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A podcast for Casago homeowner by the Partners of Casago. Learn about our programs, market updates, and the local heroes in your market.
Speaker: Hey, welcome to Keynote.
I'm your host, Steve Schwab.
Today I am here with David nti.
David Angotti has been a personal
friend of mine for many years now.
Uh, David has a fantastic background
starting with a company called Speedy
Prep, in which he was one of the first
people ever gamify online learning.
He's been a pilot, A OTA, and if you dunno
what OTA it is essentially built websites.
That outperformed Airbnb
and VRBO in his markets.
He's an ultra marathon runner and
worked for NetJets as a pilot.
More recently, he's been the
brand ambassador for guesty, and
today he's coming on as our senior
advisor to Cago for our la casa.com
and Casago.com
initiatives.
David, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me, Steve.
David, something else that you
did that was relevant to what
we'll be talking about today is
you were also a property manager.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know, before I
was a property manager, I was just like a
lot of people listening to this podcast.
I was a property owner and what led
me into property management was,
was ultimately frustrations I had
with different property managers.
And so everybody that's listening to
this podcast, I've been in your, your
shoes and I know what you're feeling.
I know.
Exactly why each booking matters.
I know what it's like to refresh the
owner portal and see another booking
come in and feel that excitement.
And that's really what we're talking
about today is how, how can we use the
web assets, the website effectively
to drive those results for you.
Speaker: David, as we've gone into
this project originally, you were
there just helping me as a friend, and
you started seeing the opportunity.
With vacasa, which is going to be
your main initiative now, what led
you to see that there was a lot of
upside and opportunity in vacasa?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Look, you called me and you're like,
Hey, let's, let's, let's do this thing.
And when I heard the thing is, go head to
head with Airbnb, vrbo and booking.com.
That's a little scary as somebody that
understands websites really, really well.
Website conversions and driving traffic.
When you have to go head to head with
brands like that, it's not always
something you're excited about.
I've been doing this for a while now,
however, when, when you, uh, came to
Nashville with the marketing team,
we looked at the website, we looked
at the performance of it already.
It became obvious that there was a huge
opportunity here to really maximize
the foundational work that had been
done over many years prior to that
point, and actually go head to head
with those household name brands and
provide value for all our stakeholders.
Speaker: With that foundation that had
been built, you saw a ton of opportunity
in the upside for the initiatives
that aren't being done right now.
Maybe you can talk a little bit
about how you're thinking about
getting people to the website.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can
give an example of that.
So if you rewind a year
ago, back before the merger.
The website was spending seven figures,
so a lot of money on driving paid traffic.
So this ad you might see on Google
or other places, it was driving
those website visitors to the tune
of seven figures a month in spend.
So it wasn't a small budget.
That's back when vacasa was
a publicly traded company.
So we, we take it private.
I'm involved behind the scenes a
little bit with you on that and looking
at the website all along the way.
And here we are now.
We are today at four times the spend
of what vacasa was spending as a
publicly traded company a year ago.
So when we look at like a recent
month, we're spending four times
as much on paid marketing efforts.
And somebody could look at that
from the outside and be like,
well, why would you do that?
It's one of the things I bring to
the table is the relationships.
So I knew a company called Seer
Interactive that I was good friends with
the owner of, and immediately reached
out to Will over there and said, Hey,
I need you to look at this account.
Help me find the opportunities
here to actually go head to head
with with Airbnb, with booking.com,
with VRBO because my homeowners
need bookings on vacasa.
Because I want to have an additional
booking channel beyond those other
ones, because when we can plug one more
demand source in that has tons and tons
of visitors coming in, then all of a
sudden, uh, we, we have higher revenue
per home, which serves everybody's needs.
Well,
Speaker: you know, really at the end of
the day, our job to find a way to take
care of homeowners, making sure that
we're giving our homeowners a advantage.
To be able to have the sort of economics
that we hope to get them by having a
website that is truly one of the top
five websites for vacation rentals in
Speaker 2: the United
Speaker: States.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so here we are.
We have this, this top
vacation rental website.
It's just, I hate to say it,
but it's been kind of neglected.
