Trio of local entrepreneurs launch app for short-term rental owners, managers
Hospitri aims to cut administrative costs and streamline operations for Puerto Rico property managers.
A new local startup will save property managers and individual owners of short-term rentals 60% of their administrative and operational costs, according to the entrepreneurs who launched the Hospitri SaaS platform this week.
The entrepreneurs, who are participating in startup accelerator Parallel 18’s Pre-18 program, expect to increase those savings to 75% by year’s end with the help of a $220,000 investment that will allow them to finish developing the platform.
Hospitri, a name derived from the words hospitality and atrium, is designed to work as a business partner for short-term rental (STR) property managers by offering them real-time information and personalized support.
“Today, in this competitive market, it’s not possible for (property managers or individual owners) to grow their businesses without implementing this kind of technology,” Rodrigo Lloveras, Hospitri co-founder and CEO, told News is my Business.
“We’ve seen owners and operators leave the market because of how complicated it is for them to manage the business and comply with regulations,” he said.
Hospitri founders Lloveras, Marcos Mercado and Alexis Tavarez spent more than a year developing the platform and database, arriving at a beta version that now has more than 70 active listings. The startup stems from their own experiences and needs in the local STR market.
“We’re property managers, so we developed a system to simplify our own operations. Now we want to make it available to other investors, individual property managers or property management companies so they can do the same,” Lloveras said.
The platform is not just one system but a combination of systems that provides everything STR property managers and owners need to administer their properties and run their operations, he added.
A tech-human hybrid
In addition to operational and financial dashboards, a real-time calendar of listings and reservations, and other functions, Hospitri offers personal service through a virtual property manager, a revenue manager and a communications team. The company currently has 17 employees.
“The system synchronizes technology with a human touch,” said Mercado, co-founder and chief operating officer. “This business (short-term rental) involves a lot of data and requires a lot of customer service. The platform serves as a bridge between the two.”
Hospitri is unique in Puerto Rico, as no other property management system on the island combines technology and hospitality services, Lloveras said.
“We stand out because of the services we offer through the virtual property manager assigned to your properties and the revenue management team, which performs strategic analysis of supply and demand in the market so that you can compete more effectively,” Lloveras said, noting that an increase in the number of listings in recent years has intensified competition in the local hospitality industry.
Hospitri incorporates technology that enables users to communicate with their virtual property managers via chat and video calls. In addition, the team is developing an artificial intelligence tool for the platform that will be linked to each user’s database, allowing for questions and conversations, said Tavarez, co-founder and CTO.
“AI is a helpful tool, but we believe it’s important to have human beings who know and understand the property and the business,” Mercado said. “These people are your team. They’re a part of your business.”
Designed to help STRs grow
STR owners and managers typically hit a wall when seeking to expand their property portfolio: reports and data. STR marketplaces such as Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and Expedia have their own systems, introducing numerous variables that make it extremely difficult for property managers to list their properties on different vacation rental platforms, Lloveras explained.
“The synchronization of all those platforms and the administrative part is extremely complicated, so many people nowadays end up not expanding,” he said.
Using Hospitri, property owners and managers can get organized and market their properties more efficiently, strengthening the local STR industry and supporting its growth, Mercado said.
“This tool has the capacity to run a portfolio of few or many properties, so people who own or manage only one or two properties can have a team they normally wouldn’t be able to have,” he added.
Hospitri is available for a subscription fee of $45 to $55 and a 5% commission per transaction — for now, as the team plans to increase that to 8% in about six months.
“Right now, what we have in the market are property managers who charge 20% or 25% commission. We want to support those property managers so that they continue to grow and give access to property owners so that they, too, can benefit from this service,” Lloveras said.
Proudly Boricua
Hospitri is 100% made in Puerto Rico.
“We developed it here, for Puerto Ricans, to boost the local market,” Lloveras said.
“We are boricuas,” Mercado added. “We’re trying to help people here to organize their properties and grow their businesses. The (STR) market in Puerto Rico is booming, and it can’t continue to grow without this type of technology. So this is really important for Puerto Ricans to stay in the race.”
According to 2023 industry estimates, more than 25,000 STR units operate in Puerto Rico, up from only 1,000 in 2014. The island’s destination marketing organization, Discover Puerto Rico, estimates that in 2024, STRs generated more than $700 million in revenue.
“Our focus right now is to offer this service to other Puerto Ricans and establish a strong position in the industry,” Lloveras said. “Eventually, we expect to be able to offer this service outside the island, in the U.S. and Europe.”
