WEBVTT
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Join them as they highlight the real stories behind the people and brands that have built vacation rentals into the$100 billion industry it is today.
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And now it's time to get real and have some fun with your host, Alex Deanney.
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We'll start the show in just a minute, but first, a word from our premier brand sponsor.
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My name is Sally Lockard.
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I'm the head of sales and marketing at Hoseva.
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We have been working with my BookingPal since about 2019.
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Hosiva is a full service property manager and software company.
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We manage about 6,000 properties over 16 countries over a myriad of services.
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At Hoseva, we have our own custom-built PMS where we build our own direct channel connections.
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The reason we decided to partner with BookingPow is because they were able to expand our reach.
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BookingPal really stays on top of making sure that all partners have easy API access to add on the channels, even for people like us who have our own channel connections.
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Implementing the integrations with MyBookingPal have allowed our teams, you know, more time and more trust and less worry on our side, right?
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We know things are working.
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The reason BookingPal was a good strategic choice for our business was we specifically wanted to connect to some of the channels that they had access to that nobody else did.
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Having the exclusive ability to distribute to homes and hideaways by high has been a big plus for us.
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We are impressively growing in the independent hotel and multifamily sector where being able to attract those travelers that are used to staying in a hotel like a high and feeling safe with that kind of brand has been really increasing when it comes to um conversion and numbers for our revenue side for these type of properties.
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I would say booking pal as a partner is a really good loyal friendship, right?
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You know, we have a nice integration that's obviously put deep rooted into tech, right?
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But the teams really speak well together and we have a direct contact if we need it.
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It really is important to us to have 24-7 customer support, and we really value that in our partners.
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I would definitely recommend my booking tails to others.
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It has just helped us to continue to grow and be in front of as many travelers as possible.
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And it's helped us to do that with ease and with partners that we feel like we can trust.
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Looking to expand your distribution and grow revenue without adding operational complexity?
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With BookingPal, you can streamline channel management, connect to global marketplaces, and bring greater visibility and control to your distribution strategy, backed by a reliable team you can trust.
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Alex and Annie listeners get onboarding fees waived, plus 20% off your first two months when you get started.
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Click the link in the description to learn more.
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Welcome to Alex and Annie, the Real Women of Vacation Rentals.
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I'm Alex and I'm Annie.
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And we are joined today by Blake Warner, who is the CEO of Booking Panel.
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Blake, so good to see you.
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Thanks for having me today.
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Always good to see the two of you.
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It's good to talk to you.
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I haven't talked to you since DARM back in December.
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And so lots happened since then.
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Um, but this is the first time you've been on our show, which I can't believe.
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It seems like we would have had you on sooner, but uh apologies for that.
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But before we get started, I was actually looking at your LinkedIn.
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And you have a very, I mean, you and I've talked several times before.
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You've done so much like outside of this industry, a lot of finance and and um just uh investment and that type of stuff.
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So it's really fascinating background.
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Why don't you give it our listeners a little bit about your history?
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Yeah, sure.
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I'm uh I I don't come from the vacation rental industry, but uh uh I'm actually a career investment banker, recently a former career investment banker.
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Um and what investment banker does and what I've done in my career is uh hidden companies public, so IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, high-like bond offerings, liberal note offerings, uh always in the telecom, tech media space.
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And uh over time we we developed a little bit of a fractional CFO business as part of a sort of an offshoot of the uh the investment banking uh business, but uh did my tell in the waters of short-term vacation rentals about a year and a half ago.
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Excellent.
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Excellent.
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So from your lens, I mean you get to see a lot of things you know, being from the channel manager seat.
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You see a lot of what's going on on the channels, you see a lot of what's going on with the property managers, and um you're kind of like sit at that hub of uh the connectivity, I guess you could say.
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What are you hearing as we go into 2026 as far as you know what property managers are seeing in demand?
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And I know you obviously have a very big geographical lens too, but what what are companies coming to you and saying that they're seeing, or what are you guys seeing for them?
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Yeah, I mean, you're right.
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We we do we fit in this interesting little fulcrum of the industry.
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Um sometimes we serve property managers directly to get them pushed out to all the channels, and sometimes we we serve them coming through PMSs.
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PMSs obviously also have their own thing, direct connections.
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So we're we're sort of frenemies with uh many of our PMSs in that regard.
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Um But yeah, we we connect with 30 different channels and 35 different PMS systems, and so we've got a little bit of air traffic controller, uh if you will.
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Yeah on it.
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And and uh you know, we've our core function obviously is to push out global synchronized rate and availability, uh, facilitate all the payment flows, uh, and and all to a large degree a lot of the messaging flows just around, you know, what's the gate code and where's the crib and things of that nature.
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And and uh we're really are we're straight up B2B.