There's, there've been some layoffs
at at vacasa through the years and
because of that, the team was having to
wear a lot of different hats at once.
And so one of the first things I did
when I came on as senior advisor was
look at where are the opportunities
where we can put some money.
Get huge returns as quick as possible.
Mm-hmm.
And so the paid marketing
was definitely one of those.
But another way we've, we've been, we've
been doing this, was looking at where
there's friction in the buying experience.
So because the website hadn't had a
redesign in a while or a rebrand in a
while, or even have people making as
many modifications to it, we're able
to to go in and find some of those
friction points that we all experience
it when we, when we shop online, right?
Like, why do they have
this button in this place?
Why, why do I have to go through 16
fields to get to checkout those things
that cause those frustrations for us
are, uh, what's known as conversion
rate optimization opportunities.
So I have a team of two people
that are working on that right now.
These are highly skilled people
that are doing user research.
They're talking to people that
are actually booking the rentals.
They're watching people's face to
see the, the frustration as they
go through the booking process.
And we're trying to identify what
was it that caused that frustration?
Let's fix it.
And then more people will not just come
to the site, but convert on the site.
Speaker: So we're already spending
four times the amount of money on our
search marketing to make sure that we're
pushing potential guests to the website
and then you're working on when they
get there, converting more of them.
To actual renters once they're on the
website so that we drive even more
Speaker 2: demand for homeowners.
Is that right?
Yeah.
So basically, how do we get more
people into what we call the funnel,
which is really just the website.
How do we get 'em onto
the website to start with?
And we have just so many
initiatives around that.
And then once they're on there, when I put
a hundred people across any given page on
that website, how many of that 100 people.
Buy something.
And the idea with conversion
optimization is through incremental
testing over and over and over again,
we get to a higher percentage of
that a hundred people purchasing.
Reason this matters is it all starts
to work like flywheels because all
of a sudden when you have a slightly
higher percentage purchasing, you
can spend exponentially more on
Google ads, for example, because
the Google ads are more profitable.
Mm-hmm.
And so then now we can actually
test faster because we have
more traffic coming in.
And so these things, uh, really
almost start to work like a snowball
rolling down a hill, picking up speed,
all just there to help our owners.
Earlier you
Speaker: talked about relationships
and some of the relationships
you bring to the table.
And, you know, will Reynolds is known
throughout, , the, the search industry
as truly like one of the leaders, not
only in data and understanding websites
in ways others don't, but also as you
know, an agency helping people like us
drive more demand for our homeowners.
But what's really fun about
that relationship is one of
his key people named Ash.
Is actually a homeowner
of ours, which is really
Speaker 2: cool.
It is it, it's a best case situation
when you can have somebody that is on
the team helping us figure out how to
spend, how to drive results, how to
drive more bookings for homeowners, and
that person happens to be a homeowner.
That's what I call skin in the game.
He wants to see all of his clients
succeed, but you can bet that
there's a little bit more of a
desire to see us succeed when
he has his house on the program.
Speaker: Sure.
Talking about
Speaker 2: being
Esteban: like vested right and
understanding the end result
that's right.
. , As we.
Think about the benefits of this
merger between vacasa and Casago.
If you were previously a Casago homeowner,
the significance of bringing vacasa to
those homeowners is incredibly valuable
because you know the traffic of vacasa
outsizes the traffic from casago.com,
in a dramatic fashion.
. Then also for those who were already with
vacasa and are with us today, they're
getting to see the added value of taking
this website and building into something
really special underneath your guidance.
Speaker 2: The way, I would think
about this is if I'm a homeowner.
vacasa is going to drive a similar
number of bookings as Airbnb or
vrbo once we're done with it.
For some of you, it already
might be doing that.
Some of our homes are already getting
30 to 35% of their total bookings
from vacasa, and so if you're coming
from casago, that's, pretty exciting.
This is another channel.
It's like if, if somebody were to
tell you could get another Airbnb.
To drive bookings.
That's what we're talking about.
Only the difference is this is
run by people that have owned
and managed properties that have
your best interests in mind.
It's run by people that have,
operated Main street businesses
instead of Wall Street businesses.
People that get what makes you tick,
people that have properties still today.
Mm-hmm.
