181. Guests are Picking Hotels. Here’s How to Win Them Back. Interview with Bellhopt

0:00Natalie Palmer:Hello, welcome, and thanks for checking in today to No Vacancy, the podcast. I'm your host, Natalie Palmer. I'm an Airbnb ambassador and 17-time superhost, and I've hosted over 1 ,000 reservations. I'm a stay-at-home mom of two and manage my eight listings remotely. My mission is to help new and experienced vacation rental hosts turn their listings into fully booked, profitable properties that can be managed from anywhere so you too can have no vacancies. If that sounds good to you, let's get right into the show.

0:51Natalie Palmer:Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of No Vacancy, the podcast. I'm your host, Natalie Palmer, and today I have on Milad Goads and Alex Ali. They are the co-founders of Bellhopped, who if you guys are coming to level up your listing next week, you guys are going to get to see and meet the guys from there. I'm really excited to talk to you both today. I think that what you've created is going to just be a game-changing service for short-term rental hosts. Bellhopped, if you guys haven't heard of them, is the concierge layer for short-term rentals, and they are bridging the gap between hotels and short-term rentals.

1:26Natalie Palmer:I'll kick it over to you guys to kind of introduce yourselves. And I want to hear a little bit about your founder story. Tell us a bit more about Bellhopped and why you two created it. Yeah, of course. My background, honestly, Milad's background probably as well. We've been best friends for the last like 15 years. So we both travel a lot. And what we've seen like during our travels is that when we first started traveling, we were typically staying at airbnbs and towards the end of our travels like like around i think it was 2020 2021 around that time we saw that we're drifting towards back to hotels and and one of our last trips i think we're in tokyo and we're like hey wait why did we pick a hotel over an airbnb like we just kind of thought more deep into it and it was due to the fact that you know hotels provide all these amenities it's consistent and that's how we kind of came up with the idea of bellhopped where can we you know bring that consistency to short-term rentals so don't i mean he hits the nail on the head i mean i feel like a lot of times people who are going to short-term rentals i think it's one of the most beautiful inventions ever that has ever been created because it's it's putting you into the culture of that city and hotels are typically people are going there because you got the amenities everything's on autopilot you leave the room you come back you know you got turned down service everything's cleaned you got you know you got a mini bar your phone you can call the lobby or the bellhop and you can get anything as quick as 30 seconds so i i believe you know alex said it perfectly we wanted to bring that into the short-term rental space because they have created something so beautiful where you could say in someone's home that's embedded in a city that you walk down the street and see the culture of that city rather than being in a skyscraper with 30 ,000 units.

3:29Natalie Palmer:One thing I really like about your founder story is I asked you before we started recording, neither of you are short-term rental investors or owners or operators. and pretty much every founder I've had on the podcast who has created some sort of service for short-term rental hosts started as a host. But I love that with you guys, you were strictly on the traveler side and that's how you saw a need for this. So I feel like your approach and your solution is just like so authentic to what the traveler needs. So can you give us like a few examples like for someone who's never heard of Bellhopped, like what are some like immediate like concierge services that you guys can help with like paint paint a picture for us of that user experience so yeah so we're actually launching a mobile app we started as web-based because when you onboard a host or a property manager you want to make it very like frictionless so the easiest way is to get someone onto your site is one for on the guest side we we have them They don't have to create an account.

4:34They just click a link. They don't even have to know the address. So when we designed this thing, we made it as easy as possible just to order and check out.

4:44Natalie Palmer:How does the platform actually work? So I'm a host. And if I decide I want to add Bellhop as something that my guests can take advantage of, what would be like the steps for me? Yeah, yeah. So that's a very good question. So the steps are very, very simple. We integrate with most PMS systems and property management softwares like Streamline, Guesty, and a couple other ones. And for hosts, that's their hub of reservations and where they send out booking confirmation, emails taken, credit cards, everything for a property manager. That's their hub. They even have a marketplace where they could add on amenities and all that stuff.

