Privadia’s 2017 Round-Up

Grab your coffee cup. It’s Privadia’s annual round-up!

A lot goes on at Privadia that people outside the company never get to see—the strategy meetings, the property inspections, the countless hours on Skype working with our international team members, the millions of lines of code written by our tech team, photoshoots, onboarding of new rental properties, the setting up of new partnerships, due diligence on the latest apartment block sale, the list goes on… But in 2017, more so than previous years, there’s been an underlining focus on our future growth, streamlining our operations and investing heavily in our expansion plans.

All is revealed below, but before we get into the detail we would like to take this opportunity to extend our appreciation and thanks to all those who we have had the pleasure of working with over the last 12 months. From clients to property owners, new partners, agencies and collaborators, it’s been amazing and THANK YOU! We hope you’ve had a great Christmas and wish you all the best for the New Year.


Some stand out moments…

Our first of many property sales

18/04/2017


Privadia & IU Mag Open House with Todd Terry
Sponsored by Befree

07/07/2017


Absolute Magazine Partnership

08/2017


Official roll-out of our Owner App

08/2017


New Licensing laws  

08/08/2017


Welcome our new Ops Manager, Sarah

01/09/2017

2017 rentals bookings show a 49% increase

09/2017

Privadia’s International Plans get sign off

10/2017


World Travel Market

06/11/2017


Beta Launch of our Agency Portal  

22/12/2017

Ibiza continues to grow

It’s been a turbulent year for tourism as a whole with many popular destinations being hit by storms, airlines physically throwing people off planes, Brexit uncertainties and more unfortunate terrorist attacks. However (as we reach over and touch the wooden table top ‘wood’), Ibiza seems to have come away unscathed and in fact, is showing more signs of future growth. From new 185m berths in the yachting marina getting the green light, the successful opening of Robert De Niro’s Nobu Hotel and the increasing interest in Health & Wellbeing, the juggernaut that is Ibiza doesn’t look like it’s slowing down anytime soon.

This is also reflected in Privadia’s continued growth. Digging a bit deeper into the detail, 2017 has been another great year. On the rentals side of the business, the total number of bookings increased by 49% compared to 2016, our average weekly rental remained at €20,000 per week (continuing to show that more and more luxury travellers are visiting Ibiza) and our overall revenue has seen a 90% increase.

In regards to property sales, although this a new department and just over 12 months established we have a significant number of successful sales under our belt, as well as some super exciting projects in the pipeline.

Where have we invested?

Back in May 2016 when we rebranded from Stay Ibiza to Privadia, we were already sowing the seeds for our future growth and expansion plans. Part of the brief was to create a brand that had a more global feel to it and that also allowed us to expand into new territories.

Technology is now also a key part of what we do and who we are—it’s become the backbone of our business infrastructure and will also play an intrinsic role in our future—so our brand also needed to reflect this DNA.

As Privadia is predominantly business to business, all our efforts focus on the products and services that serve property owners, property managers, agencies and travel professionals alike and with this mind, here are some key announcements which we have been working on tirelessly throughout 2017.

Upgraded systems

From our back end booking system through to our contracts and property sharing tools, pretty much every aspect of our technology has had a facelift.

Owner App Update

Although we had a soft launch of our Owner App towards the end of 2016, based on feedback from our users we made some subtle tweaks and updates and have since rolled out a new update. Now a key tool for many of our property owners and property managers, we definitely see the use of this application going from strength to strength.

For more info on our Owner App, please click here

The Privadia Agency Portal

We’re regularly asked by many of our agency partners how we’re able to respond to their enquiries so quickly. This is mainly down to our custom built, cloud based, property management software used by our sales teams. Until now this has always been a ‘behind the scenes’ tool but after many scoping sessions, whiteboard drawings and technical briefs, we’re now proud to announce a beta version roll out of this same technology to our agency partners. Fundamentally this provides agencies with the exact same system that our sales team uses, giving them the tools to search, find and choose suitable villa options for their clients at their own convenience.

