9.25.2024
David Angotti, a serial entrepreneur with successful exits in both EdTech and the travel tech sector, brings a wealth of experience to Guesty, a leading property management software platform for the short-term rental (STR) industry — and which earlier this year closed a whopping $130 million funding round. As an ambassador and leader for Guesty, Angotti has a front-row seat to the rapid evolution of this dynamic market. The STR industry, currently valued at $277 billion, has witnessed a surge in demand, outpacing traditional hotels in recent years. This growth has been fueled by changing traveler preferences, increased investment, and the emergence of new technologies that are transforming the way property managers operate and interact with guests.
In this Spotlight Interview, Angotti delves into the challenges faced by property managers in today’s STR landscape, highlighting the crucial role of technology in navigating a market characterized by explosive growth, increased competition, and ever-evolving guest expectations. He reflects on the dramatic changes he’s witnessed since entering the industry nearly fifteen years ago, noting the shift from a niche market dominated by small businesses to a mainstream lodging option driven by platforms like Airbnb and fueled by rapid technological advancements.
The STR market has exploded in recent years. What are the most significant changes you’ve witnessed, and how have they impacted property managers?
In a nutshell, the industry has seen explosive growth, additional inventory, expanded investment, increasing consolidation, and technology driving innovation at dizzying speeds.
When I entered the industry in 2010, the industry was primarily small businesses and the majority of travelers had never stayed in a short-term rental – it was a niche lodging solution. A few years later, Airbnb and online booking helped the sector gain market share quickly and drove mainstream attention.
Due to the increased attention and revenues, investors poured into the space and new technology was developed at dizzying speeds. Most property managers agreed that a solid property management software was an absolute must, but there was lively debate about online bookings, dynamic pricing, connected home software, task management solutions, and high-tech distribution of properties to drive bookings. Ultimately, each of these were needed to compete in the newly defined market.
Small businesses grappled with the decision to sell or adjust to the rapidly changing market dynamics. Technology was no longer an option – it was required to compete. To make matters even more complex, Covid-19 drove the demand curve to new levels and challenged property managers in new ways.
How does Guesty’s platform specifically address the challenges faced by property managers in today’s dynamic STR market?
The rapid evolution of the short-term rental market requires a technology partner that has the right vision, funding, and team. With over a decade of experience and the most talented team in the property management software space, we can leverage our internal resources of hundreds of skilled engineers, developers, and product managers to deliver real results for property managers.
Practically speaking, the evidence of the above statement is acquisitions, team additions, best-in-class, marketing connections, and rapid product iterations. Whether you want more bookings from Airbnb or need better contactless arrival solution, we have you covered.
The Guesty marketplace is another way that we deliver results in a practical way. In the same way that an iPhone user has the ability to access the app store for a plethora of solutions, a Guesty user can leverage our Marketplace to quickly implement new technology solutions without the usual hurdles. We have over 100 reputable companies in our marketplace and we even include competing products to ensure our users’ needs are fully addressed! Ultimately, this is about completely solving the challenges a property manager faces in their daily operations and we are agnostic to who profits off the solutions.
Guesty emphasizes its AI-powered capabilities, particularly with ReplyAI and PriceOptimizer. Can you elaborate on how these tools leverage AI to benefit property managers?
AI is a force amplifier for our property managers. This solution meets the property manager at the intersection of two primary challenges – profitability and guest experience.
Imagine, you and your team are now able to effortlessly respond to a guest or potential guest in a personalized and professional way that matches company tone. This is exactly what ReplyAI can do 98% of the time. This scalable solution analyzes sentiment and crafts the perfect response for the staff to approve. Since it is natively embedded into the Guesty Inbox, the team will see efficiencies and won’t need additional training.
For property managers, one of the most critical and most time consuming tasks is pricing – the bar is perfection or lost revenue. If you price the unit slightly too high, occupancy will plummet. If you are too aggressive on price, you miss out on revenue and will lose homeowner confidence. Using a combination of proprietary and publicly available data, PriceOptimizer provides full market visibility and creates an executable and actionable pricing plan that produces maximum revenue for our stakeholders.
How does Guesty’s technology adapt to the unique needs of different property types and rental scales, from individual hosts to large management companies?
While the needs of an individual property owner, small business, and large enterprise may have some crossover, they are fundamentally different. Unfortunately, too many property management software companies try to become a one-size-fits-all solution and don’t have the scale to properly service each type of customer.
Guesty through a combination of responsible growth and select acquisitions is uniquely positioned with products that are just as unique as the customers.
Guesty Lite, which targets hosts and homeowners with 1-3 properties, uniquely leverages Guesty’s technology, but in a way that the less sophisticated user with fewer properties can maximize. Guesty Pro is perfect for the majority of businesses – that platform is specifically designed to scale up to 200 listings and deliver meaningful results for the bulk of the market today. Finally, Guesty Enterprise is a software that is laser-focused on the 200+ segment of the audience that may need a fully customizable solution.
With a team of nearly 1,000 employees, we are able to fully support and develop all three product lines in parallel. This equates to winning solutions for a homeowner with one property, an enterprise that is responsible for 20,00 properties, and everything in between.
What emerging technologies do you believe will have the most significant impact on the STR industry in the next 3-5 years?
In the next few years, AI is going to change the technology landscape on the whole and travel technology is predestined to be an early adopter. We will see hyper-focused, AI-powered booking experiences that answer questions and help match travelers with the perfect property, flight, and experiences. Once the traveling party arrives at the destination, there will be technology-powered solutions that help with check-in, maintenance issues, reservations, and even complaints. These solutions will not necessarily replace human employees, but will drive better experiences and efficiencies for both staff and guests.