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From 6 listings to 300: How Guesty enables Bookings For You to provide top-notch guest experiences at scale

July 01, 2020 |

From Corporate Life to Property Management 

In 2011, after leaving her job in sales and marketing at Procter & Gamble, Jo Mackay sought out a business opportunity that would allow her the flexibility to dedicate more time to her children. She founded Bookings For You with just half a dozen rentals in Italy and the goal of becoming a destination for holidaymakers around the world. 

Now, with about 300 luxury listings throughout Italy and France, she’s overcome the challenges of scaling a family business into an international property management company. 

The Challenge

While Bookings For You began as a way to free up time for her family, Jo quickly found that she was spending hours upon hours each day on menial tasks, such as updating availability, communicating with local teams and chasing payments. These daily to-dos not only kept Jo and her team up day and night, but they also prevented them from strategizing about how they could grow the business and provide better service to guests.

After trying out property management software from a small UK company, they found the platform to be difficult to use and were unsatisfied with the level of customer support. Bookings For You needed an intuitive property management platform that they could count on to streamline the day-to-day operations that were bogging them down. 

The Solution 

Jo and her team spoke to a number of property management software providers, but her conversation with Guesty stood out. “I’m a firm believer that ‘people do business with people,’ and Guesty’s very personal approach suited the style in which we work,” she said.  

“It soon became apparent that Guesty addressed the frustrations that we were feeling as a business and that it offered us a solution that would free up our time to provide better support for our guests and to start growing our business again.”

The Results 

Since becoming a Guesty user just over a year ago, Bookings For You has grown its portfolio by 15%, and they plan to continue expanding over the coming years. Guesty has made it easy and quick for their team to update availability, handle payments, make changes to listings and schedule local cleaning teams, saving hours each day. According to Jo, the booking process has become “hands-free” and all essential tasks are now streamlined and automated. Not only that, but the Mobile App makes it easier to manage the business when out and about — not just from the office — creating a healthier work-life balance. 

What’s more, with less time spent on menial jobs, the team can now provide an even more personal level of service for the guests, ensuring that holidaymakers can fully enjoy their stay. And, as Jo noted, “it also means that there is no limit to the number of properties we can take on…We pride ourselves on our personal level of service and we believe that this sets us apart from our larger competitors. Guesty has allowed us to retain this whilst streamlining and automating so much of what we do.”

As Bookings For You continues to grow, Jo feels confident that Guesty will continue to be a partner propelling their success: “Guesty genuinely cares about your business and they are constantly looking at how they adapt and improve their product to help you meet the dynamic and constantly changing demands of the travel market…I trust them completely. I can say with absolute confidence that you won’t regret signing up with Guesty.”

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