The pandemic has ruthlessly underlined the shortcomings of vacation rental businesses worldwide. One of these was undoubtedly the need for automating operational processes. 

When bookings and revenue suddenly dropped to zero, but operational costs continued to stay high, property managers were forced to improvise to try and keep their businesses afloat.

These events made the need for effective operational tools abundantly clear. That’s why Mr. Alfred, a new property management system was born. 

An all-in-one solution, Mr. Alfred allows property managers to save time on daily tasks, reduce their operational costs and focus on growing their business with a tailored strategy.

We’ll tell you all about it in this article. 

What is Mr. Alfred and why was it created?

Mr. Alfred is an all-in-one PMS that promises to increase revenue by 15% and cut operational costs by 40%.

Oriol Plana Masiques, CEO and Co-Founder of the property management company HiGuests, launched Mr. Alfred in August 2020. He realised that small to medium-sized property managers often have trouble balancing their revenue and operational costs. Without investment or other resources such as an experienced team, a high level of innovation and sophisticated technology, they struggle to make their businesses profitable.  

This problem has been especially prevalent during the pandemic when the loss of income impacted smaller businesses to a much larger extent than the big ones. Not having automated processes and using multiple different management platforms drives up operational costs and makes everything inefficient and expensive. As a result, many property managers were losing time and money.

Enter Mr. Alfred. This new property management system helps small and medium-sized property managers optimise their time and increase their income. Not only does Mr. Alfred allow for the automation of administrative and property management processes, but it also comes with an expert revenue management team ready to help businesses perfect their pricing. 

Related: Pandemic Pivots: How 12 Vacation Rental Tech Companies Changed Course

What are the benefits and features of Mr. Alfred?

Mr. Alfred’s customers get much more than just a PMS: they can benefit from a customised strategy based on their business needs. This includes a custom pricing and commercialisation strategy, account management, and help with growing their portfolios.

What’s more, Mr. Alfred provides flexibility in the high and low seasons to further adapt to the needs of small to medium-sized property managers. 

Here are some of the main features:

  • Price optimisation: Implement dynamic prices and a custom positioning strategy to increase your revenue.
  • Operations: Assign tasks, track performance and allocate costs to reduce operational expenses.
  • Distribution: Connect to and increase your listings’ visibility on major distribution channels to get more bookings.

Once the onboarding process is complete, property managers can set up their pricing and promotions; access all their property information; get their properties connected, visible and bookable on major OTAs; and carry out operational tasks like invoicing and reporting booking management, messaging and more. 

How much is Mr. Alfred and where is it available?

Mr. Alfred’s pricing depends on the size of your portfolio. There’s a cost per property + 5 – 8% of the revenue generated.

The platform is available in 6 cities in Europe and the Middle East: 

  • Spain: Barcelona, Sevilla, Málaga, Valencia and Huelva
  • UAE: Dubai 

How La Recepción kept bookings up throughout the pandemic with Mr. Alfred

La Recepción is a Spanish property management company with 100 units in Málaga and Barcelona. According to General Manager Carlos Mota, they aim to provide “the best vacation rental performance for vacation property owners through offering the best accommodations with reasonable prices for guests.”

Before starting to work with Mr. Alfred, La Recepción was looking to automate its operational processes. They’d been working with different platforms and “needed a PMS to centralise all the information and tasks, as well as a revenue manager for the commercial strategy,” said Carlos. 

They chose Mr. Alfred because of the personalised support they provide along with the platform’s PMS and revenue management capabilities. Ultimately, Mr. Alfred has helped La Recepción navigate the effect of the pandemic. 

“With Mr. Alfred, I have been able to maintain the performance of each property by keeping the majority of the properties with bookings every month,” Carlos said. 

Furthermore, Carlos and his team have been able to save time and effort managing reservations. And, boosting their visibility on major OTA has allowed them to increase their bookings.  

“In addition, Mr. Alfred´s team assists us in the instant adjustment of promotions, pricing and cancellation policies allowing us to react quickly in response to the market behaviour, and we can focus on expanding the business,” Carlos added. 

Based on his experience, Carlos would recommend Mr. Alfred to “property managers who are currently struggling with their internal operations and administration. Tourism is moving fast, and if we don’t react at the right time, we are losing bookings and therefore money,” he said. 

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