100 million dollar luxury villas rental business behind the entrepreneur

Intermediary transaction SEO diagnosis Taobao guest Cloud host technology Hall

Joe Poulin, the chief executive and founder of luxury retreats, a villa rental service company for travelers.

All this stems from Joe Poulin's first bold idea. In 1999, when Joe Poulin knocked on the door of a luxurious villa in Barbados, he was just a 17-year-old boy from the outskirts of Montreal. Before that, he had never stepped out of Canada as many people did, but he struck a bold idea: Create a Web site to rent these villas, which are mostly vacant, to help homeowners make money.

Even though his idea was ridiculed by the owner of the villa, the idea was too naïve, but he insisted that the idea would surely help the villa owner make money and eventually create the site.

A few months later, Poulin flew to Barbados, and this time he offered a free service in return for a 20% rent. "Next time you'll know what I think. "That's good news because I've made money for you," he told the Villa owner. After that, he talked about 7 villas in Barbados to fly back to Montreal.

14 years on, today Poulin's villa rental company luxury Retreats has nearly 150 employees, and over 2000 villas are located in 50 different destinations around the world, from Hawaiian Is. Oahu to Umbria. Almost obsessed with quality and the search for the right person to hire, Poulin eventually luxury retreats, a humble company, into a high-profile success story in the rental area of vacation villas. His motivation stems from the high-end market, positioning luxury retreats as a company that provides quality services to the elite. Only one weeks ' rent ranged from France's Vieira 40,000 dollars to billionaires Branson private islands of 400,000 dollars.

Branson in Neck (British Virgin Is.) 14 villas also by the luxury retreats full care, responsible for rent.

Poulin is very strict about details. In cooperation with luxury retreats villa will be closely reviewed: Each villa will undergo a rigorous quality inspection, including facilities and nearby neighbors and so on. If the villa has some substandard problems, the homeowner must revise and make it to the standard before cooperating. Once all the villa facilities are ready, the company will send photographers to take photos of the villa and put it on the site. Poulin said their goal was not simply to help the elite choose their own rooms, but also to create a unified quality standard to provide quality services.

These generous returns seem to be ripe. Without a college degree or formal training, Poulin the company's earnings last year to $100 million trillion. "I am not one of those who received a bachelor's degree in Orthodox education," Poulin this in a quick and imposing tone, and then gives the firm idea: "At the time, there was no plan B for the company's operations, but to do so, if not successfully, proceed to the next project." ”

According to Poulin, his desire for entrepreneurship is a long-standing one. His father works in the pulp and paper industry, which means recycling a lot of magazines. At the age of 11, Poulin began to learn to format the tapes and CDs that came with the recycled magazines. After cleaning them up as blank tapes and discs, he fills in the contents and then sells them.

At the age of 13, Poulin began to touch computers, two years later, he was self-taught to create a Web site, before the trip to Barbados, he was a part-time web designer. A client wants to promote his beachfront villa on the site, but he doesn't have any photos. So he asked Poulin to fly to his villa and take photos. It was this trip that made Poulin determined-to create a company that might face various challenges.

In the four years of luxury retreats, Poulin said he found himself loosening up on the quality of customer service as the company expanded its service scale. Soon he realized that he could no longer trade the quality of service in exchange for scale, and that the pace of expansion needed to be deliberately slowed down, because ensuring quality of service was the key to success.

"The bottom line is that at the end of the day, the only criterion that will ultimately verify your service is whether the travelling family has a cheerful smile on their face," he told himself. "Maybe other things are easy to get, but the pleasure of those traveling people requires us to pay 10 times times the effort to win recognition." ”

Like many small business entrepreneurs, at first, Poulin manages everything in the company until he realizes his own limitations. In 2000 years, Poulin realized that he needed a mentor. He hired Peter Kern, a partner at Intermedia Partners, a private-equity firm based in Manhattan.

Kern, also a director of Expedia, previously rented villas on two luxury retreats sites to meet the needs of the chief executive. "I will give you everything you need," Poulin recalls when they met in New York Kern, "but if you need me in the process, I am willing to send you." ”

Kern, who initially had only 3% per cent, became a board member in 2007. Together with Poulin, he hopes to make luxury retreats a leading brand in the field of vacation rentals.

But their radicalism led to a serious blunder. In 2008, Poulin hired a management team for luxury retreats under the influence of outside advice. It is a good decision for startups to hire a management team at the right time to grow up, but he has failed to find a "gene" manager for the company. When he hires these managers, they don't fully support the company's decision. "The passion of the company's employees is beginning to fade and clear," Poulin said.

From 2008 to 2012, when the rental market for vacation rentals exploded, he was determined to start replacing all of the company's executive teams. "If you have a good and suitable team to manage the business, I believe luxury retreats will grow better, the company will be growing faster, and our pace may be farther." "Over the past 12 months, Poulin has completed the replacement of the luxury retreats executive team," they all focus on team relationships and really want to improve the lives of others, "he said. Poulin requires all executives to work together with their subordinates in the trenches to build friendships and familiarize themselves with the company's business. (Edit/Hiroshi)

Via:entrepreneur