Short Stay Podcast

In this episode we chat with Humphrey Bowles who alongside Andrew Boldt founded GUARDHOG in 2017. GUARDHOG specialises in flexible, on-demand cover to take the uncertainty out of sharing your home, assets and skills. Take a listen to the podcast as our host Elaine Watt talks about the importance of insurance in the incredible growth of short stay and its impact for property owners and managers. 

It's the final pod of our session with Booking.com's Alessandro and in this third part we talk about the future aims of booking.com and its role in the industry in helping shape the future of short stay.  Despite welcoming 750 million guest arrivals since 2007 Alessandro views the industry as being on page one of a book with an exciting future.  Elaine and Alessandro talk about the new tools and features which property owners, managers and investors can use to deliver the best possible customer experiences and how Booking.com are adding value and knowledge to their partners in helping turn lookers into bookers.  Episode links -  Get started on Booking.com, get listed and become a partner - join.booking.com  Find out new partner tools and innovations for your short stay accommodation - partner.booking.com/propertymanagers

The Short Stay team are big fans of Sykes Cottage's big cheese - Graham Donoghue and this episode is value-packed with hints, tips and insights for property managers, owners, investors and short stay specialists spanning holiday homes and premium urban lets.  Graham has some pretty heavy duty digital and data experience prior to joining Sykes Cottages just over three years ago having spent a number of years at leading price comparison group MoneySuperMarket. In that time he has transformed Sykes with stunning growth driven by insight, metrics and performance reviews to ensure that guests keep coming back and property owners are fully booked.  In this episode Elaine and Graham discuss overlooking the basics like cleaning, the impact of hot tubs, wifi and pets on booking decisions 

We talk about the reason behind Channel Managers for property owners and managers in the short stay space as we catch up with Vanessa de Souza Lage from Rentals United - one of the leading technology providers in the space.  Elaine and Vanessa cover a lot of ground and discuss how the technology works and the best approach to take when it comes to channel managers.  Vanessa tells the story of Rentals United from the beginning when three rental agencies decided to come together to solve a problem. 

It is part two and in this episode Alessandro Pacilio, Global Product Marketing Manager, Booking.com talks to Elaine about the features of the platform and how it started in short stay and alternative accommodation nineteen years ago. Understanding the Booking.com platform helps property owners and managers perform better and secure more bookings for their businesses. Alessandrotalks about how Booking.com is helping short stay businesses of all sizes from homeowners to professional property managers with enhanced levels of service, care and support. Elaine and Alessandro also talk about protection for short stay businesses against fraudulent payments and how the Booking.com ratings and reviews are actually calculated.

In this episode we are joined by Alessandro who is Global Product Marketing Manager for Booking.com podcast host Elaine and Alessandro talk about his route into the short stay industry and his role within Booking.com.  They also talk about tips, trends and insight about how property owners, managers and investors can deliver the best experience for guests and travellers. 

Catherine and Jack take us through the Stasher story which started in 2015  Stasher is the world's first luggage storage network connecting guests with hotels and stores that can keep luggage safe while they enjoy their time in a city.  This episode covers a lot of ground in the start up story and give some great insight including their insurance policy which doesn't get used much and the success of the oft avoided cold sales call which snared them a deal with Premier Inn and Accor. 

Henry talks through the story of guest management platform YourWelcome and how it came to be through his own experiences of being a property owner renting out to guests.  In this episode Henry and Elaine discuss the value and opportunity of using digital guest service like YourWelcome to enhance your property and give you guests' the best possible experience.  It helps with communications, supplementary booking opportunities and allowing owners to to handle data in a responsible and GDPR compliant way.  Discover the emerging world of service in the short stay industry. 

Louise heads up one of our founder partners in the form of Pikl Insurance which offers specialist insurance for the property owners, managers and investors in the short stay industry.  In this episode Louise and Elaine talk about why property owners and managers need specialist insurance and how not being adequately covered can ruin businesses and properties.  This is a great story of a new emerging start up at the heart of the UK industry as it grows into one of the dominant hospitality sectors.