Who remembers the good times, or was that just how it appeared? Since then the industry has, morphed, been under attack and will not doubt soon see an explosion of specialist short term rental psychiatrists! The following is an early 1999 snapshot of ownersdirect.co.uk. A popular website where owners could advertise their rental and get enquiries. Charging £100 for an advert was considered quite expensive in those days.  Personally one advert would generate about 8-10 bookings per year and an equal number from a small local website!  For owners this was great. Even as a manager (who ..read more

Our bi-monthly industry newsletter has been shortened substantially as we let the dust settle. At Rentivo we have been looking after clients and taken the view that there is a solid VR future and this is now a good time to plan and help the industry build a more robust approach. As anybody who knows us will realise, customer support, collaboration and a long view is important. It is a very uncertain future still for all, so just a few lines and links that will help plan, all free:) Margin – Lifeblood of any business If your business has no balance sheet or personal buffer then read our comment ..read more

Stay Safe, Crisis Management and Plan We have held off publishing our normal bi-monthly newsletter, due to Coronavirus and this fast-moving global crisis. As a rental technology company, we are seeing the business crisis in real-time across Asia and Europe. We are so sorry to see the effect that this virus has had on both urban short term rentals and traditional vacation rentals and wish all clients and non-clients the very best in this incredibly tough period. Free Online Conference Event March 25th – 1PM EST / 6PM CET / 5PM GMT More details about the sessions here:  https://www.re ..read more

Welcome to our first 2020 bi-monthly newsletter, that replaced the weekly “Smarthosts” newsletter.  This new series of newsletters keeps our industry partners updated regularly and hopefully provides a macro view of the trends, some deep dives into companies or sectors of interest. Please note this newsletter was written a week ago and is already out of date with respect to the detail on Coronavirus. What’s happened this year so far! To say it’s been a roller coaster would be an understatement and much is shown in the trends section below. So much has been written on the first topic so be ..read more

Welcome to our Autumn newsletter, that replaced the weekly “Smarthosts” newsletter.  This new series of newsletters keeps our industry partners updated regularly and hopefully provides a macro view of the trends, some deep dives into companies or sectors of interest. Our comments are in Italics! What’s happened this Autumn? OYO, which admittedly is better known for hotels, saw more investment news with a new $1.5bn round A significant amount of speculation how this will wash out in their large rental portfolio acquired through @Leisure. So much press and speculation on a rapid scaling, bu ..read more

Instead of the usual format, we decided to focus on the major influence that affects us all and has recently seen a lot of news and announcements. With August always crazy and September bringing fresh air, we have covered recent announcements that are focussed on what the next year holds as this is the time to plan. Big money continues to hit the market! Many businesses have a tendency to grow in sprints, from a plateau to plateau, often based on funding times. The Short Term Rental world is no different, however recently we are witnessing sprints of unparalleled speed and performance within t ..read more

Welcome to our July newsletter, that replaced the weekly “Smarthosts” newsletter.  This new series of newsletters keeps our industry partners updated regularly and hopefully provides a macro view of the trends, some deep dives into companies or sectors of interest. Keeping it Short for Summer We are fighting to keep this newsletter short. We know that the summer is not the time when managers typically have time to relax. Guests are arriving in droves, managers are continuously firefighting and everyone but the support businesses are there to enjoy themselves. Add to that the most recent E ..read more

Welcome to our June newsletter, that replaced the weekly “Smarthosts” newsletter.  This new series of newsletters keeps our industry partners updated regularly and hopefully provides a macro view of the trends, some deep dives into companies or sectors of interest. Keeping it Short for Summer We are fighting to keep this newsletter short. We know that the summer is not the time when managers typically have time to relax. Guests are arriving in droves, managers are continuously firefighting and everyone but the support businesses are there to enjoy themselves. Add to that the current EU he ..read more

Welcome to our May newsletter, that replaced the weekly “Smarthosts” newsletter.  This new series of newsletters keeps our industry partners updated regularly and hopefully provides a macro view of the trends, some deep dives into companies or sectors of interest. What’s happened in May? Marriott’s move! The Marriott hotel chain which has been circling the sector for some time has now announced its entry to the market. We were never convinced by the Accor -OFS acquisition and Hyatt didn’t do too well with their foray into the VR space. The Marriott move is well thought out to a certain ex ..read more

It’s Showtime! We want to demonstrate how it’s done, and we are going live! As a software company with ex-managers and property owners at the company helm, our goal has always been to provide tools to managers that would align with their business model. This is quite the opposite of many software providers that only work if the business changes its model to fit the software product that has been developed. The problem is that every business is slightly different which means that there are thousands of edge cases that frustrate both managers and software companies alike. However, we have been ..read more