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Ask Google or ChatGPT for the best software to run short-term rental business.
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And you'll see the same handful of names every time.
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But here is the problem.
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These results often reveal who has the biggest marketing budget, not which tool is actually the best fit for your business.
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There are now more than a thousand technology providers in the short-term rental industry.
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Yet most operators only ever see a tiny fraction of the market.
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My guest today, Gernot Techner, built the most comprehensive living map of the STR technology ecosystem.
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In this episode, we uncover why the industry is still navigating in the dark, how much money operators waste on overlapping tools, and what the future of the STR Tech Stack will actually attract.
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Before we begin, a quick thank you to Breezeway for supporting STR Global.
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Breezeway helps short-term rental operators streamline property care, inspections, and operational workflows to deliver safer, higher quality guest experiences.
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We appreciate their support in advancing operational excellence across the short-term rental industry.
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Welcome to another episode of STR Global Unlocked, the podcast where we speak with the founders, CEOs, and investors shaping the future of hospitality, travel, and living.
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I'm your host, Simon Lehman, and if you are getting value from these conversations, subscribe on YouTube or follow on Spotify or Apple Podcast.
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It helps the show and the entire industry.
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One word of full disclosure before we start.
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My guest and I go back years.
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He worked alongside me, and this grew out of the original SDR landscape.
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We published together.
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So I am not a neutral observer here.
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I would rather say that plainly.
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I'm also going to put the hard question to him because a map like this only matters if the market trusts that it is independent.
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A bit of my guest, Gernhard Zechner, coming from Booking.com, spent six years working alongside with us at AGL.
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Dozens of short-term rental businesses, corporate consulting.
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So he has seen more of these industries plumbing than almost anyone.
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He has taken all of that, built the SDR market map, the most complete and genuinely living picture of the SDR technology market that exists.
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Gurnot, it's such a great pleasure to have you here.
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And who would have thought you and I are ending up on our podcast?
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Yeah, indeed.
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Thank you for having me.
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It's a great pleasure.
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We have so much to cover.
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Hopefully, we're not running out of time, Gurnot.
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But uh before we do that, we do a rapid fire together.
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Are you ready for this?
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Yeah, sure.
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Awesome.
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Keep it short.
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A few quick ones before we go deep.
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What is the one number you wish you had watched earlier?
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Number of providers in this industry.
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Far bigger than what you thought.
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What should an operator at 50 units stop doing immediately?
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That's an easy one.
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Stop looking at the top 10 lists.
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The last tool you killed, and why?
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Um I think Excel and Word.
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I haven't used it for a long time.
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And uh yeah, it's everything.
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Differently.
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No.
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No, I I don't have plans to open it up again if I don't have to.
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One decision that felt small and turned out to be everything for the map right now.
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Um, stop outsourcing.
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So build everything in-house, build everything everything myself.
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A couple of people are helping me on the edges, but uh the all the whole core is built completely by myself, and this was the best decision ever.
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Amazing.
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And we talk about that journey, I'm sure.
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Uh incredible feedback.
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Last one, finish this sentence.
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Most operators think they have a growth problem, but they actually have a I think a building building systems problem.
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That's I think the the most one.
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And maybe also a positioning problem.
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That's the the other one.
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Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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That resonates very strong.
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So having a system problem, a process problem, uh as well, while they're growing, uh, and there's massive challenges.
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So let's jump into this.
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Why you built this?
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You tried to build this about a year ago and it and it collapsed on itself.
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The AI was not strong enough, and you just alluded to that.
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Then you built the whole thing in roughly four months.
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So, what changed?
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And maybe you want to start at where this whole thing originated on a PDF as well.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Well, it uh the whole the core idea uh that we developed and together, right, um, originated a couple of years back.
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But even before that, there were a couple of things that that were crazy to me when I was at uh booking.com and working with the industry, mostly at the hotel tech industry at that time.
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And I was so surprised that nobody could really tell us how many companies are out there.
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And this was the hotel industry, way more, you know, it's the light has already switched on if you if I use your analogy from before.
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And still people had no idea how many companies are out there.
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And this is where I started to track together with a colleague, I started to track all the companies out there because at that time we builded a uh what was it, a booking.com booking suite marketplace.
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That's right, marketplace, right?
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Yep, and then this whole thing died, and you know nobody talked about it anymore.
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And then when I joined you and we had a couple of discussions when we were when you were still um drinking wine, actually, and then we talked about the industry and that it's so fragmented, and nobody really understands how many companies there are in this in this vertical, in that vertical.
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And the numbers that that we had at that time were like 200, 300 companies, right?
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And even if you look at other there are indexes out there right now that uh that compare like from a boat and from others, and still, if you ask the experts on stage, they all still claim you know a couple of hundred, maybe 500, I think was the highest number I heard before.
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And then when we started to map it out at that time, uh we found 450 companies, a couple of a couple of more companies, but in the end, you know, we could not really categorize them and it was really hard work.
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At that time, we still used only Excel, right?
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And uh and PDFs and PDFs.
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Uh, there was no, I mean, a bit of AI was around, but nothing, nothing even close to what we have right now.
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So it was many, many weeks or months even of research, right, to put this together on a map.
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But when we have finally released it, the first reaction was from so many different providers.
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Hey, put us on there, uh, hey, we are in a different category, you know, and all these kind of things that we didn't didn't even know how to categorize them in the first place.
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So, together with you, right, and the whole team, we did this this exercise uh that nobody paid us, but in the end it was super valuable for the whole industry because we said, hey, we need to professionalize the industry.
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And one of the things that you need to do is to understand what companies are around.
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And now, you know, I have a bit of an understanding, you know, uh, with that analogy again.
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I try to switch the light on.
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Uh at least some corners are now a bit lit up.
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Uh, there are still some places that are completely dark.
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But I have a bit of an understanding, and I don't think anybody else can give you these numbers of like how many companies are out there, how many you know, features, how many verticals are there, how many people work in this industry, you know, in the provider to the short-term rental industry, right?
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I mean, these are all just proxies or estimations, let's put it this way.
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But um, yeah, it'd be it's a super interesting topic for me.
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And I thought I want to bring this uh this whole topic a bit closer to people, because in the end, as you said, and I think we will go down that path a bit later, but it's so difficult to understand what's out there because it's some companies scream so like they are all over the place, you know, at all the events, at all the paid advertisements.
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So, yeah, that's the so I think it's interesting for for where you came from from booking.com when you were building that marketplace there and sort of really trying to understand the tech ecosystem.
