Ruggero Vasari owns a farm hotel near Messina and partnered with Mondosol to increase bookings. Within three years, Mondosol helped achieve full occupancy, revolutionizing and revitalizing the rental business.
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Do you know how Mondosol has helped this owner? In less than a year, they were able to get approximately 100% of bookings from here.
BACKGROUND
Ruggero started a wine farm. Now his nephew Michele has joined him. Together, they have become one of the top 30 wine producers in Italy. In 2007 a new business was created in hospitality. They wanted to offer few rooms for their customers to come and taste the wine sleeping over.
Ruggero decided in 2014 to put more efforts into the wine farm. He chose to partner with Mondosol for the farm hotel. Mondosol was more passionate about it. After crunching numbers and analyzing all the costs, he decided to start a joint venture business.
They are building more rooms in their property. There are only 2 at the moment. The property is not far from where they are living. It is in a place that’s popular with a variety of tourists like Milazzo and the eolian islands.
With minimal knowledge of the industry, Ruggero and Michele were worried about all the decisions they’d have to make. They didn’t know how to set rates. They also didn’t know how to attract guests (till this very moment). Ruggero is an ex ambassador and Michele a bank vice director. They are italian entrepreneurs, running a family business with creativity and living their life.
CHALLENGE
Before subscribing to Mondosol, Ruggero was advertising the farm hotel on Booking.com and a few other listing sites. He and its assistant Carmen would spend a lot of time updating all the different listings and calendars. They had a hard time keeping up.
Although they were getting some bookings, they had to spend more time updating calendars. They also had to spend more time promoting their vacation rental. So, they had less time for producing and selling the wine.
The call from Elio in the summer came as a turning moment. Ruggero and Carmen needed to start looking for other ways to run their hospitality business. Ruggero was referred by an earlier Mondosol’s property owner for Agriturismo le Rocche and Villa Lina (the first property).
“My bookings were not performing so well. I felt I needed someone who take care of it. I had no time to fill up my empty rooms.”
– Ruggero Vasari
SOLUTIONS
Before paying for Mondosol commission, Ruggero started his free registration. He tested the cooperation with Mondosol. He used the free photography service and saw the reservation system in action with bookings from Airbnb.
After the first year, it became clear that Mondosol was going to grow their vacation rental business. They already had two bookings in the calendar.
WHAT THEY LIKED MOST ABOUT MONDOSOL
Carmen and Ruggero loved Mondosol because they knew their business was in professional hands. In fact Ruggero and its staff can focus on creating excellent customer experiences. Meanwhile, Mondosol is building their brand. They also work on compelling descriptions, professional pictures, and a local guide to persuade guests to book. Most importantly, Ruggero and Michele 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
Ruggero Vasari was impressed by how easy it was to start building his own presence in Mondosol. He quickly connected the channel manager to other services, like Airbnb and Booking.
He also liked that photos and description were attractive and functional, as well as extremely easy to edit.
“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
Ruggero had already got a modest customer base by advertising his property on the local tourism board. He also listed the property on sites like Booking.com. Once his own online presence went live, Mondosol updated their contact details.
RESULTS
 |  |  |  | ||||
| Time with Mondosol | Rental Income | Total Bookings | Nights Booked | ||||
| 4 years | $3,500 | 24 | 62 |
HOW MONDOSOL HELPED GROW THEIR VACATION RENTAL BUSINESS
Mondosol’s vacation rental package allows Carmen, Michele, and Ruggero to combine their reservations. They can use a single centralized calendar and inbox. This saves time and increases efficiency. It eliminates the need to log into multiple listing sites for calendar management. They can now handle inquiries more efficiently. This enables them to focus on business growth.
Additionally, in the summer months of 2018, Mondosol worked hard to improve their presence online. They promoted it on different channels. Mondosol’s channel manager can centralize all their reservations from listing sites. They ensured to avoid double booking.
In as little as three months, Ruggero and Michele already saw results. They realized that with more bookings on listing sites more money were coming in their pocket. In the last summer of 2018, their rental income has quadrupled with more than $1,000!
They are happy to see that Mondosol have increased their revenue at least 400% from the earlier year. This growth is due to reservations from Booking.com and other listing sites. That number is growing every day. Mondosol has now become their only source of business. Soon enough, it will also be the main source of bookings.
Their aim this year is to work on getting more direct bookings. They also want to outperform the reservations that come from listing sites.
“Mondosol has helped me for less than a year and I’m already getting 100% of my bookings from here.”
RECOMMENDATIONS TO NEW VACATION RENTAL OWNERS
Mariela has the next recommendations for new vacation rental owners looking to grow their businesses:
- Make sure to have 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. It is uncomplicated to navigate. If you have any doubts, the Mondosol team is always ready to help. It’ll save you lots of time and money!”
“Try Mondosol and get started easily. It’s simple to navigate, and the Mondosol team is always ready to help. It will save you lots of time and money!”
