Ihostme.com - Australia doubles its revenue within 6 months of partnering with Hostaway
Ihostme.com is a company based in Australia that helps make property hosting that much simpler. ihostme offers full-service property management and rental management for holiday homes. With Ihostme.com you can list your property on 3 of the top-tier booking sites which are namely - Airbnb, Stayz, and Booking.com
What can you stand to gain with ihostme.com.au?
If you are based in Australia and looking for a reliable, steadfast property management company, they are the right fit for you. You can rely on a team of experienced hosts for all your property hosting needs that are guaranteed to generate gross income of more than $50,000 per year through short-term rentals, provided your property is available for over 140 nights per annum.
Ihostme.com is one of the premium property management companies that partners with Hostaway. We talked to the team to get their perspective on their experience with Hostaway and ihostme.com Chief of Stuff, Jayne Parker, was gracious enough to share their story and answer some questions with us.
Ihostme.com, the company based out of Australia, boasts multiple locations in its portfolio across Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads in Victoria as well as Apollo Bay, Anglesea, Torquay, Portarlington, St Leonards, Geelong, Mt Martha, and Cape Patterson in Victoria. The latter places and areas are growing and they also have futuristic plans to expand into Melbourne, Tasmania, and NSW.
Jayne Parker, Chief of Stuff, ihostme.comIhostme.com was formed after observing the market for roughly around 3.5 years and seeing a void in the local market. Before launching the business I managed a friend's place locally. This was the catalyst for me to begin managing properties.
At present, Ihostme.com manages 44 properties in its portfolio. The company can now manage listings on three premium channels - Airbnb, Booking.com, and Stayz - and have fully automated direct booking with the help of Hostaway.
Ihostme.com Collaborated with Hostaway for a Property Management Solution that works best
Prior to using Hostaway, ihostme.com utilized its own booking tool, which was enjoyed by many clients and contained its very own Profit and Loss tool - albeit it did frequently have issues with being vulnerable to mistakes owing to the fact that the amount required to be manually entered into a spreadsheet. It was not a perfect solution since the three channels they worked with presented information in different ways, which resulted in inaccuracy and a lot of duplicate work for management.
Jayne Parker, Chief of Stuff, ihostme.comOne of our toughest challenges was our booking management had to be managed manually across 3 channels. This was a tedious task and extremely time-consuming. Plus we didn't have an automated approach for direct booking. The decision to partner with Hostaway has been one of the best moves we have made for the growth of our company. We have automated everything with Hostaway and everything is so much easier now!
Why ultimately choose Hostaway?
Jayne Parker, Chief of Stuff, ihostme.comWe realized we needed a permanent solution, especially with our portfolio expanding into several new markets. Whilst researching we did commence discussions with an Australia-based company but they didn't have the integration with Booking.com or Stayz/VRBO.
What is the most important factor for you with Hostaway?
Jayne Parker, Chief of Stuff, ihostme.comOne of the key reasons we chose Hostaway was because of your ability to produce owner statements and the fact that Hostaway offers a fixed price per month rather than a commission percentage. Managing the costs of going with a new provider was very important to me.
How was your onboarding experience with the Hostaway team?
Jayne Parker, Chief of Stuff, ihostme.comSomething absolutely noteworthy is our experience with the Hostaway onboarding team. Par excellence! The team was with us for two solid weeks - helping us with the transition and guiding my team when needed.
"Kudos to Florian and the team - They have been amazing in sorting us through the complex formula creation and holding our hand from the get-go!"
Ihostme.com made the transition to Hostaway during the offseason. For specific reasons of course!
Jayne Parker, Chief of Stuff, ihostme.comWe don't recommend it during high peak season simply due to the migration impacts on reservations.
What Hostaway features are the most important within your business and how do they help ease the load?
Jayne Parker, Chief of Stuff, ihostme.comFor ihostme.com it definitely is the owner statements. Once they're set up, they save a lot of time. There are still a few improvements that we need to be made in order for them to function seamlessly, to suit our business, but this feature is absolutely fantastic and we love it!
In addition, Jayne mentioned that "the automated booking system for direct bookings has been very helpful and has provided us with a more than doubled business within 6 months."
The ihostme.com also makes use of a few of Hostaway's integration partners including:
ihostme.com employs these connectors to tailor their tech stack to their specific requirements, and they are now completely connected with Hostaway.
Hostaway collaborates with cutting-edge integration partners to improve the property management experience. With the industry's most comprehensive range of integrations, our users may select the finest auxiliary software for expanding, automating and managing their properties on our marketplace.
How has Hostaway helped ihostme.com scale the business?
Ihostme.com verified that revenue has "doubled" year-on-year, owing only to Hostaway's smooth, seamless service to automate every part of the property management services and being the solution that was much needed for the company to gain this holistic growth in such a short span of time.
Hostaway has yet again proven that providing a service with high "Functionality" is the key to the high turnover of sales and accelerated growth for hosts and property managers in the industry.
According to Jayne,
Jayne Parker, Chief of Stuff, ihostme.comWe started with 16 properties when we cut over to Hostaway after restructuring. That now stands at 44! We have taken on a resort of 12 properties in that time and would not have been able to without the automated booking system/invoicing functionality provided by Hostaway
How has your experience been with our support team and your account manager?
Jayne Parker, Chief of Stuff, ihostme.comThe Hostaway team has been Great. Always available and very helpful especially when we needed to bring on the apartment resort just before Christmas.
In addition to expanding its portfolio, Ihostme.com plans to streamline many of its processes in the future. Having partnered with Hostaway, they have been able to make these tasks much simpler and thus produce better returns for their clientele. For a company with a vision for sustained and progressive growth, this is a major victory.
What advice would you provide to new hosts and property managers?
Jayne Parker, Chief of Stuff, ihostme.comGet on board with Hostaway! This has been the best decision we have taken in the interest of scaling our business and taking it to the next level. Hostaway has certainly transformed our business for the better. My advice is to make the switch early before your clients get too used to what you provide them at the moment.
Ready to find out how Hostaway can transform your business?
Launched in 2015, Hostaway has helped thousands of vacation rental property managers regain their focus on growing their business. Hostaway takes pride in aligning itself with the needs of the fast evolving landscape and always provide reliable technology and great support. Sign up today!
Don't get stuck in a broken routine with poor software, manage your properties with Hostaway and experience a better business and life right away!