As September 16-17, 2021 inch closer, the excitement among the attendees of the 2021 iteration of the Vacation Rental World Summit is climbing higher than ever. In lead up to VRWS ’21, we had the opportunity to interview BookingSync and Smily CEO and Founder Sébastien Grosjean. Sébastien has been part of the vacation rental industry for an impressive 30 years and has used his cumulative expertise to create all-in-one tools such as BookingSync and Smily that help save property owners and managers save time and focus on delivering an outstanding guest experience. We talked to him about what he is most excited about when it comes to attending VRWS 21, and what sets the event apart from other industry events.
Interview: Sébastien Grosjean on what sets VRWS 2021 apart from other vacation rental industry events
In founding BookingSync and Smily, Sébastien wanted to create solutions for those hungry for growth. By enabling property owners and managers to list their properties, advertise them to 1000+ websites, automating guest communications, collecting payments securely, and helping overall profitability, these platforms help vacation rental business owners focus on scaling up fast, acting more like a partner than a mere tool.
Increasing focus on communication between attendees at VRWS 21
VRWS is a dynamic event that caters to and sees attendance from property owners, property managers, large enterprises, and OTAs alike. It is a more intimate environment that makes even the biggest enterprises and their decision-makers approachable, and it is this diversity and openness to communicate that draws Sébastien to VRWS each year. This year, especially, through the introduction of a brand new roundtable format to the VRWS agenda, Sébastien this proximity will only intensify, allowing for easier and more fruitful communication between attendees.
Learning from businesses that thrived even during a pandemic
This year, Sébstien will be hosting a session called The 3 Counter-Intuitive Keys to Thriving Used by Leading Property Managers and Hosts in Any Economic Situation at VRWS. The session springs from the striking difference between vacation rental businesses and how they performed during the pandemic. While some of them barely stayed afloat or even went out of business, there were others still that only survived the pandemic but thrived through it. In his session, Sébastien will spotlight 3 counter-intuitive actions these businesses took to succeed during the pandemic. The session will cover three separate approaches, contextualizing how these actions would differ for property owners vs property managers vs enterprise customers.
