Automate Your Airbnb Business With AI | Luca Zambello

Luca Zambello (00:00)
The mind shift that we did as a company, it it came out of that, right? Out of a necessity, a necessity to survive. And he said we have to make a big bet. So let’s go all in into this technology and and let’s rewrite every single process, every single way we’ve been doing things. Cause either we make our team of twenty people as productive or better productive than a team of three, four hundred people, or we won’t survive. And we did that.

Meghan Escobar (01:59)
Hello everyone, welcome back to Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host, Meghan Escobar, and today I am joined by someone that I’ve ⁓ been looking forward to chatting with. We’ve had ⁓ we had some time to connect before we get on to the show here. Learned a little bit more about what he’s doing, but we got Luca Zemboli Zembola Zambello Zambello with us today, who’s been making some serious moves in the AI industry.

as far as providing systems, putting systems in place for people in the industry. So super glad to have you here, Luca. I think our listeners are really going to be able to take some ⁓ knowledge and education away from this show on how you’re approaching inserting AI systems into ⁓ you know helping people scale and utilize their time for things that most people don’t really want to spend time on, right?

⁓ so let’s dive in. First and foremost, for the people who might not be familiar with your world, give us a short version on what your focus is these days and what markets that you’re operating in.

Luca Zambello (03:08)
Absolutely. Well, thank you for having me. ⁓ yeah, I’m CEO of ⁓ Jurny, and Jurny is a property management system. with the that we built basically our with the concept of AI ⁓ at at its core, ⁓ to really streamline and automate and ⁓ hospitality and more specifically hospitality in the short term rental space like Airbnb. ⁓

space and we also help ⁓ mix-use building that go the shift between short-term and long and long-term stays. ⁓ and we help ⁓ automate ⁓ all the operational side of the business and ⁓ as well as the a guest management aspect and make that ⁓ very scalable and ⁓ helping them creating unique experiences for each guest while

keeping their business pretty scalable. So that’s that’s that’s our core focus as a company.

Meghan Escobar (04:07)
I love that. And what caught my attention the most ⁓ about you and the the business Jurny ⁓ is the way that you’ve been able to explain how putting certain systems in place can really enhance the business, create unique guest experiences. So I’m curious to know a little bit more about that, like if you could go into that a little bit deeper on

What do what do you mean by creating unique guest experiences and how

How beneficial can it really be for businesses to insert your services?

Luca Zambello (04:45)
Well, absolutely. So a few things. One is important to note that even lar large hotels and high-end hotels have a hard time to keep track, for instance, even for for every guest that has ever stayed with them. ⁓ and like whatever they share something about them, making sure that the entire team like remembers that, right? So one of the biggest reasons why that happens is because today the industry is extremely fragmented.

⁓ which means that ⁓ if your hotel or short-term rental business, your communications with your guests happen in so many different pockets ⁓ of ⁓ so many compartments, if you want to call it. Like it could be one person having a conversation with your guest. You may receive the co the the the reservation from let’s say a booking engine like booking.com or Expedio, the short-term rental more like Airbnb.

and then you may have a chat on WhatsApp, and then you you have some email exchanges, and again, like of your friend desk may have a conversation. So all these conversations that happen are live and exist in those in those little buckets, and those buckets don’t communicate with one another. So, like what Jurny has done as a number one thing was to unify what we call a universal inbox. We unify all these communications into a centralized place.

And then ⁓ thanks to

To the advancement of technology such as AI, ⁓ we were able to now make sure that whenever you had any type of interaction with any guests, those information gets saved and stored. And then they can be further utilized by either humans or a hybrid between a human and an AI agent, or solely by an AI agent, to then making sure that you remember who that guest is, what they like, what they didn’t like, what they want to see in the future.

And make sure that you get that A a business intelligence for your business, but B making sure that you can leverage this information to ⁓ improve the experiences for the guests, making sure that the guest feels like you’re remembering them. You know what they like and they feel like really welcome. And they’re more enticed to buy from your brand, trust your brand and come back to you. And ⁓ at the same time utilizing this technology to add more revenue to you at the same time.

on obviously as a returning guest ⁓ that that will spend more money, but also once you know this information about your guests, you can leverage them to create like things like app sales, right? Like there’s there’s a huge size of the market in in in ⁓ selling experiences. ⁓ in addition to whatever their stay is, like many people travel ⁓ to a market and their the place they book is only like a small percentage of what they’re gonna be spending.

