Almost exactly three years since WIT first featured villa-bali.com, I met with David Chambat, managing director and founder, to find out how his business has evolved. For a start, the villa bookings site has expanded its footprint to cover Phuket, Ko Samui and Sri Lanka. Mauritius, I learnt, is on the cards.
In 2014, Chambat launched a new corporate brand – villa-finder.com – an umbrella company under which all the various domains and technologies are now grouped. Its customer base might be niche, but it’s growing.
In the two years following the launch of the Bali site, bookings grew by 100% year-on-year, and that number has been climbing steadily by about 30% each year. On any given month, the site attracts just fewer than 100,000 unique visitors, a 10-fold increase compared to 2012.
Collectively, the four domains list 1,200 properties, with over 900 villas open for bookings at any time. This may not sound impressive when stacked against the number of hotel rooms or private homes offered as accommodation, but villa-finder.com is not catering to the masses.
The site attracts primarily Australian and European customers seeking a holiday home with their families in tow, but Asians are increasingly on Chambat’s radar. Repurchase rates are high, he said, and travellers who choose villas over hotels often say they are seeking a more authentic, local experience.
David Chambat, villa-finder.com founder and managing director
At the back end of villa-finder.com is inter-villa.com, a free online inventory system for villa owners to distribute their villas online. Having prime access to inventory, as his business does, is “the key to succeeding in the villa bookings business,” he says.
Despite the growth of his business, Chambat draws the line on rapid expansion. His strategy is to focus instead on becoming an expert within his home region, which is why he states unequivocally, “I’m limiting myself to Asia and a few locations.” This is an industry that requires a personal touch, he explained, and when you’re a smaller fish with aspirations to cover 30 destinations, you could find yourself getting tangled in the process. “Global aspiration is great,” he stressed, “but it’s difficult.”
Chambat appears to have considered the challenges of expanding at length, because he reels off a list of obstacles with relative ease. First, there is the time and effort required to manage villa owners. Then varying terms and conditions; followed by different currencies. Even Airbnb’s luxury counterpart onefinestay is only in four (and soon five) cities, Chambat adds.
Reflecting on his journey, Chambat said the villa bookings landscape has changed considerably since 2012. “We came from a small, niche, disorganised market where everything was possible. There was very little Airbnb presence in Asia.” Back then, Chambat said, running a villa rental business meant little more than having a mobile phone, a local bank account and a scooter.
And now? “It’s more competitive. If you’re not a big fish it’s difficult to come up the ranks on Google. All the smaller agents have disappeared.” Is this where the company’s domain name strategy comes into play? Chambat nods. “Our conversions are mainly coming from search. It’s still very much a search game. Our domain name is a benefit in terms of search – it positions us as a specialist.”
Four years ago, all it took was a decent website, functioning as an online catalogue, to differentiate the business. Airbnb changed this by making online marketing easy for property owners. What matters now, explained Chambat, is the quality of the site’s portfolio.
Even while other villa bookings sites like TheLuxeNomad.com have shifted from agency to property management, Chambat believes there is still money to be made in being an agent and distributor, particularly when it plays to your strengths. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that villa-finder.com’s technology platform is both industry leading and scalable.
“It’s a far better strategy to acquire the best portfolio and focus on managing owners,” he suggested.
“80% of my job is meeting owners – it takes time and trust [to build a portfolio] and it’s very personal. Our job is to get the best properties is Asia.”