5:26So we're in the marketplace for them. And it's very easy for them to just click a button to add bellhop. What we do is basically we send messages to guests arriving and we send them a message basically saying, do you want pre-arrival groceries? They click a link and it brings them to our ordering platform. Like Alex was mentioning, it's very frictionless. A lot of vendors or amenities, you have to download an app or you have to put in information, you know, the delivery address. But in the short term rental market, there's a lot of property managers that for security purposes, they don't give in.

6:06They don't give the delivery address until maybe 24 hours before or even on the day of arrival. Right. So for us, we already have the delivery address. So the guest just clicks a button, opens up our ordering platform. Our software depicts the closest grocery store to that short-term rental with inventory levels and pictures of everything, descriptions. And on top of that, we have over 20 ,000 SKUs of product on our ordering site. So anything they would like, even baby diapers, flower bouquets, anniversary cards, anything you see in a grocery store, you'll see in our ordering platform. So for the guests, like Alex was saying, it's fairly frictionless because they just add to cart, go to checkout, put in the credit card, and it's done.

6:50They get receipts and tracking. And when the order is completed, they'll get an email saying that their order has been stocked and delivered. and they can click a button where it says, see my stocked fridge. And they can see where all their items is before they even walk into that house. And if there's no brain work from the customer or the guest, it's very seamless operation for them.

7:12Natalie Palmer:You already answered one of my questions before I could ask, because I was going to get into like, what's to stop somebody from just like using DoorDash or like Instacart to bring over their groceries. But you bring up a great point about the address and everything. And it's so true. Like even if you're an avid Instacart user, you know, you have to put in the new address. Like you might have all your settings saved, but now you're in a new city, you're flying in, you're renting a car, you're doing all the things. And then the last thing you need to be doing is going into your Airbnb app or whatever and finding that address and coordinating the drop-off time to after you've checked in so they don't bring it early.

7:48Natalie Palmer:So Bellhop syncs in with the whole like trip itinerary. So it's all handled. Yeah. The one thing about even if they were to have the address ahead of time, the thing is with Instacart, they would just leave it at the door. We take it one step further in which we go and stock it in the fridge. There might be ice cream. There might be meats. There might be things that can get spoiled. And so our team will go and nicely prepare it in the fridge. So when they like walk in, it feels like, you know, wow, like someone really like just took the time to go. and elevate my stay and enhance my experience.

8:26We always just say, when we go on sales calls, when we speak with property managers, it feels like they're staying at the Ritz-Carlton. Let's just say, we always give that five-star arrival for every guest and we have 20 plus states. And it just looks like the same person has done every single order because our consistency and our quality is just, we're very good at our QC.

8:51Natalie Palmer:From the host perspective, how would it like actually work? So I know you guys are launching a mobile app, but I would be able to go to like bellhop.com and just say like, I'm a host and I want to add this to my property. I integrate it with my PMS. And then from there, how do my guests find out that I am a bellhop host and that they have access to these concierge services? What we have done on our side is if you integrate with us, every time a reservation gets booked, we send emails on triggers. So if it's on the week of arrival, you will get an email, let's just say seven days before arrival, with our ordering link, a little blurb of what we do, which is the pre-rival groceries and all the other amenities.

9:39And if they're interested, the guests will click on that link and then bring us to the ordering platform. And since it's connected to their PMS system, we have all the information, right? So it's very, like I mentioned in the other segment, it's very brainless for them because we already have all their information, the delivery address, their reservation ID, the entry instructions. We're already partnered up with the host. So I hope that answers your question.

10:05Natalie Palmer:Yeah, yeah. I guess my question is like, I would think like as a host, I don't have to be responsible for like, okay, I need to now add to my automated messages. Like, by the way, we partner with Bellhopped and you can check them out. So the host literally doesn't have to do anything. You guys send that communication directly to the guests. You know their arrival date and all of that. And you're the one then handling the communication from there. So currently the communication is on the host's behalf, but we're transitioning. So if someone who is integrated with one of our partners and we have that integration, we will be able to take over that communication and if they're not we have an onboarding team in which we'll have someone come in and assist the host and setting up these you know these templated messages we'll we'll show them 10 different types of templates at the end of the day we always tell them hey you know it's you're it's up to you what you want to send but this is what other people are sending so we'll show our other okay okay that's good so at least it takes the guests work out and all of that.

