Navigating the Fragmented Technology in Hospitality

The short-term rental industry, driven by its entrepreneurial spirit, overflows with software and tools, solving hospitality operators’ challenges. However, the integration of these tools often falls short, leading to redundancy in solutions and a mismatch in operator needs. Instead of streamlining processes, this technological fragmentation often complicates matters further.
In our session, we delved into the current landscape of hospitality technology, highlighting the integration challenges businesses face. This fragmentation impacts guest experience and profitability across different company sizes.The speakers discussed solutions to these challenges. They offered guidance for operators to navigate and streamline their operations.

Original source: watch on YouTube

Transcript

0:00
here for but I’m here to keep them on time and to give you outle time if you
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want to ask questions at the end it is an hour and 15 so it’s it’s a good chunking session um but also time for
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questions two important pieces of housekeeping number one if you have a
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phone by music but turn the sound off so you get interrupted and the second which
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is the most important one and I know because I’ve been on the stage here
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presenting we really like to know whether or not you got anything else with the end so fill in the review
0:39
please please please like you want your guests to leave you a review these guys would like you to leave them aw most
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importantly one I like to know is the session you next year so we got four excellent gentleman
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here we have n we have FR we have John and we have I was attempt to pronounce
1:00
the but I would get a um at this stage I will say
1:12
over all right thank you everyone for coming out um really appreciate you
1:17
after lunch in our session uh so today we are going to talk about the technology in the shortterm mental space
1:25
and specifically um it’s very fragmented it’s a very chaotic landscape and the
1:32
interesting thing is our industry the shorttime medal industry is about a80 billion industry in the United States
1:38
and about 172 billion globally and yet we have a lot of Entrepreneurship uh
1:44
with people coming up with Solutions and products that solve specific problems on
1:49
a consistent basis that’s a good thing because they’re able to solve problems and make life easier at the same time
1:57
there are so many tools uh overlapping feature sets um some tools Computing
2:03
some tools doing one thing in one way or another and so it creates uh a chaotic
2:10
landscape um and we have over 500 ches around the world at this moment and
2:16
other so today we have some of the best ls’ been thinking about tech uh Tech
2:23
fragmentation in our industry uh we have from JY from connect and here from um
2:32
from hospitable um and basically as a kind of
2:38
a famous problem there are lots of Technology you can see there are lots of different categories and within each
2:45
category um you know there are multiple options and solutions and how is a
2:51
property manager supposed to understand you know what tool will work for them and what won’t right so this is the
2:58
landscape that we’re working in so I think I want to start off by asking
3:04
you guys um why don’t you start i’ like each of you to kind of explain what you
3:10
think problem is in our industry uh and a little bit on where you that impacts
3:20
operators yeah nice to see everybody I’m excited to be here for anybody that
3:25
doesn’t know me I’m uh CEO and H of
3:31
why I’m excited to be here is because I’ve been talking about fragmentation for a long time and uh I’m very excited
3:37
that they SP recognize that as a problem uh it was a problem when I started being a property manager I’m not a property
3:44
manager anymore but that’s how I started and I grew a companies to 300 units um
3:49
across five different cities and Technology became probably my number one problem and where I was spending most of
3:56
my time actually to manage these different solution and making sure solution work properly with one another
4:02
and actually help me scale my operation and so I decided to go a solution for
4:08
myself at first and then turned that into a product and we took a complet different approach think that the rest
4:14
of the industry um I’m excited to be here and talking to this guys about this
4:22
problem hi everyone uh my name is Fran I’m the co-founder with Enzo connect we
4:27
are a guest experience platform for the vacation rental industry um solving fragmentation in a slightly different
4:34
way uh than what you might see on uh on today spanic but also in general in the
4:39
in the industry uh we operate about 25,000 properties we still startup but we’re excited to be here at herma uh and
4:46
meet everyone so thank you for having me heyo everyone I’m thank you JN for
4:54
and being prly stock and making it very International because we have two French than
5:01
and theable we have a very interesting story when it comes to FR rotation because we never wanted to become a PMS
5:08
most of you in the room will probably should not be a PMs and in addition to on to of it it’s m automation that’s
5:14
what we’re known for ‘re we have about 80,000 connected these things on our
5:20
platform and the best service that we offer is the guest experience products that automate allies all communication
5:27
with guest to the end and direct um a of solution we are mostly focused
5:32
on property and yeah talking about the matter of fragmentation and thinking
5:37
about the fact that there’s an overlap and product expand and you have mle funders who use the same thing over and
5:43
over we really stop it as that automated deing product and still I GMS so he
5:50
tells a lot of things about the state of things in Industry so I guess the question is you
5:57
know FR is because you L lots of different tools is tools on talking to
6:03
each other like what are some of the key things that you guys are you know identify as a for problem yeah I think
6:12
you mentioned a few of those problems I I think number one is there’s so many solutions and so many solutions would do
6:18
the same thing with the just kind bit of different flavor uh that’s one problem the second problem that we especially
6:25
when we are property managers and start Journey was that this solons are not
6:30
meant to be working with one another and the reality is you don’t only need a pricing softare you don’t only need a g
6:38
verification system you don’t only need a channel manager and a pment right you need all the solutions together and you
6:45
need to be working one another they to communicate different information back and forward and the industry is not
6:51
being built by that right um and so I know that we took different
6:56
approaches to this problem um but the the approach we took was to go to these
7:02
partners and say he number one choose one partner per category because we were like what a property manager has to do
7:09
is to actually do that first you have to choose your T and you have to then start implementing this different solution and
7:15
trying to make them work well one another so we did that for the property manager we took our 10 plus year
7:21
experience in the industry to choose the partners and then try to I don’t want to say force them but
7:27
like to to really say if you want to work with us you have to modify your API so that there is a two-way
7:35
Communications so that we can Implement everything and put everything into a single dashboard so what I’m saying with
7:41
this is that the infrastructure for a nonfragmented ecosystem did not exist up until
7:48
probably now and still doesn’t exist for many reasons from from for many of uh
7:54
software providers the SI problem is that when inders start there wasn’t this
8:00
many different solutions and so you have a lot of these Legacy pms’s most of the pmss are out there are 10 plus year old
8:08
and so they’ve been built that way but the industry has evolved dramatically since then and so that’s uh I think
8:15
second biggest reason why fragmentation exists so I’m going to go with something a bit more controversial and I’m going
8:21
to say the fragmentation problem the biggest problem behind it in my opinion is that we see it as a problem um it’s a
8:28
