#55 Then & Now: RMS in Vacation Rentals with Sarah Franzen

“My start in the vacation rental industry was six years ago. In my initial days, I wasn’t really introduced to reporting and other things. Soon enough, I started wondering where the system was and that’s when I realized that there wasn’t one...and it wasn’t my company’s fault, it’s just where the industry was at the time. Aside from knowing the term ‘revenue management’ there wasn’t a lot of knowledge behind it. So I got the freedom to figure out what that was.” Hello hello! Welcome back to another insight-filled episode of the Flying Cat Marketing interview series. This week, we’re joined by Sarah Franzen, director of revenue management at Natural Retreats.  Natural Retreats is a luxury vacation rental management company operating in some of America’s most iconic destinations, from Palm Springs, California to Sea Islands, South Carolina.Sarah started her career in the hospitality industry in the sales department of a hotel, and through that journey, she discovered a passion for revenue management. She moved from sales to revenue management and also jumped ship from the traditional hotel industry to the growing and innovative world of vacation rentals. In this episode, Sarah shares her thoughts on the evolution of revenue management tools in the vacation rental space over the years, the advancements of technology in the short-term industry, and more. She also touches upon the importance of tech stacks to property owners and the differing levels of buy-in across the industry. Some owners take an active interest in the tech being used to get their properties featured whereas others aren’t as curious and focus only on revenue generation. Sarah talks about catering both these types of audiences.This episode is an eye-opener for those interested in learning more about revenue management in the vacation rental industry. We got a lot of takeaways from it and are excited to share the full episode right here!In this episode we talk about:Sarah’s journey in the hospitality sectorDeep understanding of revenue management in the vacation rental industryDeveloping a RMS from scratchAdvancements in tech for revenue & data management How tech impacts property ownersKey people reshaping the industry Timestamps 00:18 - Introduction to Sarah Franzen00:38 - Sarah’s journey in the hospitality industry 03:00 - Expectations vs reality 05:43 - Understanding revenue management in vacation rental industry08:00 - Building a revenue management system from scratch  14:05 - Sarah’s view on upcoming tech in revenue & data management 20:13 - Challenges along the way in the tech space 22:58 - The impact of tech stacks on property owners    25:30 - How she leverages tech at Natural Retreats 26:55 - If Sarah would ever switch her RMS30:20 - Biggest thought leaders in the vacation rental industry You can connect with Sarah Franzen through her LinkedIn. You can also connect with her on [email protected] While you’re hereFollow Flying Cat Marketing on the following channels to get more tips, tactics, and knowledge on content marketingVisual – YouTubeAudio – Flying Cat Marketing Podcast (Spotify) (