More info…

Existing agency partners click here

New agencies looking to gain access, please click here

API / XML

For agency partners that have the technical resource, we can now provide access to our entire portfolio of properties via our API. This gives OTA’s (online travel agents) an opportunity to integrate directly into our systems via an XML or JSON feed, streamlining the initial population and ongoing maintenance of our property information. The feed includes property images, descriptions, rates, house rules, amenities and even the finer details such as which coffee machine the property has! As we move into 2018, villa rental clients demand to know all of these features and more.

iCal

As we all know, availability data is gold. We also know that managing multiple calendars across 100’s of properties is challenging to say the least. Luckily for our agency partners, we have this covered via our dedicated iCal URLs, now live for every property in our portfolio. 

For more advanced agency partners, this brings a range of new opportunities such as more advanced search tools i.e. only display villas that are available for your clients chosen dates and also the potential to offer an Instabook facility whereby clients can instantly book villas online using their debit or credit card.

International preparations

Our hearts will always be in Ibiza—we live and breathe the island we love. However, the last 24 months have brought an extensive array of new overseas opportunities meaning there have been many hours spent discussing what international expansion would look like for Privadia.

One thing that has consistently popped its head above the parapet is the unanimous decision that whatever we do in regards to expansion outside of Ibiza must maintain our company ethos, personal touch and desire to provide the best possible service. Privadia has built its reputation on professionalism, so fast hockey stick growth which can easily spiral out of control is not for us. We’re a niche business that needs to grow with laser point focus and a strategy that allows us to maintain our brand values. Any expansion plan that requires infrastructure away from our well-oiled operation in Ibiza needs careful consideration.

With all the above in mind, we are proud to announce that Privadia will be launching in a number of new locations outside of Ibiza. Supported heavily by our new technology and key strategic partnerships, our existing agency partners will soon have access to property portfolios in multiple destinations.

For agencies, this will be as simple as ‘switching on’ new destinations, which will be accessed in exactly the same way as our Ibiza portfolio. Not only that, payments, damage deposits, contracts, client itineraries and all aspects relating to the bookings will work in the same way as our Ibiza service. Couple that with all the new features and services listed above and Privadia could quite quickly become a one stop shop for the destinations we bring onboard.

To find out more about this service, please click here

What else?

In addition to the all the above, there have been efforts in many other aspects of the company.

Property Information

We’ve put a huge amount of effort into the curation and updating of our Ibiza property portfolio. The key aspect has been extensive and thorough property inspections on all of our properties, drilling down into the finest of detail. From swimming pool sizes all the way through to which coffee capsules are needed, we’ve gone through our entire portfolio with a fine tooth comb and are now confident we have answers to any question about our luxury villas.

Also with new systems in place to help us gather and improve our property information, we shall now continue to keep our data as up-to-date and accurate as possible.

Customer Service & House Management

Our customer service and house management departments have also had a facelift, both in regards to personnel and technology. From client itineraries through to our 24 hour customer service line and emergency evacuation plans, we’ve spent many hours ensuring that we’re ready for 2018’s growth. We would also like to take this opportunity to welcome on board our new member of the management team, Sarah Kinniburgh.  Titled ‘Operations Manager’, Sarah has extensive experience in tourism, house management and customer experience and is particularly passionate about customer satisfaction. Already she has implemented many new ideas and processes which we’re very much looking forward to benefiting from in 2018.

Licensing Laws

Those tuned into the Balearic government will know that back in August licensing laws changed significantly, tightening up on the many properties in Ibiza that operate without a tourist license. Apart from prompting us to run another check through all our properties to ensure they meet the new licensing law obligations, nothing much has changed for Privadia. However, we’re particularly interested to see how this new law will help to clean up the marketplace, hopefully making it hard for non-licensed properties to operate, thus bringing more professionalism and legitimacy to the island’s rental market.


That’s a wrap!

So as we wrap up for 2017 and take some time out to celebrate with family and friends, once again we would like to extend our thanks to all our Clients, Partners, Owners, Agents and Suppliers. From everyone at Privadia we wish you wonderful, prosperous and an amazing 2018!

XX

Written by Daniel Gleeson

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