Powerhouse Properties [920]

How did you start your business?

I had been a chef for 23 years, and hadn’t thought of changing careers.

At some point, I started renting out my own house as a side hustle. I rented it out so much that I bought a different house to live in and then I bought another one. It became apparent that if I just bought a few more houses, I wouldn’t need to continue as a chef.

Without the extra money, I came up with a business model where I would take someone else’s house and do all the work and rent it for them. This is how Powerhouse Properties 920 was born.

What sets you apart from the competition?

Having just something that’s very approachable in an area that was underserved when we first started doing this. And now that Edge continues to be identifying those markets that are underserved. And also making sure that we are always doing better than everybody else around us.

Our properties are branded as top-rated and recognizable for exceptional service.

We also make it easy for property owners to turn the work over to us.

Throughout my entire career in management positions I loved to build and fix things and put systems in place to make everything run as smoothly and efficiently as possible. And I’m doing it right now, at scale.

Three main things that set us apart right now are:

Home experience

We work with best designers to make the properties appealing for our guests and prospects. We also make sure that guests have everything they need in the house, so they only need to bring their toothbrush and a change of clothes for their stay.

Industry connections

It has been incredibly beneficial for me to have a network of individuals whom I work with, not necessarily as my employees, but who have achieved success in their own careers. I have established relationships with them to ensure their assistance in the maintenance and management of our properties.

Technology

We transitioned to using professional management platforms in the past year. This including Guesty for property management, Breezeway to handle cleaning and maintenance tasks, and Enso Connect to enhance messaging, upselling, and guest arrival experience.

How does Enso Connect help your day-to-day?

Enso Connect makes guest check-ins and arrivals much more passive for us. Instead of sending our guests to look back for the information in their emails, we create marketing campaign where they are receiving these messages in succession when they book and a couple days before check-in and the morning of arrival. We communicate with guests via email, texts and Airbnb messages.

We provide the guests with a Boarding Pass to the property, Enso Connect’s guest app that contains all necessary information about the stay. The fact that the Boarding Pass is at the top of the heap and guests never have to search for, has made my Friday nights much more enjoyable. I’m no longer getting a zillion messages with questions about the check-in process.

Enso also helped us monetize our guest experience with upsells. Things like, for example, early check-ins and late checkouts. It allows us manage and automate upsells, so we don’t have to manually check and approve every time guests request add-ons.

Did implementing technology in your business change your life?

When I started a property management career having the flexibility in schedule was appealing to me. We have three kids, and when you work in a kitchen, you have zero flexibility. So I was missing a lot of events important for my family. When I started this job,I was excited to be able to work whenever I want, from wherever I want, as long as I’ve got my phone or my laptop. And the reality is, I was just working all the time, from anywhere that I was.

This isn’t great to have to constantly be answering questions and re-explain things to people. We needed a system to make things more passive. And we found it with Enso Connect.

Integration with Enso has taken over our guest messaging and making travellers feel like they have all the information they need right at their fingertips. They don’t have to download apps and do a ton of work on their end. The Boarding Pass is very easy to use – literally tap this link and it opens the guest portal. People ultimately don’t want to read anything that you send them, but Boarding Pass makes the information very accessible to for the guests at any time. It means that they are reaching out to me less. It’s given me a lot of time back.

With Enso Connect we had a chance to set up and tweak everything in our guest journey the way we wanted.

Why did you choose Enso Connect?

Francois gave me a true understanding of the processes in my company and what the needs really were. When he was showing me Enso’s software, it felt like a checklist of our struggles and ways to solve them with the tech. It made me aware of what I needed and I immediately made the decision to onboard with Enso.

If I would’ve adopted this software platform sooner, I would’ve been able to grow quicker

What’s next for Powerhouse Properties [920]?

We have built and achieved what we want with the local market. Now we start looking at the next steps, new markets and ask what does it look like to manage properties that we can’t touch every day.

Would you recommend Enso Connect and why?

Absolutely. I completely recommend the software. Been very, very happy with it so far.

The adoption of Enso Connect is one of the things that are setting us apart from our competitors, and it has significantly improved our guest experience. It’s a no-brainer.

The revenue we generate with upsells is covering the software costs. But even if it wasn’t, I would still pay to use Enso Connect. It is saving me a ton of time, and it is giving my guests a better experience.

Our regular visitors exclusively choose to book directly with us and stay at our properties.

This is primarily due to their trust in our ability to consistently provide an exceptional experience. They recognize that our properties come equipped with fully functional kitchens, luxurious and comfortable beds, and consistent amenities such as linens and toiletries. Our guests are assured of a consistently excellent experience regardless of the property they stay in.

Another crucial element that contributes to our guests’ preference for our properties is our seamless check-in process. We meticulously curate the process to ensure that guests have all the information they need without having to ask questions.

Our Boarding Pass includes detailed check-in steps with pictures that guide the guest to the correct door, provide instructions on how to use the lock, and include a link to the house info sheet. This approach ensures that our guests have a positive and stress-free check-in experience, strengthening the relationship between us and our guests from the outset.