11:09Natalie Palmer:And this leads me to another question. Do hosts earn a cut from this or what's the like pricing structure? Like how does it work with hosts and guests on that front? So how it works for the host is we give 5 % commission back on each order. Okay. Awesome. So, and, and we are free for our bread and butter, our grocery delivery. we are absolutely free for them. And on every single order, they'll get 5%. It will get automatically transferred to their bank account of their choosing. And they'll have a whole host dashboard where it will show their upcoming orders. Every time a guest orders, they will get an email with their commission, who the guest is, the address, the date.

11:52The host is always in the known. I actually just want to touch on that as well. We're currently, as of right now, we are free and we'll always be free for grocery delivery. But as we launch this app, we're going to be offering, you know, a variety of services and specific markets and every vendor that we've onboarded onto our platform, it's all curated per market. So we're not just taking in, you know, like every single vendor that just signs up. We're going to have to vet them. And if they want to offer these different amenities towards their guest experience, you know, for every single booking, this is the one thing that we will charge a subscription for.

12:34So like, yes, grocery delivery will always be free. But if they move towards the app side, that is something in the near future is what they'll be charged for. Okay.

12:46Natalie Palmer:And some other examples of services like you guys do, like masseuses, private chef. Like what, like, what's the limit here on like what kinds of services people can order? So, I mean, it's everything. We do car rentals. It can be exotic car rentals. It can just be standard car rentals, masseuses, IV therapy, yoga instructor, any service. And we actually want the host to be empowered as well. When they subscribe, it looks like, you know, the host is offering these services. We put their logo. it's it's more focused like towards the host i know you know right now i mean yeah there's experiences and services offered on bigger platforms but you know hosts don't really get the credit for it so we are gonna empower the host to make it look like you know wow like they're taking care of me i've had that before like i've had guests who have inquired about i don't know like a masseuse or something or like getting a haircut while they're like staying and all I've been able to do is just send them like, hey, I literally, it's just me Googling like masseuses near this zip code.

13:55Natalie Palmer:And then I just text them like, hey, here you go. You know, you can look through these, but you're right. Then it's up to the guests to just go and like call them and see who has availability. So being able to just, you would just direct them to the Bellhop platform. The guest signs up and then they'll see all the vetted vendors in that area. And they already know the address of where they're showing up and everything there is taken care of? Yeah, so I mean, we basically just get initial service requests. So they'll fill out some details about what they want. They can choose from the service and then they'll let us know what they're kind of looking for, right?

14:31From there, we'll return a few options in which they can choose from based on budget, based on if it's the Italian cuisine, Japanese cuisine, they can pick and choose. Hosts can also make their own services in which they can take, they can price it themselves. It's kind of like a Shopify marketplace for hosts.

14:54Natalie Palmer:Okay, okay. So what are some ideas there? Let's say that I personally as the host offer, let me think of something, somebody says they need to add a baby package and I could bring a pack and play and a high chair beforehand so I could create my own service that then they can book that. Is that the idea? Right. So there's going to be services where it'll offload the operational load to Bellhop, right? And services that we offer. But if a host decides to create their own service, that's their team. And that's, you know, they're going to have to take care of all the logistics and care of that. So, for instance, we have a few hosts over here in Newport Beach and they have they offer surfboards, for instance, or like was it the bicycle boards?

15:47Yeah, bike, e-bikes, sure. Like beach stuff. Yes. If they have this inventory and are willing to take care of the logistics of that, they can make a little card or a little listing within the app and it'll show the host marketplace basically.

