Launched in 2016, GuestReady is a leading hospitality and property technology company with a focus on urban short-term rental management. Its mission is to help landlords save time and turn their investments into a profitable source of income by using technology to bring the tradition of hospitality to the short and medium let market.
Challenge
Doing business in Babylon
François Lavie, CTO at GuestReady, is a tech whiz and digital nomad with a knack for problem-solving. He’s also responsible for troubleshooting any operational challenges the company might face.
Back in 2019, when GuestReady was expanding their service area, François was looking for a creative solution to the day-to-day struggle of sourcing and managing countless local taxi partners for guest transfers.
François recalls, “You don’t expect it, but it’s the little things that can create bottlenecks in your operation and growth. In our case, it was the guest transfer service. We worked with a network of local taxi companies to provide our guests with premium door-to-door service from the airport or train station to their rental property. But as we expanded our service area, it became increasingly difficult to manage all the different taxi companies.”
“Imagine the trials of searching for reliable, high-end taxi partners in every major European city. It’s like doing business in Babylon, a proper operational nightmare. It would get crazy while dealing with different cultural nuances, business practices, and pricing monopolies. We were spending an inordinate amount of time on this, and it was starting to impede our growth.”
François Lavie, CTO at GuestReady
Solution
A centralised, consistent, and competitively-priced transfer service
While discussing the company’s pain point with one of their investors, François and his team were introduced to Welcome Pickups and their technology-driven solution for ground transportation in the travel and tourism industry. Was this the missing piece in the puzzle?
François recalls, “We were intrigued by the idea of having a partner who could provide a centralised and consistent solution. It was especially appealing because Welcome Pickups is available in all the areas where we operate. And what surprised us was that their pricing was competitive in most regions.”
Thanks to the Welcome Pickups API, integrating the solution into GuestReady was a straightforward and seamless process that took less than a week to complete. This solution has enabled Françcois and his team to,” create a custom, unique landing page for each customer, with the photo of the property. It looks like a hotel booking page so it’s really easy for the guest to find and book their transfer.”
Results and benefits
Simplified operations and outstanding customer satisfaction
Since partnering with Welcome Pickups, GuestReady has been able to shift their focus back on their core business, knowing that the issue of guest transfers is now being handled by experts. As a result, they have streamlined their operations while continuing to provide outstanding service to their guests. They’ve also done rather well in terms of upsells, with 5% of their guests choosing to book their transfer with Welcome Pickups.
“We’re very happy with how it turned out”, Françcois said “The Welcome Pickups team is professional and reactive, which is really important to us. They’re also always looking for ways to improve their service, which is great. Our customers love the transfer service and we’ve had a lot of positive feedback. The average score is 4.8 and even the 1-star reviews are from people who thought that 1 star was the top score!”
François Lavie, CTO at GuestReady
Going forward
GuestReady is a rapidly growing company with big plans for the future. As François put it, “We want to be the leading professional short-term rental management company in the world. To do that, we need global coverage and a high level of service consistency. Partnerships like the one we have with Welcome Pickups are an important part of our strategy because they help us make good on our promise to always provide 5-star service.”
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