STARTUP STAGE: Vacaryx ticks high-touch and blockchain boxes for rental platform

Vacaryx

Vacaryx is a vacation rental platform that aims to add functionality and transparency to the booking process by facilitating communication between hosts and guests. 

The system currently has about 3,400 properties on its site, all whole-home rentals and primarily at the higher end of the market. 

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

We are an alternative platform for the vacation rental industry that was created to restore the high‐touch elements of the business.

To date we positioned ourselves as a traditional listing site, but in the upcoming months we will pursuing an ICO, which will give us the funding to create a blockchain-based solution.

Our functionality will allow parties to communicate directly, pre‐booking, while still providing Instant Book capabilities. By utilizing the blockchain we will not have any transaction or service fees, which will resonate very well with all parties involved.

What inspired you to create this company?

Our founder, Jesse Martinek, created the company after spending several years on the property management side of the business with two of the largest and most‐well funded professional property managers in the space.

His experience gave him access to the evolving needs of the user and the insight to bring a new approach to a consolidated industry.

While observing the frustrations that were plaguing the industry on a daily basis, he knew that if he had a viable solution he could sell it.

Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the company.

• Strength: We are smaller and more nimble than our large competitors, which allows us to implement emerging technologies much more readily and better serve the needs of the consumer.
• Weakness: Our competitors have a strangle‐hold on the market place so without innovation it is a very difficult battle to win.
• Opportunity: The industry continues to grow and become more main‐stream and the large platforms continue to make changes that are out of favor with the user. We are seeing a general decrease in functionality and increase in price other sites, which creates a great opportunity for disruption.
• Threat: Too many people know that the system is broken right now and there is a rush for new companies to enter the space. While we believe our approach, value proposition, and traction is unique, we also know that users are being inundated with new choices, some of which will not be viable long‐term. We hope that we can execute the plan that we have laid out because we believe we can truly make an impact, if so.

What are the travel pain points you are trying to alleviate from both the customer and the industry perspective?

While the large OTAs will tell you that the user wants instant booking you can easily find plenty of users who disagree.

The property owners and managers still want to screen their guests, set expectations, ask/answer questions, offer a higher level of personal service and local knowledge to better the guest experience and create stickiness.

While some guests want the instant gratification of instant booking, these accommodations are still large purchase decisions and many guests still prefer to have a human being on the other side who is accountable.

By restoring pre‐booking communications we address the higher end of the market where greater service is expected and risk mitigation to the homes is paramount.

So you've got the product, now how will you get lots of customers?

We have been fighting to grow organically for the past year‐and‐a‐half and it works. We have grown to more than 3,400 live property listings and have achieved listing revenue in 13 consecutive months.

While we have been bottlenecked in terms of resources to add the proper sales and marketing efforts, we are hopeful that our ICO delivers the resources needed to go out and compete at scale.

Tell us what process you've gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressable market.

We know our solution isn’t for everyone. We only focus on whole‐home rentals (no room sharing), which has allowed us to naturally gravitate to the higher end of the marketplace.

We see professional property managers as our ideal clients, as well as homeowners who have properties that generate at least $50,000 per year in revenue.

The cost savings of our platform is more evident to these users and the need for the added control we provide is greatly appreciated. We are excited about capturing 5%‐10% of the inventory on this side of the market and are certain that our business model is profitable should we do so.

On the guest side we cater to those who want a more immersive experience and want the added trust and service available through direct communications.

How and when will you make money?

We have a transparent listing subscription for property owners and managers who wish to list with us and can usually deliver an ROI after one to two bookings.

Given that most users will easily achieve success at this price point it allows for high‐retention and membership renewals which mimics a SaaS type business model. Once we have integrated to the blockchain we will eliminate all other fees.

Given the value we provide and cost savings we offer we think that we easily win market share and achieve significant profitability with this model.

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team, and why do you have what it takes to succeed with this business?

Our founder worked with three Inc. 500 companies (two in the vacation rental space).

In each of these roles he was tasked with identifying sales processes that would resonate with the user while building brand recognition from scratch.

Our co‐founder & CTO is a self‐taught jack‐of‐all‐trades and he has been instrumental in our ability to leverage technologies and create the custom functionality required by our users.

What's been the most difficult part of founding the business so far?

Fundraising is hard. For investors who are not intimately familiar with the industry it is difficult to grasp the true pain that has been felt by the user over the last few years.

When they hear that we compete with Airbnb they think that we can’t win, but for those that take the time to learn about what has happened the light bulb goes off.

Seemingly we can get a meeting with anyone, and we hope the added allure of our blockchain solution and the ICO open the floodgates for us.

Generally, travel startups face a fairly tough time making an impact ‐ so why are you going to be one of lucky ones?

Innovation, listening to the needs of the consumer, and persistence.

We can confidently say that the first two will set us apart, as legacy systems and corporate agendas have our competitors at a disadvantage.

That said, persistence is what will truly make us or break us.

We know we have an uphill battle to climb, but if we wake up every day focused on the needs of our consumer eventually we will get the exposure needed to take our business to the next level.