Welcome to Hospitable.com’s series of host case studies, where we take a deep dive into the unique experiences of our valued hosts. Through these inspiring success stories, we aim to showcase tips to help you succeed with your short-term rental business and better leverage your Hospitable subscription.
Who?
Allen Duan, co-founder of Hospy Homes
Where?
Los Angeles County and North Orange County, Southern California
Properties managed?
26 midterm rental properties managed
Favorite Hospitable feature?
Guest communication and AI:
"People talk about an Airbnb that if you have a fast response rate, that helps. Of course, it helps with just the customer experience, getting better reviews. So when someone books or has an inquiry, a friendly and timely response is really valuable."
Meet Allen
Allen is the co-founder of Hospy Homes, which specializes in furnished rental property management across Southern California. Allen started running a property management business because he wanted to do something entrepreneurial. It also gives him more freedom to control his schedule and spend more time with his family.
"Especially after I started doing it, I knew it was a much better fit for me than typical W2 corporate kind of job," Allen says. "I love this business. But really, getting to a business in and of itself allows me this flexibility to build my own thing, control my schedule, and see my kids more."
Allen says their core business model is property management, but they started by doing rental arbitrage and still have a couple of such properties. He points out that STR regulations in Los Angeles are very strict, so many of their properties are midterm rentals.
Allen uses Hospitable to streamline operations and save time. Watch the video, in which Allen shares his journey from leaving a full-time corporate job to building his own property management business, and learn how Hospitable helps him scale with ease.
Automating Mid-Term Rental Management
Allan underlines that they manage both short-term rental properties and midterm rentals, and he thinks this makes their company unique because many similar companies in Southern California focus only on short-term rentals. He also points out that although many of their properties have 30-day minimum stay requirements, automation software like Hospitable, which is designed for short-term rentals, also works perfectly for them.
Allen says they started using Hospitable in 2017 when it was called Smartbnb, had just a few features, and the key feature was guest messaging. "That's why we started using it, and we're still using it for that purpose. But really, it's about time savings," Allen explains. "I think the most valuable piece is not having to be on my phone all the time, waiting for messages to come in."
Allen says he is impressed with AI features that help create personalized responses for guest messages and provide specific details. The Hospy Homes team uses Hospitable's AI tools to quickly draft detailed responses when manually messaging guests. Allen underlines that AI-generated responses sound natural, so they don't have to change much when editing them.
Allen also likes that Hospitable has integrations with major smart lock systems. This feature allows hosts to automate messaging door codes to guests and helps ensure a smooth check-in process, even for last-minute bookings.
Allen explains that before Hospitable added that feature, they were meeting guests personally. Creating a unique code for each guest manually didn't take so much time. "But if you think about it, especially if it's short-term rentals, and for every booking, I think we had a weekly task to create the next week's codes," he says. "Definitely, having that automation saves time."
Provide a seamless keyless check-in
Why Hospitable
Allen explains that he chose Hospitable for his property management business because our tool is very easy to use. "As to alternative options I've looked into, some are great. But Hospitable, I think, by far is the easiest to learn and start with when everything is new and could be overwhelming."
Allen admits they also use other apps for other systems, but he loves the Hospitable app, which allows him to streamline routine operations and manage everything in one place. Hospitable has comprehensive, advanced features—"it's like a full thing with almost everything you need."
"It looks nice, it's quick, it's responsive. So, being able to pick up my phone wherever I'm and check something like, is this property booked? How long is it booked for? Just simple things like that. Having that information centralized is the key piece. I can't imagine running this business without software."
Allen thinks using vacation rental software like Hospitable is essential for hosts just beginning their STR journey. It's worthwhile even with one property because it's affordable and saves time. "And even it could potentially help them make more money. I think it makes up for the cost very easily," Allen points out.