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We're not B2C in any capacity what whatsoever.
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So just trying to, you know, help the property managers drive efficiency as best we can.
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It's uh I mean, having been in channel management myself, I I know it's a it's a 24-7 kind of business.
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It's it just never shuts off because you've got the channels coming in, you've got the partners dealing with it.
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It's just a it's a crazy business to be in.
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But it's a lot of fun though, too, because I think you get to see you get to see the good and the bad like from all the angles and and help people, you know, manage through their distribution and manage through what they're doing.
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But I was curious, um, you coming from the finance world and coming from you know taking companies public, and I think you were involved on the board with BookingPal initially, if I'm not mistaken.
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Um, but what do you, you know, what do you think your past experience brought to the channel management side of the business that you were able to because BookingPal's doing really well.
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I mean, your your brand is strong, you guys are doing a lot of innovations.
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You know, what do you think your background um lends itself to this new business that you're in?
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Yeah, well, so BookingPal was actually a client of mine back in 2017-ish time frame, um, helped them raise their Series D financing and helped negotiate the Marriott Agreement, which was of its kind back in the day.
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Um And then I I stayed affiliated with the company in various capacities, looking at various things and and and the like.
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And you know, a series of events happened over the summer of 2024.
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And uh the board had originally brought me in way back when.
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So the board had asked me to um step into the CEO role and and and so I did.
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Um I I I learned very uh very quickly that uh yeah, CEO is uh not a part-time endeavor.
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Um getting comfortable with all the various terminology and and truly understanding where we fit in the ecosystem.
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It it took some time for sure.
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So organizing the teams and and the like that that took some time.
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I'm not sure that there's any one thing that as an investment banker you necessarily bring to the table.
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I hope what I bring to the table is an ability to listen and understand the finances, you know.
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As an investment banker, I was always blessed with uh always been able to work with insanely smart people.
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And the beautiful thing about working with smart people is that you don't actually have to come up with the answer.
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Very true.
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The question is that smart people come up with the answers.
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Um and if you can just get them there and get them to think through you know why they're doing what they're doing or what they want to accomplish, they they smart people get to the right answer.
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So it's uh I I've been very, very fortunate in in my career in that regard.
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Yeah, I just saw a TikTok about that.
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I can't remember who was saying it, but basically the same thing that it's like, you know, your role isn't to have all the answers.
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I mean, your role is to get the right people in the right room and you know, give them the power and the authority to to flush out these issues.
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I mean, you have the vision and you've cast that and then get the right people, and things just kind of start falling into place in an ideal world.
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Gratifying too.
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I mean, we've we've got such an amazing team at uh at the company.
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And to watch them grow professionally, I mean, there's a little bit of fatherly instinct in the sense of people develop and take ownership and solve problems.
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That it's really, you know, that's my dopamine rush, I guess.
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Um that's been that's been fun to watch.
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Yeah, and and I think from you know, my perspective of I've worked when I was at Condo World, we use BookingPal.
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In my consulting business, my clients have used BookingPal.
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And I think, you know, one thing that's really important in the channel management side is that you have a partner there that really is truly a partner and is going to help you when things are either too complex or you're not sure where to go to to get answers on something that's happening on a channel.
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And I know BookingPal team is is really strong at that.
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Um, I mean, Paula's amazing.
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She's solved many a many a mystery for me over the years.
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11-year anniversary.
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Yeah, 11th anniversary.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Wow, that's crazy.
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But I I think one question that property managers have sometimes is you know, if they use a PMS and the PMS is, you know, directly connected to three or four channels, what's the benefit of using Booking PAL, even still to get to those channels that they're already connected to?
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Or do you see it as it's just to get to the channels they're not disconnected to?
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Like what's the main value proposition for somebody as they're trying to understand, you know, how they get the best distribution?
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You know, I think it's a little of both.
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And and let me caveat that by saying we're not perfect.
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Uh, you know, these managing all these connections is is very tough.
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We've got a very talented team, but you know, as you guys know, the the the channels are always changing, they're always innovating, adding new features, and every PMS is is constructed differently, every uh property manager runs their business a little differently.
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And so getting it all mapped and working, and um I I joke with the team that uh while we may not be saving lives, we have this unique opportunity to completely screw up someone's vacation.
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Yeah, true.
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Yeah.
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What we've really, you know, the the team, Michelle and Race, and and all the client success team, they've just got their heads so wrapped around solving problems, whether it's you know, we're to blame or others, it doesn't matter.
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Like nobody cares that our software's not talking to one another properly to solve the problem so we don't screw up someone's magnetic and just get them to where they need to be and you know all all will be good and we can solve everything on the back end that might have gone awry.
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Yeah.
