VRS683 - Why AI Cannot Fix a Broken Business Model

Heather Bayer (0:00)

When I sold Cottage Link Rental Management in 2022, we were running at 85% direct bookings. That didn't happen by accident. We'd been at it for 20 years, booking direct long before Airbnb was even a concept. For most property managers though, direct booking remains one of the hardest things to build. Guests arrive through the OTAs, they stay, they leave, and you're left with almost nothing you can use to bring them back. That's the gap today's sponsor, StayFi, is designed to close. I'll be telling you more about them later in the episode.

This is the Vacation Rental Success podcast, keeping you up to date with news, views, information, and resources on this rapidly changing short-term rental business. I'm your host, Heather Bayer, and with 25 years of experience in this industry, I'm making sure you know what's hot, what's not, what's new, and what will help make your business a success.

Well, hello and welcome to another episode of the Vacation Rental Success podcast. This is your host, Heather Bayer, and as ever, I'm super excited to be back with you once again.

If you have listened to this show for any length of time, you'll know that I'm fascinated by what's happening in short-term rentals beyond North America. And today we're heading to Europe. In fact, in a few weeks time, I'm heading to Europe for ScaleFest and for the Women's Vacation Rental European Conference. So my guest today is someone I've known by reputation for a long time, but never had the chance to talk with until now. Cristiana Carpini is the founder and CEO of Tara Home Consulting. And she's been working with property managers across Europe on everything, from acquisition to audits to exits. She spent years inside the big European brands like Novasol, Interhome and Belvilla before starting her consultancy during the pandemic. And that is a great story you don't want to miss. She's also the founder of the Women's Vacation Rental European Conference, which as I said, is happening in Barcelona this October. So in this conversation, I wanted to know what European property managers are actually talking about right now. Is it AI, like it is over here, or something else entirely? Cristiana sees inside dozens of businesses every year, so she knows. Here's my conversation with Cristiana Carpini.

I'm so happy to have with me, actually for the second time, Cristiana Carpini from Tara Home Consulting and the founder of the Women's Vacation Rental European Conference that I'm going to be attending in Barcelona in just a few weeks now. It doesn't seem very long. I say the second time because Cristiana and I tried to start this interview a week ago and tech got the better of us. So we're trying again. This sounds so much better, Cristiana.

SPEAKER_2 (3:19)

Hopefully, no storm and nothing is going to stop our Wi-Fi system, actually. Hi, nice to meet you.

Heather Bayer (3:28)

We had a big, huge storm yesterday morning and I woke up at 5 o'clock and the power had gone out. And I thought, oh no, and it was out for five hours, I think, because we were in a very rural location. And I was thinking, oh my gosh, I'm so glad it was Wednesday for that storm and not Thursday when we're recording this. So anyway, here we are.

Welcome. Thank you so much for joining me. When we had our abortive interview last week, I said, this is the first time we've met in person and now it's the second time. So this is-

Cristiana Carpini (3:58)

Actually, I always heard about you, so it was quite funny.

Heather Bayer (4:02)

This is going to be a great conversation because it's going to cover a few things. I want to talk about the difference between what happens in Europe and what happens in America and let's be very clear, in the vacation rental industry, we're not talking about anything else that's different between the US and Europe at the moment.

SPEAKER_2 (4:19)

It's weird talking about some other topics.

Cristiana Carpini (4:21)

I can say, like politics, for instance, I can say that we are very similar right now, unfortunately.

Heather Bayer (4:28)

Yes, yes, it's a weird world, but we're talking about vacation rentals and short-term rentals and yeah, that's also a weird world, actually. Let's start with your background in the industry, because I ask everybody who comes on the show, how did you get into it and why are you still here?

Cristiana Carpini (4:46)

That's a good question. I came by chance, actually. It was really by chance. I've been studying finance and then someone pushed me to realize my dream, which was traveling on cruise ship, the world which I did for five years was fantastic. When I was almost at the end of my five years, I was quite tired. Oh, I've been there. I've been there. I've seen this. So even go to a way, it seems life boring once that you do too many times.