A little over a year ago I was having lunch with an investor who had purchased a property through Ruebush Hospitality Group LLC in the country of Georgia. He said a few things to me that really got me thinking. And over the past month, I have spent even more time exploring the ideas his conversation stimulated.
As we were eating lunch, he said he had an important question for me. He told me when he was researching Batumi, he would often search properties on Airbnb and Booking just to see how the market was going. He noticed properties I represented were almost always in the #1 to #3 position of the search results.
It is not difficult to understand that properties always at the top of search results get booked more often. They make more money.
He asked me how I do it. How do properties I touch always get to the top of the search results?
I told him that I could not tell him because it was a personal trade secret. He laughed and said something that has stood out in my mind every day since.
Essentially, he said, you mean you have a system that pretty much ensures your properties are at the top of search results of booking sites, something worth millions of dollars, and you are wasting this on $20 per night apartments in Batumi?
I will never forget him asking me this. I never ever thought of it in that way before.
Way back in 2015, I was adding several properties to Airbnb and Booking accounts for management. I was continuously making adjustments to the listings over a period of about 2 weeks and I noticed there were suddenly a lot more bookings. I looked into the data given to us on the admin portal and I realized our properties were appearing more often at the top of the search results. And of course, this means more people were clicking on our listings and viewing our properties. Which resulted in more and more bookings. Which resulted in more and more money.
As many of you know, I have been a software developer most of my life. As such, I constantly look at data, results, processes, etc. I constantly try to find the congruence and “algorithms” that make things be how they are. I realized there is a formula that works very well for properties on almost all booking channels. It pretty much ensures listings will land higher and higher on the search results.
Recently I looked at the data for 2024. Properties managed by our business in Batumi appear on the homepage of Airbnb, at the very top of the search results, an average of 89,779 times per month each. People click on our listings and view each property an average of 10,635 times per month. Which is one of the reasons we maintain over 95% occupancy throughout the entire year.
Properties that are not managed by us in Batumi appear on the homepage of Airbnb an average of 4,344 times per month. People click on these listings and view these properties an average of 534 times per month each. Essentially, properties managed by our company are clicked on and viewed 1991% more than properties managed by any other company in Batumi.
During most of 2015 and 2016 I developed a rudimentary system for listing properties on booking channels which I have enhanced steadily over time. Over the past 10 years, I developed a very solid understanding of what works and what does not work on booking channels. I found many key aspects of a property listing that improve search rankings and also result in more clicks by potential customers. I continued to tune the system until it also maximized the number of viewers that converted into bookings. Then, I began to standardize and automate the process as much as possible.
There are many aspects to this system. The order and details of photos, descriptions, amenities, keywords, availability settings, reviews, pricing, and many many more things. Essentially, I have 10 years of experience perfecting the science behind optimizing listings on booking websites to ensure the maximum number of potential guests see the property.
But getting a property booked is only part of the equation. If you list your property for $1 per day on Airbnb, you will probably be booked 100% of the time, but you won’t make any money. So, I spent the past 10 years also developing a system that also ensures the maximum revenue per day.
In Batumi, the average property on Airbnb earns $43 per night. The average property managed by our business earns $49 per night. This means properties managed by us earn 14% more per day than properties managed by any other company.
In Batumi, the average property on Airbnb is reserved 121 nights per year. The average property managed by our business is reserved 272 nights per year. Properties managed by us get 225% more reservations than properties managed by any other company.
How are we doing this? It is an exclusive and proprietary trade secret.
Up until now, this trade secret was only available to the properties managed by our business in Batumi, and 3 luxury villas in Mykonos Greece:
(https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/541964203)
Over the past few months, I have been working with Airbnb and other booking channels to ensure my system is “White Hat”. In other words, it is legal, ethical, and completely appropriate to deploy anywhere in the world. It complies fully with the terms and conditions of the booking channels.
I was surprised to learn there is actually a budding industry around this type of service. Some are calling it “Airbnb SEO”, or “vacation rental optimization”, or “booking channel optimization”, or “Airbnb optimization”. There is a growing demand for it.
My system does not manipulate anything or take advantage of any flaws. Rather, it does a better job of ensuring properties match closer and closer to what Airbnb and Booking and other channels are looking for in a listing. You can say it has a huge market advantage. Again, I have 10 years of experience tuning and perfecting this system every day.
2 of the biggest pain points for vacation rental hosts are:
- Visibility (getting enough bookings)
- Guest communications
As a matter of fact, these are two highly demanded subscription services in the vacation rental industry right now.
There are over 8 million listings on Airbnb alone, and this is growing every year. Airbnb has over 150 million users worldwide with over 45 million in the USA. Contrast this with the 4 BILLION users online and you can see why Airbnb expects to be able to increase listings and users by double digit growth every year for the next 15 to 20 years. With more and more listings, there will be more and more demand for visibility and communication services. And Airbnb is only one of the channels in the vacation rental industry.
