HostPlatform offers service suite for short stay property hosts, owners

  • Takes away admin tasks from hosts enabling them to deliver quality customer service
  • TuneProtect offers first short-stay insurance up to RM30k for property, RM50k for accidents

 

HostAStay founder & CEO Jordan Oon (left) with HostPlatform GM Jayden Lee

HOSTASTAY, a Malaysian startup founded in 2017 that connects hosts to home owners, recently launched its short-stay management platform, HostPlatform, which is aimed at reducing the day-to-day operations of hosts.

The platform was launched by Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation’s (MDEC’s) chief operating officer, Ng Wan Peng, on March 22 at the Short Stay Summit 2019 in Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa.

The platform consists of three tools: a centralised reservation system HostConnect, booking and scheduling manager HostManage and D.O.R.A, the Dedicated Owner Revenue Account. “We want to enable hosts to only focus on serving guests from check-in to check-out instead of spending time on accounting and dealing with the owner,” explained the founder and CEO of HostAStay, Jordan Oon.

According to the general manager of HostAStay, Jayden Lee, the launch marks HostAStay’s first main milestone.

“We started developing HostPlatform last year when AirBnb and C-trip first gave us the green light by opening their API connection for us to create a system that can benefit hosts in Malaysia and Southeast Asia,” he said.

Its centralised reservation system, HostConnect, is linked to the top five booking platforms globally namely AirBnb, Agoda, Booking.com, C-trip and Expedia.

“This means each update on the platform is real-time and live, making it easier for hosts to manage their short-stay inventory across multiple booking platforms.”

Jayden explains that prior to HostPlatform, the risk of double booking on a property is likely if it is listed across multiple booking sites. “The host would need to manually close the unit on other sites once it is booked on one site. This is a tedious process especially since hosts usually manage more than one unit,” said Lee, adding that HostConnect offers the ideal solution of automating the closing process across platforms.

As for cyber-security measures, Oon emphasised that HostPlatform has set high standards for themselves. Speaking about the integration to the five booking sites, he says HostPlatform was thoroughly filtered. “We had a huge API integration model to fulfil and we’re the only ones in Malaysia to do it. Each integration took us two months.”

 

(From left) Booking.com senior account manager Branavan Aruljothi; HostPlatform GM Jayden Lee; Tujia CBO Jennifer Li; MDEC COO Ng Wan Peng; Dr. How Kok Choong; HostAStay founder & CEO Jordan Oon; and Superior Wealth Resources CEO Dr. Alan Poon

Meanwhile, the D.O.R.A feature helps with the nitty-gritty of revenue splits between owner and host and lengthy time duration of preparing payout reports, especially if a host handles multiple home units for various owners. “D.O.R.A solves this by automatically generating a comprehensive financial report inclusive of revenue, operational expenditure and payout. It is also directly visible on a dashboard for hosts and owners,” presented Lee.

Thirdly, the HostManage feature provides an overview of check-ins and checkouts, guests being hosted, financial report summary and an activity log for other team members. “HostManage connects both HostConnect and D.O.R.A to form the complete HostPlatform solution.”

Lee also shared with the audience its launch of Malaysia’s first ever short stay protection underwritten by TuneProtect announced last July.

“Any reservation on HostPlatform will be protected up to RM30,000 on contents in the property and RM50,000 in event of an accident caused by or through their own negligence.”

 

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