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Speaking of Paula, um, she's such an advocate, I mean, for all of her, all of her customers, I mean all of the partners that she works with, but she's so excited about the platform and she's like, you know, I always feel like she's the face of booking pal, like everybody knows Paula.
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Um, and she's always so excited whenever you guys do new, you know, do new enhancements or have new features and those type of things.
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So maybe tell us a little bit about now as people are going into season, maybe some of the new features that you guys have in place that managers can be utilizing better to have a good season.
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Yeah.
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So we made a lot of progress in 2025, but I think 2026 is going to be a much more seminal year as it really gets to a product and feature releases.
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But yeah, I mean, we some of the stuff we've launched, um, and and some of the other PMSs out there, and presumably other channel managers have some of this stuff, but you know, integrated messaging.
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So just a single place where you can get all your messaging and the like.
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I mean, and you know, we're getting pitched a lot on AI features and things of that nature.
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I think we're gonna be a little cautious on that.
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Um certainly temp response templates are good, um, but you know, without some amount of guidance and guardrails on AI, we're gonna be a little cautious on we'll we'll be a fast follower on that one, um, just because the messaging of the the guest is so important.
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We've got integrated reviews, so we're pulling in all the reviews from all the channels.
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We've we've deployed some of our own uh AI tools against those reviews to derive sentiment um and and try and you know present it in a way that can be you know both actionable for the property manager or potentially uh can be provided to the property owner, maybe delicately provided to the owner that they might consider uh you know addressing with with respect to some of the properties and like you know, we've got this it's it's not sexy, but we've got this thing we call the clarity report.
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And you know, we basically unpack all the taxes and fees because you know, where we sit, we pass taxes and fees to everybody.
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And the amount of hours these property managers have to go through to reconcile all the taxes and fees and everything.
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And you know, our Michelle, I think she does probably three, four dozen reconciliations a month for various clients, just to you know, across all the various channels.
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So we're we're trying to bring software tools to bear to make you know the property managers' lives a lot easier and uh wherever we can add value.
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Some of the stuff we'll be launching this year.
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We we will have a expect to be launching a uh a full advanced channel manager product.
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It'll have more features that start to look a little bit like uh a PMS.
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You know, admittedly, we stay much more on the revenue side than than we do on the ops side.
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So it'll it'll come with a mobile app, uh, it'll have some task management associated with it.
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We have our own revenue management tool that we've we've we've got in beta that uh you know seems to be pretty good.
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And uh yeah, I mean, just there's a bunch of bunch of things that we're uh we've we're completely rebuilding uh our MLT product.
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Uh should have it ready in a month or so.
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So we we hope to to really be a market leader with our MLT product.
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A lot of demand in that space.
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So you know, Alex, as you know from condo world days.
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Um so uh yeah, so we're just trying to listen to what ails property managers and where there are gaps in the market and see if we can we can add some value.
00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:31.519
That's great.
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And I mean, just what you described there, like do you I think there's been so much advancements in distribution and just in technology in our industry in general.
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But do you think that with all these advancements that we've made, is it making the tech better or is it just making things more complex?
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And not just for you.
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I'm just thinking like in generally, looking at the industry tech.
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Wow, that's a good question.
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It's probably both, I think.
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Um I think the tools are allowing people to innovate with more complex solutions, but the complexity requires you know critical thought and common sense.
00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:10.240
So, you know, I don't know.
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It's there's a lot to it.
00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:14.559
I mean, I revenue management's a really interesting one for me.
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I I just we have a lot of data.
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And there's lots of other companies out there that have a lot of data.
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If we hired a whole bunch of math and data scientists, we could come up with an insanely interesting, you know, revenue management tool uh and the like.
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But you know, at the end of the day, the the vast majority of of these property managers, you know, they're so busy delivering the hospitality side of the equation.
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Set it and forget it might be good enough.
00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:59.679
And it's not to say, you know, be cavalier about leaving a couple dollars on the table here or there, but I guess we'll focus a little bit more on the UIUX than in in that arena than you know the complexity that all these new tools can help us uh help us drive.
00:16:59.919 --> 00:17:02.240
So I don't know.
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I mean we're kind of evolving with the times.
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We're which is which is you add AI to the mix.
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I don't.
00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:09.359
Yeah.
00:17:09.759 --> 00:17:11.359
Yeah, which we've been talking about a lot lately.
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You add AI to the whole conversation and things are moving at such a rapid pace.
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Like on that, it's like, where do you, you know, where do you focus your attention?
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There's just so many different moving pieces and parts of it all.
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And it's interesting.
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My husband has been um riding kind of sideline to the business for a couple of years.
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He's been consulting with some people, but very specific discipline in it.
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So he hasn't been in the operational aspect of the business.
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And he just started working for with the manager and um he got in and started looking at all the systems that they had.
