INTERVIEW: Alessandro Lombardi, Head of Partnerships at TravelStaytion

Alessandro is Head of Partnerships at TravelStaytion. He works to develop business strategies and asset business opportunities. He relies on the TravelgateX marketplace to find the right buyers and achieve his growth objectives. In this interview he explains the details for growth, future prospects in the industry and how TravelgateX is helping him.

What are some of the biggest challenges for your sector right now?

New legal regulations are being introduced in the travel industry and impact how you can set up and run your travel business. By collaborating with advocacy groups, collecting data that provide lawmakers with a factual basis for making decisions, or using our partnerships to educate, align, and mobilize individual homeowners, we believe that we can address this successfully.

Capturing demand is another key factor. The travel industry may have changed, but demand remains constant in every segment. Keeping our prices in line with the market demand, competition, and our diverse property portfolio is one of our responsibilities.

Lastly, revenue optimization is a big challenge that can make a vacation rental business stand out. To increase our rankings and conversions on OTAs, we need to have a data-driven distribution strategy, which calls for a thorough understanding of our market and the calibre of the listings.

What is your favorite thing about working in hospitality/Travel/Tourism?

We are very lucky to work in one of the most exciting and diverse industries. After all, we are able to talk about travel every day! Gaining constant knowledge about the world mobilizes us, and offering memorable experiences to travelers is what makes us passionate. In addition, the travel industry offers the chance to address multicultural audiences and collaborate with diverse partners.

On the other hand, hospitality and its fast-growing future allows us to develop ourselves professionally and personally due to the variety of colleagues, clients and situations.

What does TravelgateX add value to your business?

We are really happy to join a complete ecosystem with travel connections and integrated tools that develop and evolve the travel industry and the experiences of the travelers. TravelgateX gives us the opportunity to expand our connections within the travel industry and work closely with like-minded professionals.

What suggestions/challenges would you give to the TeamX?

Facilitating the exchange between buyers and sellers would be one of the solutions we suggest. Finding the correct buyers and building the vacation rental industry would be a challenge we want to focus on, since we have noticed that the majority of sellers in TravelgateX are coming from the hotel industry. We are confident that we can achieve this goal together.

Can you talk more about solutions you think will be most impactful in the next 12 to 18 months as travel begins to recover?

Since the start of the pandemic, flexibility has become one of the most important factors when consumers make travel decisions. A sustainable travel system that offers flexible cancellation policies and gives the opportunity to travelers to change their bookings without fees or penalty, is what people seem to value the most.

What are the plans for 2023? Looking ahead to the next year, what are your top two or three priorities?

Ahead of our brand relaunch taking place in early 2023, our primary aim is to raise brand awareness amongst both consumer and trade audiences globally. Elevating our product is always the most important goal for us, and for this reason we aim to continue expanding our partnerships and our portfolio, revealing at the same time new technologies that will help us achieve our mission. Connecting with buyers will also support our expansion and for this reason we are glad we are now connected with TravelgateX.

What advice do you have for young people just entering the travel technology space?

Data intelligence has emerged as a crucial tool for property managers to remove uncertainty from their decisions. The future generation should take into account that data is always the key in gaining competitive visibility in our market, optimize revenue and retain the clientele. Looking forward to seeing more people in the travel industry!