source of I think for a lot of tech companies as John had pointed out you’ve got companies ranging from guest
8:34
verification to Ops to experiences like expanding within your business and
8:40
Beyond and uh it’s only been happen from other Tech players and all these interconnections that you’re seeing
8:46
through your marketplaces and so on uh that being said it is understanding that having multiple logins and having
8:52
different vendors to pay for and understanding the dependencies between the different tools becomes more and
8:58
more complicated uh as as you scale so I think the one of the issues that I see
9:04
with fragmentation is that a lot of uh systems are going out there uh claiming
9:10
to be allinone or wanting to be all inone um and this kind of blurs the
9:17
lines of what they’re really good at and therefore deceives you as the property manager when you’re thinking of oh I
9:24
need an allinone solution I want everything in one platform um you know my Tech Team doesn’t interact with the
9:30
same tools that my sales team does we don’t build code on our crn you know as simple as that every scaling business
9:38
has different departments and different systems for those different departments now your objective as a property manager
9:44
is to figure out how to centralize all this information in all these different departments uh and I think today’s
9:49
conversation we’re we’re going to look at a few of these Solutions um you know that you might not even see in the
9:55
audience today but for you to build uh those data models and and store that information
10:02
so just as a commentary to what said a lot of it is just kind of
10:09
the fact that the different tools are not talking to each other in a in a seemless way and because of that
10:17
information the same information is is living in multiple places and and then
10:23
people are trying to make things work right and I I talk as more as a profer manager that’s where I come from but
10:30
that’s where Solutions start to try to figure out how can the various tools
10:36
start talking to each other in a workr that makes sense for your your business
10:41
so for me the the end Sol for property manager is that all these tools and have
10:48
you know multiple same data in different platforms like you
10:58
haveand to one another very important I I want to I mean I wanted to zoom out
11:04
but just can did a few a few things for company like those like bouncing what
11:10
you were saying we have 127 software rers we’re a team of
11:15
57 I was blown by by by those numbers but again every company is facing the
11:20
same problem about having the customer data say that our Revenue data are basically being exported by every team
11:27
to R Dee it’s also what seems OD to me is that the the original cardinal sin of
11:34
most of this industry which I’ve not seen anywhere else is the fact that the
11:40
OTAs have basically created a system where the only Integrations that were perable withd them as a main source of
11:47
customer data the only recipients were the property management software whose
11:53
responsibility was specifically to integrate with those third party adding value service provider
11:59
of which there is an overwhelming amount of which there is and we could have this
12:05
thought two years ago maybe we would have thought there was a clear winner there is still no clear winner in this particular industry and it creates to
12:12
duplicate the work multiple times over and over reinen in the whe both 12 operators and 12 software providers
12:19
alike going to talk about that later but it seems to me like there was nothing
12:25
particular in Industry to promote the communication of data and free and open environment to actually be able to M
12:31
this data and extract the most value out of it so that’s something that I’ve never seen industry I don’t think maybe
12:38
even healthare or financial services maybe have those very restricted buckets but this is vacation this is not the
12:45
same level of Regulation is not a regul industry sometimes there is to so but
12:51
it’s it’s I [Music] Myra 2020
12:56
plus I just want to add a little cont is so well well said especially with the
13:02
OTAs um now I have to be careful here what I say um but I just want to give a
13:07
little story for background um when I started my company it was we wanted to be a platform that would help digitize
13:15
uh the guest experience and U well the first thing I was asked was well do you partner with Airbnb for it and I was
13:21
like no I don’t and I probably do need to cuz I need to get access to reservations and so on and so we went my
13:27
go we went online try to figure out how can we work with Airbnb how can we get the reservation information so that we
13:33
could do whatever we wanted to do with it and while the answer is we couldn’t uh the API is closed off and you need to
13:40
have an application and speak with people so we were first engineered and we found a way to work with it and we
13:47
ended up going on Reddit and on Reddit we found an API key that worked uh so an
13:52
API is like literally you know the keys to the kingdom and it works and yes and
13:58
so the first like 2 months we had API access and we’re like yeah let’s go rise F about this um 2 months later stops
14:06
working cyber team at airb is like yeah you’re not doing this so I put on a fancy suit and I went across the street
14:12
to the Toronto airb offices knock on the door and I was like hi um friend I’m doing a startup and my API key is not
14:20
working and they’re like who are you um so I explained to them and they were like great yeah come back to us with
14:26
more properties ch supped to get more properties if I don’t have a so we went
14:32
out to Market and the only available systems that would allow us to connect to these channels or Property Management
14:39
Systems because they were the only source of Truth just just to give B more of the technical understanding behind it
14:45
these apis only one system can connect to your
14:51
OTS so if you have a really cool platform for trust counting or if you
14:56
have a really cool system for whatever it is that’s going to help your business it cannot happen right now because the
15:04
OTAs only have one single uh source of integration I we announced anbb
15:10
integration 4 days ago or a week ago that’s because everyb finally changed this I think all three of us actually
15:17
have gotten it um but there’s still a lot of work to be done from a data perspective in order to unfragment this
15:24
industry all the way from the booking channels down to your third party marketpl integration so just thought i’
15:31
add a little flavor to yeah know I think you’re bringing up a really good point and that’s the job in my opinion of the
15:37
PMS is that they have not like as a property manager in the years that I’ve
15:44
been a property manager switch five PS and if you talk to anybody that has like scale operation from a handful of units
15:51
to like 4 500 unit they have switched PMS at least three times at least and
15:57
they’re still not happy solution that I have right now CU in my opinion PMS stop their job and I’m not generalizing every
16:05
PMS but I’m saying most of them have and especially the Legacy one that have been
16:10
around for for for a long time they sto innovating in my opinion and like you
16:15
said the need of having a centralized database that collects all the
16:20
information and demands this information from their Partners that’s the DMS responsibility and that’s what I think
16:27
the winners of the future are going to otherwise Solutions like yours either
16:32
you go directly your which means then you lose all Theon activities with all
16:37
our partners or you have to work with somebody who understand this problem
16:44
for I just wanted to add something because here you have exactly the case of connect and basically had to go to
16:51
property man software as API get access to the data owned by the that they licensed uh in some way to to the to the
16:58
proper software for a company like conect for someone like fros that was
17:03
the go to market so the point is to read access data so that their service can
17:08
deliver value but obviously being a small seller eager to deliver value to
17:13
their customers first to focus has never been on pushing the data back so that they consed the experience for the user
17:19
of the spok software so that those users would then have that Holy source of
17:26
truth that is supposed to be the PMs and has been laging behind in my view for a
17:31
little bit too long um and that basically is the I think the the kind of
17:37