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It's not stuff that he'll have to touch, but ultimately it'll be part of what he does.
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And he was like, Do you realize how many pieces of software there are for the vacation rental business?
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I was like, Yes.
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Because when he was, you know, he was, you know, kind of got out of it pre-COVID.
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So he had he didn't get to be part of like this whole um explosion of technology that's there.
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He's like, it's just so much.
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There's like a login for everything.
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And it's so it's so crazy.
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So I think to your point, like managers are so busy with all the things that they have to do.
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It's like just the day, the data part of it is just one more layer of complexity and kind of chaos.
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And you just have to figure out like what's the what's, you know, what thing do you want to to, you know, what tasks do you want to touch first?
00:18:15.519 --> 00:18:28.799
Um, but I was curious for you guys from um BookingPal and working with partners, do you have a marketplace that offers connection to the various solutions like like some of these reven revenue management tools and data scrapers and that type of thing?
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Or are you just sourcing your own data to be able to let them feed it through to their PMS?
00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:34.400
It's interesting.
00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:37.119
We we we don't have a marketplace at this point.
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I do think that there will be a place for a marketplace for us over time in areas where it's important to the property manager, but we as a company don't add any value.
00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:53.359
Where we're trying to keep ourselves in is in the revenue side of the equation.
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Just drive revenue, grow the pie, make it easy, settle payments, you know, reconcile payments, just anything that touches revenue and bookings.
00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:07.279
We feel like we need to sort of control that part of the tech stack.
00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:33.200
And then anything that's either a bit more operationally focused, uh, there's a number of these companies that are marketplaces with respect to experiences, and you know, Lin's like Ashley's company in Haven, like we add no value other than helping those parties you know connect to property managers, you know, if and only if it also helps property managers.
00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:33.839
Right.
00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:40.880
And just to do it for the sake of doing it doesn't we actually probably add more complexity than than we solve.
00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:45.279
Um so but I do think that there will be a uh a spot for that.
00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:48.480
But I mean we already manage a lot of connections to address.
00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:49.839
Yeah, one more, yeah.
00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:51.599
You don't need one more for no reason, right?
00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:53.440
Yeah, yeah.
00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:56.240
I think people think I'm pretty crazy if we go there.
00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:03.440
What what would you say is the average number of channels that a like mid-sized property management company distributes to these days?
00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:05.519
It's gonna be a wide bell curve.
00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:10.160
Um well look, they all go to the top four, right?
00:20:10.799 --> 00:20:16.000
And then these branded channels, Marriott Hyatt, uh are gaining some real traction.
00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:33.839
We've got some some seasonal ones that that actually have a lot of traction, like you know, ski.com, uh link.com, things of that nature, ECBYO that you know they have some regional presence, um you know, OTAs and things of that nature.
00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:44.400
But you know, I I guess I'd say it's it's probably six on average, you know, the four majors plus a few others.
00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:59.599
Um probably put an asterisk to that because like you know, many of our clients they might have a PMS where they direct connect with the two or three, they direct and they connect with us for three or four or five.
00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:02.480
So, you know, it's a little bit of a mixed bag there.
00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:03.279
Mm-hmm.
00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:09.039
Yeah, that sounds about right, I'd say, for you know, most companies within that mid-range size.
00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:20.960
But um, were there any any channels last year or I mean still starting into 2026 that have really surprised you that have really come in and done more volume than you were thinking?
00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:22.240
Well, I don't know.
00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:29.680
I mean, Annie, you know, uh the folks at booking.com, they've really put their shoulder uh into embracing the industry.
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:38.559
For those in the guts of the network, they've been launching their modular API product, which has been a you know, a watershed event for them.
00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:46.400
They're the payments by booking like eliminated all the fraud, which was a problem that, you know, you know, it's hard to distance yourself from some of those things.
00:21:46.480 --> 00:21:50.160
And yet that was years ago, but it it's still top of people's mind.
00:21:50.240 --> 00:21:53.359
They've done a they've really put their shoulder into it.
00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:58.000
Um but you know, Airbnb is still a a very dominant channel.
00:21:58.160 --> 00:21:59.519
I mean, they just drive a lot of traffic.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:01.359
you know whether you like it or not.
00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:02.559
Yeah, I I I don't know.
00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:04.160
I'd like to see them all very competitive.
00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:08.400
It does appear to us that Expedia is putting their shoulder into 2026.
00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:10.480
So in compliment with Verbo.
00:22:10.880 --> 00:22:16.720
But you know some of these niche channels I I find the the luxury segment is super interesting.
00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:24.319
Um because there's all these folks like you know near Mainmond group he's got his own he's building his own you know for travel agents.
00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:24.720
Yeah.
