Onwards and upwards
In last year’s annual round-up, we referred to 2020 as being a melting pot of emotions, challenges, successes, setbacks, progress, and everything in between. We also refer to the shift in people’s mindset, remote working and how COVID has forced us to think differently, both in business and in our personal lives.
Fast forward 12 months and those thoughts are just as relevant now as they were back then. We’re still battling with COVID and both our business and personal lives are still adapting to the global pandemic.
However, one thing we humans are good at is the ability to adapt, remain resilient and work through these challenges. COVID has forced us to rethink some of our ways and reshape the way we do business, but it’s not all negative. Somehow amidst all the commotion and setbacks, Privadia managed to pull off our best year yet, which no doubt is partly down to having to dig deep and push through the hurdles we’ve faced.
We’re up 43% in rental bookings, almost 20% up in enquiry volumes and 178% up in new property listings – making 2021 our most profitable year to date. It’s also great to see consistent growth amongst all the destinations we now operate in – Ibiza, Mykonos, Mallorca and Formentera as well as our newly listed Winter Ski destinations.
It’s obvious that the market was more buoyant in 2021 than in 2020, and you only need to Google ‘short term rental trends’ to see that travellers now prefer private rented accommodation over hotels. Clearly, our industry has benefited from this shift, but we also have to give credit to the awesome team at Privadia, all of which have shown unbelievable solidity and dedication throughout yet another challenging year.
Privadia’s other achievements in 2021 include…
Winter Ski
We rolled out our Chalet portfolio across Switzerland, France and Austria. This has been a great learning experience for our entire team and we’re extremely proud to be expanding Privadia into new markets like Ski. We’re now actively working with some amazing properties in Verbier, Zermatt, Courchevel, Chamonix, Megeve, Kitzbuhel, Lech and St Anton to name a few.
Don’t forget, all of our properties, including our new Ski portfolio, are available to book through our Travel Partner Portal and our live property API feed. To gain access please click here.
Expanding Team
We recruited four new team members, all of which are based at our head office in the UK. Tom, our new Account Manager, David our business Operations Manager, Mirko our Property Expansion Manager and Caitlan our new Portfolio Admin Assistant. These additional staff members will assist with our continued growth as we roll into 2022.
New Tech
Privadia continues to innovate and new and significant technology has also been rolled out, helping us to further streamline our booking process, huge improvements on reporting and new tools to assist the rapid expansion of our portfolio.
Appointed Managing Director, Chris Harrison
Last but not least, Chris Harrison, who is also an investor in Privadia has now been appointed as Managing Director. Chris will be working closely with the board and our growing team to execute our ambitious 2022 expansion plans. As a successful technology entrepreneur, Chris’s proven track record comes with strong experience in business growth strategies, process design, development and the building of key teams. As the founder of Collstream Ltd, an award-winning technology company that successfully exited in 2014 through an acquisition by ESENDEX, Chris is the ideal candidate to help Privadia push forward into its next phase of growth.
Exciting future
It would be naive to ignore the ongoing challenges that the travel industry continues to face, however, with the right team, planning and focus, we are extremely excited to see what 2022 brings. We have lots more to announce over the forthcoming weeks, but in the meantime, we would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to all of our Clients, Travel Partners, Hosts and Partners. We wish you all the best for 2022!
Happy New Year!
Team Privadia X