Wheel of the industry has been for the past maybe five years with PMS that are string to innovate because they have a
17:42
lot of connections Integrations that they want to maintain eternally therefore it’s very difficult for them
17:48
to catch up new technologies most reasons of which being you know you could have an example for smartlocks
17:53
could have an example for open a ching implementations and there is still
17:58
nothing from those added value service providers they are very fensive for them to do so saying that that’s fashion
18:05
for for a product company to deliver value to another service while they still want to char their customers on
18:13
another product so [Music]
18:18
it’s just to bring it back to the original thing because you as property manager is probably think okay great
18:24
that sounds like a you problem when it comes to Tech doesn’t sound me but actually affects you directly right
18:29
because when you’re looking at these different vendors and these different solutions uh we’re limited by the data
18:35
that we synchronize from other the channels the pays the OTAs and so on and I think what we’re seeing more and more
18:41
and and you might not see the um results of this just yet is API first companies
18:48
that are going to drive that kind of interconnectivity between the tools that you love and use or new tools that
18:54
you’re interested in um but one thing that I always proper is where is all
19:00
this information where where does it where do you centralize it and for the most part it’s in my p no one seems to
19:07
use a you know Google Drive although we going to get there soon or a notion or
19:13
some sort of Excel sheet to really centralize and use that as their datab this is the source of Truth for my
19:20
business and then I push it to the PMs and I push it this and that uh so I urge property managers to really start
19:27
thinking about their business as a tech company uh as well as of course a hospitality company uh because
19:33
things are going to start getting Messier I think before they get cleaning when it comes to technology unless somebody fixes it
19:42
for the way I see it part of this conversation is that fixed is kind of a
19:49
distributed solution as opposed to like an entity creating a s API for our
19:55
industry just because if you do that Innovation gets locked down that one API
20:03
you know created right so I want to kind of move on some things that uh we’ve
20:09
been thinking
20:16
forward so this is by mle means absolute terms of all the solutions but these
20:24
four options that we have on the screen right now kind of ways that we see as
20:31
have aspects of how the industry starts defragment so first you have
20:38
consolidation via acquisition right so these are bigger companies uh you be private companies or larger companies
20:46
buying up smaller players basically consolidating the tech with
20:51
the you know usually it’s to say we’re bringing that technology in house but
20:56
sometimes it could be to kill competitor sometimes to buy you know buy um you know buy their customers or that and so
21:04
the consolidation part is interesting because it puts it you know it can get to this like one platform that does
21:11
everything at the same time if you do wish for that you may start having
21:16
limited options in terms of the Technology Solutions that that is available for you to run oper
21:25
business integration you have Market and I think right now there’s a a lot of activity within our industry right now
21:32
on marketplaces where different companies are partnering and creating a
21:37
Marketplace and then the property managers go in and they can choose from PR Pon software and five um accounting
21:47
software and whatnot and it’s it gives you a lot of options uh but one of the
21:53
uh cons of that is again the PMS becomes the gatekeeper who gets to be on that
21:58
Marketplace and it doesn’t right so the PMS is essentially deciding for you the
22:03
options that you have available right is similar except that
22:08
it’s um it’s internal decision by by the company and they choose who they want to
22:15
partner with and right with their product um that was along the lines of what was saying actually let me I would
22:23
say um no one on this panel is on the acquisition side but on the ination Marketplace um here I would say
22:30
hospitable right now they’re doing a lot of marketplace um that there or I’m asking I’m not no
22:39
okay that’s fine um the fourth option right now and this is not a longterm
22:45
option is essentially semic custom builds so that you have multiple tools
22:50
that don’t necessarily talk to each other but creating workflows and links
22:55
so that they actually start working together so you get your option of the you know of the tools that you want to
23:01
use um without the PMS theer now the
23:07
reason why I I brought this up is I’d like you guys to kind of discuss the
23:12
various aspects of what you see the proposed on um both for you as
23:18
technology provider and what it means for property manag I’m
23:25
biased cuz I I think we are probably I I guess full white label um I mean and
23:31
and again for for us it was a a need as a property manager myself to just
23:37
simplify I think anything that becomes scalable needs to be first simplified and to simplify things is actually very
23:43
complicated it goes a lot of work into it but you know I always like to to use up as an example as a company has
23:50
simplii things from a user experience more products than one but what’s behind extremely complex they focus in the end
23:57
of the day experience and in my opinion 80% of the market is eventually going to
24:02
go there that’s obviously my opinion some people here have a different opinion but I I believe because at the
24:09
end of the day property manager property management is about the guest focusing
24:14
on creating guest experience focusing on getting the best assets and not spending wasting your time every day on making
24:21
sure your technology work and be on top of what’s the latest piece of technology we should be using I think that’s
24:28
someone else job if you look in every other industry that consolidation already happened look into into the C
24:35
side and marketing site with system like Hotpot it’s a one system that does all do they do everything in house no they
24:41
integrate other solution within their system but that’s their job to make sure that they rent Le the system and the
24:47
system works properly and is at as updated as possible for their users
24:53
right um obviously the I think the the solution that is going to still exist um
25:00
I think you called it as a kind like customized build custom build I think large proper
25:05
managers probably are always going to have a castom bill because and want say large into thousands of units CU they’re
25:12
going to have very specific needs that they’re not going to be met by by other players the other two I think especially
25:20
on the marketplace I think it’s going to be hard it’s going to be tough I’m not saying it’s impossible but the way it’s
25:26
been done today Talk work it wasn’t working for me as a property manager and I don’t hear a lot of people being happy
25:33
about that so that’s a that’s my me um what I say is okay so Acquisitions
25:40
let’s break down there’s two I mean there’s multiple reasons why get acquire running out of money or they’re doing
25:46
really well and they want to sell out and there’s so many different reasons um when I see the private Equity moves by
25:51
vacational companies or uh systems is squeezing the juice they don’t care
25:56
about building functionality uh they just care about charging you as much as they can uh when I look at companies
26:03
working together and buying each other out um then there’s opportunities there of collaboration and companies being
26:10
embedded within one another um but we haven’t seen that yet I mean can you guys name a uh company that bought
26:17
another company and then actually embedded the systems within it I wouldn’t say Ed but I think the
26:23
clest I see is on on youram two separate systems but they’re
26:30
not sunset in your progam is not yet right so so are they not sunsetting
26:36
because there’s a lot of customers or are they not sunsetting because the technology so I’m not going to go in
26:41
there because guess one of our partners anyway um but when I look at marketplaces white
26:47
labels and semic custom builds I think this is where uh you as property manager need to start thinking about what is
26:53
most important and what is the problem that you’re trying to solve um so when you’re bring on technology sometimes I
26:58