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And I came from the focus right angle, and I was always fascinated by these by these market maps that the airline industry had in terms of tech, the hotel industry had, and you saw always these incredible maps with thousands of logos on it, and they looked impressive and showed the complexity of a of a market of an industry.
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But in our space, nobody's ever built one, and that's like we need to own that space.
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And we we manage.
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I mean, at the end of the day, we're proud to say that AGL's uh SDR landscape was sort of the reference for a very long time, but now this is changing, and and you've taken that to the next to the next level, and we'll go a little bit more into detail on that.
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Six years inside dozens of these businesses, Garnot, and working alongside together, looking at this industry very deep in all different facets.
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What did you keep seeing that told you the industry really needed this, besides the fact that we built this market map or you built this market map and and we made it the reference point for the technology uh map?
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Um, yeah, the the piece I think that still comes back to you like on a day-to-day basis is this intransparency of how people build in silos, they're not really connected to what's out there, right?
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You were you are traveling the world, and and we also get the chance to look into so many different businesses in the provider landscape, into the operators, into the really property managers' heart, the way that they operate the day to day.
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But so often they have no chance to look outside, besides maybe their small valley, to talk to a couple of people.
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Hey, what do you do?
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What do you do there?
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How do you change this process?
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And and this is the part that I think is sometimes fully exploited.
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Um, so there is this part where I say, uh, where we saw a couple of times that people got just sold on technology or providers that don't really match what they actually are looking for.
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And I think this mismatch was the biggest motivation for it.
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And when we, you know, we supported our property manager, right?
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And you know the story by heart, of course, when we um, and it was one of the strongest ones, when we realized that one of the strongest companies in this space where you think, okay, you cannot go go wrong with picking such a provider, in the end was just a plain roadmap cell.
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They sold everything, they they they promised you rainbows and unicorns and everything, and at the end they had maybe half the features or half the things life in this country for language.
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And I mean, how is that possible?
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And this, I believe, this would have not happened if uh a tool like like what I have built now is um was around at that time.
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And of course AI helps, but this is a different topic, but it's not solving uh the core issue of this full intransparency and this isolation and the non-visibility of this whole space.
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So let's take that at a next level down.
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Um, you know, because the landscape at the end was a poster, right?
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Small or big.
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Exactly.
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Was it was a snapshot, right?
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But you now decided, hey, no, this this is not good enough.
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What why did it have to become a living piece instead to the analogy you just brought on picking the wrong tech stack?
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Why has it become a thing that needs to live?
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Yeah.
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Well, first of all, the we we moved it, and I know I know I remember the days still when we moved together the the pieces in inside spreadsheets, right?
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Uh from left to right, and hey, this company doesn't belong to this one anymore, and so on, right?
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But it's so quickly outdated, you know.
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There is if there are so many companies that are that are active in this space, the MA part is an important one, right?
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The whole, hey, suddenly they are out of business, uh, all of a sudden they move to a different country.
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And in the end, you know, if we got a the question of like what what offerings can I actually use, it was for our for us also super hard to go back and say, okay, let's look at these are all the pricing tools that you have, or these are all the guest experience tools that you have.
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The questions were though often so specific that it needs to fit into the PMS, it needs to be available in this country, it needs to be have this and this and this feature.
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It's not, it shouldn't be too expensive, it should have good reviews and it should and so on, so and so on, right?
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And in the end, it was like a really costly and time-intense job to break down all the providers down to a certain feature level.
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You could do the easy job, the easy route, and say, you know what, I just pick five tools and I sell everybody the same tools.
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And I said, like, this is not my approach.
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I don't feel comfortable with that.
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I really want to find at least the closest you can get to the best setup for you that's out there.
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And that will change and that's dynamic.
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And since, you know, given the tools that are right now out there and available, I think it's just uh a bit of a no-brainer to get this from a PDF now to an interactive, fully interactive map where you can dive into really into the details.
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Absolutely.
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No-brainer at all, of totally a no-brainer, because the evolution in the tech environment is just something that we have never ever seen before.
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And uh and that needs to be interactive for all the right reasons.
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Uh, especially when all the thousands of companies get going after the same North Star uh that is backed by AI, it's going to be very interesting to see how that evolves.
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Let's become a little bit more practical for our audience and let me show people how bad navigation probably actually is, because I don't think they really realize.
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So we I I alluded to that in the introduction, the problem and and and the and and we could make a live test here.
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So if we go on Google now and make a live test and say, hey, what is the best software tool out there uh to find, then I think I know uh I'm searching for Google for the best uh PMS short-term rental tech and ask ChatGPT the same or Claude, and then the outcome uh is absolutely the ones that have probably the best marketing, but that has nothing to do with the feature, uh everything else that goes with what you just said.
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Now, as an advisor, I would recommend a stack I I would recommend a stack of the back of that.
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I would never do that, right?
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So what what is the problem here and what can the map solve?
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Yeah, so that the first problem is the AI does not fully understand what you're asking, uh like the context.
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And the biggest the the biggest problem if you if you look at it from how the technology also works, right, is that AI is uh is not really reading the industry, it's the AI and the LLM is reading the advertisements.
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And if you put this into if you understand this piece, right, that if guesty, if hostaway, if price laps, doesn't matter, booking, Airbnb, whoever has the most budget and does the best job will get the most content out there.
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And this also means that they will be the highest one most of the time in whatever cases they they they get back, especially, and this is right now, if there is no referee or independent platform that then looks at it from the other side and says, hey, there are actually customer reviews, and so you cannot give the power back to the customers, to their customers.
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Because reviews right now, and you know, we have done this multiple times, we have worked with um the providers, right, and looked at their how do customers perceive you, and also the same thing from the other side for provide uh for property managers and said, ask them, hey, how do you think this tool really is for you?
00:16:19.679 --> 00:16:26.480
And this was this discrepancy is so huge because the only platforms that are out there that have reviews, you can all buy them.
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And that is a huge, gigantic problem because nobody is then looking from it from the other side and saying, hey, this doesn't work.
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This is not the way that you can treat your customers.
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It's the only the word of mouth, and if they don't care about churn, we be we get we have this huge problem of people just saying, let's outpace this, let's grow as much as we can.
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If we have a churn rate of whatever percentage, we don't care.
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And this is right now exactly this piece that I don't want to want to have because I think like they should be treated differently.