When they get to that place. So there’s a whole world of up sales that with AI can be A automated and B super personalized. So ⁓ while at the same time ⁓ automating everything that comes with ⁓ the management of this guest, like on the operational side. And especially a lot a lot more that we keep seeing the trends of like long-term real estate management company.

that they manage large buildings, they want to come to the short term rental space, but there’s not really an efficient way for them to access it because it’s a complex business and it takes requires a lot more resources than than just managing a a long term stay. That’s our property management system really allows them to ⁓ make that jump not as big ⁓ and daunting as as it currently is today.

Meghan Escobar (09:09)
Wow. So

That was incredibly explained. What I took from that is what your business is able to do is remove the transactional experience for guests and make it completely personalized, which is going to enhance or I don’t know if enhance is the the word I want to use, but it’s going to make them feel like, wow, the this business knows me and I’m much more likely to

One, come back. Two, refer. Right. Word of mouth. Talk about the experience. Get more people in the door because they want to experience that same connection.

Luca Zambello (09:51)
Absolutely. ⁓ and and I think that’s that’s that’s interesting because a lot of people talk about ⁓ how technology doesn’t fit in the hospitality space because it they say it’s all about human connections. But the reality is that when somebody stays even in ⁓ in a hotel on Airbnb, what they want is a fast response, b making sure that those responses fix their problems.

And see if you can remember about them and remember what they like, that elevates their experience. They don’t really care so much what where that comes from, right? ⁓ and and like you can you can have humans handling that, but if they don’t solve problem fast and they don’t remember who you are, that doesn’t elevate your experience, right? And so that’s really what we’re able to do and we’ve seen that people can use it as like humans.

Making humans superhumans by having access to all this knowledge or really even fully automated it with AI, but even an AI that knows how to solve problems and and create that unique experience is more valuable than than a human that doesn’t do that, right? So that’s yeah.

Meghan Escobar (11:00)
Yeah, agreed. Agreed. And we can touch on that a little bit too, right? Because I think a lot of people are scared of that aspect of it. And the fact that the mindset goes to, well, if I allow this system to take over what I can do, what do I do?

Luca Zambello (11:17)
Yeah, it’s it’s a very good question. And in our previous conversation ⁓ side of the podcast we were talking about this that ⁓ that was actually I think the ⁓ one of the challenges that we had internally as a company because we’re not using AI just as a product, but we use it internally to really ⁓ increase efficiency and output of our own organization. And that is a big ⁓

question, right? Like people see AI as a threat, in many ways. And so it’s ⁓ big j job, I think, whoever the leadership is in an organization, to really take people out, ⁓ have a shift in in company culture and making sure that that that people understand really what the benefits is and what

Sometimes people feel good at being busy, but not necessarily productive. This is a very true thing, right? And what AI really allows you to do is to become extremely productive. And the time that you gain back by not doing the sometimes the busy work, the I call it soulless work, ⁓ because sometimes when you have to do this like repetitive, busy work that doesn’t

Really again bring so much value, the middle part doesn’t bring value. The initial 10% and the final 10% is where the value is. and really what AI allows you to do is to automate that that middle 80%. And what humans needs to do to become to master this technology, they need to become really, really good at the first 10 and the last 10. Where that’s where creativ creativity comes in place, that’s where vertical knowledge comes into place, that’s where

He the human connection aspect, which is on the final 10%, come to place. So in reality, AI allows you to become to do more of the human, ⁓ creative and satisfying work. Absolutely, more of the critical thinking, more the critical side, the human connections, what humans are good at, right? And ⁓ if if anything, we’ve seen inside of our own organizations, the more people.

Meghan Escobar (13:11)
Using more of your brain.

Luca Zambello (13:24)
n learn how to leverage this technology, the happier they become. Because the b the reality is when you’re more productive, you are happier. Yeah.