see operators kind of just sign out a bunch of tech because it solves a bunch of problems but they don’t think of it as the infrastructure of their business
27:05
right again I go back to this idea data and so long like how does this information share from one place to the next um so I do think marketplaces are
27:13
going to continue to exist it’s it’s in every industry uh whether it’s your
27:18
accounting systems they integrate to every other tool whether it’s what you mentioned hpot they have marketplace
27:24
with thousands of Integrations but I think for operators in the vacation
27:29
rental industry it’s going to be these sort of zapier like uh functionalities
27:35
because every single property management company that I speak with is different every owner is different every guest is
27:40
different everything is different and that is the biggest problem with a one siiz fits all One-Stop shop system is
27:47
that it just won’t work for your business uh on paper it works for most
27:52
businesses but that’s really work for your business and so the idea of bringing on best class white labeling
27:58
some of this technology providing a Marketplace as much as you go back to this idea of oh but it’s fragmented it’s
28:05
fragmented because your operations are fragmented um you’re not running a hotel
28:10
where you have one building and everything’s in the same place you have a fragmented business in a way and so
28:16
the tech stack reflects that as well to meet your unique Hospitality needs uh so
28:21
again I don’t have a specific view as whether or not the white label or Marketplace or custom is way I think I
28:29
think it’s a combination of of all three of them um that that’s going to propel
28:35
you into the next sort of digital age for hospital I just want to address one
28:40
you obviously you mentioned lab um I think if you do manage and you not
28:47
manage properties yourself you’ll understand there s CL their tool for everybody and there’s other tools that
28:53
are not tool for everybody right it has to be customized and I think a prop system actually needs to be able to be
28:59
adaptable based on different needs where you want managing like multi families or
29:05
like Boutique like uh style places or your single funding homes your system is
29:10
built well enough it needs to be customizable that way but single Solutions like a prising software you
29:16
cannot say that pring software is better for for different operators yes maybe the UI but theend of the day
29:25
right how many of you guys price Labs raise your hand how many of you guys have
29:31
wheelhouse raise your hand how many of you guys have Beyond pricing raise your hand you know what I mean it’s like
29:36
everyone has different systems for their how much time provider have you been on
29:42
the other side of the table cuz I have I spend hundreds of hours researching who the best providers you have to work with
29:48
and then at the end of the day maybe you don’t even like any swap it the end of the day the main thing that you really
29:54
need is to make sure that it works for what you’re doing it need to make sure you need you need
29:59
pricing you don’t need any confident without pricing you need pricing you pricing works you need that works you
30:06
need a system that is reliable you need someone who’s actually going to raise a hand and take responsibility over the
30:13
the technology and nobody does that in this industry it’s a finger pointed industry when I was on the other side I
30:19
was so frustrated how much these providers nobody took something wouldn’t work finger point you you never
30:27
is is everybody’s f is no one’s fa at the same time you’re like okay but I’m
30:33
the one who’s pay the price for it nobody’s taking responsibility over and to me that’s not sustainable I think the
30:40
industry just build them up in a way so that they can Shield themselves and I think that’s the problem the biggest
30:46
problem in my opinion with the marketplace is nobody takes responsibility and with the pmss the way they’ve been
30:52
bu yeah so here I F acced you you know
30:57
market so that’s that’s actually true we have little bit of everything and we have two and a half out of
31:05
four so integration Market places you have white you think about it but I want
31:10
to go back and think about the consolidation acquisition and there is nothing more exciting as software
31:16
providers to talk about how we can consol the marketing further for good reason um so just to give you a few
31:23
numbers ADV conentration especially in the United States the number of contractors went from 175 in a scope of
31:30
20 years I don’t think that’s necessarily winning for everyone and Amazon sells 75% of all books 64% of of
31:38
old books the thing is at what point is consolidation becoming concentration
31:44
becomes actually completely detrimental to providing customer value because then software providers have buy or compend
31:52
Cent and then what did your defense actually what if you load as an operat
31:57
Ator because you’re all running on the same platform on the same product One Outage can have a critical impact on the
32:05
entire vacation indry and I think that that’s will be completely on we’re not the
32:11
market vacation manag software that is basically Winer takes all I would have
32:18
said a few years ago that wi takes the most but there really that one one this is really a n segmentation they are
32:26
three different markets you have an Enterprise you have in Market you have self property self managers and they
32:32
have absolutely different needs different theis onto the product that we’re building um and going back there
32:38
was an example of slack versus disco um some of you using slack for your business in your company and you may be
32:45
a gamer and using this you realize this is the same product it has the same
32:50
features they just package slightly different way and more importantly positions to a different user
32:57
so going back consolidation and acquisition is a shame in our industry
33:04
for hundreds billion doll industry with so many capital that’s been injected over so long that you still actually
33:11
don’t have mergers that are based on the expansion of product it’s all about anization of a number of these thingss
33:18
and never about uning the user experience because it’s still too likely capitalized to really get one of those
33:24
fers get esape even companies that have raised
33:29
17075 million have still not broken the city that is really not SE any what the
33:39
case and again the So based on all customer verus your customer profile
33:46
which is really property owners and Sal managers which are really 85% of the market 85% of the listings there are
33:53
times when we want toate this unique spook products that are really going really fascinated but it’s a gross
34:00
margin killer the more Integrations we have the more we have to maintain those
34:05
Integrations to keep our satisfaction and that really limits our capacity to
34:11
develop new features or to expand the scope integration because some customers are going to be more interested into
34:17
that type of thing there’s always a customer that that type of thing U and that’s very difficult to commit on that
34:24
PA for the next 20 years and believe we are going to be successful because we’re going to have 100 Engineers working on maintaining counting
34:30
integration very hard propos we also went into the lab spes speak to us about
34:37
building a direct premum authoring time just zooming out we that
34:43
every corpy owner should have an opportunity to list their Cory directly but it’s very difficult you can anything
34:50
to do so in a way that going to be sustainable first charge back the first consolation the first email from your
34:55
payment processing the first gu that’s not going to be respecting grass RADS without any threat or B use without any
35:02
insurance that create if anything that direct is fantastic but it creates a
35:07
boom in the number of others that you need yourselves already so we decided that we would be buling those
35:13
integration together we maintain it and we provide one package which is close to a private UTA doesn’t offer tax
35:19
compliance going out to permitting taxes for your for your business that is going to be doing the payment processing you
35:25
don’t have to do any the writing that’s going to do the insurance with $5 million that’s going to do with the gas
35:31
betting and all those C services that you need to be running a successful TR cooking in business without having to go
35:38
through the ass of it and that’s anything that’s one case of bunding 30y offering into one and that’s what