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And if you go on platforms and there's just one number that really shocked me, is that I know for a fact that there are platforms out there that have reviews, but in the end, if you look up the numbers and all of a sudden they have more reviews than they have actual live customers, and we know this, then there is a huge problem because then you know, okay, somebody paid for this, right?
00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:16.880
And then there is no corrective anymore, right?
00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:19.920
And this is the piece that I said, like I need to have this on the map.
00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:25.680
And so back to your question is first piece is really that it's a kind of like a trust pilot for the industry.
00:17:25.839 --> 00:17:28.000
Yeah, um, of course, this will grow over time, right?
00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:35.839
But with more traffic, with like the right network, we have right now a couple of companies that already went crazy in terms of um of reviews.
00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:44.799
Every review on the platform is verified, so I listed, I look into every review and say, okay, is this right now come, does this come for a real customer, right?
00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:47.200
Do they do they write the real reviews?
00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:49.119
Um, do they have a real email address?
00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:53.039
Uh it has to come from them directly, not from the provider.
00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:54.559
And this is the first piece.
00:17:54.720 --> 00:18:03.279
The second piece is that it's by far the largest database out there if the of the industry for short-term rental, mid-term rental, and a bit of overlap into other sub-segments.
00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:14.400
Which means that if you have, if you can compare thousands of companies uh compared to just the top 10 lists in every country, you have a completely different breadth of selection.
00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:27.599
And given that you can right now build so many things yourself, uh, you can bridge so many gaps in between, you can actually now start to build a completely new setup with maybe tools that come that cost a fraction of what you had before.
00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:32.799
They have the same features or maybe 90% of them, but maybe they come from a completely different country.
00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:41.039
They just have not advertised in your country or did not go to an event or no your neighbor doesn't have it yet, but they have the same capabilities and you don't care anything.
00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:42.799
You don't care anymore, right?
00:18:42.880 --> 00:18:46.079
That you don't have the market leader, maybe if you have the right features.
00:18:46.240 --> 00:18:48.799
And you see this with other other brands as well, right?
00:18:48.880 --> 00:18:59.839
Right now you see so many brands driving around that you've never seen before, but they have way better tech than what you have seen with the classical automobiles that were around just 10 years ago, right?
00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:01.359
Absolutely.
00:19:01.759 --> 00:19:06.079
Yeah, that's why Volkswagen is closing like four manufacturing sites, right?
00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:08.480
So, I mean, this is just something to think about.
00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:12.720
I mean, the yeah, the big gorilla in the room, right, has to lose a lot of weight.
00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:17.119
Um, and it's not just done with marketing, it's a lot of other things that you're talking about.
00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:20.960
And I would add one particular thing for our audience as well, in terms of review.
00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:24.559
So that's a very important indicator as well, and also misleading.
00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:27.599
And then marketing budgets uh give higher performance.
00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:39.200
Uh, but at the end of the day, what what I think I talk about in my academy, which is going to be launched very soon, to help people define on their tech stack, is actually take some time and and build an RFP.
00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:44.640
Actually, know what you need, a request for proposal about the technology stack that you would like to source.
00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:49.839
And then I guess your platform will be wonderful for actually putting RFPs through.
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:56.319
So everybody's at arm's length to compete for an RFP for a property manager, no matter where he sits in the world.
00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:02.079
Say, hey, these are this is my this is what I need to run my PMC business, go and pitch for it, right?
00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:02.880
Absolutely.
00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:07.440
So the RFPs and uh this is one piece, and the second piece is the full guide.
00:20:07.680 --> 00:20:13.359
The guide is the idea of saying, I want right now it's still a marketplace feeling, right?
00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:16.720
Where you say you go in and you filter and then you see a lot of companies.
00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:25.759
But I know that the and I've tested this already, I've just not published it yet, and I still need a couple of weeks to make sure that these these numbers or the feedback is really correct.
00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:33.359
But the direction is that I want to have the full guide of saying you can throw in your complete tech stack what you have, and then it gives you kind of like a roadmap.
00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:38.240
Hey, this is what you can change immediately, this is what you can change in the midterm, and this is your North Star.
00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:42.000
This is a really this is a setup where you can bump to the top 10%.
00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:50.160
And this compared with an RFP uh process is I think uh a game changer to how you build your tech stack in the first place.
00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:51.839
So I'm really excited about this piece.
00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:53.680
So there's more to come still within this year.
00:20:53.839 --> 00:20:54.400
Awesome, Danny.
00:20:54.640 --> 00:20:56.720
Replace the consultants, fantastic work.
00:20:56.960 --> 00:20:58.799
Well, at least one part of it.
00:20:59.519 --> 00:21:00.799
The boring one.
00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:02.000
That's right.
00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:03.759
Uh let's put some numbers on this.
00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:06.640
Maybe, yeah, yeah, but maybe one more comment.
00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:08.400
So because I think this was very interesting.
00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:21.039
I heard the feedback from consultants that they actually use the tool right now, the comparison tool, where they say, Oh, I thought, you know, this PMS, this PMS, this PMS, and then you can say, Oh, I didn't know that they have these features, right?
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:23.440
Because it's very hard to follow through with a lot of it.
00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:30.240
And again, if you have your your your go-to uh people and you always sell the same tools, then it's one thing.
00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:37.759
But if a consultant, if you're curious, hey, there is there's so much that you can explore, and still you need to bring this back to your to your clients, right?
00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:40.400
So there's still it's more of a collaboration, I see.
00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:46.640
And I'm so lucky that I have you as well as a source carnot.
00:21:46.799 --> 00:21:50.480
So taking this to the next level, I'm really looking forward to that.
00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:52.880
It I have I'm so excited for for this.
00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:55.440
Um, so let's put some numbers on this miss.
00:21:56.079 --> 00:21:58.240
How many tools are we really talking about?
