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Below is our recent interview with David Chambat, CEO at Villa Finder:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to Villa Finder?
A: We started Villa Finder back in 2012 – with the aim to simplify villa bookings in Bali through a strict selection of well-organized, beautiful villas with great staffing on a very-well designed website. This came at the perfect time when customers were starting to shift away from hotels for their holiday, looking for more unique, private experience – and we were therefore immediately successful and expanded quickly into neighbouring destinations such as Thailand and Sri Lanka – and more recently Mauritius. Currently, we have over 1,500 villas in Bali, Phuket, Samui, Sri Lanka and Mauritius.
In the last 2 years we have also entered an adjacent business, developing flexible and productive villa distribution solution for more than 100 villa owners in the region.
Each villa is carefully inspected and handpicked to ensure they meet our standard of quality. We also provide a Concierge service to guarantee an excellent stay for our clients.
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Q: Do you make villa owners’ life easier? How?
A: Six years ago, before I started Villa Finder, I was actually looking to build a villa in Bali. As I searched for a website to list my upcoming villa, I couldn’t find any that was good. There wasn’t much information online. The images were small and blurry, which didn’t reflect the villa correctly at all. The payment system was not in place – usually it would be the bank account of someone, and you would have no way to check its reliability. That why I decided to start Villa Finder. At that time, we were the first website to provide instant information (especially on availability), great images, real customer reviews and a secured payment method. We advised the owners on what needed to be done for the villas to make it better.
Now, a lot of things have changed. Over the last 5 years, I have seen over 1,000 new luxury villas. The market has become more professional and a lot more competitive. With so much competition going on in the vacation rental market, having a great villa and getting people to book it are two different stories. In the past, villa owners could wait for customers to come. However, that is no longer the case. Consumers now demand information to be readily available at the right time and the right place, and instant communication. There are also a good number of listing platforms, each with its own specifications about images sizes, formats and information. Maintaining the channels, communicating with customers and managing the calendar simply becomes too much for villa owners, especially when they are not experts in the market.
This is where the new division of Villa Finder comes in. We have developed a clear expertise and became the market leader in Asia. We know how to distribute a villa (provided that it meets our standards) and how to promote it to the right travellers. We help owners with pricing and distribution strategies to optimise occupancy, and take care of the customer service for them. We handle the communication with clients, and that saves a lot of time to our owners. Besides, in 2013, we released inter-villa, a free availability software catered to villa owners. Prior to that, most of the softwares were built for hotels, so they didn’t really meet owners’ needs. inter-villa is a simple way to manage the calendar and avoid double-bookings. We also help market the villa. We use various advertising tactics to create awareness and bring in traffic.
Q: How big is the villa rental market in Bali?
A: We did a research into the villa rental market in Asia Pacific last year. The market in Bali is about $138m, about 35% of the APAC market. There are over 3,000 villas in Bali at the moment. Top inbound markets for luxury villas in Bali are Australia (38%), Europe (18%), and Singapore (11%).
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Q: Why is now the time for a technology solution like Villa Finder?
A: The advancement of technology and the rise of vacation rental sites like Airbnb and HomeAway are changing the way people travel. More and more people are looking for alternatives to hotels. They are looking for something unique and of high quality. However, while people are open to trying new things, be it a new hotel or a new type of accommodation altogether, credibility plays an important part. They rely a lot on reviews and word of mouth advertising – recommendations from friends and family. Social media and travel sites like TripAdvisor are very helpful in sharing personal experiences and spreading the words.
Comparing to only 6 years ago when we started, things are so much more advanced. Everything just lines up and creates a great opportunity for technology solution like Villa Finder. In the past, people referred to newspaper advertisements and classifieds to find vacation rentals. In this day and age, anything can be done with a mobile phone. People are constantly connected, and they expect information to be readily available. They are getting used to using apps, online travel agencies, blogs and websites to plan their travel. Everything can be done with just a click.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: We will continue to find more great villas for our guests :) In the near future, we plan to expand to more destinations to offer a wider selection of villas and services. Enhancing our clients’ experience has always been our top priorities – and will continue to be.
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