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Case Study
AvantStay
AvantStay Redefines Party Protection with Party Squasher Pro
AvantStay is a short-term rental management company committed to providing premier hospitality for groups in all their locations. Focused on delivering unforgettable experiences for group travelers, AvantStay has properties that can house anywhere from six to twenty eight people. Nearly 2 years ago AvantStay had 50 different properties in 6 markets; now it has 350+ homes in 20+ markets across the US & recently launched homes in Mexico.
Parties Damage a Management Company’s Reputation
With that many large properties to take care of, AvantStay cannot let anything slip through the cracks. Wi-fi, keys, and air conditioning are just some of the things AvantStay has to keep track of at each and every property. On top of that, they need to maintain good relationships with their owners, neighbors, and the city by keeping their properties party-free. With so many potential party sites and their reputation at stake, AvantStay needed a strategy. Michael Zink, product manager at AvantStay, recalls that “We needed real-time intelligence—whether that be noise or device monitoring—inside the home that was still compliant with federal & local regulations.”
Single Family Homes: The Ideal Party Venue
This problem led AvantStay to evaluate various technology products to ease their burden. As a tech-enabled hospitality company, AvantStay is constantly looking for technologies to make their job and their guests’ travel easier. Because almost all of AvantStay’s properties are large, single family homes, their properties are a prime target of guests looking to host a large party.
Two years ago, the 50 properties that they managed were monitored solely through neighbors or complaints from the city itself. This strategy was risky. While each city has different rules regarding noise, street congestion, or other party complaints, many have a three-strike rule. “If we strike out, we have to off-board a home which means a serious loss in revenue and a step backwards for our company. We want to do whatever is necessary so that we don’t have to off-board a home,” explained Zink. This created a need for more timely monitoring because of the continuous risk at each location. “We walk a thin line. We want to prevent parties without infringing on the privacy of our guests.”
“If we didn’t have Party Squasher Pro we would be in the dark about these things. By preventing the disruption caused by parties, we have been able to remain good partners of the cities in which we operate and have not had to off-board homes. We have enjoyed a lot of success with Party Squasher.”
Not All Party Prevention Technologies Are the Same
Party Squasher was not the first technology AvantStay investigated to prevent parties. They also used NoiseAware and Ring. With NoiseAware monitoring sound, Ring watching the front door, and Party Squasher monitoring the occupancy at every AvantStay home, Zink figured that he had every scenario covered. But not all technologies make life easier.
“Party Squasher is the most reliable and just the easiest. It’s the piece of technology we worry about least. It’s easy to install and almost impossible to tamper with. It connects directly to our wifi router with ethernet which eliminates all the problems of Wi-Fi and basically guarantees 100% connectivity.”
Noise monitoring is another method to discourage parties, but such solutions are not easy to set up. AvantStay’s search for a solution only uncovered new problems. “We’ve had our Area managers go through the installation process on our other IoT apps 20+ times, with installation failures all 20 times. It’s so difficult—using a combination of bluetooth and wifi— sometimes we have a 10% success rate.” Not only do some of AvantStay’s other IoT products provide a frustratingly difficult set-up, but their noise monitoring devices, for example, are easy for guests to tamper with or turn off, so AvantStay has to worry about their guests defeating the noise monitoring.
Another of their technologies caused similar frustrations. Ring can provide further protection through monitoring of the front door, however AvantStay ran into a problem while trying to expand their business. “Too many cameras, too many feeds, things started not working for us.” Zink describes his frustration with the system when it got to the point that the servers couldn’t handle all their properties on one account. With the size of AvantStay’s operation, Ring effectively does not alert AvantStay staff to a problem unless AvantStay actively monitors the video feed.
But Party Squasher Pro gave them both ease of installation and reliability in management. Managing hundreds of homes with a single web dashboard lets them grow, unimpeded by technical constraints.
“There have been nightmares on Ring’s and NoiseAware’s sides, but not at all with Party Squasher. It’s been so easy. It’s great.”
AvantStay Expands with Party Squasher Pro
Today, AvantStay manages over 350 short-term rental properties located across the US & Mexico, all protected by Party Squasher Pro. Party protection has become even more important ever since March 2020 with the arrival of Covid-19. “To our dismay we’re actually seeing a lot of parties, especially in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Malibu, California. Because people cannot go to bars or clubs, they book stays of a couple nights, invite their friends, and try to have a party in our homes.” But Party Squasher Pro is helping with that. Party Squasher Pro is a stable source of protection for AvantStay where technology meets ease of use. As AvantStay continues to grow, Party Squasher Pro will be there to protect.
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