How STR Accommodations Uses Protection as Their Top Selling Point

From operational chaos to strategic growth

When Cody joined STR Accommodations, the company was growing quickly while managing properties without proper systems or technology, creating operational chaos and limiting its ability to scale profitably.

“We basically exploded. My partner brought 75 properties in which he was managing with little technology, operations or systems. He was always on the phone. He was going crazy. He was the definition of a hectic host.

We dialled back to 60 properties and ended up making the same amount of money we’d made with 157. We realised quantity doesn’t always equal profitability. It’s finding the right properties, homeowners, and investors and investing your time and energy to make these properties the best.”

Discovering comprehensive protection

STR Accommodations needed to offer homeowners the same level of protection available through OTAs to make direct bookings competitive and build investor confidence. Cody booked a call with Truvi after hearing founder Leo Walton speak on a podcast.

“After the call, we were blown away and knew we had to find a way to integrate this service into our offerings.

To offer safety and security policies to our homeowners, similar to the OTAs, was a game-changer and the biggest concern they had with direct bookings. Truvi’s allowed us to build confidence and trust with investors and made it easier to move guests away from the platforms and into direct bookings.”

Protection as a competitive advantage

“We don’t want to be chasing guests for money. So, it’s also great that Truvi handles the backend for us.”

Cody uses Damage Waiver and Guest Screening for all direct bookings, directly integrated into their PMS, with damage protection becoming their primary selling point to potential clients.

“Damages are the nature of this business. It’s going to happen. One of the things we were looking for early on was to make sure damage costs weren’t coming out of our pocket or the homeowners’ pockets. We also wanted guests to take care of the properties.

The fact that we have the damage waivers for most reservations is one of our strongest selling points when we talk to homeowners or investors.

We’re a hospitality company with a hospitality mindset. We don’t want to be chasing guests for money. So, it’s also great that Truvi handles the backend for us. We want guests to have a great experience, from the very first step they take in booking the property to when they leave. Without us having to go after them for small damages.”

Guest Screening automatically identifies fake names, disposable emails, and burner phones before guests arrive, while damage protection covers incidents like unauthorized parties and property damage that investors worry about most.

Seamless guest screening process

According to Cody, automated Guest Screening has freed the business from having to invent and manage their own guest screening systems, and is also playing a big role in improving the guest experience. Rather than manually tracking problematic guests, Truvi’s screening checks against internal watchlists and databases, providing instant yes/no decisions that integrate directly into their property management system.

“What I like about guest screening is that we don’t need to build a list of bad guests ourselves, which is always going to be hard to track at best. Truvi already has the info, and has a much larger database of guests than we have. They just tell us yes or no before the guests even get to our properties. We get notified directly in the PMS, so it’s a lot faster and seamless. It takes a lot of the pressure away from us.

We tell guests upfront we have a 10-15-minute screening process. So it’s not a huge inconvenience for them. Whereas with some of the other ways we were doing it before, the process could take 30 minutes, and it was stressful for guests. Our goal was to make the guest journey as smooth as possible. Truvi has greatly helped us achieve this.”

Strategic business systems

With automated Protection and Screening handling risk management, Cody can focus on building scalable business systems rather than managing individual incidents.

“Map your business — the client journey, the guest journey, the property journey — so you can see the big picture of what you’re trying to achieve at each stage.

This will help you grow your business for the long term. Whereas if you try to do everything yourself, without a business-owner perspective, you set yourself up for constant chaos. You can scale chaos to some degree, but at some point it’s all going to come crumbling down.”

By automating damage protection and guest screening through Truvi, STR Accommodations can focus their energy on strategic growth and investor relations rather than chasing damage payments or building screening databases.