Welcome back to the Short Term Rental Riches podcast. I’m happy you’re here again, and I’m happy again to be seated virtually with another leader in the industry. Today we’re with Frank Bose. He’s with Hostfully. He is their senior director of partner development. He’s been with them for years. He’s been with their journey as Hostfully’s grown to now help us hosts out in the industry manage tens of thousands of properties.

So excited to dive into the details today. Frank, welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks for having me, Tim. I’m really excited about this. It’s a long time coming.

This industry’s just changing so quickly, you know? And one of the things that is changing quicker th- than, than most things is the technology piece.

Uh- Yeah … and I know Hostfully’s been right there. I, I remember actually years ago, Frank, like long time ago, like over a decade, I was in Canada at a [00:01:00] conference and I was in this breakout room, and I was listening to this incredible idea to have a digital guidebook for our guests. I mean, this was way back in the days, right?

Uh, and that person giving that breakout session was the founder of your guys’ company today, and you guys have just come leaps and bounds from that day. And so would you mind just, just sharing with the audience a little about yourself and a little bit of background about Hostfully? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a little bit about myself so we can get that out of the way.

Um, prior to Hostfully, I was in, uh, the luxury hospitality world. So when you were at that conference, uh, I was working the front desk, working the sales team, and, you know, I spent years working in hotels, really just focused on sales, business development, and just building relationships, uh, specifically with our guests because they were high-level, [00:02:00] high-touch, uh, luxury hospitality folks.

And what I’ve really always loved about the hospitality industry is that it’s ultimately a people business, you know, whether you’re creating like guest experience, uh, or growing partnerships, which is kind of full circle. Um, but I remember watching the short-term rental industry for years, even at conferences.

Airbnb would be at the hotel conferences that I would attend. Um, and it was, it was just so innovative on how Airbnb was… They were changing how people traveled. You know, they changed how operators were becoming more sophisticated, and technology, like a guidebook, uh, 10 years ago, it was transforming the space, and I was fascinated by it.

But I never made the jump because I was doing so well in my hotel career. Um, but then COVID happened, right? So like many people in the hospitality industry, I was laid off, um, when travel just literally came to an abrupt standstill. Uh, and that time it felt [00:03:00] like a step back, but like looking back now, it ended up being one of, one of the best things that could’ve happened to my career because that’s when I found Hostfully, and I entered the short-term rental industry full-time six years ago.

And again, I’ve been with Hostfully for six years, so kind of do the math. It was the first company I came into in the short-term rental industry, and I’ve been here since. And, uh, the, the, the best thing and what surprised me the most specifically in this industry, and you touched on it earlier with, uh, your presence at the conference and talking about guidebooks and how new it was.

It’s how innovative and entrepreneurial that this industry is. You know, like operators are just… They’re constantly testing new ideas, they’re adopting new technology, um, and they’re just finding out-of-the-box ways to grow. They’re much more strategic. Um, and the deeper that I’ve gotten into this industry, obviously the more I learned, but it’s also the more excited that I’ve become, you know.

And, and AI revenue, direct booking, smart home [00:04:00] technology, and it’s, it’s, it’s so much more than just vacation rentals, which is what I thought about when I initially started. And what drew me to Hostfully and this opportunity and what keeps me here six years later is that this industry is just full of incredible people, entrepreneurial, uh, entrepreneurial, uh, mindsets, and it just feels like we’re still, still in the early stages of what’s possible for this industry.

So it’s that excitement of the con- like just the consistent innovation that’s happening Yeah, I totally agree. It’s, it’s, you know, uh, it’s exciting and now, you know, technology is, is just leaps and bounds ahead of where it was. Um, for maybe the, the few people in our audience that haven’t heard of Hostfully, uh, most people I’m sure have, can you give us just the, the high level view of w- what Hostfully helps hosts achieve?

Yeah. Yeah, and that’s, uh, [00:05:00] that’s kind of my job at high level. You know, like my job is all about building relationships and help Hostfully grow, um, while still creating this value for property managers across the industry. Um, and again, working with sales and marketing and our leadership teams to find new ways to increase our visibility.