00:21:58.319 --> 00:21:59.759
And and how many are there in a
00:22:00.160 --> 00:25:28.240
in a in a single category like like guest messaging you know you and I remember the days when these guest messaging companies popped up like mushrooms and we we literally had to open a new subclass on the landscape because it was there was none there right I mean there was not one for guest comms and today you it feels like there's about 200 of them there there are many there are really many especially guestcom was the fastest growing um in in recent times and I made a whole post about this as well how you had a full gap in between where nothing was kind of like funded no kind of company but guest messaging was the last couple of years everybody said hey AI is getting better guestcom needs to be this one thing to be to replace so immediately you push for that so I think let's start from the top in terms of numbers what is really interesting so I've looked at over 2000 companies they're floating somewhere around right now I've broken this down to right now close to 1000 companies it's now 1012 alive as of today there will be more probably also when this podcast airs um there will be a couple of more most probably but um this is right now what I've broken it down to because I wanted to say okay these are companies that are really relevant to the industry meaning even it could be a tax consulting office right a small one with 10 people but they are focused because they have a client base full in the short-term rental industry um they advertise on their website hey we do short-term rental we are specialized in this and so on but it is all the way to you know the full dedicated big big boys in the industry uh from tech companies uh but then also you have large companies that like booking.com is on there obviously they have only one part of their business in this same with dollar companies only one part is maybe in this industry but they are relevant and important enough so this is the category that said okay thousand companies in total right this is like the um the big number at the moment so then you have I've broken it down into 23 different categories I plan to add probably two more um more to that later on but this is right now I will probably be around 25 categories this is the main category meaning you have the classical pricing guest messaging PMS and so on but they have then of course many different features so an all-in-one PMS touches upon so many different categories that you would say you know it's an all-in-one PMS one category but you have a feature rich set of you know you touch upon yeah then what is really interesting I think there's another number um I looked up before which is I have mapped six over six thousand integration relationships meaning for example you know a company has 50 integration integrations right in all the different places of the industry and this is an amazing thing I will show you later you're the first one actually to see this uh because I just did this this morning to put together uh like how does the integration relationship actually work in this very interesting at least I think it is and then you have and that's a number uh that's an interesting one because I'm not sure how valid it is because it's also just the back of the envelope calculation but I've broken down and the method was I looked into all the companies and see how relevant are they so meaning booking.com right now I cannot account for all the employees but I wanted to understand how many people work in the provider industry to the short term rental industry.
00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:41.359
Wow does it make sense yep okay and um the number that I came to right now is and don't don't pin me down on it because we probably need to do much more verification but it's the first time I throw it out there.
00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:49.039
I throw it out there I I'm fine if somebody uh you know tests this and says this is complete BS I'm also perfect we get more listeners that's amazing.
00:25:49.279 --> 00:25:51.759
So 26,000 people.
00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:53.920
Yeah wouldn't surprise me.
00:25:54.240 --> 00:26:00.240
And that is I think really really cool to see because for the first time at least I have I I would have no clue.
00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:11.279
But if you of course calculate all the companies that play in this you know this get much bigger but you we had even you know gigantic companies like LG floating around for some time in the SDR and others and you can never count them.
00:26:11.440 --> 00:27:21.759
But if you really break it down 25 26 thousand uh people working in this provider industry which I think is an interesting yeah that's a great number yeah Garna how much do I have to pay you to be in 25 categories uh let's talk offline no also the most important thing the most important thing on this whole thing is and this is really uh this is for me I would rather stop the whole project before I want somebody to pay me to be in a better ranking or get something out of this um I have to monetize it somehow right so but there is a business model behind it but that means that for example you with education right you're in there right now or other providers that are in there they can upload more information so it means they have more videos for example or they can you know have more screenshot of their product on there or something the likes but they can never influence a lot of other things that are really crucial to um like the reviews right or like the the whole the way that I describe everything right the way that I say okay I want to compare these next to each other and the way that they they are displayed there right they can never influence that and they can most importantly never influence the ranking.
00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:38.000
Of course if they tell me hey I don't show up in a certain country then I will say okay I will um add you there must be a mistake this happened before but besides that there is no way that you can buy your way up that I say otherwise this is again you know another just a longer list of a top 10 and this is exactly what I don't want.
00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:38.640
Yeah.
00:27:38.880 --> 00:29:27.920
No of course and that's what it is all about because it needs to be neutral and and everything else uh uh uh attached to it so that's why I obviously love that idea so let's let's yeah before we move on I have actually one weird thing that I just this that I just had before we started recording this podcast so the number that I just told you is 1012 providers right yep but what happened today this was the first time and I still need to I still need to talk to the guys but this is strange this is the first time a PMS from Italy it's called crossbooking uh wrote me a message and said hey we love the idea great this is amazing blah blah blah but because of whatever uh we don't want to be listed there this is the first time that something like this happened and I still need to go down that path of like why this is the case because so far every other provider said hey amazing here's all the information da da da but this is interesting because this is the first one that this came along so actually the the correct number is uh 1011 because I have to take them down I guess let's let's see how this turns out well that's an interesting one I'm sure that's worth the second episode of our podcast so I want to talk exactly let's reveal and read this map a little bit more what it reveals where where is it crowded where is it where is the wide space and and where do you think is the real innovation with all the intel that you now have yeah uh yeah a couple of points so I think the what was shocking to me is not shocking uh what was interesting to see is where would you have where would you guess is the most um AI let's say adoption in that sense or where's the most where is it most widely rolled out in terms of where have providers adopted the most in terms of AI?
00:29:28.160 --> 00:30:01.359
Guest comms I thought as well but I was surprised it isn't because pricing there's no pricing provider out there that has not AI all over everything how they set prices everywhere there are commessages out there there are still you know the way that you interact with this and you have channels and da da da guest com is what you talk a lot because this is this is everywhere in a way and everybody talks about this but pricing is AI is everywhere rolled out every provider that right now is out there with pricing has AI adopted this was something that I was was quite surprising to me.
00:30:01.599 --> 00:30:27.279
One other number that is interesting is if you look at it is how and maybe we can um we can take a look I don't know if you can then open it up or throw it in there but if you go right now to strmarketmap.com universe I have a full map shown in how many connections there are and it is crazy what center of gravity we have right now with Guesty and how many people how many companies are integrated with Guesty.
00:30:27.680 --> 00:30:36.799
They are really I I knew they are heavyweight but this type of marketplace is crazy because every new company wants first to integrate with them.
00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:47.599
And that is a really really smart way and I see you see this you see this reflected in all the statistics right they are this is a different a different animal to to than everybody else there.
00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:56.880
Of course right if you have a different model and you say hey I want to have an all-in-one PMS you know I know that it's different and you say I don't want to have this marketplace model at all.
00:30:56.960 --> 00:31:06.000
It's a philosophy question of saying okay we go a different path and you don't need this it's a different way but um I think this is an interesting an interesting piece as well.
