Casa-Cast

Innovating Guest Experiences and Tech Partnerships with Casago: Insights from Ash and Nash

In this engaging episode of Casa-Cast, host Steve Schwab leads insightful conversations with Ash from Adaptive and Nash, focusing on technological advancements in the vacation rental industry. Ash shares his background from Google, elucidating how Adaptive's AI platform enhances guest experiences for Casago users through data-driven personalization. Key topics include the platform’s impact on conversion rates, integration processes, and performance indicators. Nash adds to the conversation by emphasizing Casago’s forward-thinking mindset, their adoption of new technologies, and the importance of accountability in partnerships. Both guests highlight the promising potential for growth and improved bookings, concluding with a shared enthusiasm for the innovative journey ahead.

00:00 Introduction to Casa-Cast
00:14 Meet Ash from Adaptive
00:20 Ash's Background and Journey
00:55 What is Adaptive?
01:30 How Adaptive Enhances Guest Experience
01:40 Data Strategy and Learning
02:09 Personalized Guest Experience
02:56 Impact on Conversion Rates
03:29 Cross-Channel Interaction
04:16 Reporting and Insights
05:15 Revenue Metrics and Proof of Concept
05:51 Implementing Adaptive on Partner Websites
06:05 Data Assessment and Integration
06:40 Technical Aspects and Guest Experience
06:53 Adaptive's Low Lift Implementation
07:27 Casago Partnership and Forward Thinking
08:24 Conclusion and Future Prospects

What is Casa-Cast?

Casago’s private podcast helping our patners with educational information that can help everyone find success.

Speaker: We've got Orange Credo,
the Casa-Cast, our company's neato,

the Casa-Cast, created by CosaGo,
it's time for the show, let's go!

Steve V2: Hey, welcome to Casa-Cast,
I'm your host Steve Schwab, today

I'm here with Ash from Adaptive.

Ash, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me, excited to be here.

Ash, recently we put Adaptive onto CosaGo.

com, and we're super excited about
that, but before we get into that, I

want to ask you a little bit about your
background, you started off at Google.

Speaker: I did.

I joined in 2005 as one of the
founding core team members of a

platform called Google analytics.

I actually have my own little company
in school where I built and sold

gaming computers and use the company
called urchin, which got bought

by Google, became Google analytics
and the rest is kind of history.

So as you know, I can't really
shut up about data and insight.

Yeah.

And that's how I got here
to adaptive after a long

Steve V2: stint at Google.

That's really cool.

So Ash, Explain to everybody
listening exactly what Adaptive does.

Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.

Adaptive is a purpose built AI platform
for the vacation rental industry.

Our whole goal is, is why
should hospitality and guest

experience start after they book?

We use our AI platform to learn
and understand what's going on.

What people like a Sago or, or, or
users at Casago prefer to look at,

see and interact with to ensure that
the entire experience from start

to finish is hyper tailored, hyper
personalized to each and every Casago

guests at each and every touch point.

Steve V2: And so how does it do that?

What is going to be the journey
that the guest has because

of the adaptive on casago.

com different than without it?

Speaker: Yeah.

So, so the first thing is we
strongly believe that for any good

AI strategy, you need a good data
strategy and for that we need to learn.

So what Adaptive is doing right now is
learning about what people have done

when they've interacted with Casago
from the start of the full data set.

Once we learn what that looks like,
we're able to kind of find the

patterns that it would take humans a
very long time to actually find out.

And we start putting together these
cohorts of, you know, Who people

are, what they like to look at, why
they're booking, understand kind

of that why around a lot of it.

Once we understand that we're able
to start tailoring a brand new

user's experience with Casago.

It's super personalized, hyper
tailored to exactly what we think

they want to look at and see first.

So it's heavily rooted in learning and
finding patterns around human behavior

that allows us to give people just the
best experience across all of Casago.

Steve V2: Will they see specific homes
or will they have specific messaging?

Like what will that guests
get to see any and all

Speaker: of that?

So without them even realizing it,
they're going to see homes that are.

The best suited for them and that
vacation at that touch point, they're

going to see search results that are
hyper tailored towards them as well.

Even down to the way email marketing
and messaging is structured will

be tailored directly to them.

The goal being giving them better
guest experience and for Sago,

having more people come back and book
with you and stay with you as well.

Yeah.

Steve V2: And you've seen some lift in
conversion rates from lookers who've

come to a website to becoming bookers
who are actually coming and staying.

Um,

Speaker: We've seen some significant lift,
so definitely double digits on average

20 to 30 percent in revenue increases for
people that are happily willing to spend

more for a better guest experience just by
having a personalized and hyper tailored

Steve V2: booking process.

So this isn't just the website
interacting in a unique way to that guest.

It's also interacting with emails
and messaging afterwards, or

is there messaging in between?

Speaker: It is.

So

Steve V2: it's actually

Speaker: interacting
across all touch points.

So naturally, people usually
start with the website to

kind of start browsing around.

But once we figure out that they're
actually looking at a vacation or a

potential stay, we're able to kind of
tailor that across all touch points.