Meghan Escobar (14:05)
I I can’t agree with that more. I mean, I know I’ve learned from a a mentor of mine that I’ve been working with for the last five years. One thing that he said to me that has stuck with me over the last five years is the moment you stop creating and you stop learning, you stop living. So I love the perspective that you’re putting on this because I think so many people are afraid of these systems, but in reality, it’s like it could

Luca Zambello (14:21)
Yes. ⁓

Meghan Escobar (14:31)
help you become a superhuman and use more of your brain and so you can be happier versus doing that as you call it called it soulless work, that tedious work that doesn’t allow you to use your brain when you’re just like, you know, stuffing the envelopes or, you know, doing those things. So I really, really appreciate the the perspective you’re bringing to this. And I think our our listeners will

be able to also shift their perspective a little bit on how they’re viewing the way that AI is coming in and coming in hot.

Luca Zambello (15:01)
Yeah. Absolutely. it’s go ahead, sorry.

Meghan Escobar (15:05)
What ⁓ no, that’s okay. I just so what do you think has been the key for you, Luca, in your business that is kept keeping you and your team, you know, running smoothly?

Luca Zambello (15:15)
Well, I mean it it it’s a co it’s a constant challenge, right? It doesn’t stop ⁓ because of the technology ⁓ moves so quickly. And so I think that w one of the things that we found extremely valuable for us in the age of AI is management skill and vertical knowledge. Those two pieces are very important. But the third one is flexibility and elasticity and of often time

People with a lot of experience, a lot of vertical knowledge don’t come with ⁓ the elasticity. ⁓ and so this this has been a constant like reminder to ourselves ⁓ and and and ⁓ as as really the management, but also for everybody else to c constantly rechallenge ourselves every day. Is this the most effective way to do things? Is this the best process? So really keeping our ourselves honest.

And sharp on this is is extremely important. And really come from a place as whatever you knew before, it might not be true right now, right? ⁓ which is also it’s not the easiest thing, right? Like, especially for somebody who has a lot of experience and maybe did the same thing for 20 years. Be like, okay, this is this might not be it anymore. And we need to be okay with it. so that’s that’s been the biggest thing that I say.

For us and even companies that sometimes utilize AI and they think this this like type of magic wand that ⁓ because I’m use some people use AI as a checkbox. It’s like, I’m using AI checkbox. ⁓ or some people and they expect results and they don’t see it. Or other people they just ⁓ think is a magic wand and it’s not. ⁓ it’s is AI is just as good as its input. And

its input is just as good as ⁓ your mindset. So unless you know how to use it and master it, then you cannot expect good results. And it takes time. It takes time because w mm as I was saying even to you before, is like we’ve been on this for four years and it took us ⁓ granted the technology’s evolved a lot, but but I I do I think a company going jump into this and expecting game changing results the day after is

It’s crazy. It’s not gonna happen. And it takes e months, if not years, of of really start thinking how to leverage it and incorporate it.

Meghan Escobar (17:42)
So to set up the automations for it to run and scale the business to where it it can do things for you. Gotcha.

Luca Zambello (17:49)
Yeah, unless you obviously buy off the shelf solutions like ours, that’s obviously you have immediate results, but still like as a mindset as a company, that takes years to change.

Meghan Escobar (17:59)
Yeah,

I can see that. Okay. And now every owner and operator and business person that I know has a moment where things got real. Maybe that was a system and that you had in place or a deal that you had ⁓ with a with a large company that may have gone sideways or just just a time that they had to pivot really fast. Luca, do you mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Luca Zambello (18:26)
Yeah, I mean I think ⁓ about

Yeah, like a few like a bit more than a year ago, really is kind of like capital started drying up on the for the startups. ⁓ and then we we found ourselves against some large players that they were in the billion dollars of valuation. So it it became like this daunting like challenge of be like, how are we gonna be competing? They have way more money, way more resources, we don’t have a lot of capital. How do we do this?

And that’s really what kind of what forced us to to become very, very innovative and and and even though we we were adopting this technology, but to really double down and be like to get resources that we didn’t have ⁓ out of thin air, right? ⁓ becoming creative and really what forced us to to do this like extreme mind mind change

The mind shift that we did as a company, it it came out of that, right? Out of a necessity, a necessity to survive. And he said we have to make a big bet. So let’s go all in into this technology and and let’s rewrite every single process, every single way we’ve been doing things. Cause either we make our team of twenty people as productive or better productive than a team of three, four hundred people, or we won’t survive. And we did that.

