How City Concierge Scaled from a Boutique Agency to Managing Hundreds of Rentals

City Concierge Overview

Headquarters: Lisbon, Portugal	Industry: Property Management
Website: www.thecityconcierge.com	Specialization: High-End Vacation Rentals
Company Growth: Listings grew by 270%	Founded: Approximately 4 years ago

The City Concierge is a rental management company based in Lisbon, Portugal. They help homeowners rent out their beautiful homes by handling everything from cleaning to welcoming guests. As they grew rapidly across multiple cities, they needed an efficient system to manage hundreds of listings and thousands of reservations smoothly.

The Challenge

Managing a growing number of rentals became increasingly complex for The City Concierge. Coordinating bookings across multiple platforms, keeping up with guest communications, and avoiding double bookings required too much manual effort. They needed a powerful solution to manage their operations efficiently as they expanded.

The Outcome

Implementing Tokeet allowed The City Concierge to automate tasks, reduce manual work, and manage listings on multiple channels from one platform. With Tokeet’s help, they achieved a 270% increase in listings, improved staff efficiency by 25%, and expanded their operations with ease.

Background

From Personalized Services to Rapid Growth

The City Concierge began by offering personalized rental management services to a small number of homeowners. They assisted property owners who wanted to rent out their beautiful homes but couldn’t manage the day-to-day tasks themselves. This included cleaning the house, welcoming guests upon arrival, and ensuring they had a pleasant stay.

As co-founder Paulo Bastos explained:

“We started as a small rental management company offering bespoke solutions to a small number of rental properties. But after quick growth, we needed to find a rental management system to handle hundreds of rentals and thousands of reservations.”

Their focus on providing high-quality, bespoke solutions quickly led to success. Word spread about their exceptional service, and demand for their offerings grew rapidly. Suddenly, they found themselves needing to manage many more properties and reservations than before.

The Challenges

Managing Explosive Growth

As City Concierge grew quickly, they faced big challenges. Managing hundreds of rentals and thousands of reservations by hand became very hard. The sudden increase in business put a lot of strain on their daily operations.

Their old systems couldn’t handle the larger number of properties and bookings. This led to inefficiencies, like slow responses to guests and trouble keeping everything organized. They realized that without better tools, they couldn’t keep up the high-quality service their clients expected.

They needed a strong rental management system to help them scale up without losing the personal touch. Finding the right solution was crucial to continue their growth without compromising on service quality.

How Tokeet Provided the Solution

Streamlining Operations and Enhancing Efficiency

To tackle their growing challenges, The City Concierge turned to Tokeet for a solution. Tokeet provided them with a robust rental management system that made a significant difference in their operations:

Multi-Channel Management: Tokeet allowed them to manage all their client properties across multiple listing channels seamlessly. Instead of logging into different platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com individually, they could handle everything from one central dashboard. This saved them time and reduced the chances of errors, such as double bookings or inconsistent information.

Co-founder Paulo Bastos highlighted the system’s capability:

“The number of listings is usually a stress point with these types of systems, but Tokeet was able to handle the demand.”

Improved Communication: With Tokeet’s tools, they enhanced their guest communication by responding faster to inquiries and messages. Automated responses and templates ensured that guests received timely and consistent information, improving their overall experience.
Automation: Tokeet automated many of their routine tasks, such as updating calendars, sending booking confirmations, and scheduling cleaning services. This increased their operational efficiency, allowing their staff to focus on more important tasks that required personal attention.
Data Reporting: They could provide personalized data reports to their clients on demand. Tokeet generated detailed reports on bookings, revenues, and property performance, eliminating the need for manual data compilation. This transparency helped build trust with their clients and offered valuable insights into their property’s success.

By implementing Tokeet, The City Concierge was able to handle their rapid growth without compromising on service quality. The software not only met their immediate needs but also offered additional features that helped them become more efficient and enhance the customer experience.

The Outcomes

Significant Growth and Improved Efficiency

After adopting Tokeet, The City Concierge saw remarkable growth within just a couple of years. Their staff size increased by 200% (not including contracted employees), and the number of active listings skyrocketed by 270%. Implementing a channel management system like Tokeet came at the perfect time to support this rapid expansion.

While growing bigger is great, it doesn’t always mean the company is making more money. Efficiency plays a big role in profitability. That’s why it’s important to note that their staff’s operating efficiency improved by 25% when comparing the number of employees to the number of listings. This means they could manage more properties without needing to hire as many new staff members.

With Tokeet, The City Concierge was able to:

Manage all client properties across multiple listing channels: They could oversee listings on platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com, and others from one central place, saving time and reducing mistakes.
Improve guest communication response times: Faster responses made guests happier and improved their overall experience.
Increase efficiency with automated operations: Automating routine tasks like updating calendars and sending booking confirmations freed up their team to focus on more important things.
Provide clients with personalized data reports on-demand: Instead of creating reports by hand, they could generate them quickly, giving property owners valuable insights whenever they needed them.

The City Concierge reported that Tokeet met all their needs and even went beyond their expectations by offering extra features that boosted efficiency and enhanced the customer experience.

When asked about Tokeet’s role in their future plans, co-founder Paulo Bastos said:

“Tokeet is the heart of the reservation operations, which is critical for us to be able to support our plans of growth and expansion.”

Looking Ahead: The Future of City Concierge

Future Expansion Plans

The City Concierge has ambitious goals for the future. They aim to become one of the top three rental management companies in Europe within the next few years. To reach this goal, they have laid out clear plans for expansion:

Geographical Expansion: They plan to operate in twenty European cities by 2022. By expanding into new locations, they can offer their services to a wider range of homeowners and guests across the continent.
Increased Portfolio: They estimate that their number of active listings will grow to over 4,000 properties in the near future. Managing such a large portfolio will allow them to serve more clients and increase their market presence.

Key Takeaways

Rapid Scaling with Tokeet: The City Concierge transformed from a small agency to managing hundreds of rentals efficiently using Tokeet’s rental management system.
Increased Operational Efficiency: Automation and centralized management improved their efficiency by 25%, even as active listings grew by 270%.
Enhanced Guest Communication: Faster response times and automated messaging led to better guest experiences and satisfaction.
On-Demand Reporting: Automated, personalized data reports provided clients with valuable insights without manual effort.
Critical Partner for Growth: Tokeet remains essential to their ambitious plans to expand into 20 European cities and manage over 4,000 properties, aiming to become a top European rental management company.