Uh, we want to generate more opportunities and leads for our sales team, and we wanna just strengthen our position in the market overall. Um, so for those of you that are not familiar with Hostfully, um, my sales pitch is we’re a property management platform specifically built for f- for, uh, short-term rentals and vacation rental operators.

Um, but what excites me the most is how quickly Hostfully is evolving. Um, and kind of going back quickly is one of the reasons I joined Hostfully and why I stayed is our commitment to innovation. Um- With Hostfully, uh, you know, it’s– we’ve launched, um, Hostfully [00:06:00] Devices recently. We obviously have our property management software and our digital guidebooks.

Um, but with Hostfully Devices, it’s one of our newest features and capabilities, and it’s ultimately to automate your smart home operations. Um, we’re enhancing our accounting capabilities. Um, we now have a, a new, um, feature, um, or more like a product at this point, and we’ve introduced it a few weeks ago, uh, and it’s, uh, Hostfully Screen and Protect.

Uh, and that ultimately helps operators reduce risk and just protect their properties. Um, so just touching on the innovation, we’re more than just a property management software at this point. Um, but at the same time, Hostfully is continuing to strengthen the core platform. So we help property managers, uh, synchronize their rates, their calendars, their reservations across Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com.

Uh, we have Google Vacation Rentals, Homes and Villas by Marriott [00:07:00] International. We integrate with a lot of different channels, especially the niche ones that are specific to your market or that individual’s property, that property manager’s, uh, market. Um, but we also automate guest communication. We power direct booking websites.

Um, but ultimately, we’re here to streamline your day-to-day operations and, and help you scale and grow, um, comfortably. You know, not– we don’t wanna overwhelm you. We don’t want this hard, um, difficult software to learn. Hostfully is very user-friendly. And honestly, what, what kinda ties everything together, uh, is our culture, and it comes down from leadership and our CEO.

You know, we listen closely to our customers, uh, and many, I, I– if not all of our innovations come directly from their feedback. Uh, so when people ask me, like What’s Hostfully? I usually say that we’re more than a property management software. Um, what we are is [00:08:00] we’re a technology partner. We’re ultimately here to help property managers grow, scale, automate, um, and just build their businesses with, with enjoyment and confidence at the same time.

So little bit of a tangent, but that’s, that’s Hostfully in a nutshell. No, that- You know? Yeah, no, that’s, that, that’s a great overview and I think, I think the way you phrased it is probably more accurate today, a technology partner. Because a lot of the things that you mentioned are things that, you know, our team lives every day and that, and we hear out there in the, in the world that are challenging, you know?

Yeah. There are operational pieces that could be easier, but the perfect solution doesn’t exist yet. Um, so- Yeah … software’s a lot easier to create than, than it ever has been, but that also kinda makes it challenging too, you know? Because there are so many pieces of the short-term rental operation [00:09:00] You mentioned you guys get all…

You take all of your customer feedback, uh, very seriously and that leads the product, uh, I would imagine. Um, what… Let’s see. So you mentioned smart home locks, you mentioned direct booking, you mentioned pricing, you have the guidebooks, of course, you have the property management software functions. Can you shed a little bit of light, Frank?

Like h- how do you… How does a software company like Hostfully manage all of those different new products, like, effectively and make sure that they’re, uh, you know, just stable and, and strong and a good fit in the market? Yeah. And again, I, I don’t have to deal with all of that. Our leadership team does an incredible job with all of that.

And even just our, you know, we’re just… Our culture and our environment, um, w- it’s, it’s industry ex- not, not [00:10:00] expectation, but, um, it’s industry knowledge I guess at this point, where Hostfully is one of the leading property management softwares in the industry, and it is because of our team. We work very well together from billing to development to sales to customer service to support to onboarding.

Like, we have this just, just this incredible environment in which we’re open, we’re transparent, we’re honest, um, in order to make all of these new features and capabilities, um, work. Uh, and, and the great thing with Hostfully is we will not release something that is not 100% at that point. Like, we have a lot of features and capabilities that are on our roadmap, um, which in the next couple of months it’s gonna be really exciting, so keep your ears peeled and keep your eyes open, uh, ’cause we have a lot of really cool things happening in the industry.

