How Guesty is making it possible for Team W to provide valuable guest experiences
Amy & Todd Wiley, Team W Properties
Member since
THE BACKGROUND
Team W Properties was conceived during a corporate relocation that brought Todd and Amy Wiley from Dallas, TX, to Pittsburgh, PA. After being temporarily housed in an overpriced and less-than-stellar corporate apartment, it was difficult for the pair to ignore how much room for improvement there was in such situations. With the recent emergence of online booking platforms like Airbnb, the couple saw the perfect opportunity to make their mark in the marketplace.
THE CHALLENGE
Team W wasted no time acquiring apartments in Tulsa OK, Pittsburgh PA, Columbus OH, and Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth TX. Their market focus was multi-week to multi-month guests (mid- to long-term rentals), who were relocating on long-term business assignments or insurance claims due to storm damage. These long stays are simplistic to manage and reasonably profitable, and could managed with a basic excel spreadsheet – until one day you’re managing 50 units with guests coming and going throughout the week. The plan began as a great success, but suddenly as they scaled their properties, management became a seemingly insurmountable and endless task.
Team W then decided to take a look at the short-term rental market. When they saw that Airbnb alone makes up 3%-5% of the hotel market, they realized that they were missing out on major potential from online short-term rental booking platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com, and HomeAway. Since the number of companies willing and able to manage both short and long stays is extremely limited, Team W recognized the unique opportunities that offering both would bring them in the industry.
After taking this next step, the company decided to build their own in-house cleaning services rather than outsourcing them to manage the preparation between guests, and Amy’s Custom Cleaning was created. But while this optimized costs and the guest experience at the same time, it also created an additional tier of complexity, as now they had the staff to schedule and manage.
THE SOLUTION
Guesty offered a simple system to manage their newly perfected process, from advertising and booking to staff maintenance and task management.
Guesty’s task tool is perfect for managing Team W’s very busy cleaning schedule. Individual staff are assigned their units, and daily emails go out to them to show pending and confirmed tasks. An app is also provided for use for homeowners, managers, and staff. This app allows cleaners to check off inventory, take pictures, communicate comments, and notify the office when each unit is ready. The task tool even makes paying cleaners easier as it keeps records of the work they have completed.
The multi-calendar tool is a very powerful way to retrieve a guest’s or unit’s information very quickly. This is the dashboard frequently used to keep a finger on the current pulse of the operation .
The company is able to then use this perfect process across all the popular booking sites. They are also able to collect instantaneous payments for bookings, which significantly improves cash flow from their previous problem with sites withholding reservation payments until after checkout and forcing companies to pay for any necessary preparations up front.
The process Team W have created as a tremendously valuable asset that will allow the company to grow and thrive. Guesty streamlines this process, allowing Team W add units and effectively operate the business in multiple cities while assuring a pleasant guest experience.
Now that Guesty is in place, Team W is embarking on an ambitious plan to add 300 units in the next 12-15 months. The short-term rental market is thriving because guests see the value of renting a home in lieu of a hotel, and Guesty is making it possible for Team W to provide this valuable guest experience on a large scale.