00:22:25.039 --> 00:22:42.559
But he's also got a beautiful you know site State Terra and like all these luxury uh folks are are doing a really nice job of being sort of this hybrid you know property manager with a beautiful channel and they have to supplement with other people's inventory.
00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:48.319
I mean I mean you you probably have more visibility than I do.
00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:52.960
I mean doesn't it seem like the lines are blurring a lot?
00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:54.559
Oh for sure.
00:22:54.720 --> 00:23:06.160
Yeah I think I think that's just you know the the nature of the whole book direct movement and that just can't get off the ground because not everybody has got a book direct strategy.
00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:12.160
So it's like how can you pull away from the channels that are dominating and and really kind of spread it around.
00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:14.799
I think I feel like that's what's happening is it's just being spread around.
00:23:14.880 --> 00:23:31.440
But the the luxury space is super interesting because it's just like it seems to be the one you know we're in I think they're talking about like you know we're in a K economy where it's just like the luxury is just going higher and higher and higher and the people the rich are getting richer and like everybody else is, you know, the rest of us are sort of stuck in this like moderate place.
00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:46.640
And I think that's what the channels are doing too is they're recognizing that that luxury space is kind of where you know if you've got that inventory those people are going to book and they're going to be high volume and they can put that money back into developing these really beautiful sites and you know beautiful experiences for people.
00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:54.559
You know as you know we we manage the American Express the Kitchener Mental platform and with that partnership with them.
00:23:54.720 --> 00:24:05.680
And you know I think whether it's American Express or any of the other luxury segments they're they're they're sort of forcing the professionalism of the industry and dragging everybody up with them.
00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:16.240
Yeah but like even I mean you had the last your last episode with courses I found fascinating because it's you know akin to business model is akin to evolve.
00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:26.160
Yeah I find fascinating because on the one hand they're property managers and yet it's really a software delivered uh solution.
00:24:26.319 --> 00:24:29.599
So where does their service end and a PMS start?
00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:32.799
Or where does a PMS end and their service starts?
00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:39.119
I I think it's a lot of these lines are blurring quite significantly yeah that's a really good point.
00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:40.079
Really good point.
00:24:40.319 --> 00:24:46.720
But I from our standpoint, right, as soon as you dip your toe into the hospitality bucket that's just different.
00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:48.480
It's just a different discipline.
00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:52.960
I mean that's the part where the property managers hats off to them.
00:24:53.119 --> 00:24:58.319
I mean that the hospitality piece the delivery piece is so hard.
00:24:58.720 --> 00:25:13.680
So we can just if we if our solution can help them save one, two, three hours a day or five hours a week so they can invest more time in the hospitality piece, the services piece, um that's a win I think.
00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:17.440
We'll be back in just a minute but first a word from our premier brand sponsor.
00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:22.319
My name is Alison and I own Bailey Vacation Rentals in Southern Maine with my mom.
00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:28.079
We have been business for a little over seven years and we have been using Hostly for a little over four years.
00:25:28.400 --> 00:25:33.599
Before using Hostly some challenges that we faced was a lack of synchronization.
00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:41.839
Channel distribution was a big one for us in making the switch as well and the support that we felt from the other property management software.
00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:51.519
When we were comparing options what really made Hostly stand out is we felt that they had a true passion for the industry and for the customer.
00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:57.839
It was everything that I was looking for just served to me almost on a silver platter.
00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:05.119
So when I was making another property management switch it was almost instantaneous for me to know that Hostly was connected for us.
00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:11.519
Some features that are game changers for me with using Hostly is their guidebooks.
00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:12.640
They're incredible.
00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:21.200
We also needed to connect to our website which shows our area guide, the pipeline, how we use our guest communication, right?
00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:27.039
And how we can see where the stages of development are at and the unified inbox is extremely helpful for us.
00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:30.319
My most favorite piece is really the channel distribution.
00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:38.319
It was easy for us and that really allowed us to up our network and up our online presence and be able to compete.
00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:57.440
Mostly it's allowed us to be operationally sound because it has made our life easier it actually allowed us to continue to seek more homeowners or to seek new guest experiences or expand on the business itself more than being in the trenches.
00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:09.359
Mostly it's improved our guest communication through being able to set our tablets triggers, put it in there, check what you mean and there it is there's no guessing.
00:27:09.599 --> 00:27:15.119
I would describe the support receiver hopefully as extremely informative.
00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:21.519
And I felt as though that we were really set up for that there wasn't much that was left for question.
00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:30.160
There wasn't things that we had to figure out everything was extremely black and white and so that we made that adjustment is very natural for us.
00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:37.039
I would absolutely recommend hostly to others I always recommend hostly to others because they're always continuing to grow.