But the best part with Hostfully is we won’t release something that’s not ready to be enjoyed and used by [00:11:00] our customers. Um- Mm-hmm … so kind of keeping everything together, I would say, is, is the people and our relationships with each other is just… It’s, it’s one of, one of the best cultures that I’ve ever experienced, and it’s industry known that Hostfully has one of the best, um, cultures, but also customer success.

I mean, we have a customer success score, score of 97.1%. So our customers are really happy with us, and that’s because of our response time. Um, but also going back to innovations and having all of these new features and products come out is we’re doing it strategically, but we’re also doing it based on the feedback from our customers.

Now, do we get a lot of- It’ll be great if you have a dynamic pricing, uh, included or built into your software. Yeah, it will, but we’re not there yet. We have a lot of other features that our customers have been asking for and a lot of more… a lot of improvements. We’re focused [00:12:00] on that. Um, it’ll be great to have dine- direct booking options.

Is it coming? Possibly. I have no idea. Um, but it’s really taking the customer need and what they need from our software first, and then we can add those bells and whistles later on. Um, so it’s kind of just being a little bit more strategic with what we offer, ’cause again, like you mentioned, Tim, is there’s, there’s not one property management software that’s right for every single property manager, and I say these on all the podcasts, webinars, interviews that I speak on, is like you need to find the property management software that fits you and your operations, um, the best.

Uh, and then that’s the property management software you will use. Uh, and but there are a lot of property management softwares that will sometimes jump the gun and kind of put the cart before the horse in many ways, where those new products and features aren’t there yet, but they’re just, they’re just releasing those just to kind of [00:13:00] get more visibility for the property management software in all.

Just to check the box. Um, just, yeah, exactly, check the box. Where with us- Yeah … you know, there are a lot of products and features that our competitors have, um, but it’s still making Hostfully one of the top property managers, property management softwares in the industry because of that. Mm-hmm. Is that we’re not, we’re not putting the cart before the horse.

We’re taking our customers’ needs first, uh, and we’re going from there

Ah, gotcha, gotcha. Well, what would you s- who would you say, Frank, like is your ideal customer at Hostfully? Uh, you know, is it like the individual operator? Is it someone with a few units? Is it someone with a property management company or, or is it all of those? D, all of those. All of the above. Um, yeah, and I, uh, one of the things I love about Hostfully is that there isn’t like, there’s not one specific type of customer that’s the perfect fit.[00:14:00] 

Um, Hostfully is built for operators who are serious about growing. So if you’re serious about growing, becoming more efficient, and just creating a professional guest experience regardless of where you as a property management, a property manager are in your journey, Hostfully is the software for you. I mean, we work with hosts managing one listing, um, who are ready to move beyond spreadsheets and those manual processes that a lot of them are used to.

Um, but we also work with growing operators, you know, managing 10, 30, 70, 1,000 listings, um, who need better systems to keep up with their growth. Uh, so yeah, D is the answer. Okay. All right.

All of the above. Well, o- one of the, the features you mentioned that I’d like to pick your brain a little bit about is accounting.

Um, I think one of the things that’s changed a lot over the last years in the short-term rental space is the accounting. Um, I haven’t [00:15:00] found perfect systems in the property management software, you know, solutions that I’ve used over the pa- in the past. Um, and there’s also quite a few different ways to do accounting now.

Like, if you’re a property manager, there’s trust accounting. But if you’re an individual owner, like you just need to know how much your property’s making, and there’s a lot of pieces to it. Can, can you tell us a little bit about your guys’ accounting, uh, features? Yeah. I think, um, I think we can definitely improve there, and we’ve added so much more.

We have enhanced reporting. Um, but I think it w- the accounting module that we have And I think every accounting module, touching on your point, in property management systems can improve. Um, so we’re working to j- just to constantly grow that specific request because a lot of, uh, property managers in general just need better, better accounting.

We integrate with [00:16:00] QuickBooks. Uh, we partner and cl- um, and integrate with Clearing, which is, uh, one of the, the leading software for accounting. Um, and just kind of seeing what they’re doing and having that as part of Hostfully. Um, so even with Hostfully, we integrate with over 120 software. Um, so normally with accounting, uh, we focus heavily on our API, our open API, the seamless- the seamlessness to communicate between the accounting software and Hostfully.