35:45
everybody in industry is doing those are all integrators and that I think is delivering significant more value you
35:51
gain speed you able to negotiate terms and basically get that back to the customers because going to get something
35:57
that’s probably three times more expensive for them to buy but because we’re able to negotiate that as provid
36:03
they that 30% of the cost or n at all in cases so that that’s basically my
36:09
thought I find again just like like what is the goal of about having an
36:17
only one that’s about not fragmenting your gu experience and that’s about gaining
36:23
efficiency in your operations and as long as those two items are there you can be happy with
36:31
your text you can decide to be happy with your Tex absolutely you can also decide to be happy about either if you
36:37
guest have one floor unified and can reinforce your ground and you are still running business efficiently in a full
36:44
face way that works I just think that it’s difficult to do so because there are so many obligations and requirements
36:51
build this is only one that distracts software providers that you’re using every day from achieving those two two
36:56
things that I call Mission critical there too many instruction as so we want
37:02
to contribute to on integation P I’m not going to say that right now andar p as well but it’s it’s problem that is going
37:10
to be Sol by new operators because those currently in the market are already I
37:15
think stuck on that gross margin problem having to maintain so many things with
37:23
dig capitalization in any cases thank
37:28
you um so I have a very I think it’s very simple question do we want all in
37:36
one or do we I mean you have to Define all in one
37:42
because it means like right now it’s like it’s it means everything nothing I think I think
37:49
we all aging one thing but at the end of the day you need to fix the problem for the host and and you have to Sol for the
37:58
um I don’t think there’s going to be one I I think that there’s a it’s about
38:04
being true to a problem and really go deep into that problem and I think the bigger players in the industry stop
38:10
doing that I think that’s where the problem is really mly but I think the
38:16
newer generation software I think at the end of the day we can all disagree on many points we one which we understand
38:23
there is a problem in industry but it’s only recognized by a few and I think that’s the reason why we’re encountering
38:28
a lot of these problems and um yeah for us like I don’t know when we talk about
38:34
a black label I don’t know if there’s really a category to Define us specifically because we do go want
38:41
partner SP speci categories but we have many partners for other categories depends in a way we do have a market we
38:48
try to simplify things uh really for the hting have of today because me
38:54
personally I’m trying to build the software that that I wish existed when I was a property manager because really I
39:00
couldn’t be a property manager because I was focused on everything asked beside the guest everything else beside like
39:07
finding good inventory because I didn’t have the time my time was spent to trying to negotiate things with the
39:14
software providers and theying them work well with one another connecting to different channels natur didn’t work
39:19
pricing didn’t sink G vertification didn’t work uh uh Access Control wasn’t
39:24
working properly and and centralizing automated messages
39:30
wasn’t working properly wasn’t customized to my life so that’s why I started building I said I wanted to be
39:36
honest to myself and really build what the ultimate tool that I wanted to
39:41
have when I was F and I think consolidation is something that we’re is we’re heading to
39:48
consolidation whether we want it or not because has to happen because that’s what the consumer in the end of the day
39:53
wants and I don’t think anybody’s providing as of today besides two companies that have
40:00
start um I’m going to go back on consolidation though from what your in I
40:05
on like it’s it has nothing to I don’t don’t think it has to do with the the one system I think it just has to do
40:11
with the operational efficiencies that’s it um if if different systems spoke together in a way where uh when one
40:18
thing happens on one it updates on the other and send the information to do whatever you need to do um we wouldn’t
40:25
be having this yeah but it won happen if you have not a centralized system that allows for all that like Z for instance
40:32
that has done that for many other applications because there’s it’s it’s an existing problem in many other industry but nobody has done that for
40:38
for Hospitality you have to have MW if you don’t have MDW is not going to
40:43
work fair I mean I would say zavier is more the connector than the centralized absolutely a and this is
40:51
where I think looking at some of the tools that we’re going to be looking at this uh after connect the tools that are
40:59
out there rather than have one centered system that feeds all this information I
41:04
think you need to have it’s not work otherwise I think there’s too much uh tency in having one system that governs
41:11
your entire business so ym are worth sometimes hundreds of billions of
41:17
dollars that’s what they do and they centralize everything it’s true if you don’t have a system to it happens in
41:24
every single industry I’m not just making this up any industry you have a centralized system to centralized app
41:29
your PC works the same exact way whether you have a Mac or Windows that’s what a
41:35
operating system does Windows like you can have a Windows system or you can
41:40
have OS that’s an operating system that’s centralized everything for you and that’s where you all those programs
41:45
can talk to one another otherwise if you don’t have a centralized system it won’t work I I completely agree let’s look at
41:51
the verticals of managing a Hospitality business that’s what I mean is when you look at the different vertical of
41:57
managing a property business there’s the the operations there’s the distribution there’s the financials there’s all of
42:04
these different vertical now whether it’s one system that governs all three or five or one system for each let’s put
42:11
that aside for a second I think the main debate is finding ways to connect the tools that are out there already that
42:18
are doing a great job at a specific vertical that you might already be
42:25
using let’s have another hand no somebody need somebody needs to be
42:30
responsible is it the uh property manager responsibility to do that spends
42:37
what we spend at the time like literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in developing our own technology for what
42:44
somebody else should do that I think it’s a kind of a balance right like if
42:49
you have property management company and you have your specific needs then it’s
42:55
up to you you know to make the connection so that it works for right that’s the I absolutely disagree I think
43:02
a level customization should should exist but what’s the property manager
43:08
job I mean I’m asking you guys you guys join this industry because you want to be involved in technology on or because
43:15
you want to host guests to build a business no fine but
43:21
to build a business you need to build systems right any business looks at the prop they and creates a system so that
43:27
it doesn’t happen again comp work with CRM that already by
43:32
billions of dollars companies and and and they’re not developing themselves all right let’s look to your comment and
43:40
then I actually have a wa
43:47
to love this it’s a very tough job um I I just wanted propell you to be forward
43:53
because I think both of you are going to be right and I think of course have to way but I think the
44:01
risk development especially on the side of Earth which is just one of L but
44:06
still the prime is the the fact that they recently went on a wave of opening up the API to
44:13
more added Valu providers is basically step one onto a fundamental evolution of
44:18
the industry that I think every man of company has been has been calling for
44:24
the past few years we went on that integration from a paradigm of Monopoly
44:30
of the connection with the property manual software putting all the responsibility on that realizing that
44:36
actually most of the value for the that’s found from the PMS pretty muchal you think about it but actually from all
44:42
those added value service providers priceing experiences all the things that that that you need to have on the future
44:48