16:05Natalie Palmer:Yeah, that's great, too, because there's there are so many hosts that want to be able to offer extra services, but it becomes so clunky, like the way that you have to book it. Are you just messaging back and forth and, you know, figuring out what time do you need the surfboard dropped off? And then when can I pick it up and where you can leave it and where I'll drop it off? So this just fully takes care of it. And it all syncs up with your PMS. So you could have somebody on your team that's almost like designated for handling this, this extra service and everything goes to one place for them. They don't have to like sort through Airbnb messages to figure it out.

16:43Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I actually just, I was helping a guest. There was an issue where she was having a problem, but one of her biggest concern, and we take in feedback from guests, hosts, even our team, you know, just so we can always improve. and but one of the things was that she asked me what's the address to her rental property and I said I'll take I'll take care of that for you but she's her biggest complaint was I have to sift through hundreds of emails from the property manager so that it just that just happened about an hour ago so I mean it's funny that you bring that up.

17:16Natalie Palmer:Wow what other services are you seeing hosts create like that's a great example of just having extra product or inventory that you can rent, but what other things are you seeing? Like, I'm sure you've seen hosts get so creative with what they can offer.

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18:02The one that comes to my mind is we have a couple of hosts that have put, they have, these are smaller operators, not too big, but they just wanted to do like a side thing where they have a bunch of electronic bikes. In Newport Coast, everyone's on an electronic bike. on those e-bikes they go you know either restaurant to bar or to the to the ocean or to the beach and he did like a side thing and he and he you know bought like 10 of these e-bikes and he was putting it on bellhopped and he's making a killing just by just by using our technology and how easy and and how much of an autopilot for him there's no operational lift for him We tell him, okay, this guest at this delivery address wants the bike at this time.

18:52And he's the operator. He just goes and does it. We're doing all the operational lifts for him. And he's getting paid.

18:59Natalie Palmer:I know a girl. She was in my mentorship last year. And she does a lot of hosting in Florida, specifically in a very retirement-heavy community. She'll actually be at Level Up. I'm going to have to introduce her to you guys because she had this idea to start investing in golf carts for her guests and just make extra money there because she said it's a heavy retirement community and they would all call and say, hey, do you know where we can get a golf cart? And she said she couldn't find places like you could only get golf carts on the golf courses. But all the people who live there, all the residents, they all have golf courts, but there was no rental place.

19:38Natalie Palmer:so she was telling me that she thinks she wants to invest in a few exclusively for her guests and then as we were talking through it she was like wait if i'm having this issue i bet you all the other airbnbs are too like should i just buy a fleet of golf carts and do this and i don't know i'll have to catch up with her at level up and see if she moved forward but i know a huge sticking point was just i'm already a host do i actually want to add an entire other service and how will even like facilitate it and get the marketing out there. So that seems like a perfect like solution for something like this.

20:09Natalie Palmer:And so she can still manage her rentals and be through her PMS for that. And then she could also come on as a vendor with the golf cart inventory and now get marketing and exposure to the other rentals. And even for her own rentals, do it just through there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a hundred percent. I mean, it's like Shopify. I mean, once we put it out there, people can get creative. And at the end of the day, it's another revenue stream that they can add to their business. I was speaking to a host the other day. They were doing charcuterie boards. I wouldn't have thought about that myself. So everyone can maybe make their own service on their own and they can really get creative with it.

20:51And another advantage that we have, I mean, there's, I would say maybe, what would you say, Alex, maybe 20 on next to Lido Island of e-bike rentals. So what's the difference of a guest going to their short-term rental and walking down the street and renting a bike, right? Because there's e-bike rental signs everywhere. Everyone in Newport uses e-bikes. What's beautiful about us is if you go through our property manager that is willing to put this on our app and for them to purchase e-bike rentals, they could, they could before the trip and everyone plans the trip prior to arrival, they could select their e-bike, select their helmets, select how long they want to go.