Um, so there’s a lot happening there in terms of the integration of accounting, uh, which is kind of what I would push towards because like, uh, like dynamic pricing, cleaning turnover, accounting, like they’re specializing in that software, whereas Hostfully ha- you know, we’re, we’re all over the place in terms of property management.

You know, we have the automated communication, uh, the, the channel synchronization. Um, we want to [00:17:00] give 110% to focus on accounting, but we have a lot of other features and capabilities to work on. So sometimes I always recommend depending where you are in your operations Accounting obviously is super important.

Um, and like I mentioned earlier, that’s something that we’re working on, um, and we’re really excited. We have a lot of advancements in our roadmap, uh, our top of our roadmap, um, that will be released soon. We actually have a great team specifically focused on accounting because this guy, you don’t want- Mm-hmm

teaching you or selling you accounting. That’s not my forte. However, we have great people on our team that will assist you with that. Um, and I think again, just going back, it’s that, it’s that strong partnership and integration with accounting software that will help you do that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um, well, let’s see if, if you had to pick like y- the top feature, Frank, you think that sets Hostfully apart from some of [00:18:00] the other solutions out there.

I know there, there’s a whole bunch of things that you guys are doing and a whole bunch of services out there, but what, what would you say that you guys are sort of leading the pack in if you had to choose one, one area or feature? Overall, I think it’s just our UI. I mean, our h- our interface is so user-friendly.

Um, the channel synchronization, you know, we’re preferred elite, uh, with Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Homes and Villas by Marriott Bonvoy. Uh, we have a lot of channel synchronization, Google Vacation Rentals, um, and a bunch of other channels that are niche and specific to your market. Um, so I would say it’s the channel synchronization that is definitely a forte for Hostfully.

Um, so it’s just the overall, um, processes that we put in place, um- Again, I think a lot of it and what draws a lot of people to Hostfully are, yes, our features, our capabilities. We [00:19:00] help out a lot with, uh, direct bookings. Our software is built to make direct bookings easier. Uh, so our calendar is phenomenal.

Um, you know, it’s pretty to look at. Every channel has a designated color. It’s easy to read. You can toggle on each reservation for a quick, uh, high-level overview of that reservation. You can simply click on that reservation to get all of the stay details, um, the invoice, the rental agreement, the preferences of the guest, all in one reservation.

Um, so just again, h- using those features and capabilities and it’s again, having property managers with one listing and then having property management, uh, companies with 100-plus listings, they’re looking for something different. Uh, and the great thing is that Hostfully can accommodate each of that. Um, so it’s, it’s, you know, it’s– there’s not one specific, but I would say the channel synchronization, our calendar, our pipeline is unique to the industry.[00:20:00] 

Um, you know, if you, if anyone wants to learn more about it, please let me know. I’m more than happy to walk you through a demo and a meeting to get kinda granular on what we offer because that alone can turn this podcast into about an hour. Um, so, um, but overall, I think especially with Hostfully, um, in ways to stand out and how we capture leads and interests and ultimate Hostfully users is our innovation, our flexibility to work with you, our ecosystem where we integrate with all of these different software.

Um, and then of course, you know, just bringing it back to our people because our people and our team is who is gonna help you learn our software and all of the ins and outs, the workarounds, the, a- all of those details that you need specific to you and your company, um, and what’s important to you, and our, and our team will help you find that within our software.

Awesome. Maybe we could expand on that a little bit, ’cause that is one [00:21:00] of the challenges with software that starts to handle more and more pieces of the puzzle. There’s more things to kind of figure out and, you know, having a great UI is, is a good starting place. But, uh, what does Hostfully do or how does support work with Hostfully, you know, for a, for a new partner or a new, uh, customer joining, for example?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean the… Again, just like going back to Hostfully’s innovation and adding all of these features and capabilities, we have to learn it first in order to sell it. Um, but then once we sell it, that property manager is on board and they’re learning it themselves as well. And, you know, especially with our constant evolution, um, I mean, again, again, the, you know, like the last year alone, Hostfully devices, uh, expanding our, our accounting capabilities, screen and protect, continued investment in, in AI and automation, um, where we listen closely, obviously, to [00:22:00] our customers, and we’re building solutions that solve these real world challenges.