00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:12.400
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00:31:12.640 --> 00:31:29.519
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00:31:29.759 --> 00:32:54.559
Breezeway is a partner worth exploring now back to the conversation so what about the the owners I want to I want you to talk about owners um as well is it like if you look at the white spaces now which piece of the value proposition in in in our industries from a technology standpoint somewhat underserved because I would argue it's definitely uh the owner stakeholder management 100% so I have not found more than two companies I would need to to look it up but two companies that touch upon that a bit otherwise it's always just built in but there is no dedicated owner um owner portal company in that sense right Vintory or there's two marketing companies like Vintory that say okay owner growth owner marketing now that's one angle but owner portal owner reporting is always just like this is fully built in there are other like the the the owner thing is the owner relationship is such an important one that's why I'm really I'm actually surprised that there's nothing out there like really dedicated and really focused because most of the time if you build this satellite fully dedicated to one purpose most of the time this lifts the benchmark right no pricing or no PMS provider would have ever built a really good pricing tool if the price laps and the beyonds of this world were not around right and so they always lift the standards which is why I'm still surprised that nobody went fully down that owner path.
00:32:54.720 --> 00:32:55.440
That's one thing.
00:32:55.680 --> 00:33:18.559
The other thing is everything that is related to procurement design for example how important is the design right we always talk about raising the standard of this industry but there are so few companies out there that actually help with the furnishing piece with the new renovation with the design piece this is always a fully isolated siloed experience there is no provider out there.
00:33:18.720 --> 00:33:26.240
Of course right I'm not saying that this is right now an easy thing to solve but it's very close to what actually needs to needs to happen.
00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:58.480
The same thing with this I think this has happened a couple of times or tried with the whole cleaning marketplace right where people try to say hey yeah we connect to the staff or staffing people are the most important assets still right we are still in this in this uh very close relationship especially with um with local property managers where you have local staff uh and you have cleaning staff and where you know this exists for the hotel industry doesn't for the short-term rental industry this is not some people tried but it's not really something that that took off as far as I can as I can tell at least not on a global scale.
00:33:58.720 --> 00:34:27.679
Okay I have some good news for you I I think I just found last week two companies that are facing uh very much owner facing if uh owner reporting owner tools so I'm gonna send them your way and then the other one I'm surprised I just had uh Andrea Santos CEO of Full House on the podcast and if Andrea listens to this I mean they have built an incredible tool where you can basically run through the house with a camera and then it will build your entire design and then you can even shop online and get this whole thing decked out.
00:34:27.760 --> 00:34:30.159
I'm sure Full House is on your list as well.
00:34:30.480 --> 00:34:30.960
That's perfect.
00:34:31.039 --> 00:35:01.519
Yeah exactly so what I what I what I mean is also with what I said right now before that it's even I so everything that I just said there are startups out there right and there are some that are really really cool solutions but it's just not widely adopted at least I have not seen it something that grew beyond a couple of countries right that was kind of like a new category or these these things are a bit still I would say there's still a lot of potential I would say in this in these in these areas but I'm curious to to see what you what you send over.
00:35:01.840 --> 00:36:10.559
Yeah absolutely that's why we have the ears on the ground uh all the time and make sure everybody's on there um to have this equal playing field out there uh within the tech space now I'm gonna ask you a bit of an unfair question but I uh you and I can can have a debate or a conversation around that you know one thing that I struggle with especially with the work that we're still doing at at AGL and and our consulting work we do a lot of market sizing and and market research for all different types of companies and nobody has ever sized the supply side right that's a hard that's a hard statement because you know Jamie Jamie Lane from air dna can tell us how many units exist and and obviously we have key data and and others but how many providers are there actually how uh in terms of we talked about revenue management tools as well but but I want to talk to you about uh market sizing because I think there's a massive potential still out there and especially now with AI I've started to build my own tools to really start scraping the market looking at stuff and you can start doing that but but the the data that we're currently surfacing on our industry is still not very good.
00:36:11.440 --> 00:37:57.199
No because the that's a that's an important point and I think this will be this will take a long time uh for me given for me there are right now agents running 24-7 you know looking it's into every angle uh possible to find companies identify them you know and so on um some areas are still super difficult because you have on the one end are so a couple of categories how I how I look at it you have the classical short term rental uh companies right that are out there but then you do have the ones that are clear but there's an overlap with other industries but then you have the ones that what about the plumbing the maintenance the local cleaning the laundry right these pieces are these companies are so local they would never show up at a trade show they would never be somewhere on these things but they are essential to this whole thing you can't run without it exactly and the the pieces that is that is the interesting one is if you now look at these are the ones that are this mostly tech players the next layer is also this type of service companies where you have the um the tax accountants there you have the lawyers right there are some dedicated ones then you do have the the the consultants right and a couple of uh people in this in this service layer but then there is this other layer and I want to get there 100% because the core idea is that you say it doesn't matter where you are if you are in Italy if you are in the US if you are in Mexico and you say hey I'm in this valley which are all the providers that I need to run my business and even if you go to this trade show it only shows you the classical categories right all the time but it never shows you the ones that who is actually the best lawyer in this area to do this kind of job because they have set up already 15 million contracts.
00:37:57.360 --> 00:39:00.320
I mean now it might be the the best AI that you're looking for for the legal part uh that might be the case but there's still the plumbing there's still the handyman that that does um whatever right that you need and I think this is the piece where I would like to get to to to say in the end this is the vision I want to have everybody that has a service or an offering for short-term rental industry operators I want them on the map now to answer the question how big it is too early too soon because uh right now I'm still a bit surprised in how big the number is there I'm definitely sure we go into the 10,000 plus range if you look into the into this level of granularity but then the question is you know where do you how do you split this really into the valleys into the cities into the countries but yeah there's um I don't have the answers yet to it Gernard you're showing us the ecosystem uh right now so I just that would have been my next question what what do the people see obviously they don't see that but this is you're showing how the ecosystem on the STR market map actually looks like and how it evolves.
00:39:00.639 --> 00:39:15.840
Yeah so what are we seeing here um on the podcast so what you see here is this is more a visualization of the connections so the integrations of the whole industry as far as I have mapped it.
00:39:16.079 --> 00:39:29.039
This is not hundred percent of the data it probably can't be but it's very close to what is actually out there meaning you go to every provider look at all the integrations and then you map it together into one into one animation.