00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:48.240
They care about their customers they're expanding out their knowledge they're giving us more tools they're expanding out their channels, their distribution it's just a continuous level up.
00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:54.880
It's a team for them and it's a team for us and you can feel that throughout the entire start to finish process.
00:27:55.279 --> 00:27:59.200
Looking for a smarter way to manage your short-term rental operations?
00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:03.759
Get started with hostfully and bring everything into one streamlined platform.
00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:10.000
Alex and Annie listeners get free onboarding when you mention you heard about hostfully from the Alex and Annie podcast.
00:28:10.160 --> 00:28:12.400
Click the link in the description to get started today.
00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:33.599
You touched on um what Nier's doing with the travel agents and we're hearing you know more people start to talk about that especially with you know the larger luxury type of portfolios but you know I think travel agents certainly play you know still in the age of everything digital and AI I think they still play an important role in the ecosystem there.
00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:39.599
But are there any other like travel agent type uh distribution channels that you guys work with?
00:28:39.920 --> 00:29:08.960
Other than AI other than other than AI Mr Chat GPT an analogy I saw in my investment banking days I took Netflix public um and when Netflix was coming out set again setting aside what people thought they were going to go out of business and Blockbuster kill them but the the bigger fear was that it was going to decimate broadcasts and teeth and theaters and you name it, right?
00:29:09.039 --> 00:29:10.799
And streaming was going to do that.
00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:14.079
And what we found is that it grew the pie.
00:29:15.119 --> 00:29:21.279
So people just consumed more and more and more content because they made it more convenient to consume content.
00:29:21.519 --> 00:29:36.079
I think what we're seeing in vacation model is that we're making it more convenient for guests to stay at these houses and condos and and really unique have unique experiences.
00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:47.839
And we're getting better at providing the tools to those parties that are interfacing with the guests and and that those parties could be a travel agent it could be a search engine to Google public.
00:29:48.160 --> 00:30:01.200
But I mean I don't mean to dismiss what's happening in the world of AI but it's just next gen search right I mean powerful mind you but that's where the discovery process starts with frankly all travelers.
00:30:01.359 --> 00:30:05.200
So I I just I think it's I think it's just going to grow the pie.
00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:07.119
It certainly levels the playing field.
00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:23.680
I think that's one of the conversations we've been having for property managers that maybe don't have the marketing dollar but if they can put their focus and their on their content so they can at least be found, you know, they're they have the ability to compete on a level that they they haven't been able to before.
00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:43.200
But I was curious from your perspective having taken companies public, do you have any thoughts on why this industry hasn't been able to have an entity whether it be technology or you know Vicasa obviously is the is the one outside of the channels that can go public and be successful at?
00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:55.599
Is is there some like recipe within going public that that may that the people are missing right now that maybe a technology partner that's thinking they want to go public needs to have okay big question.
00:30:57.680 --> 00:31:31.440
So I mean obviously the yeah the elephant in the room is Picasa right and what happened property management as best I can tell not never having been a property manager it's a hard business it's hard you've got you know you have to attend to the guest experience you've got permanent part-time workers that are you know helping you return units and facilitate you know questions and cookings you know and and the like it it's hard and it's never necessarily been a a high margin business.
00:31:31.599 --> 00:31:35.200
It could be a very nice business but it's never been very high margin.
00:31:35.279 --> 00:31:53.519
And so um how do you think about service delivery hospitality and what those margins are sustainably um I think Picasa attempted to position themselves as a tech enabled platform but I mean Annie you worked in Marriott right I mean Marriott they don't own any of their hotels anymore.
00:31:53.599 --> 00:32:14.720
They're just a property manager right why have they been able to sustain because the business models built on scale and they've got a brand and a sustainable brand um Focuswire today said there was a the major OTA spent like something or gauge on someone advertising last year like 25 billion or something.
00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:44.160
So then the other side of the equation then would be the the the folks like ourselves with the guests and the tracks and streamlines and others of the world boom and like um you know we're we're software companies uh at our core this is probably a market for for software companies but you know the industry is is relatively small compared to hotels and all the software providers that that have grown up through the years to serve the hotel segment.
00:32:44.319 --> 00:32:47.279
So you know I I think that there's a scale issue.
00:32:47.440 --> 00:32:49.519
And then the the public markets have changed.
00:32:49.680 --> 00:33:21.440
It used to be you could go public as a three, four, five hundred million dollar valued company today it's a billion or more to get to those valuations uh you need a rather significant uh you know significant footprint um and then I I would say the other thing is is that it's it's incredibly fragmented um there's just a lot of very small point solutions and other smaller team masses that have grown up nicely through the years but may not have the same philosophy.
00:33:21.599 --> 00:33:26.000
So it's a little bit of scale and a little bit of you know total addressable market.
