Saša Bosanac, VRM Days: AI brings a lot of savings in time and certainly better data management

Last year, for the first time ever, a conference was held in our area with a focus on private accommodation, agency business, property managers and those who want to raise their level of business to a new level. 

A segment that until now was not accompanied as it should have been, but it was VRM Days or Vacation Rental Management Days ( VRM days ) filled that important space and gave the industry a tool to exchange ideas, business practices, connect and constructively discuss how to be more efficient and increase rental income.  

In the beginning, VRM Days justified the expectations and trust of both domestic and foreign partners and stakeholders, and this year experts from the vacation rental industry, service providers and professional real estate managers meet at a new location, in Mozaik Event Center in Zagreb from October 21 to 22, 2024.

The second edition is filled with more than 40 lectures and panels with only one idea – professionalization and improvement of private accommodation in every aspect, be it qualitative, marketing, sales and technological aspect.

In addition to the announcement of the 2nd edition of VRM Days, I took the opportunity to talk with Saša Bosanac, the initiator of VRM Days to share his overview of the current state of the industry, emerging trends and the impact of AI on industry operations. 

The first edition of VRM Days confirmed that we need this kind of platform, Bosanac points out and emphasizes that everyone learns from each other at the conference. 

"Private accommodation is extremely important in tourism, especially in a country like Croatia. If we compare business in private accommodation 20 years ago and today, incredible progress is evident, but the market is increasingly dynamic and full of various challenges. Today we are faced with a large offer, and we are at a moment when we have to look at every segment of business, quality and standards in order to be more competitive. After the successful first edition, it was confirmed that we need a platform like this, which brings us all together and which will provide us in one place with basics such as channel management and online payments, all the way to revenue management, digital guides, etc.; in short, tools that will be useful to us in business. At this conference, we all learn from each other", says Saša Bosanac from VRM Days.

Channel management, direct booking, reviews, automated Ai responses to messages, monitoring reviews, connecting all smart devices in the apartment, price trends on the market - dynamic pricing, Revenue Management... Whats next? Or what's new in trends?

Channel management and property management system is actually something like Word or Excel on the computer and without that I think it simply doesn't work, and today I hope it is more or less clear to everyone, it's just a matter of choosing the right one.  There is no generic right one and the choice of this software is quite subjective and everyone chooses what best meets their needs, it is not the same if you have an agency, a small or a large hotel or you are simply the owner of a property. 

For example, many people still see dynamic pricing and revenue management as a "cost" and do not look at what they actually get with such solutions, which is potentially significantly higher income in a shorter time or better occupancy.

Connecting devices to smart home certainly, but today we also have devices that monitor the volume level or the movement inside the building itself in order to resolve possible disputes about how noisy it was or that monitor movement that speed up the process of changing guests and cleaning...

Reviews have always been and will be a very common starting point as to whether something will be rented before the other, but now we have solutions/software that deal with reviews only, and we also have FastReview. In my opinion, it is certainly AI driven support, experience, digital guides, but what is definitely needed is the setting of standards and hospitality, and certainly far better data management. So back to the basics with the help of technology.

Everything in the industry revolves around technology and data, as stated above, but the question is how to make a breakthrough or what is the next big thing in the industry? What are the opportunities for differentiation - do they all offer practically the same or strive for it?

Data processing is something that large systems have been doing for a long time, but agencies and property managers very often rely on the feeling that it is OK, but with the correct use of technology and data processing, some things like "bad season" can be avoided or amortized, and endeffect is consequently created brand awarness i loyalty which is the best outcome in the long run.

Luca Zambello from Jurny coming to VRM days. He created a certain disruption in the market by offering a PMS system for free? On the other hand, they base their business model on a 1-click process and custom API integration with a couple of partners in each category - does that initially "eliminate" others from their business model?

As for "free" and not really, he reduced it to a very simple level of use for the end user (idiot proof), immediately from the start he gave the possibility of investing and that was immediately different from others, but the price is still there . What he started right from the start was the use of AI in the automation system of all processes, whether he ultimately did it better than the other one, time will tell, but I believe that it is a quality system.

It certainly made a shift in the market and raised dust, but so did BoomNow, but experience and practice are crucial here and time will tell, and very often systems require some changes or additions depending on the market. But if the way to use AI in hospitality is the biggest thing, that's for sure.

There is constant talk about Ai. How does Ai already have concrete benefits for the industry, and thus their clients? 

I think that it is definitely data processing, dynamic pricing where a person simply cannot compete either in terms of time or quantity. The user is often of the opinion that he can monitor the prices, raise/lower and react to the market, but it is really not possible to do it well. What is also very important now is AI driven support, which brings a lot of savings in time, leaving the user more time to devote to hospitality, standards or some other project. 

How do you see our market? We have a more than competent market, even global competitors. There have also been some foreign acquisitions and mergers, while others are trying to expand beyond our borders.

There are a lot of acquisitions and mergers, while in some cases it "frees up" the hands in development and progress and is positive, some acquisitions are quite bad in the long run. However, this is an opportunity that smaller agencies should take advantage of. So you should definitely take advantage of it, and not be afraid of it. Acquisitions have always been and will be, but the consolidation of agencies on the market should be in order to be louder and stronger. In Croatia, more than half of the accommodation is private, and we don't stick together, and when someone bigger comes, we sometimes panic, but this is unjustified. 

My view of the market is the consolidation of agencies, solving some challenges together, introducing standards, educating property owners that it is not good for one property to be present in several agencies... In this way, we will achieve much higher quality and long-term work, and we will also be much more transparent towards the guest And more competitive on the market. It's very confusing when a guest is looking for a holiday accommodation and sees the same one under several names and at different prices, I haven't been asked just once if it's a scam or what? This is often unclear to the guest and is certainly not positive.

Croatia certainly has a lot of potential, as we all know, but we also know how to forget the basics. I believe that we can do much better and more, and if VRM Days helps in this whole process in any way, no one will be happier than us.

Finally, let's repeat the key information about VRM Days. 

Vacation Rental Management Days it is intended primarily for agencies and professionals engaged in mediating the rental of private accommodation.

Location: Zagreb, Mozaik Event Center

Kadfa: October 21 and 22, 2024.

Program: See the full two-day program in more detail on the website VRM Days.