[00:15:25] Tim Rosolio All right, Merilee. So, million-dollar question for you. Industry’s been in some interesting spaces over the past few years through the pandemic, coming out of the pandemic. What are the big predictions for the coming year?
[00:15:37] Merilee Karr I think one of the things that we’re going to see is actually the trend that vacation rentals are going to be used more for business travel. We’ve seen during the pandemic that business travellers started to look at it as an alternative. And people used vacation rentals when they travelled for their own personal holidays and realised, oh, wow, if I can stay in a flat when I travel to London or Paris or New York for business, wouldn’t that be amazing? But I think what’s also been great is as an industry, we’ve come together and we’ve got initiatives like TrustedStays, where all the professional operators in the industry can demonstrate their credentials on duty of care, accreditation and all of these types of things so that it’s possible for companies to allow their employees to stay in vacation rentals for the first time. And I think that’s an incredible opportunity for people to have more choice when they travel, and whether that is because they’re relocating and it’s going to be for a long period of time or even if it is just a trip for three or four days when they’re visiting a city for business. And so, I think that’s going to be something really new for our industry that we’re going to see in this post-pandemic recovery.
[00:16:47] Tim Rosolio Yeah, Merilee, I think this is a huge opportunity. When I was out of school in the first decade or so of my career, I was in consulting, and I travelled probably about 50 weeks a year, and I stayed at hotels, and it just wasn’t the experience that I wanted at the end of a long day. I have all these memories of watching TV while lying in my bed and falling asleep. And what I really wanted was I wanted to hang out while living. And short-term rentals are going to be a great opportunity to do that. At Expedia Group, we’re launching the One Key loyalty programme, and I think that might be an opportunity for some of these business travellers to say, well, wait a second, I can actually earn points for my stay and burn them on my vacations similar to the way they act historically in the hotel world.
[00:17:34] Merilee Karr Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. And when I used to travel and you’d go from one nondescript hotel room to another, and you’d wake up, and you almost couldn’t remember which country you were in. You’d have room service come to your room and you’d be sitting at this desk with the BBC up above you. And it’s just an awful, awful experience. And if you’ve ever stayed in a vacation rental, you just know you can have a completely different experience. And I think people have cottoned on to that and are excited about that new product that’s out there for them.
[00:18:03] Brandon Ehrhardt Yes, it’s so interesting. Actually, I was talking to a developer two weeks ago who is developing something at Key West, and like half of the units they’re forecasting will be used for business-style retreats and utilising vacation rentals as a place to bring teams together. So, very interesting, very timely. Thinking about the entire booking experience. So, from what a traveller is inspired to the frictionless booking experience to the stay and then the post-stay experience, there’s really a couple of different players. There’s the traveller, there’s the OTA, and the host. So, let’s talk about the responsibilities of the OTA and the host. And Merilee, I’ll start with you. From your perspective, what’s the responsibility of the OTA and what’s the responsibility of the host?
[00:18:47] Merilee Karr So, look, I think the relationship between OTAs and property management companies, our hosts, is really simple. OTAs are fantastic because they bring guests to property management companies or owners that they would never have been able to attract on their own. The OTAs are great at how they curate that content. I think one of the big things that we’ve seen recently is being able to see hotels and vacation rentals alongside each other. I think that’s a really cool way for people to find the product they’re looking for. It’s the responsibility of the property manager to provide accurate information. We call it the niggles of personality. Be really open and honest about what that home is going to be like so that there’s no surprises when the guest arrives. And I think more and more what we’re seeing in the property manager segment is the use of technology to augment great guest experience. And I’m a big advocate. The guest experience is not all driven by technology. You need that personal touch. But I think the more that you can use good technology so that the people in your team are there to provide that really great experience, then all the better. We’ve seen better technologies coming into the market, be that guest apps or even the systems that run behind the scenes. So, we use Hospiria, and that’s been fantastic, because we can automate so much of what we do that it means that the cleanings always happen when it needs to, and somebody is there to greet the guests and meet them upon arrival. And all of those things mean that the guests actually get some more personal experience, even though we as a company have fewer people delivering that service, because we can be way more efficient about how we do it. And I think in this world where costs are rising, that efficiency is incredibly important, but you can’t lose that personal touch. Because I think that’s where OTAs and the hosts and property management companies work really well together. When you’ve got that personal experience that the guest feels end to end that they’re being looked after.
[00:20:56] Tim Rosolio Merilee describes this really well. And the thing that I would layer on top of this to a certain extent is, I view it as a flywheel. The way it works is OTAs show transparent properties, and we provide a great and seamless booking experience. Great property managers provide a tremendous experience that’s super consistent and has all the personal touches. And then the OTAs find ways to reward Merilee for doing that, whether it’s via reviews or content, so that Merilee can get the next booking based upon the delivery of what she’s done. So, I think it’s a great opportunity for it to almost be circular for when people provide great experiences, it helps them get the next booking and it helps them grow their business.