21:40So when they get to their short-term rental, they, you know, they just worry about vacation. They don't have to worry about grocery shopping, you know, nine And nine out of 10 times, they don't even rent a car. So they would have to Uber there, Uber back. So we save them time there. And on top of that, they walk in and in the garage, there's three e-bike rentals, one for their children, one for the parents, all already charged up in the garage with helmets on there. It's just a different level of hospitality. And that's the problem we're trying to solve. because at hotels, you could go in there and they probably have their own vendors, but we're trying to bridge that gap, if that makes sense.

22:23Natalie Palmer:I think what's nice too, and you guys created this because you saw the different experience you'd get in a hotel versus a short-term rental. And to an extent, all these services, you can still get them right through an Airbnb. Like you mentioned, there's still a dozen e-bike rentals that you could go to, but the difference with the hotel is like you already believe you already have this like what am I trying to say like this trust that the hotel already went through and they picked the best e-bike for you and that it's waiting right there and I just love this idea that there's no hunting around for it but you can just tell your guests like these are our preferred vendors go through bellhopped and you know everything that's nearby that's vetted and approved it's already there for you it's just like one more decision that your guests don't have to make but even the host doesn't have to make because all the time when I get questions, where should I go eat?

23:15Natalie Palmer:I'm trying to figure out like, okay, what restaurants around my Airbnb have like good ratings right now. And you guys would already say like, oh, Indian cuisine, this is where to go. Japanese, like this is where to go. Yeah. And it's beautiful. And Alex, I've been thinking about this since the day we started Bellhub. And we got validation through, I don't know if you've read Airbnb's last earnings report, But what they've noticed, and this is the giant of giants in short-term rental market, right? And what they've noticed is growth comes from conversions, not supply. so Airbnb itself the giant in this industry is really realizing that we don't need new homes we need conversions we need better amenities we need better we need to turn this into a hotel we don't need a billion homes we need a you know a million homes that have the Ritz-Carlton amenity i've been thinking of this since day one when we started bellhop this was just go go go how can we make the customer feel like he's at the ritz carlton or montage when he gets in to a short-term rental in a neighborhood right so that i mean it really the earnings report from airbnb validates what alex and i have been trying to do since day one i'd love to switch gears and now that we're speaking about Airbnb, what are your guys' thoughts on Airbnb adding experiences and services?

24:50Natalie Palmer:It really seems like they, it should be very validating to you guys that they are going this route. Do you feel like pressure? Like, shit, that's what we're already doing? Or is it just like, okay, good. Like we're onto something here. I feel like it's, we're onto something. It's just validation. And when you're operating at like such a, you know, high volume, especially like early on i feel like you know us we're a little bit more you can say right now i guess compared to airbnb just call it boutique but we're very kind of selective who we work with and like i you mentioned we curate our vendors we ensure that you know whoever we choose to you know as like a like a service provider for our guests you know they're they're the top people in that, you know, in that area.

25:42So, and the hardest thing about this business, I think, is the logistical aspect of this. You know, if, like, if we were to take one step back, the reason why we only started with pre-arrival grocery, we could have, you know, fled the, our app with multiple different services all at once. But we wanted to just, you know, really master, be a master of what we do and, you know, gain knowledge and see, you know, all the, you know, where we're going wrong. how can we just improve? And over the last four years since we've been in business, that's what we've been doing. We start off with pre-arrival grocery delivery, and that's why we're launching this app because we've really taken down, we really nailed the logistical aspect of providing services for short-term rentals.

26:30So yes, it's 100 % validation, and I'm happy that they came out with this news it just it creates more curiosity from the hosts too as well so

26:40Natalie Palmer:yeah yeah for sure locations are you guys in right now is this something that any host nationwide can tap into yeah we're in most major markets okay yeah we're definitely in most major markets and we're in some places that instacart isn't in to isn't in but they they could just reach out if they're in a remote area but if they're in a major market we get 100 % that service. This is just like a technical question. I'm curious, but who do you guys get for grocery deliveries? Like if someone's booking a massage or a private chef, then you have like a vendor for that. But just grocery deliveries, does it, do you tap in directly with that grocery store or do you guys use like Instacart drivers and just have them go through Bellhop instead?