So it's, it's run a little
bit differently, but it's
the same kind of volume.
The other thing I would say is even
if you're on the vacasa side, where
you've already had a property on vacasa,
again, we're spending four times as
much this year on ads as last year,
and we're spending it more efficiently
and we're investing more and more.
You know, I've, I just had days of
meetings , with the team here about
how we can invest in this website to
drive results for each and every owner.
So that that's, that's what
I would say about that.
Yeah.
Speaker: It's really exciting times.
I'm so grateful that we're getting
to work together on this project.
As we think about going forward, what
are some of the opportunities you
see in the future with the casa.com,
with search marketing, with
search engine optimization?
How do you think about the go
forward over the next couple years
Speaker 2: With this website?
Right now, there's so
much low hanging fruit.
We go after that.
First we figure out how, how, if
we've already been able to four
times our, our marketing spend, can
we eight times it, , how big can we
take that and still pro provide those
positive results for, for homeowners?
What does conversion
optimization look like?
Where we're, we're removing
those friction points?
How, how far can we take
that, where we get incremental
gains that turn exponential.
Uh, on the content side, we're
going to be doing a lot of fantastic
content marketing initiatives.
That's typically been my background.
Uh, not the paid side as, uh, as
much as the, the content marketing,
so I'm really excited to roll up
my sleeves and help out on that.
Generative engines like chat, GPT
and the other ones out there, they're
already starting to drive bookings.
We have some of the, the top minds in
the world already working on driving
bookings from sources like that.
So this isn't going to be the one
magic bullet that that solves things.
Rather, it's going to be this, this, what
we call omni-channel marketing initiative.
Or we're gonna be using email,
we're going to be using our
app, we're going to be using.
Paid organic, which is that free
traffic from the search engines.
We're gonna use all of that to
holistically market every single property
in the Cago and vacasa ecosystem.
Speaker: David, as you know, this
podcast is for our homeowners and we
have the same called The Orange Reto.
And for our homeowners who don't
know what the orange Reto is, uh, we
came up with a set of principles that
we hold ourselves accountable to.
And we talk about it literally
every single day in our, uh,
offices with our teammates.
And it's how we believe that we build a
culture and a common language and instill
our values and principles along with our
teammates to make sure that we're making
good decisions on our homeowner's behalf.
David, what's your favorite
letter from the Orange Reto
Speaker 2: and why?
So it's owner centric.
The reason it's owner centric.
I operated a property management
company over 10 years ago now, and
when I operated my property management
company, we believed we should treat each
owner as if they were the only owner.
That was something I tried to instill
with with my employees from day
one, and my thinking was we didn't
have a business if we didn't have
owners, and they were the most.
Critical customer.
They held the inventory.
They were everything to the business.
Without the owners, we had nothing.
And so I can assure you whether
we're talking a website decision or
something else, I'm very owner centric.
Mm-hmm.
Still, I own properties.
I get what this is like.
Owner centric is by far my favorite one.
Speaker: Yeah, it's my favorite too.
And I use all of the different letters.
I always gravitate back
towards that like you do.
And the truth is, when you make
decisions on your owner's best
interests, you're also making
decisions on your own best interest.
Right.
Yeah.
And I'm just such a believer in that.
, I appreciate you spending the time talking
to our homeowners and letting them get to
know what's going on with our initiatives.
Any final words you might
have for our homeowners?
Speaker 2: Just that I'm, I'm excited
about this chapter, this, both the
chapter of vacasa, but also, you know,
as we've been talking about how the
local markets are going to be just
so well represented with franchisees.
The on the ground people that care deeply
about the owner's, back to owner centric,
that each owner's gonna have the ability
to meet and talk to that lives right
there in their market and that they know
that's an exciting time that's coming.
Speaker: Yeah, it's really exciting
time to be able to get that locally
owned and operated business.
Back into the hands of those who love the
communities, don't use the communities.
And then to be able to retain the casa.com
for our company, for our
homeowners, for our teammates.
It's just the best of all worlds.
And David, thanks again
for so much for coming on.
And homeowners, if you'd
like more information, make
sure to check out cago.com
uh, to learn more about all
the initiatives we're doing.
Have a great day.