The ALTIDO merger: How 4 successful property management companies became a single hospitality powerhouse
Meet ALTIDO
Not too long ago, they were four separate companies, doing their best to make their mark on the short-term rental industry in Europe. They were all operating in separate regions, utilizing distinct approaches to grow their businesses and capitalize on a promising young market.
The Challenge
They faced the usual hurdles met by short-term property management companies, such as providing prompt responses to inquiries from existing and potential guests and managing listings across multiple distribution channels.
And to combat these challenges, all four companies – the London Residents Club, Scotland based BNBbuddy, Hintown in Italy and the Portuguese RentExperience – had arrived at the same solution: Guesty.
Guesty was helping them manage the various channels they were listing on, consolidate and centralize their guest communication, automate their daily tasks and much more. Of course, a reliable property management software isn’t the only ingredient for success; with the right people at the helm, each company made a name for itself in its region, growing until they had maximized their potential.
At that point, each company knew that the only way to go even further was to join forces and continue the journey together. They saw that the fragmented short-term rental market was slowly becoming consolidated via mergers and acquisitions and decided to be the consolidators rather than the consolidated.
“We came together on the principle that as four companies we are stronger together. We have the ability to learn from each other, deploy the best operations, take the best people from each company and bring them up to a management level.” – Thomas Archer, Co-Founder
The Merger
It was actually during the first-ever GuestyVal, Guesty’s annual festival for short-term rentals in Tel Aviv, that the entrepreneurs behind these growing companies held one of their pivotal meetings and consulted with the Guesty team about facilitating the merger. With sessions about Guesty’s product and opportunities to mingle with employees and senior management, the event strengthened their resolve to go ahead with the merger and utilize Guesty as their fifth and final “partner.”
Uniting their distinct companies into one giant enterprise with a portfolio of more than 1,600 properties was no simple venture, but they knew the first step was consolidating their listings on a centralized property management software in order to unify their operational procedures.
“One of the really pleasing things we’ve seen from Guesty as a key partner for ALTIDO, is their willingness to put resources and expertise into this process. Our account managers have been very involved with us all at a local level, but also now at a group level.” – William Parry, Co-Founder
Whether it means helping to organize their financial reports, ensuring all branches of ALTIDO are utilizing the same channel integrations, or simply reaching out to ensure everything is going smoothly, Guesty is devoted to the success of ALTIDO, even including the business in testing phases of new products whenever necessary in order to best meet their needs and help them achieve consistency across the board.
The Future
“Merging is a tricky process,” says ALTIDO VP Avgustina Angelova, “but at the same time it’s amazing because you are learning so much from each other and you’re becoming something much better than you used to be as a single local company.”
The founders of ALTIDO advise other property managers looking to turn their businesses into enterprises to expand as they are able, but not to let go of the local qualities that endeared them to guests and homeowners in the first place. One of the main draws of short-term rentals versus hotels is the authentic, local experiences they provide and it’s important not to lose sight of that as you grow.
The entrepreneurial spirit that birthed ALTIDO is showing no signs of diminishing. The company is looking into partnering with real estate agencies and developers in the interest of expanding across Europe in the coming years. With all they’ve achieved until now, there’s no doubt they’ll continue to take the hospitality sector by storm .
