Smiling House’s Moriya Rockman on the way forward for luxury rental property managers

Bolstered by a renewed interest in niche listings, the market for luxury vacation rentals is poised to experience steady growth. Travel trends indicate guests are looking for more tailormade solutions for their travel accommodation needs, and property managers and owners alike want platforms that help facilitate this in ways that some of the biggest OTAs cannot. Driven by these demands, the list of luxury vacation rentals grows long.

We Zoomed with Moriya Rockman, co-founder and CMO of Smiling House. Smiling House and Smiling Flats Holiday Rentals were founded by Moriya and her husband Ira 4 years ago. Smiling House has now grown to 3,000 stylish and exclusive private properties in 85 destinations in 28 countries.

Connecting property managers with traditional luxury rental channels

Moriya and Ira’s vision has been to foster that ‘old school’ notion of luxury by creating a global alliance of property owners and managers who are similarly dedicated to luxury and hospitality. They have created a space where property managers tap into traditional demand channels that can be new to them but have existed for a while, such as clients using travel agencies, concierge companies, and travel designers.

Both their companies are busy creating a bridge between legacy travel players and holiday rental professionals, especially in the luxury and premium segment. To this end, they recently launched B2B white-label platform with access to their 3,000 luxury rental listings around the globe, which can prove to be a fantastic resource for concierge companies, travel agents, and travel designers.

Helping property managers leverage a global luxury accommodation network

In this video interview, we discuss how Smiling House’s network can be leveraged by property managers to their advantage. We also dive into their partnerships with Homes & Villas by Marriott International and Third Home for House Exchange, among others, and what they mean for property managers signing on with Smiling House.

We also get some insight into luxury travel trends that emerged in 2020 based on Moriya and Ira’s firsthand experience with Smiling House. You can also read our insights into 2020 travel trends illustrated via 40 Google Trends graphs for a deeper dive.

Moriya rounds it off with solid advice for property managers and owners everywhere to be factored in before formulating a vacation rental marketing strategy for 2021.