What's next for Furnished Finder with insights from our CEO, Jeff Hurst

As Furnished Finder approaches its 10-year anniversary, it seems like a perfect time to share how excited we are for the next 10 years together. My name is Jeff Hurst, and I am the President and CEO of Furnished Finder. I recently joined the company and would like to introduce myself – and share how Furnished Finder seeks to help each of you achieve your goals in the mid-term rental industry.

We have put together two ways to learn about what is coming next for Furnished Finder.

You can either keep reading this blog post, and/or tune into our 100th episode of The Landlord Diaries, our weekly podcast, to hear more about:

What you can expect from us in the coming months
Things you can do now to prepare for the upcoming changes
What the Furnished Finder team has been focused on since I joined
Why I was excited to join the Furnished Finder opportunity (hint: Mid-term rentals are primed for huge growth ahead!)

What you can expect from us in the coming months:

Our goals at Furnished Finder are simple:

Maximize your return on your investment: We aim to put respectful tenants in your homes at attractive monthly rates, while continuing to give you complete control of who stays in your home. We want to do this at a low annual cost while also minimizing the time it takes to manage your tenants from Furnished Finder. We want to consistently be your highest return investment as a landlord.
Save tenants money: We aim to enable tenants to find and book perfect monthly rentals DIRECTLY with you. We do not charge booking fees, thereby saving travelers thousands of dollars by avoiding the fees other platforms charge. To do so, we will be investing in driving demand to your properties with digital marketing and improved experiences. Connecting with tenants on Furnished Finder and booking directly with them will allow you to provide a great experience while they save a significant amount on booking fees. It's a win for everyone.

To achieve our goals, here’s what we’re focused on next:

To increase tenant demand, we will soon be unveiling a new property details page to better market your property. The new page layout will better highlight your property’s unique amenities, be more accessible on mobile devices, and increase the visibility of your contact details. We are also making improvements to our website’s search functionality to better match tenants with your rental property.
We know your time is valuable, so we are rebuilding our entire technology platform from the ground up to serve you faster on any device (computer, phone, or tablet!). Most of the progress is behind the scenes so far, but big improvements are around the corner. At a minimum, you can expect a better dashboard experience and easier access to KeyCheck products. We will share more details on other improvements over the coming months!

Things you can do now to prepare for the upcoming changes:

While we work on the improvements listed above and many more, there are a few things you can do to be successful. We recommend:

Updating your photos following the suggestions in our eBook.
If your unit is available, keep the availability date current (do not use a date in the past) and respond to tenant messages in a timely fashion (ideal response time is within an hour).
Use KeyCheck’s services to improve the tenant experience and save yourself time. These products are good for both landlords and tenants and usage of them will positively impact your search ranking by the end of 2024.
Keep your listing active and renew on time. Continuous tenure on Furnished Finder reinforces tenant trust (they want to know you are an experienced landlord) and will be highlighted on the new property details page. Tenure will also impact search ranking by the end of 2024.

Expect to hear more from me and the Furnished Finder team over the coming months to help you grow your business with less effort!

Until then, we would love to hear from you to determine where we invest our energy next in better serving you. Please complete the survey here to help us learn from your experience.

Keep reading to learn more about what the Furnished Finder team has been focused on since I joined:

My first several months at Furnished Finder have been focused on hiring a team to better serve your needs – and learning more about how you use our service and where we can improve. A few highlights from the past few months include:

We added over 50 people to the team since I joined in October, including a world class executive team that you can learn more about here.
We are investing more than ever in marketing to help more tenants find your properties.
Getting to know each of you! I have been meeting our landlords at conferences and hosting meet and greets with some of you at our offices in Austin. In addition, we have been analyzing feedback from our customer service team, and while Furnished Finder works well for many of you, it is clear there are several things we can do better for you moving forward.
To learn more about the opportunity I see ahead for mid-term rentals, check out a talk I gave recently in this video from Skift’s Short Term Rental Summit.

Lastly, a bit more about my experience and why I joined Furnished Finder

I have been in the travel technology industry since 2010, serving in various roles including as Chief Strategy Officer of HomeAway (prior to being acquired by Expedia Group), President of Vrbo, and most recently as Chief Operating Officer of Expedia. Having spent most of the past decade plus in the short-term rental category – I see a massive opportunity to help tenants and landlords benefit from the growing category of monthly furnished rentals.

I am thrilled to have joined Furnished Finder as the new President and CEO. I am most excited about the life changing opportunity for entrepreneurial landlords to create wealth and benefit their communities by embracing the monthly rental strategy. It is clear this category is just getting started, and I am energized to join you as we make mid-term rentals a more widely known housing option!

Grateful for your partnership, Jeff Hurst President and CEO, Furnished Finder

Help us learn how to serve you best! Please complete the survey to share your experience with Furnished Finder.