00:39:29.199 --> 00:40:34.320
So what you see here is because I took this as a kind of like as a universe type uh visualization that you can move around it's it's a playful way of interacting with it right this is not the core experience but I wanted to visualize it once and what you see here is that there is a whole um I would say a small concentration of companies that are connected to the full ecosystem and then there is this gigantic long tail of many many many other providers um out there right a few of them absolutely stand out so if you click on it and you you look into find out who that is this is this is just incredible and actually Airbnb and Guestie at least what I've tracked are very close to 230 integrations which is insane and guest and Airbnb are by far the uh the biggest ones that at least I've seen and you can also look look at this here from a different angle and this is a different kind of universe where you group it by you know how big are the different um different categories so you have consulting you have operations and so on.
00:40:34.480 --> 00:41:15.840
And I thought it's an interesting way of displaying it um the whole the whole ecosystem is still so vast that I thought the only way to display this is a universe and if we talk about the higher numbers I think it will be more my goal is right to with this one as well you can dive in and you can say you can build your own universe of this your own map um but first I wanted to start off with what is the the whole universe the whole Milky Way look like for for our space amazing and that is a great segue to talk about what a bit more practical as well in terms of it's a marketplace for property for for software companies to basically be listed there.
00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:35.039
So that you can you can basically claim your your your brand and then you can uh you can pay to basically be listed there's different tiers that you can pay for and then and then you you have to you generate the traffic from the market as you said consultant obviously but property managers who want to build their tech stack.
00:41:35.199 --> 00:43:26.000
So run us a little bit through the practical model and you said already and and one thing you were alluded to I can't pay you money to be part of 25 um uh uh segments obviously for the right reason this is neutral this is defined by the technology you build and where you're at and and which which uh fame uh you can claim um so it's it's definitely not something biased or being paid for but run us a little bit more practical through the platform yeah sure so um one small correction because you said you need to pay to claim uh the first idea is that I right now mapped all the companies in the space and everybody can come by and say hey this company is mine I want to claim it and many many hundreds have done or sorry over 150 I think is it now have done this already um these are a lot of the big ones even you know Airbnb and so on has already claimed their slot because they want to control their messaging what is out there for about them right they also check is there something factually wrong that I've put in their profile so some corrections come back so together we find you know a better way of how we can um manage what is out there about them this is the one thing so everybody can claim this completely for free this is the idea that we say you know it's a bit of a collaboration there is also a couple of ideas the way that we make it very easy so for example if you say you're a Simon Lehman you have an education platform you launch a new uh part of that platform it's now called I don't know leadership coaching then you put this up on your website within a very short amount of time I detect that and I say hey do you want me to add this to the platform because you've just right now built this and launched this I want to add this it monitors LinkedIn it monitors many other places so the core idea is that this is really live information about products that are out there.
00:43:26.239 --> 00:43:48.400
Everybody can claim it all the providers as I said they can come on it what they can do then later we can have a kind of like a closer partnership when it comes to the information right so they can say they can upload case studies they can upload different things a more feature a more not a feature rich but a more content richer account they can have yeah that's the part and that's the way that also the whole business model works.
00:43:48.800 --> 00:44:05.280
On the flip side for all the operators they can come there explore everything for free that all the content that I've gathered is everything is for free the idea is that I want this to be really a place where you start off with Whatever you can we can see, you can just gain access to, you don't need to pay.
00:44:05.360 --> 00:44:07.039
But then there might be a couple of things.
00:44:07.119 --> 00:44:12.320
I was asked about a community in terms of like, hey, how can you help me find a consultant?
00:44:12.400 --> 00:44:16.960
Um, help me build this this way, or this new tech stack, or this stuff, or I have questions.
00:44:17.119 --> 00:44:18.559
Can you help me with this and this?
00:44:18.880 --> 00:44:26.719
Um, here I don't know which direction I will go, but for now, um, this is all free and enjoy all the content that is out there.
00:44:26.880 --> 00:44:28.000
You can explore that.
00:44:28.079 --> 00:44:29.920
And actually, we will go live in September.
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:33.360
So it's not even publicly uh fully announced yet.
00:44:33.440 --> 00:44:41.119
Uh, it's live, it has already crossed already 15,000 page views in the last few weeks because I shared this with um some providers already.
00:44:41.199 --> 00:44:47.840
Um, I shared this on LinkedIn one or two times that you know this is in the works, and the traffic is really picking up, and this is super interesting.
00:44:47.920 --> 00:44:59.599
Also, the providers are actually looking for their competitors, are benchmarking, and uh yeah, this is this is incredible to see because I've never thought that it will that quickly in the summertime ramp up to these numbers.
00:44:59.840 --> 00:45:06.880
Um, doesn't matter if it's review numbers or providers that come out of nowhere and say, Hey, I have a company, can I get listed on your platform?
00:45:07.039 --> 00:45:08.960
So this is this is incredible to see.
00:45:09.199 --> 00:45:10.159
Fantastic.
00:45:10.480 --> 00:45:12.079
So, one more on that.
00:45:12.239 --> 00:45:18.239
The whole value that you just alluded to, or this that it's independent and comprehensive, right?
00:45:18.400 --> 00:45:21.360
Independent, comprehensive, but it's also a marketplace.
00:45:21.519 --> 00:45:22.639
Vendors pay into.
00:45:23.119 --> 00:45:26.400
So, how do you keep those from pulling against each other?
00:45:27.760 --> 00:45:38.639
Um, in the sense of that you say or how you did that, but you you you have a marketplace, but at the same play at the same time, it's independent and it's comprehensive.
00:45:38.800 --> 00:45:40.000
So, you know, sure.
00:45:40.239 --> 00:45:42.000
How do you keep that balance?
00:45:42.719 --> 00:45:53.119
Well, I mean, the the way that you say so the I my the core idea is that I say there is no, I want to be away from this best, the top 10 lists, right?
00:45:53.360 --> 00:45:57.119
The core idea is that I say there is no bad software out there, right?
00:45:57.280 --> 00:46:02.559
What I said you to you before about this this one PMS, right, that that's did a roadmap sale.
00:46:02.639 --> 00:46:04.719
I mean, a lot of the PMSs probably did it.
00:46:04.800 --> 00:46:12.880
Uh, like there's no, there's no, uh, there are many out there that that that did this before if they have high pressure and really want to have the sales numbers.
00:46:12.960 --> 00:46:17.519
This is this is um a natural thing of the market pressure, I would say.
00:46:17.679 --> 00:46:23.679
But the one that actually did this, and you know, we talked to them directly and reported this and everything was hostaway at that time, right?
00:46:24.079 --> 00:46:31.760
And per se, though, I think like hostaway, like there's no question like that hostaway is like a really valuable, amazing tool.