00:33:27.119 --> 00:33:33.519
And then also the the public markets are just running away from now you've got to be a billion or two billion or five billion or ten billion.
00:33:33.599 --> 00:33:34.400
It's hard to catch up.
00:33:35.359 --> 00:33:35.680
Yeah.
00:33:35.920 --> 00:33:46.319
Well what do you think I mean as far as like consolidation within the tech I mean I remember years ago Simon Lehman said to us at one of the conferences he said look around the vendor hall like this was like right after COVID.
00:33:46.480 --> 00:33:51.200
He was like in the next year or two a lot of these companies that you see won't be here.
00:33:51.359 --> 00:33:58.240
And and he was right to one extent that a lot of them did go away but in their place many more have formed.
00:33:58.319 --> 00:34:03.680
So it's like there's it's there's such an overwhelming choice of options for property managers.
00:34:03.839 --> 00:34:08.480
But I haven't really heard a whole lot of consolidation on the tech side in the last year really.
00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:09.920
I mean what do you think is the future there?
00:34:10.079 --> 00:34:13.519
Do you think companies are going to come together they're gonna buy each other out merge?
00:34:13.599 --> 00:34:14.559
Like what do what do you think?
00:34:14.880 --> 00:34:39.920
Uh yeah I think there's gonna be a lot of consolidation actually and it's for better for worse it's likely to be forced on some companies um and there's going to be rationalization too of of the point solutions I think um part of it is AI is is makes it so easy to build new features versus having somebody who's who's got a unique you know solution.
00:34:40.079 --> 00:34:46.159
I mean the the the larger PMSs are being very aggressive and very predatory they're very big.
00:34:46.800 --> 00:35:10.880
And you know at the end of the day if it's the the actual supply and and number of property managers out there aren't growing what they're really doing is taking share and taking like and more often than not taking share from lesser capitalized companies and and the like I think some of that's going to happen and then some of these point solutions that you know it's very expensive to land a a property manager directly.
00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:34.000
So you got to connect with someone like ourselves and or some other you know like a gueste you had to connect through them and and all of a sudden your economics are you know compromised a little bit and so again now you really got to get to scale so I I do think that there'll be a you know a little bit of musical chairs where people have to sort out where they go who they align themselves with and and and sustain themselves.
00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:39.119
The good news is that they're all staffed with really smart people.
00:35:39.760 --> 00:35:43.440
It's just putting those smart people into positions where they can succeed.
00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:50.960
Yeah that's one thing our industry is not lacking incredibly intelligent people that's what that's why all this innovation has been happening.
00:35:51.119 --> 00:35:56.639
It's so fascinating to think about where we were pre-COVID and and where we are now.
00:35:56.800 --> 00:36:06.239
I mean it it really you know I know that that that seems to be like the benchmark that everybody looks at is like where were we in the where we were and where we are but that was just a few years ago.
00:36:06.400 --> 00:36:07.760
I mean it really wasn't that long ago.
00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:24.239
I mean I've been in this business since the late 90s so I think about what we had then I mean it's just like light years but it it just it what we were able to accomplish in such a short amount of time for this industry is just it's really incredible, especially when you compare it to the hotel business.
00:36:24.320 --> 00:36:33.840
I mean the hotel business you look at some you know legacy hotel companies are still running on their same software for their PMS that they've been running on since you know the 80s which is crazy.
00:36:34.400 --> 00:36:39.039
So we have a really really incredible business that we're in which makes it a lot of fun.
00:36:39.920 --> 00:36:48.400
So you know I for you um what has been what has been the most fun for you to learn and as you've been kind of transitioning into the full CEO role.
00:36:48.639 --> 00:36:59.119
Well I I mentioned that the the team watching them grow and develop that's that's been the I wouldn't have guessed it um you know going in that that's been super fun and super interesting.
00:36:59.360 --> 00:37:11.119
Um I don't know I the the product innovation I mean I just I I just wish people could see the beautiful work that the team is doing.
00:37:12.719 --> 00:37:28.239
They've got a good North Star to serve our clients well and it sometimes we get these really wonderful compliments I I'll see someone at a conference I'll say well how are we doing for you and they scratch their head and they say haven't heard of any problems lately.
00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:30.400
Which is a good thing.
00:37:31.280 --> 00:37:53.199
That's good yeah no other problem so you know maybe I should take comfort in that but uh but yeah I don't know it's uh the the product development's been fun and and just understanding the landscape has been has been super interesting uh to me it's again it it it's a neat business that's for sure that is absolutely for sure so where are we gonna see your team this year?
00:37:53.360 --> 00:37:58.079
Do you have any are like what shows you're gonna be at um are you doing any roadshows or anything like that?