for future future of per fure business and on the T of breed rather than
44:54
holding one kind of best product for his the best product for pres not the best
44:59
overall nobody knows what it is but the best for you and I think because of the the
45:06
investment from that to that Technologies actually will probably unlock step two which is
45:14
fragmentation not based on property of software providers but really on based
45:19
of you have your own connection you can you can add more with a p con but you
45:26
can basically still retrieve and um gain extract more efficiency if you would like from those OTAs that allow you as a
45:34
property man have to own to connection I think they still a talk of town for 10
45:39
years but you Tech en property manag companies you have operators that become software providers because they have
45:46
experience they wish they would have not know that’s the case Journey but absolutely not very this industry at all
45:51
and I think that’s that’s now made technically possible be transparent about it at hospitable we have customers
45:58
that have thousands of distincts those are the one that CH cancel the services from hospitable not because they want to
46:03
switch to another chance but because they are building their home you have a case in Europe of Gest ready which are
46:09
not already because they have enough critical mass to be able to negotiate not directly they build their own
46:16
fragmentation is not having more funders that not talking to one another it’s the
46:22
catching up changing the p and allowing the actual people that give them money
46:27
give them the supp to have that direct connection so that you can have that take enable business without having to
46:34
deal with the PMS but building your own customer processes I think we’re talking before about the modes I think that is
46:41
closer to what is a mode for property management companies because those companies that will be able to invest into their Tech will be able as return
46:48
to yeah get more efficiency seduce more customers or clients to bring them more
46:54
properties that’s what I wish for in this industry in particular so for me
46:59
more fragmentation not less comes from a PMS
47:05
too more on the industry level not for you as an operator read your own
47:12
PMS good luck but that’s the point who should take responsibility of that like
47:19
I’m hope for to have a Marketplace but you need to be able to manage it nobody takes responsibility over disc
47:26
configuration to be working properly that’s the bottom line problem so I love
47:31
you and I I the only reason I say this because I fundamentally disagree with it even though we have different views on
47:36
it we’re both solving the same problem at the end of the day right we’re in the same uh we’re headed in the same direction for the property manager I
47:43
think as a property manager you know what your problems are maybe one day it’s Revenue maybe the different day
47:49
it’s operations maybe a different there is no software out there that’s going to dictate what a property manager means
47:56
I think a property manager comes in and says you know what I’m I know so you
48:02
have a problem you’re like you know what I’m having a lot of messages with yes we can’t seem to answer them okay I’m going to go hire a vehle I’m going to go use a
48:08
tool or I’m going to go do this I’m saying you’re missing the whole part I’m I’m saying the problem is not
48:16
the fact that you have to have multiple Solutions is the fact that those Solutions don’t work with one another
48:21
and there needs to be someone responsible to fix that so this is sustainable I have been on the outou
48:28
side I’ve managed properties and there’s no one that takes responsibility
48:34
actually a question or thought around this why not just create the MU saw for
48:39
the SDR industry why not do that like an API connector exactly so this is where
48:47
we’re at with this slide I’ll give you an example actually see so we were we were trying to partner with a company
48:53
for smart locks in the industry and uh this was a year and a half ago and they
48:58
basically this industry company I won’t any names came up to me and said yeah we could certainly do a partnership we’ll
49:04
be here and you’ll be here and I was just that’s a great start to any partnership um and so she was research
49:11
I’m like man this is going to be really hard to connect all these different devices CU one person is a the next person is yeah the next person is that
49:18
and so we found some people seen um I wish I know I wish I had kept it as a
49:23
secret I wish I kept it as SEC uh these two now use SE guest uses seam host way
49:29
us the seam it’s basically just an API connector for smart devices right that’s
49:34
exactly what you’re saying and I think this is what we’re going to see across the board with different vertical whether it’s payment gateways um I have
49:41
to go out and integrate strip I have to integrate L I have to integrate this that it’s so many different resources
49:47
when really all I’m trying to do is solve payment piece or whatever the other vertical of your business might be
49:53
so completely agree I think the the future sure and we see about 20% of Y combinator companies in the latest cow
50:00
are apis of something so I think what that gets at is one second what that
50:07
gets at is companies to start building out some fundamental infrastructure
50:13
within our space so that peers are Reinventing the wheel with ls and uh’s
50:21
not doing it but now guess is going see to do the loot
50:27
information few day a few weeks of uh you know development time I have some of the other cies up
50:34
there that’s not directly related to the short-term rental industry but play or PL that’s how all the financial
50:40
institutions are just connecting without everyone having to rebuild that API connection right rling is one on HR and
50:48
merge is another kind of an API company right so it seems like it’s not like we
50:54
need V to create an API for the industry but it’s more that we need companies we
51:01
need companies that identify the problem and then to your point theyve Tak
51:07
responsibility for the fact that that works and then we as software providers and usend users just expect it to work
51:16
right so I think that’s why I forwarded I think we making the same point get me up for something that I understand yet
51:23
but um I I just want to point something out like we’re seeing two different things like I’m not saying
51:30
that a the IND shoot the for this connections and yes there’s going to be
51:36
some property managers they want to be tax and they want to go
51:41
the but just like the computer industry there’s the high customization side of
51:47
things there’s also companies that come iniz things and I think the majority of you who want to have a product that
51:53
works and reliable and put together all this different API for natur because
51:59
we’re talking about API but if you’re talking about 90% of Po don’t know how to work with an API so yeah you’re
52:05
seeing your point of view but only from Tech side of stuff from being a tech
52:10
person not being aost of manag 3 years that’s I was in university before this I
52:16
have zero experience in Property Management so completely agree um but my only I think we’re saying the same thing
52:23
here and I’m not asking anyone to build any AP I think the argument is just that the movement for defragmenting this
52:29
industry is companies that are focusing on API first to create collaboration
52:35
that that is that is now whether we wrap it under one system whether we let you
52:40
choose the different systems that’s a whole debate bit of itself but I think the overall solution to fragmentation is
52:47
collaboration over competition it’s collaboration over all centralization of
52:53
this information and data as we’ve seen with as we’ve seen with pms’s and as we’ve seen with other systems you seen
52:59
one small component which is which is the probably the biggest technology
53:05
Revolution that we are ever going to encounter as Humanity which is AI and
53:10
not having a centralized system with all the data you basically have a power bu
53:18
AI we are probably the most best best company in the industry working with AI
53:23
we’re the only one actually as real life products with AI um I’m sure there’s a
53:29
lot of products out there but you guys can see it for yourself what we are doing and we can actually substitute
53:35
already what a lot of movie parts are made by needs today and that can only
53:40
work because we have a centralized system if you don’t have a centralized system that work just
