Saša Bosanac, VRM Days: AI brings a lot of time savings and certainly better data management

Last year, for the first time ever, a conference was held in our region with a focus on private accommodation, agency business, property managers and those who want to raise their business level to a new level. 

A segment that has not been covered as it should have been, and is now VRM Days or Vacation Rental Management Days (VRM days) filled that important space and gave the industry a tool to exchange ideas, business practices, network and have constructive discussions on how to be more efficient and increase rental income.  

VRM Days initially lived up to the expectations and trust of both domestic and foreign partners and stakeholders, and this year, experts from the vacation rental industry, service providers and professional property managers are meeting at a new location, in Mozaik Event Center in Zagreb from October 21 to 22, 2024.

The second edition is filled with more than 40 lectures and panels with only one idea – professionalization and improvement of private accommodation in every aspect, be it qualitative, marketing, sales and technological aspect.

In addition to announcing the 2nd edition of VRM Days, I took the opportunity to talk to Saša Bosanac, the initiator of VRM Days to share his overview of the current state of the industry, emerging trends and the impact of AI on industry operations. 

The first edition of VRM Days confirmed that we need such a platform, Bosanac points out, emphasizing that everyone learns from each other at the conference. 

"Private accommodation is extremely important in tourism, especially in a country like Croatia. If we compare the private accommodation business 20 years ago and today, incredible progress is obvious, but the market is increasingly dynamic and full of various challenges. Today we are faced with a large offer, and we are at a moment when we have to look at every segment of the business, quality and standards in order to be more competitive. After the successful first edition, it was confirmed that we need such a platform, which brings us all together and which will provide us with the basics such as channel management and online payments, all the way to revenue management, digital guides, etc. in one place; in short, tools that will be useful to us in business. At this conference, we all learn from each other", says Saša Bosanac from VRM Days.

Channel management, direct booking, reviews, automated Ai responses to messages, monitoring reviews, connecting all smart devices in the apartment, price trends on the market - dynamic pricing, Revenue Management... Whats next? Or what's new in trends?

Channel management and Property management system is actually something like Word or Excel on a computer and I don't think it can work without it, and I hope that's more or less clear to everyone today, it's just a matter of choosing the right one.  There is no generic right one and the choice of this software is quite subjective and everyone chooses what best meets their needs, it is not the same if you have an agency, a small or a large hotel or you are simply the owner of a property. 

For example, many still see dynamic pricing and revenue management as a "cost" and do not look at what they actually gain with such solutions, which is potentially significantly higher revenue in a shorter time or better occupancy.

Connecting devices to smart home Certainly, but today we also have devices that monitor the volume level or movement within the facility itself in order to resolve any disputes about how noisy it was, or that monitor movement to speed up the process of changing guests and cleaning...

Reviews have always been and will be a very common starting point for whether to rent something before another, but now we have solutions/software that deal only with reviews, and we also have FastReview. In my opinion, it is definitely AI driven support, experience, digital guides, but what is definitely needed is setting standards and hospitality and certainly much better data management. So back to the basics with the help of technology.

Everything in the industry revolves around technology and data, as stated above, but the question is how to make a breakthrough or what is the next big thing in the industry? What are the opportunities for differentiation - do they all offer practically the same or strive for it?

Data processing is something that large systems have been doing for a long time, but agencies and property managers often rely on a feeling of what is OK, but with the correct use of technology and data processing, some things like the "bad season" can be avoided or amortized, and in end effect is consequently created brand awarness i loyalty which is the best outcome in the long run.

Luca Zambello from Jurny coming to VRM days. He created a certain disruption in the market by offering a PMS system for free? On the other hand, they base their business model on a 1-click process and custom API integration with a couple of partners in each category - does that initially "eliminate" others from their business model?

As for "free" and not really, he reduced it to a very simple level of use for the end user (idiot proof), he gave the option of investing right from the start and that's where he was different from others, but the price is still there. What he started right from the start was the use of AI in the automation system of all processes, whether he ultimately did it better than the other one, time will tell, but I believe it is a quality system.

It certainly made a difference in the market and raised some dust, as did BoomNow, but experience and practice are crucial here and time will tell, and very often systems require some changes or additions depending on the market. But if the path to using AI in hospitality is the biggest thing, that's for sure.

There is constant talk about Ai. How does Ai already have concrete benefits for the industry, and thus their clients? 

I think it's definitely data processing, dynamic pricing where a person simply can't compete either in terms of time or quantity. The user often thinks that he can monitor prices himself, raise/lower them and react to the market, but it's really not possible to do that in a quality way. What's also very important now is AI driven support that brings a lot of time savings, leaving the user more time to devote to hospitality, standard or some other project. 

How do you see our market? We have a more than competent market, even global competitors. There have been some foreign acquisitions and mergers, while others are trying to expand beyond our borders.

There are a lot of acquisitions and mergers, while in some cases it "frees" hands in development and progress and is positive, some acquisitions are quite bad in the long run. However, this bad thing is also an opportunity that smaller agencies should take advantage of. So we should definitely take advantage of it, not be afraid of it. Acquisitions have always been and will be, but the consolidation of agencies on the market should be so that they are louder and stronger. In Croatia, more than half of the accommodation is private, and we don't stick together and then when someone bigger comes, we sometimes get scared, but that is unjustified. 

My view of the market is the consolidation of agencies, solving some challenges together, introducing standards, educating property owners that it is not good for one property to be present in several agencies... In this way, we will achieve much higher quality and long-term work, and we will be much more transparent towards the guest and more competitive on the market. It's very confusing when a guest is looking for a holiday accommodation and sees the same one under several names and at different prices, I haven't been asked just once if it's a scam or what? This is often unclear to the guest and is certainly not positive.

Croatia certainly has a lot of potential, as we all know, but we also know how to forget the basics. I believe we can do much better and more, and if VRM Days helps in any way in this whole process, no one will be happier than us.

Finally, let's repeat the key information about VRM Days. 

Vacation Rental Management Days it is intended primarily for agencies and professionals engaged in mediating the rental of private accommodation.

Location: Zagreb, Mozaik Event Center

Kadfa: October 21 and 22, 2024.

Program: See the full two-day program in more detail on the website VRM Days.