Do you know who is Ettore Galasso and how Mondosol has helped this property owner in less than a year to get approximately 15% of bookings more?
BACKGROUND
After starting a petrol station, Angelina and Ettore soon discovered they were ready to start a new business and start working in hospitality. They wanted to put efforts into something they felt passionate about. After crunching numbers and analyzing all the costs, they decided to start a vacation rental business.
They decided to buy their property – not far from where they are living and a place that’s popular with a variety of tourists – so they purchased the beautiful Residence Bussola in Lignano Sabbiadoro not far from Venice!
With minimal knowledge of the industry, Angelina and Ettore were worried about all the decisions they’d have to make – how to set rates, attract guests and what taxes they’d have to pay (till this very moment). Angelina and Ettore also started to think about how to advertise their property. They are italian entrepreneurs, running a family business with creativity and hard work, after different activities they are finally living their dream life.
CHALLENGE
Before subscribing to Mondosol, Ettore and Angelina were advertising their vacation rental on Airbnb and a few other listing sites. They would spend a lot of time updating all the different listings, calendars, having an hard time keeping up.
Although they were getting bookings, felt like they had to, spend less time updating calendars and more time promoting their vacation rental.
The call from Elio in the summer came as a turning moment, Ettore and Angelina needed to start looking for alternative ways to run their vacation rental business.
“My direct bookings were performing well, but I felt I needed to diversify and not put all my eggs in one basket, especially since many old customers changed their holiday plan in the last minute and left me with an increased number of empty apartments.” – Ettore Galasso
SOLUTIONS
Before paying for Mondosol commission, Ettore started his free registration. He tested the cooperation with Mondosol, using the channel manager with Airbnb, Booking and was able to see the reservation system in action with direct bookings from Mondosol.
After seven days and with six bookings already in the calendar, it became clear that Mondosol was going to help centralize all reservations and grow their vacation rental business.
WHAT THEY LIKED MOST ABOUT MONDOSOL
Angelina and Ettore love Mondosol because they know their business is in professional hands. That means they can now focus on creating excellent customer experiences, while Mondosol is building their brand, working on compelling descriptions, professional pictures, and a professional local guide to persuade guests to book. Most importantly, Angelina and Ettore keep 85% of the guest total spent plus the cleaning fees from each booking.
“I love that I can have a professional photographer and interior designer for my listing without spending any money.”
HOW THEY FOUND THE PROCESS OF WORKING WITH MONDOSOL
Ettore Galasso was impressed by how easy it was to start building his own presence in Mondosol and connect the channel manager to other services, like Airbnb, Booking and Tripadvisor.
He also liked that photos and description were attractive and functional, as well as extremely easy to customize to his taste.
“Mondosol is easy to figure out – anyone can set it up and easily build his own listing. Mondosol, It’s very user-friendly.”
HOW THEY GOT THEIR FIRST BOOKINGS AND CHANNELS TO INCREASE THEM
Ettore Galasso had already gained a solid customer base by advertising his property on the local tourism board and listing sites like Lignano.it and Airbnb. Once his own online presence went live, Mondosol updated her contact details.
Angelina also strongly believes in the power of word-of-mouth referrals – positive reviews of her guests’ experiences have also helped her to secure her first direct bookings.
RESULTS
 |  |  |  | ||||
| Time with Mondosol | Rental Income | Total Bookings | Nights Booked | ||||
| 3 year | $65,000 | 101 | 569 |
HOW MONDOSOL HELPED GROW THEIR VACATION RENTAL BUSINESS
Mondosol’s vacation rental package allowed Angelina and Ettore to collect all their reservations into one place, ensuring they only have to manage one centralized calendar and inbox. They’are able to save a lot of time and be much more efficient because they do not need to log into various listing sites to manage calendars, inquiries and messages. With Mondosol, their sole focus has been growing their business.
Additionally, in their first months, Mondosol worked hard to optimize their presence online and promote it on different channels. Mondosol’s channel manager, able Ettore and Angelina, to centralize all their reservations from listing sites and ensure to avoid double booking.
In as little as six months, Angelina and Ettore could already see results. They realized that with more bookings on listing sites more direct bookings were coming in their website. In the first half a year, their rental income totaled more than $10,000!
They are happy to see that consistently, Mondosol increase their revenue at least 200% each year, with bookings from Mondosol and other listing sites and that number is growing everyday. The Mondosol website and software has now become their primary source of inquiries and soon enough, it will also be the main source of bookings.
Their aim this year is to work on getting more direct bookings and outperform the reservations that come from listing sites.
“Mondosol has helped me for less than a year and I’m already getting approximately 15% of my bookings from here.”
RECOMMENDATIONS TO NEW VACATION RENTAL OWNERS
Mariela has the following recommendations for new vacation rental owners looking to grow their businesses:
- Ensure a fast response time to all inquiries (less than 1 hour)
- Treat all potential guests and booked guests as friends
- Your vacation rental has to be spotlessly clean and in excellent condition always
- Invest in maintaining and improving your rental property, it’ll pay off in the long run
- Whatever you do, get your own website! Gain direct bookings and take back control over your business.
“Just give Mondosol a try! It’s easy to get started, uncomplicated to navigate and if you have any doubts, the Mondosol team is always ready to help. It’ll save you lots of time and money!”
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