So ⁓ obviously I I made something ⁓ very long and painful like sh summary in and then a quick two minute summary, but ⁓ that was really a moment for us that that pushed us to to become innovative. And if we didn’t do it, we would have not survived.

Meghan Escobar (20:51)
Can you talk to me a little bit about what are some of the the creative tactics that you guys did use as a company to overcome that situation?

Luca Zambello (20:59)
Well it it it like right now if you look at the org chart of our organization is a hybrid system between AI ⁓ agents and humans. And so we we had to basically take everything how we used to do it and completely rethink it ⁓ from an organizational standpoint, from a process standpoint, ⁓ SOP is like everything got rewritten completely from scratch. ⁓

And more than one time, as I was saying, like ⁓ to you before, like even processes or internal tools that we built, maybe even just six months ago, after six months they were already old because things progressed and we learned so many new we learn more effective way of doing things. And really k keeping keeping ourselves honest on that and and very agile. And the quick testing and failing processes that we did, like

the mo is like fail as fast as you can’t. Right? Like because the faster you fail, the better you can readapt what you’re doing and making sure that you do in the most effective way. ⁓ that it that has been that has been like a game changer for us. And I can say today successfully we have and there’s still room for improvement. We have the output of I think even a way better than a 300 people, 400 people organization. I know it sounds crazy, but

And why I say even potentially better, because the agility that a team of twenty, thirty people can have, it’s ⁓ cannot be compared to the agility of of a two to three hundred people team. Yeah. Because in the by definition they have they’re way slower to to adapt. And I actually happen to think where I thought it was like weaknesses of ours, now it’s becoming our biggest strength. ⁓ and I think that’s where

A lot of the disruptive companies are gonna be are not gonna be the this giant super well funded companies, but they’re gonna be smaller I mean s some funding you do need but smaller, more agile teams, right? ⁓ so it’s exciting.

Meghan Escobar (23:07)
It is. And I and I love how all of the things are kind of connecting, right? It’s like your challenges be your threats become your opportunities, your challenges become your wins. so it it’s it’s incredible to see and hear. And I think that’s that’s really the kind of stuff that people don’t talk about enough. You know, you mentioned ⁓ fail fast.

People here might hear that and be like, What do you mean fail? Like, I don’t wanna fail, right? You don’t wanna that’s a mindset shifter’s like fail means I I lost, right? I I but you don’t realize the wins that are coming along the way when you do fail because you’re learning what doesn’t work. Right. So the faster you learn what doesn’t work, the faster you learn what does. And so I I I believe that it’s what separates folks who are here to just dabble in.

create a chan transactional experience to let’s personalize this and how can we how can we make the customer or the client feel like this is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself.

Luca Zambello (24:06)
Yeah.

Meghan Escobar (24:06)
So what are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What’s the next big goal for Luca and Jurny?

Luca Zambello (24:14)
Well, it’s the next big goal for us is to really come it it’s is is the same goal I think that we had ⁓ from the very beginning, but it’s it it keeps expanding and it’s like to the unifications

I think real real estate, especially in the hospitality side, is extremely fragmented. ⁓ we found that there’s more and more company operating in three different aspects of of ⁓ real estate, which is long term, midterm and long term I put them together, ⁓ short term and ⁓ hotel’s and the three are kind of like getting closer and closer.

And our goal is to eventually be able to be the engine that allows operators to do all three very seamlessly. ⁓ it’s a big goal, but I think we I’m very confident we can successfully do that.

Meghan Escobar (25:13)
that is

A big goal, ⁓ but you know, you sound pretty confident that you’re gonna make it happen. And I think it’s huge to have that big vision. And especially when you’ve already had so much experience and you’ve already failed so much and recreated yourself so much. ⁓ you know, that next big move could either help you guys compound things or maybe create some chaos depending on you know how it’s played.

