Attracting Investors and Going From 4 to 20 Units - How iGMS Accelerated Andes STR’s Growth

Here at Airbnb Management Company and advisory firm from Toronto, Canada – Andes STR, we have integrated effective vacation rental software from iGMS. This has resulted in the growth of our business and has allowed us to provide a better service to our valuable customers. Let us share with you the whole story. 

Background

The unstable economy has posed many challenges for investors. There are concerns over a potential market crash and difficulties in sourcing primary investments, so it’s little wonder investors are seeking alternative ways to invest their hard-earned cash. 

Whilst at Andes STR we accept that investors are having a tough time, our forward-thinking CEO and company founder Sebastian Rivas, also points out that the current climate offers attractive prospects for entrepreneurs. 

The sharing economy is big business, with real estate platforms such as Vrbo and Airbnb continuing to shoulder the impact of an increase in peer-to-peer activity. There are more opportunities than ever before for those keen to invest in real estate. 

Andes STR was created to help investors put their money into real estate, allowing them to take advantage of short-term rental cap rates. We identified that real estate investors were attracted by higher cap rates, and therefore keen to invest in the short-term rental market. However, we also noted that investors were confused about the framework and the potential risks involved. 

It became obvious that Investors needed assurance from a reputable company, and that’s where we stepped in. With a solid background in real estate management banking, management consulting and asset management, the team at Andes STR are well placed to answer questions and provide solutions. 

We strive to offer a comprehensive service and decided the best way to meet the needs of our clients would be to gain a clear understanding of the challenges faced by short term rental hosts. 

Challenges

We set about managing multiple units committing to vacation rental management of two properties for a couple of months. Our team soon began to get to grips with the operational issues faced by busy hosts – problems related to communication, organization, the screening of guests, etc. It soon became apparent that when you’re operating more than one property rental there are a lot of balls to juggle! Surely there was a way to pull everything together and manage it all from one place.

We began to explore pricing strategies and marketing plans, and looked into cleaning schedules and improving guest communication. We then developed a framework to improve the guest management system, before preparing for ramp-up.

Here at Andes STR we were determined to help hosts put a robust guest management system in place, and make the most of their short-term rental business.

Solutions

Perplexed by the number of things we had to deal with we decided to try out vacation rental software in a bid to find an effective solution. There were many short-term rental management software options available, but we weren’t too thrilled by what we found. The majority of property management systems (PMS) seemed to be pricey, low quality, and either not comprehensive enough or overly complicated to use. We were looking for affordable vacation rental software that would allow hosts to keep track of everything -we simply wanted to keep control of our short term rental business from one user-friendly dashboard. 

Following a thorough search, we came up trumps! Discovering vacation rental software company,  IGMS (previously known as AirGMS) we were very impressed – everything was so intuitive. From the unified inbox, and templates for automation, to the in-built user interface. 

Users could also access property notes, manage tasks, and view/alter their calendar. We snapped up the chance of free demo and immediately knew the affordable short-term rental management software would help us, and other hosts to improve and expand their business. 

Following the successful installation of iGMS, we were able to pinpoint huge improvements. We believe numerous features contributed to the success of the vacation rental software:

• Guest Communication:

The ability to communicate with guests from one central screen really helped to speed processes (communication was effectively cut in half) and reduce errors too. Past communication could be easily seen, and new conversations easily monitored. Our team was able to “pin” and mark messages as “unread” – which helped us to stay on top of the many conversations. Automated templates also proved to be very valuable. 

• Guest Screening:

We were able to screen guests more easily. iGMS vacation rental software allowed our team to check out guest accounts – in terms of date created, reviews and verifications. This helped us to eliminate problems associated with accepting bookings from undesirable guests, such as dealing with the damage and the need for additional cleaning to sort out the mess left behind.

• Tasks:

We found cleaning schedules were much easier to formulate. Tasks could be assigned without any fuss, and there was no chance of missing out a property. This saved time and provided the cleaning team with useful instructions prior to undertaking the job in hand.

• Multi-Calendar:

We discovered we could manage the calendar efficiently with iGMS vacation rental software. The multi-calendar option allowed for macro and micromanagement, providing data to gain an overview of gaps in occupancy, and allowing us to hone the pricing strategy. 

• Report Production:

iGMS short-term rental management software also made report production easier, offering transparency and allowing us to keep track of the performance of each short term rental unit. It was much easier to compare units and historical performance, and this provided us with a basis for making improvements going forward. 

• Offering Support:

We have to say, we really enjoyed the level of support offered by iGMS. All too often vacation management software is installed but not quite used to the best effect, with iGMS that just doesn’t happen! Hosts get to interact with real human beings – there’s a dedicated team on hand to offer full technical support. They are available to discuss new features, talk with hosts about integrating an account and they are also open to suggestions and new ideas.

Results 

 “After integrating iGMS into our operations the quality of our service is only getting better, and our business keeps growing. We started working with developers on new projects in Canada, the US, and South America. Multiple domestic and foreign investors are investing with us, and we have even started dialoguing with well-known institutional investors. We were able to compress the time required to achieve this by a factor of at least 2x thanks to iGMS.”  

Sebastian Rivas CEO and Founder of Andes STR.

This quote, from our CEO Sebastian Rivas, pretty much sums up our feelings on the service provided by iGMS. We understand why the software is described as vacation rental software by professional hosts, for professional hosts, and it’s apparent that the team at iGMS has worked long and hard to hone their product.

We’re pleased to report we have experienced rapid growth, and in less than three months, we have increased the number of vacation rental units from two to four, and then twenty. After integrating iGMS vacation rental software we have streamlined our processes and vastly improved the quality of our service. 

We have no plans to slow down! We are currently enjoying interest from a number of new investors, and our team has been working with developers on exciting new projects in the US and Canada. All of this has been achieved much more quickly than anticipated thanks to the well-cultivated vacation rental software developed and delivered by iGMS. We thank them for helping us to expand and grow, and we are looking forward to finding out what this innovative company will bring to the table next.