Rentlio - a tool that every serious renter should use

Family accommodation in Croatia makes up around 70.000 accommodation units, which is almost 50% of our tourism, and therefore everything speaks about its importance and potential for our tourism. It is precisely through family accommodation that Croatian tourism has its specificity and added value. However, each business segment has its own problems and challenges, so in family accommodation, if you are not present on the internet, you are simply not competitive and in the long term you are putting your business at risk.

It is no longer just important to be on various booking sites, but it is imperative to position your accommodation offer as well as possible. In the entire forest of family accommodation business, from checking in and out of guests, managing administration, positioning ads on booking sites, answering emails - hosts are getting lost, i.e. it is no longer enough to stand by the road and offer your accommodation, but it is becoming a serious everyday job. The purpose of every company is to solve user problems, and precisely in order to ease all the aforementioned troubles surrounding the entire family accommodation business, Rentlio - a system for automating the operations of small tourism facilities - appeared on the domestic market a little over a year ago.

Marko Mišulić from Zadar noticed that there was no advanced technological solution on the market that would unite the entire business in family accommodation into one online system and thus significantly simplify and ease the everyday problems faced by hosts in family accommodation, so he gathered a team and developed Rentlio application. I spoke to a young entrepreneur Marko Mišulić about his system that eliminates stress and administration for all renters.

Rentlio is a system for automating the operations of small tourism facilities. The application was released in beta in October 2014, while the commercial phase began in March 2015. Rentlio is an autopilot for renters. We offer everything you need to automate the entire operations of a property in tourism. From the reservation management system and the property itself, sales channel management and calendar synchronization of various online reservation systems, to guest database segmentation for easier planning of marketing activities, issuing and fiscalizing invoices, guest registration in the eVisitor system, etc. We completely eliminate all administration from the daily lives of renters and automate a whole range of operational processes that have been a nightmare for all renters until now” – points out Mišulić, adding that before developing Rentlio, they tried all other available applications, mostly developed abroad, which were expensive, lacked user focus, and were not aligned with the needs of Croatian renters.

Today, passivity is punished, the position on booking portals and marketing should be dealt with, and this is where the Rentlio tool is crucial, because we automate all the tasks that are repeated every day, Mišulić points out, adding that he paid special attention to statistics and the database: " Through the Rentlio system, the landlord knows exactly who his target groups are, how much they pay for accommodation on average, when they arrive, what their preferences are and all other details about his guests. This is very important for planning marketing activities. The landlord must proactively approach the market, because in the global race, proactivity is the only thing that distinguishes occupied accommodation facilities from those that are less occupied” – Mišulić emphasizes, adding that they are focused on small, i.e. family accommodation facilities, although they also have users from smaller hotels and hostels.

Rentlio as proof that software for the domestic market can be developed in Croatia

In March, Rentlio celebrated its first anniversary on the market and, as Mišulić points out, they are more than satisfied with the results so far. "All users who activated their subscriptions a year ago continued to use our system this year. This shows that people are very satisfied with our system and service. The average monthly growth in the number of paid users in 2016 was 26%, and 91% of users use Rentlio daily, which shows how our application has become an indispensable tool in the daily operations of facilities. Our greatest reward is that the growth in the number of users is based primarily on the recommendation channel of our existing users."

This year, the goal is to network 2.000 accommodation units, and in the long term they want to become a platform in tourism that will be much more than the application itself. With the organic growth of users, the number of employees also grows, and Mišulić claims that the biggest success is, as they proved that business can be developed in Croatia and in Zadar. "We have increased the number of employees from two to five so that we are growing healthily and organically. I am very proud that we are proof that it is possible to develop software for the domestic market in Croatia. Everyone said that it was impossible, we not only sell it but also export it since Rentlio, in addition to Croatia, is used in 6 other European countries” – Mišulić points out

"Landlords, i.e. hosts, have accepted the global review game imposed by booking services" Marko Mišulić

Since Rentliu is in contact with renters every day, I was curious about the situation on the ground in family accommodation? Have there been any changes in the past few years and what are the new apartments coming to the market? "There is a lot of room for improvement in family accommodation. From our experience, all the new apartments that come onto the market, or accommodation units in family accommodation, are of high quality and there are no more bad apartments. People have become aware that the market is very dynamic and that you can no longer sell the same service as you did 10 to 15 years ago” – Mišulić points out, adding that renters are slowly realizing the need for professional photography, modern decor, online presentation, and systems such as Rentlio.

This is certainly a good thing, because it is the image of our tourism that we send abroad, and a good reputation can be heard far and wide. For years, family accommodation was somehow left to its own devices and developed by inertia, i.e. private investments without a plan or strategy. However, in the last few years we have witnessed various educations, seminars and forums aimed at raising the quality of family accommodation. Have landlords finally accepted the fact that they must join the global game and be present online? " "Landlords, i.e. hosts, have simply accepted this global review game imposed by booking services. Everything today revolves around online marketing, reviews and how to position an ad in the eyes of global booking services. I think that even the "old" landlords have realized that it is high time for a change. The market is developing day by day, apartments are of increasing quality and definitely positive competition is pushing the market forward" – Mišulić concluded

Rentlio is a great entrepreneurial and tourist story that solves all the problems of hosts in family accommodation in a simple and practical way. In my opinion, Rentlio is a tool that every serious host cannot do without, that is, should use. Anyway, see for yourself and try Rentlio free of charge and without obligation for 30 days. As they say from Rentlio, get rid of stress and administration and focus on the guest and the sale.