53:48
just so um we have one question that then we I believe that one thing that makes
53:56
this one thing that makes this fragmentation very painful is the lack
54:01
of standardization because one of the difficulties with integrating with so many apis is that there are different
54:08
languages what is a booking what is a reservation a multiple a hold a tentative thing Etc uh why do we need to
54:15
have dozens of cancellation policies different for each Channel H PMS etc etc
54:21
and that’s where I believe in a way we wouldn’t need calization of ownership
54:26
Etc but we need a Common Language so that these have together and it’s a work that we all have to do together I think
54:32
the r is a great place for it to start we’ll need the OTAs to work but if we find a Common Language then
54:38
fragmentation will not be so so painful and it’s the work that we could all do
54:44
together I you know me standard for reservations
54:50
you have in this we want soing everything
54:57
always there um so you have implementations of those stards that’s actually the biggest prr because you’re
55:03
forcing CH managers software Chann distributions hey have a nice product
55:10
something happen to it
55:16
otherwise come on make money I want make money I’m going to integr every that’s what my customers are paying for but
55:24
Google is using the same closing OPI as booking.com so for software it’s
55:30
basically very easy I should say that full little words on that software very
55:36
easy never nothing is never easy but it’s basically a little bit better a little bit easier to now is that a good
55:43
API it’s a very different question I love earing this API because it’s really modern involv it standards are frozen on
55:52
the Ice Age whereas another AP mobile can actually react changes something
55:58
happened to us two three years ago that basally I got everything and we need to react strongly about conation polies and
56:05
all I reproted a every every time over basically having something
56:11
unified but it’s true that it needs to be very easy to develop with prop
56:19
software um with um with other channels Rec I believe I believe we towards at is
56:26
PMS L definitely you won’t need a connectivity partner it just means you
56:31
will add more to direct access to proprietary data bucket that your OTA is only about your guest so we have uh a
56:41
few months ago released a product iOS connect I’m sorry I will do a spech it’s for software providers that don’t have
56:47
the integration that would like to add it um and we basically releasing it with
56:53
I think a dozen companies that have implemented in that production which basically means that API where their
57:00
customers can connect their accounts and be able to manipulate their without having to deal with the burden of
57:06
managing the own integration and it’s a point AB zero we are developing it it’s
57:12
free for the B2B as others it’s free to the end user as well because we believe the biggest opportunity that’s being
57:19
Miss in this industry the fact that these things are not API connected which cause a problem for the OT in terms of
57:25
because for The Operators any size because they’re lacking efficiency and therefore they they’re going to stop
57:30
their business Al together and it creates fragmented Tech expence all over the place really really turn toer
57:37
industry when dies all over the place and has need to move between several differents that’s all but I I really
57:44
there were talks for the past five years about as th API I remember that very
57:51
distinctly the people that were in this tunnel were the people that were enterprising 1,000 plus properties and
57:59
they wanted to set terms to property management software um I don’t think I
58:05
don’t think anything come of it it just basically spe were really more about what features we are coming impl so that
58:12
was really a big gap between what I was expecting from those conversations and
58:17
and what actually is that it was again on the PMS side Integra with the PMS side and I think you’re going to have
58:23
what we doing with those people connecting into the works and service providers is
58:28
basically going to happen at the same time especially with that phase two on opening up a to more proper management
58:35
companies directly with a very low lowers get lower and lower is that
58:41
you’re going to need connectors to integrate prop management software as
58:48
well well that’s so much question to your point I feel like that is something for that to actually lead on a
58:55
vocabulary for the industry that’s some standardization that everybody could appeal towards that is international
59:03
that is something I think could do and would be really helpful do you agree or do you not think
59:08
they should be I think there be very difficult for an organization to force the tech road map of and and also just
59:16
general like we all use different languages uh program our back end front end whatever uh we all have different
59:22
data models based on structuring information and what we need it for um I
59:28
think one of the basics is going to be just the commonality around uh naming some of the variables that would be
59:34
amazing if you could not like have your API in Spanish get it if you’re in Spain but like do your API in English that’ be
59:40
great um things like that would be awesome but um standardizing apis to
59:46
that level is going to be very difficult I have yet to see a connector of of PMS
59:51
I think there was a there was a company we seen a year ago or That was supposed to connect all the PMs and provide it as
59:57
access to to to operators so again we’re not going to see I think it’s very difficult to see what you suggested um
1:00:04
but there’s some work that can be done by the RMA for sure uh to help technology companies at least share the
1:00:11
key variables that we can all use to promote Innovation Absolut and I think
1:00:18
if was if it’s kind of a top down approach I think the amount of future
1:00:24
inovation actually gets cycled at a certain point because that’s all that’s
1:00:31
kind problem like what already that innovation in
1:00:39
right okay so I have a cou questions um and they kind of go in two different
1:00:45
directions so one is how does right maybe this is a topic for another day
1:00:52
but Bic I’ve heard in the past it’s spoken that when you’re talking about
1:00:58
valuing valuation of a property management company that white labeling is the way to go that you do not want to
1:01:04
be selling a management company having just you know a test St that’s 15 de
1:01:11
because your your company is is really has no value really at that point you might sell based on contract if you’re
1:01:18
property management company because you don’t have anything is a value that’s an asset other the ACT contracts so I’d
1:01:26
like to get on that um another one is what is it that is the biggest road
1:01:32
block to open API right now is it money is it time what is the number one road
1:01:38
block for open apis and the last one is fr does the interview meet off this across the street
1:01:45
now um I can answer that second and third one third one yes now we been working with the know they’re an
1:01:53
amazing um um I don’t have say they actually are but the second part about
1:02:00
why don’t we have an open API and why companies there’s two two parts to it I think you look at it first is do they
1:02:05
even have an API um have they bu the documentation um have they gone through that engineering work to create a
1:02:12
structure where other companies can come and partner with them and connect with them um but I think the second one is
1:02:18
control the data because if you control all of the information and the data you
1:02:23
are in a position power you get to decide who you get to work with who you don’t want to work with and so on um you
1:02:29
know a lot of operators talk about wanting emails emails emails emails I want the emails have remarket my guests
1:02:35
and so on um it’s interesting because why do you think your BNB or v um don’t
1:02:41
share that why do they not share that information with you well because it’s part of their value proposition so at
1:02:47
every level of an immigration there’s a bit of information that’s being left out
1:02:53
because it’s very very unique to that system that’s holding it does that make
1:02:58
sense so I’m I’m sing information ABC but it is really valuable for me so I’m
1:03:03
going to keep it and I’m going to give you BNC and then company right under that is giving BCD they’re going to keep
1:03:09