But as mentioned, every property manager operates differently, right? So whether you’re managing five properties, one property, 500 properties, our team gives you the freedom to build workflows specific, uh, to your tech stack and specific to your business, um, not the other way around. Um, and our ecosystem, you know, we have one of the strongest partner networks in the industry and a really robust API, uh, that connects our customers with the best in class solutions across, you know, revenue management, dynamic pricing, accounting, guest experience, smart home technology, all, all of those software that are now in this industry.

Um, but going back to what you asked is our biggest differentiator is our people. So, um, with Hostfully specifically Every customer is assigned a dedicated onboarding manager, and they will [00:23:00] receive personalized one-on-one onboarding sessions. It goes from two sessions, depe- uh, really we, we break it out in tiers depending on how many listings you have.

Um, but our onboarding team will not allow you to go live until you’re ready. Um, so we don’t really guarantee a certain amount of one-on-one personalized onboarding sessions, um, but we do also offer live onboarding office hours. So those happen Monday through Friday, one hour per day, um, and it gives our customers direct access to experts as they get up and running.

So you’re not just limited to those two, three, four onboarding sessions. If you have time during the week, and you have, we give you the schedule, you block those on your calendar. Yes, it’s easier if you don’t have a full-time job, but again, we’re a global company, so those office hours range from EST to PST, um, and some as well as international for our international [00:24:00] customers.

Um, the best thing about that is the success of those onboarding sessions led us to expand office hours to our customer success as well. So once you finish your onboarding, we don’t just leave you to the wolves. You know, we’re not like, “All right, you know it, you’re good to go.” Um, we have customer success team as well.

So customers have an assigned customer success manager, um, and they have access to regular, uh, CSM, customer success manager office hours throughout the week. So similar to onboarding, Monday through Friday, one hour per day for your entire life with Hostfully, you will have a day where you can talk to a real life, uh, customer success manager.

Um, and that’s just in addition to our 24 hour, seven day a week customer support, um, and a team that’s just so invested in helping that property manager grow long after onboarding is complete. Um, so again, just the [00:25:00] combination of like the innovative technology, the hands-on support, uh, that’s a big reason that we’re proud to maintain that 97.1% customer satisfaction score I gotcha, gotcha.

Okay. So when someone starts with Hostfully, uh, they have some dedicated onboarding sessions that depends maybe on how big the portfolio is or, you know, maybe the, the new customer’s, um, questions. But then after that they get assigned a customer, or, uh, a- an account manager basically- Essentially, yep … that they can join weekly at specific office hours.

And then on top of that there are also, uh, group office hours that someone can join in. Yep. So lots of, lots of support options. Exactly. Yep. And even with our, uh, 24-hour, seven-day-a-week customer support, all of our support team, our customer success reps, everyone, are Hostfully associates. [00:26:00] Um, we don’t outsource, we don’t third party.

Like they have our clients’ and Hostfully’s best interest at heart when assisting cl- when assisting customers. Um, you know, so if you need help you’re gonna get it, you know? And that, again, that’s why we have a 97.1 CSAT Awesome. Yep. Okay. Well, I’d love to, I, I’d love to pick your brain if, if you might be able to share a couple notes on, you know, where you guys are using AI and where you plan on, uh, incorporating AI in the future into the software.

Yeah. So, uh, I don’t know if you heard, but AI is one of the, one of the biggest trends in the industry right now. Um, and it’s, it’s with guest communication and the automation overall, and this is one of my favorite topics because it’s often where property managers see the fastest return on their investment.

Um, you know, when you think [00:27:00] about, like, the guest, the guest’s journey overall, guests need booking confirmations, they need check-in instructions, they need their Wi-Fi details, their recommendations during their stay. Um, but also what’s important is the follow-up communication after checkout. Managing all of that manually gets extremely overwhelming very quickly.