⁓ but I know a lot of people listening are either early on in their journey, whether that’s coming into the real estate industry as an agent, an investor, a builder, ⁓ or you know, cr taking or or maybe they are just looking to take their business to the next level. ⁓ and that’s going to more than likely be implementing some AI systems. And so

I think that they would definitely benefit from hearing this, but when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Luca Zambello (26:17)
⁓ I say it like

Well, I I I don’t know if if growing in the network necessarily has been ⁓ the number one focus for us until now now it’s becoming more because we’re kind of like past the just build the product to be like okay, let’s bring it to market. But I think for us the biggest thing was like build the best product you can possibly build and make sure that that makes a difference and and the product itself speaks for you.

for what you’re building and make sure that ⁓ extremely good customer relationship management alongside with a really really good product can help you scale what what do i mean with that is so from one hand you hear us speaking about like automations ⁓ but on the other hand i believe i’m a big believer that human relationships

is going to become even more important than before. so we’re virtual companies, so we all work remote. And I think ⁓ a lot of companies nowadays operate di this way and a lot of the our world became digital. But I think that’s that’s where ⁓ from one end we’re fully digital, we help you automate things, but on another end we are really doubling down on on in-person human connections.

⁓ so for instance, we start creating a lot of experiential, unique events for existing customers and potential prospects. So we go to markets, we take them like to we cre we create like maybe like invites only dinners and then we have this maybe like events that are more of an exclusive boutique ⁓ style events.

And then try to do especially for our larger customers, even like in-person visits, in-person onboarding. So from one end, we’re the extreme of the digital side, and from the other end, we’re really ⁓ doubling down on that human aspect and really trying to take some of the resources that we can save from the digital side and the way things that we can automate, and then really putting them back on that human aspect, where I think.

Is actually one of the aspects that has been kept from many, many companies in the digital side. ⁓ and we’re actually reversing that. ⁓ so I think this is also, and I don’t keep talking about AI, but it’s I think this is where ⁓ creating more efficiency on our side of your business can double down on actually what matter more than anything else. And ⁓ we have customers that they came to us and told us, yes, you guys have

the best platform we have seen. But in the end of the day, what truly made a difference for us is that you guys were the only one who showed up to our office. So that’s that also is is something that is important.

Meghan Escobar (29:09)
Yeah, I think that’s beautiful too. B and and thank you for sharing that concept because that is another fear I think people have is that it’s gonna take away from human connection. But really what these programs and systems actually do for businesses is it takes away the time spent where people can now instead of working on those systems or those those tedious tasks, you’re able to create.

more in-person events and appreciations and ⁓ all of those things. So that’s something that cannot be like faked or right. Relationships are everything in every space.

So before we wrap up, if somebody did want to reach out to you, Luca, and maybe collaborate or learn more about what your systems can do for them ⁓ and their business, what would be the best way for someone to reach you?

Luca Zambello (30:01)
Well, so the the company is ⁓ URL is jurny, jurny.com that’s ⁓ there’s a contact form there as well, also for collaborations. But I’m also pretty active on LinkedIn. It’s my name Lucas Zambello, like you’ll find me, CO of Jurny ⁓ I’m pretty active there. I think those are the two best ⁓ best channels.

Meghan Escobar (30:24)
Okay. And you said the so the company name is Jurny J U R N Y. Okay. Perfect. Is that an acronym for anything? I’m just curious.

Luca Zambello (30:29)
Correct.

No, it’s ⁓ speaks to a couple of things. One is efficiency. So really think outside of the box, not doing the things the way you’ve been doing ⁓ always, right? Like so I know journey spelled ⁓ i in a longer form. This is like a more efficient ⁓ way to spell that word. ⁓ and then also Jurny itself speaks to us as a company, our journey and speaks to guest journey, hospitality. So it’s there’s

There’s a lot of meanings behind behind that.

Meghan Escobar (31:04)
Perfect, perfect. Well, listen, I really appreciate your time, your story, and more importantly, your perspective. And I believe right now, again, how AI is, it’s it’s here. And ⁓ we need to learn more about how to use it in every industry. But here obviously we’re talking about real estate specific. And so

We need more people in this space who are doing things the right way. And I and I I love that your your passion is so involved here ⁓ to really help create more personalized experiences for, you know, long-term guests, short-term guests. And thank you again so much, Luca, for being here. And for those of you who are tuning in, if you did get value from this, be sure to hit subscribe and

Just know we have more company, more conversations coming in with owners and operators just like Luca, who are out here building real businesses in real time. We will see you on the next episode.