B because it’s really valuable for their system and so it’s just this triple effect I I think more again I go back to
1:03:15
what I was saying more collaborative approach between different industry payers is what’s ultimately going to end
1:03:20
up solving all the operational efficiencies how do we get there I think groups like Vera are an amazing you know
1:03:27
are amazing communities that can help push all these tech companies towards that uh towards creating open apis
1:03:34
towards sharing that data wait for for a long
1:03:40
time um and I and I think like that’s where a middleware is coming into play
1:03:45
of companies that they’re going to be having tens of thousands of units or hundreds of thousands of units on their
1:03:52
platform and force the hand be like hey you need to give me all this API
1:03:57
information so I can centralize into a single place I’m sure that that eventually is have just said I just
1:04:04
think it’s going to take a long time before before we head to that direction and is a very significant
1:04:11
perent on the paradig holy PMS integration scope um I think on the PMS
1:04:18
side it’s really a problem of having to get so many things at the same time being on so many fronts and API unless
1:04:25
specific um products that really are going to be API person really SP a long time I think VR was a fantastic example
1:04:33
of that that was really interesting a lot that’s what what happened to them inquired shut
1:04:38
down too bad it’s basically part of the execution
1:04:43
required to Cy over impl so many so many features doing something that’s going to be and differentiated while working on
1:04:51
the same basis uh so yeah API is something that I realiz myself for
1:04:56
example I wasable something that was a little bit left on side now we inves significantly more especially to get
1:05:03
those as collaboration between product talking to one another so for example we are we’re going to be sping specific API
1:05:10
so that any provider can integrate and push data that’s going for so that then
1:05:16
we can show that data on our C you know BS so they basically it’s not our
1:05:23
problem because that’s killer they are going to do their interation work anyway because for those Val providers we are
1:05:30
go toet they after our customers but we going to require a push your data over to us you’re going to provide value
1:05:36
anyway that’s going to be distinct but push that data over to us that we can consolidate and we go back to your
1:05:41
product whenever that’s really valuable for your customer to do so which basically open the gates on on a lot of
1:05:48
features and allow to have as many operators as many different providers as
1:05:53
we can it’s not cost that’s because of their their product they want to do that
1:05:58
in different space you about really having asset as a as a
1:06:06
property manager um I I was on that end
1:06:11
as well because like when I I raise money from thecas as a a management company I needed to to sturing some of
1:06:18
our own technology but that’s like a really dous possible thing because you can go really far I’m I’m a big believer
1:06:26
that it needs to be some type of Base that is standardized and build and solid so you can build on top of I try to do
1:06:33
that on top of pmss and the but I think in systems like I’m hoping many more
1:06:40
than JY uh it’s going to be a great place to a for building stuff on top of we have large companies actually um some
1:06:48
of them I cannot share names of um even on the multi side that they’re building their own G on top of our system and
1:06:56
they um and so we provide all the technology from there and and from our
1:07:01
investors find out can show a lot of Technology they have built I think also when we were talking
1:07:07
about white labels we were looking at it as well from technology perspective the difference between the technology layer
1:07:12
and Property Management layer is that um you have be undervalued for for white labeling technology and other technology
1:07:19
in the Sass world as much as that might be the case with proper man specifically
1:07:24
because now we’re talking about service based uh business so I don’t know that does it not add value though I mean
1:07:30
that’s always been my understanding is that if you have a tech piece in place that’s proprietary to your company that
1:07:37
there is an added value when you go to sell your property management company is that not true there there is there is
1:07:43
from a branding standpoint I think like I think like owning for example gas mob or I guess what about we branding and
1:07:50
specific functionality that’s where we see a lot of this Lar management companies like on the multi family space
1:07:56
that they’re coming into the shortal space that’s not really what they doing um they they want to have this UniFi
1:08:02
experience for both their their longterm states and their shortterm states all have all controll system that’s where I
1:08:11
see I was just this perect segue what you saying because um I think it’s like
1:08:17
it’s not about the the app itself the technology that they own it’s about the data and over the past 2 three years Mar
1:08:22
is pretty much free and so a lot of property management businesses decided to become tech companies because you can get money by saying you’re a tech
1:08:29
company um you know they not going to point any new names but you could go out there and say we are a tech enabled
1:08:35
Hospitality yes $20 million on an 80 million post grade and you’re not even profitable you don’t have revenues
1:08:42
you’re a service based property management company but you get that money so now you have to show something
1:08:47
and I have seen Property Management Systems built on property management
1:08:53
system systems built on chain managers I mean it’s like the most remember what I
1:08:58
said about how the top layer gives information and then they keep a bit of it it goes to the second now imagine the
1:09:04
same systems doing that together they’re all identical but they’re working together so the the one at the bottom is
1:09:10
just not a good system but they got to raise money on it and it helps with their business so I would say value your
1:09:16
data more than any of the technology that you’re thinking of building necessarily do build something if it
1:09:21
helps plug in gaps um value more the data that you collect uh who are your
1:09:27
guests why do they come back why can you remarket them so well and you know you’re you’re a tech native property man
1:09:34
of business you’re not a tech business that Mak sense do we have time for one
1:09:39
last question thank you I want to tell you guys I’m not encouraging at all thank you
1:09:46
very for those of us that aren’t always in Tech the old motor guy too I remember when when software came out your Lotus
1:09:54
and your work and uh and Excel and they eventually both changed enough to become just one type of system the more they
1:10:00
change the more they became the same word perfect word you know you go down a list of of different technologies that
1:10:06
continue to change and so for us average guys on the street trying to figure out what to do here on a daily basis
1:10:13
essentially what I hear you saying is that okay if there is a central database a central system more than likely a PMS
1:10:21
that’s open enough to the apis out there that that whoever at the end of the end
1:10:26
of the day becomes the best you know pricer the best uh communicat with guests the best one of
1:10:33
those you know let the best man win but we’re still a long ways from that and that’s what that’s what I can be saying
1:10:39
100% and that’s where you have to do your right ask a lot of questions figure out what are the key problems that
1:10:44
you’re trying to solve we talked about pricing we talk about gu experience I think people jump into software too
1:10:50
quickly because it it’s marketting that you might want so ask
1:10:55
the right questions and go through those demos I mean I again I’m sure I don’t know you don’t demos you you cater to
1:11:03
posts I you’re absolutely right I new stage
1:11:11
within our industry so there are lots of options and there’s a lot of innovation and that’s part of the excitement but
1:11:18
the problem right over time as more and more yes we’re perfect my
1:11:26
disappear and moft right so that’s kind of we at the
1:11:32
very early stages of because of that we having this conversation and it’s want to close
1:11:40
thank you guys thank you as we just want to try have this
1:11:47
conversation so we all acknowledge the problem and start working as an industry
1:11:52
towards the thank you [Applause]
1:12:04
all