00:46:31.920 --> 00:46:40.559
But just the way that they sold it to somebody in a country that was where the features were not available or they sold features that weren't available, was is this huge problem.
00:46:40.639 --> 00:46:45.679
And then I don't say hostaway is bad, it's just say hostaway was not a fit for this one provider.
00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:51.440
So the core idea of this thing is that I want people to find the perfect fit for them.
00:46:51.679 --> 00:46:56.320
So in a marketplace, you know, I want just to be the directory and I want to help to guide them.
00:46:56.480 --> 00:46:59.119
In the end, nothing of this is like 100%.
00:46:59.519 --> 00:47:05.039
You you cannot sue me for, hey, this information is incorrect in a way that I say, I don't say this is 100%.
00:47:05.519 --> 00:47:08.480
I just want to help finding the right tools.
00:47:08.639 --> 00:47:23.039
And I want to say, like, if you map this out, this is already far, far, far, far, far beyond from everything that you do with 100 Google AI searches or chat GDPs, um, how far you can get, because it never, there's nothing out there that is as feature-rich.
00:47:23.199 --> 00:47:29.280
So the way that they compete with each other, um, they will compete with each other and they will compete for ranking and others.
00:47:29.440 --> 00:47:31.760
And I would say, like right now, time will tell.
00:47:31.840 --> 00:47:33.840
I want to stay as independent as possible.
00:47:34.000 --> 00:47:38.400
I want to um make sure that I reflect what I get in at feedback.
00:47:38.480 --> 00:47:47.199
So that means everything that I get in terms of reviews, everything that I terms in in content, but I also write policies that I say in the end I don't rank them, right?
00:47:47.360 --> 00:47:50.960
And I don't favor them in a way that I say I push them up, I push that down.
00:47:51.119 --> 00:48:03.519
It's rather content-rich, and I have a couple of um a couple of um parameters that I'm that I can tune a bit, but in the end, you know, this is this is the core value of it.
00:48:03.599 --> 00:48:06.960
So I really try to do my best to stay to stay independent as much as I can.
00:48:07.199 --> 00:48:09.440
Crack the algorithm and get that listing up there.
00:48:09.599 --> 00:48:13.039
But you know, I think that's fantastic, and that's exactly the way it needs to be.
00:48:13.199 --> 00:48:39.519
And this marketplace is so well overdue because it it allows us to do many other things as well, sourcing suppliers, obviously, but also you know, providing a platform for conferences to look for sponsors, for example, or as you just said, you know, looking for uh technology specialists or whatever it might be, because once uh that traffic goes up there and you have all these providers and and vendors on there on an international level, it becomes absolutely valuable for many other use cases.
00:48:39.599 --> 00:48:45.599
And then the venture capitalists and the private equities will come in and try to find investment opportunities.
00:48:45.679 --> 00:48:47.840
And I think it's just endless.
00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:54.480
Like I have a one one interesting piece here um that I that I wanted to mention is what I've seen.
00:48:54.559 --> 00:49:00.719
I've not I did not go down too deep on this, but I think it's an interesting number that I would like to explore a bit further.
00:49:00.880 --> 00:49:03.599
Maybe this is a follow-up uh at a later stage.
00:49:03.920 --> 00:49:15.920
But the the data shows right now that about 35 to 40 percent of the features that these companies have in the classical normal setup are in overlap.
00:49:16.719 --> 00:49:28.239
What I mean with that is that right now the companies build features so fast that the website provider has a certain type of check-in, for example, or the PMS as well.
00:49:28.320 --> 00:49:31.920
And then the pricing tool offers something that the PMS also has.
00:49:32.159 --> 00:49:48.880
And they're expanding right now so fast that we are right now already at the classical setup that there's such a big overlap that if you look at this and you have a diagram of like how many features you have, what is your setup, and how many features do you have double or maybe even three times, but you're paying for this, right?
00:49:49.280 --> 00:50:05.360
And this is a question where you say if you want to cut costs, you could also look at two, you know, maybe this is an obvious one in that sense that you say, but they're growing right now so quickly that you might not even be aware of what your PMS actually all of the things that it offers, or the new things that the pricing tool launched.
00:50:05.440 --> 00:50:16.159
Or maybe you have one more provider and you can kick out four others because it's this one provider that you don't know that expanded right now in your region, and you can get rid of four or five other providers, right?
00:50:16.239 --> 00:50:18.239
This and this happened, this happened for real.
00:50:18.400 --> 00:50:24.800
So I think these are the interesting ones in terms of like cost pressure and really practical advice for operators.
00:50:25.119 --> 00:50:36.639
So that sort of leads me towards the last topic I want to talk to about and and and and you know how how long is it gonna take for basically Breezeway to be the only system that you're using, to your point, right?
00:50:36.800 --> 00:50:46.079
So and and and and I I guess uh and and I guess you are not uh and now I want to hear your predictions and and look at a bit in the crystal ball.
00:50:46.239 --> 00:50:54.480
Uh I think you're you're too smart, uh, Gurnot, uh, that you're not building uh this marketplace for a guest year host away and a breeze way.
00:50:54.639 --> 00:51:01.519
So what's the future of the technology uh space and and and these thousand companies?
00:51:01.679 --> 00:51:07.679
If you and I meet again on the podcast, hopefully soon, or maybe in 12 months, um how does that look like?
00:51:08.079 --> 00:51:08.719
Yeah, sure.
00:51:08.880 --> 00:51:17.519
Well, right now it's so incredibly fast the way that uh people build tools, even with you see this even with the big ones, right?
00:51:17.599 --> 00:51:22.000
Right now, how fast they they launch new features, how fast they launch new things.
00:51:22.159 --> 00:51:24.800
Um it's it's very hard to keep up.
00:51:25.039 --> 00:51:33.519
Um but it's also a bit right now, the dust will settle still, even though the pace is ramping up, but a few things will, I think will stay true.
00:51:33.760 --> 00:51:39.119
Um, you're right, I don't build it for guests in host away, at least not only for them, right?
00:51:39.199 --> 00:51:40.800
I want to build it really for all of them.
00:51:40.960 --> 00:51:48.239
I want to build it for all operators and all providers, and I want to make um help to bring this best match, as I said.
00:51:48.400 --> 00:51:59.119
And I think going forward, I think this stage is really, really crucial, especially if you look into a lot of the operators build their own parts or their own uh pieces in between.
