show notes, Sam.
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  It's been a real pleasure. Thanks for joining us on host
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  Planet Bite Size. Yes, thank you so much for
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  having me. Now I'm curious, how are you
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  currently handling inspections? Are you relying purely on
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  cleaners? Do you have inspectors, or are
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  you sitting on thousands of unused photos in WhatsApp?
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  Drop a comment below and tell us your current process because
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  chances are there's optimization sitting right in front of you.
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  All right, that's it for this episode of host Planet Bite
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  Size. If you found this useful, hit
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  needs to see it, and subscribe to our channel.
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  practical short term rental insights to help you grow your
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  business. This is house planet bite size
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  powered by house fully. Until next time I'll be hosting.