From Chaos to Control: How Mogul Transforms Hosting

In this episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast, we welcome Emily Tunggala, Senior Product Manager at Hospitable. Emily joins us to talk about Hospitable’s Mogul offering, designed for STR hosts and property managers with thriving portfolios who want to move their business to the next level.  

Emily shares how Mogul addresses the pain points of hosts who utilize various business models with AI-powered automation, saving them time and effort while giving them greater control over their businesses. She also shares what she loves about Mogul as a host who uses Hospitable to self-manage her vacation rental property and how she sees Mogul evolving in the following year. 

Press Play now to discover how Mogul transforms hosting by simplifying processes and enhancing efficiency, and allows hosts to scale while pursuing their dreams.

If you prefer to read the highlights, we’ve got a summary of the key takeaways below.

What Types of Hosts Use Mogul

Emily shares that the Mogul plan was born out of hundreds of conversations with hosts who were growing rapidly and feeling increasingly out of control, as their growth brought a lot of complexity. The most significant pain points for them are guest communication, complicated accounting due to their often varied business models and multiple owners to report to, and “boring” internal operations.

“Mogul doesn't discriminate when it comes to the business model you’re operating,” Emily points out. “We do have something for everyone, whether you own and self-manage your properties, whether you do rental arbitrage or manage properties for other owners, or maybe you're doing a little bit of all three of those things.”

Emily says that most hosts who use Mogul didn’t get into the STR business because they wanted to manage more people or spend their weekends in Excel. Most of Hospitable’s customers are in this business because they love hosting, and it provides them with an opportunity to quit their W-2 job, leave the corporate world behind, and work from anywhere.

“Maybe they want to homeschool their kids, or maybe they want to travel the world. Mogul answers that call to provide a strong foundation for your business so that you can continue pursuing those dreams without the threat that your business is going to suck the life out of you before you achieve your goals.”

What Emily Thinks of Mogul as a STR Host

Emily notes that, personally, Mogul is her ticket to scaling. She owns one property and manages it herself entirely with Hospitable. She bought it before she started to work at Hospitable.

“Our goal was actually to have a vacation home for our family, and we just needed it to mostly cover the bills. But now that we’re considering the second property, we need to look back and ask, 'Did we make money?' We also need to demonstrate our expertise in this area to secure financing and other necessary resources. So for me, within Mogul, having quick and easy access to my profit and loss statement has given me the confidence that I need going into my next property purchase.”

Emily emphasizes that P&L is included in the Mogul plan subscription costs, which is “unheard of in the industry” because typically, accounting features are an additional cost per property.

“The next thing I love about Mogul is that if I have a question about my business, I can ask Copilot, which is a feature of Mogul. It's really like your AI assistant for your business. Copilot has access to all of my finances, including all the details of my property, as well as all conversations with my guests and reviews. And so with Copilot’s help, I’ve learned about a few opportunities where I can actually improve my property and potentially drive more revenue.”

Emily says she wants to grow and scale her business, but she also wants to do it in a way that allows her to spend more time with her family and kids. “I turn on AI Auto Reply starting at dinner time until the morning, and if I have a guest who’s reaching out during those times, they get a quick, accurate, friendly reply,” she notes. “So for me, it’s much more about that time that I get back with my family and my young kids and the ability to scale without losing all of that.”

Advantages of the Mogul Plan

Emily provides an example of how Mogul simplifies processes with the Owner Statements feature, which enables users to create detailed financial reports for owners on their property's performance.

“Owner statements, or owner reports like statements or invoices, are done automatically every single month. An owner can view those reports at any time and understand their property's performance through a beautifully branded portal designed specifically for owners. So our customers who manage for owners tell us that this significantly cuts back on the monthly back and forth with their owners.”

Emily emphasizes that Hospitable’s mission is to give hosts their time back, so its customers expect this. However, there’s also an advantage that doesn't become apparent until Mogul users actually start utilizing the features available to them—the ability to demonstrate their professionalism.

“Mogul is not just streamlining a bunch of tasks for you. We’re helping you elevate your brand and present yourself as the professional operator you are. This can be achieved through beautiful, branded direct booking sites, branded guest portals, and branded owner portals, all of which live on your domain. We’re providing you with cold, hard data in a quick and easy format so you can prove your profitability to a bank to help secure funding for your next property. We’re making 24/7 guest communication possible and reliable so that you can host in your sleep if you want.”

Tune in to the full episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast to learn more about features that Mogul users can take advantage of to grow their business faster and stay in control.