00:37:58.400 --> 00:38:10.719
The ones we always uh tend to go to would will be the executive summit if they have us and then uh the women's summit we've got a pretty good contingent there VR May and DARM those are kind of the big four from our standpoint.
00:38:10.960 --> 00:38:43.599
We had a nice uh time with the team had a good time with down at uh expo vr RD excuse me oh in Cancun yeah yeah so I mean our the majority of our our client success team is is actually based in Mexico so yeah that's right yeah race is down there right so they're in Tijuana is that correct Tijuana she's saying she's San Diego now but yeah oh okay okay yeah yeah they're kind of spread across but they're boy do we have a good team I mean they're just hungry and smart and kind and just it's that that that's kind of fun.
00:38:43.760 --> 00:38:59.920
Um you know we're we're trying to figure out what our kind of broader Europe slash APAC strategy is going to be I you know I think if we once we launch this MLT product it'll open up a lot of market opportunity for us.
00:39:00.400 --> 00:39:01.840
So that could be interesting.
00:39:05.599 --> 00:39:22.800
One of the Phoenix road shows yesterday and like I guess I didn't quite get the joke but I I thought it was a they were giving me sort of this free invite in order to get us to become a sponsor or something and they're like no you only come if you're a sponsor.
00:39:22.960 --> 00:40:15.599
I said they accommodated me they're very kind but uh uh then I realized oh whoa there are real sponsors paying real money for this that's funny so I I kind of I I stayed to lunch and I sort of plugged well yeah how was the event actually I'm curious because we we've uh we haven't been able to make any of those roadshows yet but how was it you know it it's it's actually interesting it's a you know it's it's not one of these major you know conferences where hundreds of people go to but uh yeah you know I tell you they did a nice job on the advocacy front there was a track on advocacy because there's a I guess the uh Arizona um responsible tourism board um supposedly does a nice job and there's others that are in other regions are trying to leverage their learnings and things of that nature.
00:40:15.679 --> 00:40:17.760
I thought that was a very interesting track.
00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:30.159
Yeah I mean it's just they have all the the various tracks you would you know hope there was an AI track and there was a you know how to how to deal with you know uh in onboarding a new PMS track.
00:40:30.559 --> 00:40:44.480
Yeah always a good one um yeah no it's it's such a everyone's so kind it's this it's a nice industry everyone's yeah they want to yeah well that's that's that's good.
00:40:44.559 --> 00:41:02.800
I like your uh I like your plan there just drop in please that's a point just play dumb and show up to all the shows and see what you can do right I don't know what do you mean bank or like if if Goldman Sachs was having a conference I can get a hotel across the street.
00:41:03.920 --> 00:41:04.480
There you go.
00:41:06.960 --> 00:41:07.760
I love it.
00:41:08.079 --> 00:41:20.320
Well thank you for coming on today Blake it was fun to get to learn a little bit more about um you and also just your perspective on things and uh we're very appreciative that BookingPal has come on as a partner and sponsor of the show.
00:41:20.480 --> 00:41:28.719
So in the upcoming episodes uh we'll get to hear from some of your clients and get to hear their the best things that you've been able to do for them.
00:41:28.800 --> 00:41:30.239
And so we're excited about that.
00:41:30.400 --> 00:41:36.480
But um if anybody wants to reach out what's the best way for them to get in touch with you and learn more about BookingPal?
00:41:36.719 --> 00:41:39.519
Probably Blake at bookingpal.com is the easiest.
00:41:39.760 --> 00:41:42.239
I guess LinkedIn also works but that one's pretty simple.
00:41:42.480 --> 00:41:42.719
Great.
00:41:43.360 --> 00:41:45.679
And Alex I want to know did you get a horse yet?
00:41:46.000 --> 00:41:54.320
I did yes yeah I did yeah um that's funny we haven't even really broke that news yet but uh we're doing it now.
00:41:54.480 --> 00:42:19.760
So yeah I I bought a horse uh not the day that we filmed that one episode but uh probably a few weeks after and his name is Chapstick and he's amazing and we go up there just about he's in North Carolina so we're going up every other weekend to see him and I'm getting back in the mix of things of relearning all the things and uh you know some new some new ones too but it's been a really a lot of fun so far.
00:42:19.920 --> 00:42:21.440
Thank you for asking about it.
00:42:21.760 --> 00:42:32.639
Well I can't I can't thank the two of you enough you're so kind to have us and you're just such good advocates and spokespeople for the industry and there's you're just you're the best so thank you.
00:42:33.199 --> 00:42:35.440
Thank you for doing that very much very very much.
00:42:35.679 --> 00:42:40.639
If anybody wants to get in touch with Annie and I you can go to alex and anniepodcast dot com.
00:42:40.880 --> 00:42:42.960
Until next time thanks everybody