So email is a strong part of it.

The email campaigns they get, either
before they book or after they book,

are going to have that same level of
intelligence and all powered by the same

underlying platform across any which
way they interact with the website.

The cool thing is the level of
insight we're able to give Casago

and the franchisees is super
detailed as to what kinds of people

are most likely to book for them.

And essentially you can take that info
and use it any which way you want, but it

expands beyond just the website for sure.

Steve V2: And how often do we
get those reports or dashboards?

How, like, how does,
how do we get that data?

And then how often is it updated?

Speaker: Yeah, so it is updated
daily at the, at the moment.

We can certainly.

Throw all that up and get
more closer to real time.

I think I'm not going to quote real
time until I talked to my CEO, but

certainly daily at the moment here
was a full reporting interface for

you to go in and really check, uh,
and see what performance looks like.

And that's the one thing
I love about the company.

Is that the data speaks for us?

We don't have to sell you on necessarily
the data will say if we're performing

well or not, but we do get the reporting
frequently, at least once a day.

Other than that, we're actually able to
tailor anything directly to your needs.

If we need reporting in your own platform,
we can build that out for you as well.

It's really

Steve V2: cool.

And what kind of KPIs should we be
looking at as we go forward with adaptive

and say, you know, one of the teammates
or one of the franchise partners

is looking at, you know, the data.

What are some of the more important.

Data sets that they can interpolate into.

Real action for them.

Speaker: Yeah, so so the first thing
I'm going to say is revenue always

solves all right So understanding
them, you know apples apples are

we driving you more of a lift in
bookings and associated revenue or not?

That's always kind of the fun one a
and b which one has more money But

more than that revenue per visitor
as well as overall lifetime value

people coming back Because if they
had a good experience or really good

You know, key ones to keep track of.

During a proof of concept,
we, we test everything.

We want to make sure that we're
aligning to every possible KPI that

matters to each franchisee, but we
usually start with baseline revenue

lift and revenue per visitor to kind of

Steve V2: prove out the concept.

Those are good ones.

And so now we've already
got you on casago.

com, but you know, we also
have a lot of partner websites.

If one of the partners want to go
ahead and put adaptive on their

own area specific Costco website.

How would they go about doing that?

So

Speaker: definitely talk to us.

We can figure out, first of all, what
data is available for us to train on

and how to make that data meaningful.

Most of my life at Google was
spent around talking about how to

destructure data silos and start
making that information useful for you.

Once we get an idea of what we're
working with, we can then start

putting the pieces together for you
to understand In a meaningful way,

how do we leverage this information
to give the guest a better experience?

So, very long way of saying, let's talk.

Part of our process is a
no cost data assessment.

We look at, what do we have in store?

And then we tell you, here's
exactly what we can do for

Steve V2: you, before we even get started.

That's really cool.

And so, is it just code placed
into the website itself?

Does it slow the website down?

Is there any interactive things that
they would have to do that would help?

Harm the guest process
as they go through that.

Is there anything like that
they need to be thinking about?

Speaker: So, no, we want to make
this as, as low lift as possible.

It is a line of code placed in
the actual website template.

There should be no
latency issues whatsoever.

And I always say should, because
never say never, you never know.

with any piece of technology.

That being said though, we do load
asynchronously where if for some

reason Adaptive does not load, you'll
default back to what you already have.

So there's no impact to guest experience.

Right.

Hasn't happened before, don't
think it'll ever happen, but

there's always a backup plan.

Sure.

Aside from that low level lift, once that
code's on, the onus is on Adaptive to

design, deliver, and continuously improve
and learn off the data that we have.

Yeah.

Steve V2: That's fantastic.

Ash, I really appreciate you coming on.

You're here at Cost of the Con.

Yeah.

This is your first Casacan, right?

It is, and I'm having a blast.

Yeah?

Love it so far?

Love it so far.

So I'll ask this to everybody
who comes on, uh, Casacast.

What's your favorite thing about Casago?

Speaker: Biggest thing is a
forward thinking mentality.

I know it sounds facetious here, but
having worked in tech for so long, I kind

of take it for granted that not everyone
may be willing or open to looking at brand

new technology with a legacy industry.

With Kasago though, working with
obviously folks like you and your

entire team, the idea of how do we
push the boundary and hold our partners

accountable is exactly what I loved.

And from our first conversation
until now, it's a true partnership.

It feels like, how do we get better and
do right by you by using our technology

to also improve on our end too.

So I just love the fact that you're
willing to embrace new tech and hold us

Steve V2: accountable.

Well, we're really excited about
the partnership and the tech

and the potential of the lift.

And you know, you've been
wonderful to work with.

I'm really excited to have you back
on as results start coming in and

telling the the partners about it.

Getting in more bookings
and driving revenue for the

homeowners and for our partners.

Big old rocket ship, Steve.

Let's do it.

Yeah.

So thanks for coming on Nash.

Thanks for having me.

Appreciate you

to be, just don't call in in there.

We got orange credo.