Could you share your story with us? How it all started for you?
Our family started working in tourism 20 years ago by renting apartments in a small intimate cove near Rogoznica where our family house was, and right next to the sea. These apartments have been a complete success and the business there is going great – even though it’s completely different compared to what we are doing in Split today.
In Split, we renovated an old grandma’s house in the city center – an adventure that started four years ago. It was not easy because it was utterly different from what we were doing before. We have a lot fewer obligations with apartments in Rogoznica compared to Split, where we have no daily contact with guests, besides check-ins and check-outs. The minimum guest stay is seven days.
In Split we need to be devoted entirely to our guests, we have a reception there, often advise on what to eat, visit, and see. Almost as in a hotel – utterly new feel of work in tourism. There are no breaks, and we do it all – from preparing breakfast to cleaning and preparing the rooms. We offer six rooms and serve breakfast, but most importantly, provide a unique feeling of staying in an old authentic house in Split, which is close to all the happenings in the city, but far enough to give guests their piece and a quiet corner to rest.
What does success in tourism mean for you?
It might sound like a cliche, but for it’s a happy guest who feels like home or as staying with an old friend where he/she has all of our attention. Once, we had a couple that stayed with us five times in one year, and that’s what makes us truly happy. Whenever Splits football team Hajduk had games in autumn and spring – they would stay with us – which is great because it’s not only summertime. Interestingly, they replaced a vacation in Spain with a holiday in Split. In the end, my boyfriend and I became friends with them and visited them in Germany. Soon they will join us at our wedding. 🙂
These are beautiful stories, stories worth mentioning and reminding ourselves of how many friends we’ve made throughout years in tourism.
How does Rentlio help you achieve success?
Since we started our business, we are using Rentlio. It became an irreplaceable tool for us. All of our employees have Rentlio on their smartphones and use it on their laptops. We see it as an online notebook where we have an overview of everything necessary – reservations, bills, calendar, guest details – absolutely everything. Rentlio helps with our productivity.
The best part is when we write down the name of the guest that sounds familiar and realize he stayed with us in the past. Then we quickly access all the data about his/her past stays. I would recommend Rentlio to anyone in the vacation rental business because of a simple dashboard, and helpful support team always ready to answer any questions and resolve unexpected issues.
What did you learn about yourself on your way to success in tourism?
I learned that kindness and dedicated work always pay off. In tourism, you are always surrounded by people, and working with people is not always the easiest of jobs. A kind word always opens all of the doors. Be patient and thankful for everything because the problems at first always seem bigger than they are.
What trends do you think will have the most significant impact on you in the next two years?
Short weekend getaways are probably one of them because Split is an ideal location for that kind of vacation. We expect more flights connected to European cities in the period from October until April because that is the only way to have a more extended season. Another trend we love is video content production.
Instagram and Youtube generation can bring us a lot of successful promotion, especially because Split is perfect for amazing photographs and exciting vlogs. Video is an ideal format to show what you ate to where you have been. The next step for us is definitely to improve our social media presence and connect with younger audiences.
Story created: December, 2019