Um, and this is where Hostfully shines. You know, like, our automated templates and triggers really allow property managers, uh, to send the right messages at the right time, and you can get really granular as to when you send those messages before the stay ends, after the stay ends, before the stay starts, after the stay starts, um, on a specific day of the week.

So, you know, whether it’s a booking confirmation, a payment reminder, a rental agreement, uh, we even have a really cool, um, communication around upsell offers. Um, you can also review… Uh, you can, uh, request reviews automatically. That all happens automatically based on where the guest is [00:28:00] in their journey, of course.

Um, but we also centralize communication through our unified inbox. So we’re bringing messages from Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, text message, WhatsApp, email from direct bookings, and that’s all in one place. So the property manager as well as their teams just aren’t jumping between multiple systems. The unified inbox has been a, a great addition to the, to our software.

Um, what I always tell people is that, you know, automation, AI, it’s not about removing the human touch. It’s about re-moving that repetitive touch. So when software, um, when software handles, like, this routine communication- You and your team can now focus on delivering what we’ve all s- why we all started in this industry in the first place is for great hospitality.

Uh, that’s where it matters most. And really going back to the beginning of this, this, um, [00:29:00] this podcast, it was that communi- that, that experience I have in the hotel industry and recognizing the hospitality and how important it is in the short-term world especially because we are competing with hotels. Um, it, it, getting and delivering that great hospitality is where it matters most and having all of these automations in place will make it a lot easier to execute that hospitality touch.

Um, because g- uh, also, you know, guest expectations, they’re continuing to rise. We’re at the tip of the iceberg in this industry- For sure … but we’ve definitely seen the guest expectation, uh, increase. Um, and travelers want hotel-like amenities. They want that fast, accurate, seamless communication and auto- uh, automation helps property managers just deliver that consistently and constantly whether, you know, they’re managing five properties or 500 properties.

Um, and again, tip of the iceberg. That’s the really exciting part is we’re just getting started, you know. That we’ve already introduced [00:30:00] AI-powered capabilities, um, and we have even more innovations on the horizon, uh, that will make guest communication so much more smart, more personalized, um, and more efficient.

So, um, we do have that on the roadmap as well, uh, which we’re excited to share in the coming months. Um, but at the end of the day, you know, the goal is simple, Tim. It’s we wanna just help property managers deliver this five-star experience, um, while spending less time buried in these like repetitive tasks that we can really leverage AI, um, and, and take those manual processes and put them to the side For sure.

Well, um, yeah, there’s a reason, you know, tens of thousands of, uh- Yeah … owners, investors, uh, managers are using Hostfully, and you touched on a lot of things there, uh- Yeah … Frank. Um, and so- Yeah, there’s a lot of software out there as well that we integrate with, um- Mm-hmm … that specifically [00:31:00] focus on guest communication and automating that.

So, um, we partner really well with a lot of integrations that do that, again, because of our strong open API. Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s real important to have an open API these days. Oh, yeah. Um- And a good team to work with. That- that- that takes the cake. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, w- where… If someone’s interested in checking out Hostfully, uh, finding out more, what’s the best way to do that?

Um, I mean, definitely hostfully.com. Uh, you go on there, you’re able to review our entire offerings on our website. Um, if you want a personalized demo, I’m more than happy to give that to you, uh, and tailor it around your specific needs. Uh, you can email me at frank@hostfully.com, or maybe, Tim, I could send you my calendar, and we can include that in, like, the show notes or in any communication, and that’ll go [00:32:00] directly to my availability.

Uh, so you can book a one-on-one demo with me. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Well, um, yeah, I know there’s- there’s way more to a PMS program than we can uncover in a short little episode, but, um- Yeah … thanks for coming on, Frank. I know that gives, uh, our audience a- a better overview of Hostfully and some of the guys, some of the things you guys are, uh, leading the pack with.

And, um, yeah, looking forward to- to seeing the new updates as you guys evolve and expand. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And we’re excited to share them. So, uh, again, Tim, thanks so much, so much for having me.

We’ll- we’ll make sure, uh, to get your details in there, and thanks for joining us. All right. Thanks so much for having me, Tim. Appreciate it.