00:51:59.280 --> 00:52:06.000
And I think like if we fast forward the ecosystem, first of all, I think there will be an explosion of number of providers out there.
00:52:06.480 --> 00:52:10.320
So the cost pressure on some of them will be incredibly high.
00:52:10.480 --> 00:52:14.159
And the question is, where do you go right now with your provider?
00:52:14.320 --> 00:52:14.559
Right?
00:52:14.719 --> 00:52:18.880
Where what is the mode that you have locked yourself into now already?
00:52:19.119 --> 00:52:28.320
Or, you know, I've still people and I I told you this, I think, before, there are still guest communication tools that come to me right now and say, hey, we built the first AI guest communication tool.
00:52:28.400 --> 00:52:29.119
Yeah, this doesn't exist.
00:52:29.440 --> 00:52:31.199
I've had one yesterday coming to me.
00:52:31.440 --> 00:52:36.159
Yeah, and it's like, yeah, let's maybe I'm not sure about that.
00:52:36.400 --> 00:52:42.400
And that's the piece I think that that is incredibly interesting because why, first of all, why haven't they not found it?
00:52:42.559 --> 00:52:52.559
And second, though, there is obviously somewhere a market need, there is somewhere a short-term rental operator that have that has no AI guest uh tool, right?
00:52:52.719 --> 00:52:58.079
Otherwise, how do you how do you come up with that idea that this is a good idea to build it, right?
00:52:58.239 --> 00:53:06.159
Of course, could be just a Google search, but in the end, I think usually this comes from a property manager that has a problem that starts an AI company.
00:53:06.400 --> 00:53:15.440
Furthermore, a lot of operators right now say that they build their own tools for pricing for doesn't matter, and then they offer it though to others.
00:53:15.679 --> 00:53:26.239
And this is the piece that happened multiple times already that they say the um operators that signed up for the platform explore around and say, Hey, I want to list my own tool because it's good enough to compete on that level.
00:53:26.400 --> 00:53:27.760
So there will be an explosion.
00:53:27.840 --> 00:53:29.280
I mean, you see this as well.
00:53:29.440 --> 00:53:39.119
I think though, what is very important to mention, I and we had a short conversation about this, but I see the whole infrastructure being a very, very important piece.
00:53:39.360 --> 00:54:00.079
You see, some pieces you will not build yourself, some and you shouldn't, because if the sales um, the sales level towards the B2C, so the guest itself is still out there with Airbnb, with booking.com, and I'm pretty sure they will still be around in a year from now, then how can you connect to them?
00:54:00.239 --> 00:54:06.800
They will not open up the APIs and say, oh, the person with five rooms can now uh get access and get access to our APIs.
00:54:06.960 --> 00:54:07.679
That will not happen.
00:54:07.760 --> 00:54:08.320
They won't do that.
00:54:08.480 --> 00:54:10.320
So type of channel manager will be there.
00:54:10.480 --> 00:54:13.519
You will also not build a payment platform and payment gateways, right?
00:54:13.760 --> 00:54:19.760
You will also not build maybe databases, yeah, but there is a lot of like infrastructure in the background from taxing and so on.
00:54:19.840 --> 00:54:22.400
There's the reason, like, why would you do this in the first place?
00:54:22.719 --> 00:54:30.400
And this is the piece of saying there are infrastructure plays that will be around 100%, even for quite quite some time.
00:54:30.639 --> 00:54:41.840
Um, the other piece is that who, as companies, can build make themselves so central that they can also be very hard uh to replace.
00:54:42.400 --> 00:54:46.239
And there are a few categories out there that I think are really really interesting.
00:54:46.320 --> 00:54:51.599
I don't think you can beat the pricing algorithms if you have enough compute out there to calculate the right prices.
00:54:51.760 --> 00:54:55.360
You will not beat this with your Excel sheet clothed codec setup.
00:54:55.519 --> 00:54:56.159
I don't think so.
00:54:56.239 --> 00:54:59.679
Maybe you're good enough to say this is fine for me, I don't want to pay that.
00:54:59.920 --> 00:55:05.039
But nonetheless, I think this is um this is this is still uh will be there even for some time.
00:55:05.280 --> 00:55:11.360
What I think is though cure um a curious point is the piece of how you interact with the whole system.
00:55:11.519 --> 00:55:19.199
Because if when I still looked at a PMS uh the last time, like half a year ago, I still think like this will change completely upside down.
00:55:19.360 --> 00:55:29.039
No operator in the future will just interact with this kind of layout, click in 50 million different tabs, but it will be this agentic AI chat interface, right?
00:55:29.199 --> 00:55:34.159
Reports will be um on demand and not like just fixed reviews that you have.
00:55:34.239 --> 00:55:41.280
So a lot of things are happening there, but I think like the the vast majority of the ecosystem will still be there and it's still growing.
00:55:41.920 --> 00:55:43.760
Garnat, you and I could fill ours.
00:55:43.840 --> 00:55:45.599
It was a great pleasure to have you on this show.
00:55:45.760 --> 00:55:51.599
This is one of this is one of those things the industry did not know it was missing until it actually existed.
00:55:51.760 --> 00:55:57.440
A market you cannot see is a market you cannot navigate, and you have made it visible.
00:55:57.679 --> 00:56:02.159
Thank you for coming on the show and for taking the hard question head on.
00:56:02.320 --> 00:56:03.440
I'm Simon Lehman.
00:56:03.599 --> 00:56:05.440
This was SCR Global Unlocked.
00:56:05.599 --> 00:56:06.320
See you next time.
00:56:06.480 --> 00:56:09.039
Thank you, Gernot, and good luck with the platform.
00:56:09.599 --> 00:56:10.239
Thank you so much.
00:56:10.400 --> 00:56:11.519
It was a pleasure, Simon.
00:56:11.840 --> 00:56:18.079
More than a thousand technology providers are competing for the attention of short-term rental operators.
00:56:18.239 --> 00:56:23.119
But having more tools doesn't automatically lead to a better business.
00:56:23.360 --> 00:56:32.880
The real advantage comes from knowing which technology truly fits your operation and how to use it effectively.
00:56:33.119 --> 00:56:56.079
In another episode, I sat down with Yannick Abraham to discuss why small hosts are becoming more professional, how technology is giving them capabilities once reserved for large operators, and why mastering the basics may become their biggest competitive advantage going forward.
00:56:56.320 --> 00:57:06.320
So if you want to understand who is best positioned to win at the next phase of short term rental, watch that episode next.