Updated : Oct 17, 2024
Customer type: Host
Property Type: Short-Term Rental
Region: North America
Products: Dynamic Pricing, Market Dashboards
Number of Listings: 30+
PMS : Hostaway
Executive Summary
Juan Morales owns Capital JetSet – Beachfront vacation rentals in San Juan – Puerto Rico. As they were scaling up their properties, they realized the necessity for automation in their pricing. From making 100 bucks a month, they have grown to add more and more properties under their single roof. Read on to understand their journey with automation in PriceLabs.
About Capital JetSet
Capital JetSet hosts beach-front vacation rentals in elaborate and fabulous locations. Their properties boast amenities that appeal to guests of all afflictions. They feature high-speed internet, parking, fully-equipped kitchens, and pools to cool off after a day in the city. The property is minutes away from SJU airport, Old San Juan, El Yunque National Rainforest, and many other attractions on the island.
How Capital JetSet Lost Money Due to Manual Pricing Processes
Juan Morales, the owner of Capital JetSet, started their Airbnb arbitrage journey in 2012 by mistake. To scale, they dipped their feet deeper into their Airbnb arbitrage business. As they brought more properties into their portfolio, they realized the importance of good processes and systems.
A hotel and restaurant administration background helped them realize that pricing would be difficult. As they were scaling their business, they realized that they had more and more properties, hence, more nights to sell and maximize.
They believe that scaling up is not just about getting more properties and making more revenue; it’s also about how much you get to keep. For example, if you are going to buy a flight, those prices keep changing. Even in a hotel, when you book a hotel and wait for a few days, you might see a change in prices.
They realized that many people were leaving a lot of money on the table by making appropriate settings and locking them without adapting them dynamically. Whenever they got a booking, they would click on the booking and make adjustments after each of them.
“I’m a very curious person. I’m always looking to optimize everything and was actually doing it on my phone. So I would have my phone in my pocket, and every time I would get a booking on Airbnb as an example. I would go, and I would click on the booking. I would click on the calendar and create adjustments after every single booking.”
– Juan C Morales, Owner, Capital JetSet
They were highly dependent on their phone and had to spend a lot of their valuable time to optimize their price according to the market. This got them thinking. There would definitely be a better way of doing this; there would be clever people who would have found a smarter way of doing this.
This got them searching; that is when they found out about PriceLabs.
How They Leveraged PriceLabs to Reduce Time Spent on Pricing
Juan started researching the other products in the market. When they came across PriceLabs, they really liked the pricing model and features of the software. One thing that really impressed them was the informative onboarding process.
They started their journey with PriceLabs to buy some of their time back. In their words, they were a ‘slave’ to adjustments and their calendar. They wanted to free themselves from those shackles, and PriceLabs became the key.
“The gravy on top is that I realize that PriceLabs gives me suggestions of when I can make more money. And I know I have made a lot more money with Pricelabs, for sure.”
– Juan C Morales, Owner, Capital JetSet
As per the market’s demand, their software usage varies. If there’s a lot of demand in the market, there is not much need for their intervention as they have already customized the software to function to their needs. They have spent time perfecting the foundations that only a maximum of five to ten minutes is needed to optimize the software to their needs. Usually, they go into PriceLabs once a week.
The PriceLabs’ Market Dashboard helps Juan understand the market and the pricing of various properties in their market. This helps them understand where to put their money and how the money they have already spent is working.
“I did the work of understanding the settings, and the team did a great job in explaining to me how to set it up. So I feel like I became really good at understanding how to create settings on PriceLabs.”
– Juan C Morales, Owner, Capital JetSet
Juan’s experience with PriceLabs has been life-changing. They say that people usually look at the financial cost of using software and forget the time cost. Using a system to help them has had the biggest impact on saving time!
When running a business such as a vacation rental, they did not have an expert or a consultant to guide them through the ups and downs. So, software that can read the market and the property, and provide suggestions was a great help for Juan.
“It’s like having an employee always working for you, doing the best they can and doing a hell of a job. And you can always come back and make adjustments. So it’s super cool.”
– Juan C Morales, Owner, Capital JetSet