Over the past 10 years Ruebush Hospitality Group LLC has hosted hundreds of thousands of guests. The company has received thousands of 5-star reviews. The average review is 4.95. The average property lands at the very top of search results 89,779 times per month. And the company maintains one of the top guest communications ratings in the industry.
I think it is fair to say I have gained extremely valuable experience and knowledge when it comes to visibility and communications. And these are two of the most sought after paid services in the entire industry worldwide.
If you search Google for “Airbnb Virtual Assistant” you will find the average going rate is around $30 per hour and as high as $100 per hour. If you search Google for “Airbnb Optimization” or “Airbnb SEO” you will find the going rate is up to 10% of daily booking income.
Over the past 10 years I have gained experience in the following property management services:
- Visibility
- Guest communications
- Cleaning / Laundry
- Interior Design, Construction & Maintenance
Items 1 and 2 can be delivered virtually throughout the world from a central location. Items 3 and 4 require physical manpower in the same location as the property. Therefore, items 1 and 2 have a much higher gross profit margin, while items 3 and 4 have a much higher cost (labor) and therefore much lower profit margin.
IT services can be extremely profitable. In most cases, once the initial setup is completed, computers take over the majority of the day-to-day “work”. Ongoing costs are very low, yet ongoing income is stable and grows steadily. Due to the double digit increase in demand every year, visibility services and guest communications services will become increasingly profitable in the vacation rental industry. And I have developed a proprietary IT service to meet both of these demands.
Think about it like this. I could spend years and years trying to build a portfolio of 100 properties under physical management in Batumi, with the potential to earn a measly profit of around $100,000 per year. OR, by offering visibility and guest communication services throughout the entire global vacation property ecosystem, I could earn up to 20% of the daily income on thousands, or even tens of thousands of properties, without any of the labor or other costs incurred through physical management services.
This represents huge, and scalable potential. There are currently millions of potential clients and this market is growing by double digits every year.
Many of you may be aware that I traveled to Texas a little over a month ago. Originally, I planned to spend a short time visiting family and friends I have not seen in nearly 10 years. I also wanted to address a few personal health issues and then get back to work trying to add 1 or 2 properties per month to our physical management portfolio in Batumi.
Being outside of Georgia gave me the opportunity to look at things from a different perspective. In Georgia I was stuck in an extremely negative and dismal environment. My creativity and passion were overshadowed by the doom and gloom and despair and depression of everyone around me in Batumi. Outside of Georgia I was able to think and reflect and analyze with a different energy and passion.
I went through the most painful and depressing time of my life in Georgia. I wasted 11 years of my life there. I regret investing my time and money in Georgia. It is the single biggest mistake of my life. However, I realize I also gained extremely valuable experience. I tuned and perfected a system worth millions of dollars. My knowledge and experience can be leveraged in more economically powerful places than Georgia and scaled to much bigger profits and assets than were possible in Batumi.
Over the past 10 years I have developed something of extreme value that has growing global demand. Why waste it on a handful of $20 per night studio apartments in Batumi which will be earning $10 per night in the near future? Why not instead offer it to millions of clients around the world whose nightly income is $130 or more and growing constantly?
Over the past few weeks I have established a corporation in Texas and started developing the software, website, and framework to roll out visibility and communications services throughout the entire global vacation property ecosystem. I already have a small number of paying clients onboarded and I am developing a sales and marketing system where this can be scaled tremendously.
As a matter of fact, you could even promote our services and earn residual income every day. Imagine earning money every day in your own bank account from every single night booked on hundreds of properties throughout the world! The potential is incredible. If you are interested, I would love to discuss this with you.
This new American corporation has 10,000,000 shares of common stock authorized and is aggressively raising capital to scale as quickly as possible. The intention over time is to earn up to 20% of the daily booking revenue of millions of properties worldwide. The scalability and potential of this unique IT service is tremendous.
If you would like to learn more about the company I have launched in Texas, how it works, what it does, how it will grow, the different scalable products and services it offers, or other things, I am happy to set up a call with you and answer any questions.
I personally think the future in Texas looks bright. Taxation in Texas is one of the lowest in the entire world. Texas is one of the easiest places in the world to do business. Banking in Texas is world-class. Texas is the 8th largest economy in the world. Global companies, especially IT companies are moving to Texas at a growing rate. Texas has more Fortune 500 companies than any other place in the world. There is a reason Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, and other billionaires are rapidly migrating businesses to Texas. “Bet on Texas!”
I have recently launched an incredibly scalable business in the booming, low-tax, safe, free, and incredible state of Texas, the 8th largest economy in the world. If you are interested, you could potentially be part of this.
Stay tuned for my next update…
Sincerely,
David Ruebush
Contact me: d.ruebush@ruebushgroup.com