Welcome to the 7th episode of “Unlock and Learn,” where we share tips, secrets, and much more to help you succeed in the short-term and vacation rental space. Today, I’m excited to introduce Tony Shahbazian, the co-founder and CTO of Hosteeva. We’ll dig into Hosteeva’s 10-year journey and the impressive tech they’ve developed.
Hosteeva’s Vision and Evolution
Talia: Can you tell us about Hosteeva’s vision and its evolution in the short-term rental hospitality industry?
Tony: Absolutely. Hosteeva was founded in 2014 with a vision to transform the hospitality industry using technology. From the start, we focused on integrating automation and machine learning into all aspects of short-term rental management. Our goal has always been to generate more revenue for property owners, simplify daily operations for property managers, and enhance the traveler experience. It’s in our DNA to continuously improve our service by providing new features and adding direct integrations with partners to optimize efficiency. With the recent exponential progress in AI, it was natural for us to adopt and tailor AI to suit our industry. Over the last 1.5 years, we’ve started integrating Generative AI into almost every possible workflow at Hosteeva, further enhancing the quality of our services.
The Role of Generative AI
Talia: How does generative AI fit into Hosteeva’s offerings? Can you provide more details?
Tony: Generative AI is now central to Hosteeva’s offerings. We’ve introduced Eva AI, a comprehensive AI-based assistant tool designed to handle every aspect of property management.
Talia: Can you explain what Eva AI is? Are you using outside tech to achieve this, or is it built in-house?
Tony: Imagine having a tireless, intelligent assistant at your fingertips, always ready to enhance your guest experience – that’s our Eva. Eva uses advanced algorithms, machine learning, and AI, all custom-built in-house, to manage tasks that usually require significant human attention. It handles everything from answering queries to resolving guest complaints quickly and accurately, freeing your staff to focus on personal touches that matter most. Beyond its core functionalities, Eva offers features for customizing and branding guest interactions, ensuring consistent communication that matches your unique brand identity. Additionally, Eva manages guest reviews, providing valuable feedback and insights about your property. One of Eva’s strengths is knowing when to involve human staff, ensuring complex issues get the attention they deserve.
Integration and Functionality
Talia: Is Eva an add-on service or integration? How can your customers take advantage of this tool?
Tony: Eva is integrated into Hosteeva PMS as an optional service. Customers can choose to enable it, and once enabled, everything is processed by Eva. For example, it helps with customer service operations by processing all communication that comes to the Hosteeva Unified Inbox, efficiently managing guest inquiries, special requests, and general communication from all channels like Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, Expedia, and others. Eva crafts professional responses, showing empathy and compassion, which not only improves customer service but also reduces operational costs and allows our customers to scale efficiently. Eva also manages guest reviews, providing personalized and professional responses and flagging reviews that require a more personal touch.
Talia: Can Eva support multiple languages as well?
Tony: Absolutely. Eva supports over 80 languages. It detects the language used by the guest and can respond in the desired language, while also providing English translations for property managers.
Maintenance and Voice Capabilities
Talia: What about maintenance tasks? Does Eva alert a team member or handle this automatically?
Tony: Eva now automatically generates maintenance tasks by analyzing guest communication and reviews, streamlining the process for property managers. We’ve also launched the beta version of our AI-based Voice Agent, Eva Voice Agent, which can handle phone calls from travelers. It’s currently being tested and will soon be available to our customers.
Listing and Marketing Enhancements
Talia: Can Eva help with getting properties listed and going live?
Tony: Yes, Eva helps write and update property headlines and descriptions for seasonal changes. Eva never sleeps; it constantly analyzes all customer interactions, reviews, occupancy rates, maintenance issues, and feedback from all sources to proactively identify listing improvement recommendations.
Talia: Can Eva help with upsells and retargeting guests?
Tony: Absolutely. Eva now performs personalized marketing, creating customized messages to encourage repeat bookings based on guest communication. For example, if a guest mentioned a nice restaurant nearby in their review, Eva can include that in a personalized message, enhancing the guest’s experience and likelihood of returning.
Future Developments and Challenges
Talia: Can you share more about Eva Voice Agent? When will it be available to the public?
Tony: Eva Voice Agent is currently in beta, handling multiple calls simultaneously, reducing wait times, and improving customer service with a realistic human voice. We’re working on personalized voice customization, and it will soon be available to our customers as a plugin for other PMSs as well.
Talia: What challenges have you faced with Eva, and how are you addressing them?
Tony: Working with cutting-edge technology is both exciting and challenging. Data security and privacy have been major focuses, and we’ve implemented robust measures to protect personal data. Voice processing initially had significant delays, but our partnerships with companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have helped us overcome these challenges. Scalability is also key, and we’re continuously improving Eva’s performance using cloud technologies.
Looking Ahead
Talia: What are Hosteeva’s plans for the next 3-5 years?
Tony: We aim to integrate Eva across all our services, providing deeper insights and proactive solutions. Our vision is to lead the hospitality industry with AI, enhancing efficiency, bookings, and guest experiences.
Talia: Can you highlight some key AI projects at Hosteeva that you are focusing on next?
Tony: We’re enhancing Eva’s Customer Support functionality to handle more complex tasks, streamlining Property Maintenance Management, improving our Smart Pricing Algorithm with AI, expanding our Risk Assessment capabilities, developing a Concierge Service for travelers, and offering a Property Owner Assistant. We aim to have 85% of our customer communication handled by Eva by year-end and are expanding our Voice AI Agent capabilities.
AI and Human Synergy
Talia: There’s a lot of discussion around AI potentially replacing human jobs. How do you see the balance between AI and human roles evolving at Hosteeva?
Tony: We see AI as a tool to augment human capabilities rather than replace them. While AI handles repetitive tasks, it frees up our human employees to focus on strategic, creative, and relationship-based roles. This synergy leads to better outcomes for our customers, employees, and the overall business.
Talia: Thanks, Tony. We look forward to seeing Hosteeva’s continued innovation.
Stay tuned for more updates and join us in our ‘Unlock and Learn’ series to explore the future of hospitality with AI!
