Cold open

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Live Let Thrive, a podcast about the Airbnb life, the share economy, and everything in between. Here are your hosts, Micah and Steve.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Thrive. As you can see, it's me once again, solo. We're missing my guy Steve. It's all good. We have another exciting guest. Today we have Samela on, and I'm gonna read Samela's quick bio. Samela is the founder and CEO of Sabaya. Sabaya is Samela's passion project, which was brought to life after she spent over 17 years in the hotel industry. During that time, she noticed how hotels lack innovation and

Sebaya: guest experience platform for hosts who want revenue after check-in

SPEAKER_01 0:44

was still using old school processes to manage their day-to-day operations. Not at all a technologist, Samela partnered with Marco, her CTO, to begin bringing Sabaya to life. How are you, Samela? How are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Hello, hello, hello. I do have to make a little because people always put a spin on it. Is Sabea? I believe I made that up actually. I really did make up how to pronounce it, but I'm just gonna stick with it. Sabea.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Sabea, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

It means gift of God, actually.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Really? Should have named my daughter that. Yes. Sabea. We went all M's though. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Makes sense. Makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Okay. So how did now now Sabea, how did you well, first off, tell people what Sabea is and what it does.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Sabea is a guest experience system. And what we've done is we sit right at the intersection of hospitality and property tech. So what we do, um, we designed a platform so that we can help property managers focus uh within the lodging industry, essentially, be able to focus on the guest experience and make money once the guest actually checks in. Okay, you got their reservation, the heads in the bids part. Now, how can we make additional revenue, um, enhance your ratings, right? Become more of a uh super host, as one would call it, and um just extend extra services. So it's a guest experience platform to help BNB host.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

That is dope. That is dope. I had I actually had the honor of actually um going through the the actual Sebea platform, and it was actually really, really cool. I'm actually going to be signing up for it. Uh, I like the fact of like, hey, you can partner with different carcier services, you can add on different

How a hotel employee with no tech experience found a CTO valet-parking across the street

SPEAKER_01 2:29

add-ons, and I think that's something that the short-term rental space definitely needs, you know, something like people rental cars adding those features on. And like and how did you guys come up with this idea? Like, are you a have you been like an Airbnb host before, or how did you come up with the idea?

SPEAKER_02 2:43

So, as mentioned before, is it was when I was working in the hotels, and I always had a love for like boutique hotels, independent hotels. And so I'm like, why aren't they doing more? Like, this could be such a more fabulous experience for the guests. Why we're not selling this and doing this? And so it just hit me one day like, well, if you think you know what needs to be done, then do it. And so uh, and so um, and and that's why I say I'm not even a technologist, uh, I didn't come from like an entrepreneurial family, but I loved hospitality so much, and I love the idea of helping people. And so I was like, let's build this platform. And as I was beginning to um build the platform, of course, short-term rental was kind of like taking over. The the vision came to me, I would say 2017, 2018. Um, and then we just start building the system and making it happen, and we're here now.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

See, you touched on a lot right there. You you immediately you found the idea, you said, why isn't it out there? And you took action upon yourself to make it out, put it out there. Like, without you having a technology background, like how did you get that off the ground? Like, hey, I don't know nothing about technology, but I have this vision. Like, who did you surround yourself with so you can get that popped off?

SPEAKER_02 4:04

That's so funny because I would literally, once I said, I'm going to do it, I started reading articles, like, what does it even mean to start a tech company? What does that even how much does it cost? Like, where do you start? And so once I felt like I read uh 15 blogs, I was like, I'm doing this. And so anybody who would talk to me, I would literally say, Hey, do you know a programmer? Hey, do you know a coder? Like, literally, anybody who would talk to me for more than five minutes. Um, and it just so happened I was working at a hotel at that time. The valet guy who was also working at the hotel,

Building a tech startup by reading 15 blogs and asking every person if they knew a coder

SPEAKER_02 4:42

he worked at two different hotels across the street from each other, the valet guy. He's like, Oh, yeah, it's a guy across the street that programs and codes. And I'm like, No way. He's like, Yeah, he's there now. And so I went across the street. I'm not gonna tell which job it was because, you know, I was building Savannah. I went across the street, talked to Marco, and he's like, Okay, I think I know what you're saying. I think, but it gave him a little bit of the idea, but not too much because he knows how to do it, and I don't want him to go and build it himself. Gave him a little bit of the idea. He came back with like three pages, you know, swipable pages. And I was like, this is freaking happening. Mind you, I don't know the name, I don't know how to register it, I don't know anything about becoming a tech founder, let alone what this budget is even gonna look like. But those were all great things because I didn't come into it scared. I didn't come into it nervous. I was just like, all I seen was green lights, right? Because I didn't know the statistics. And then once I seen, like, oh, that lined up perfectly. So that must be a sign. Oh, that's lining up as well. I just kept going. And then being new to Miami, because I'm originally from Chicago, being new to Miami, I said, okay, so if you're gonna be a tech founder, what does that mean? So I start going to tech conferences, I start going to um any meetups, anything that could have potentially allowed me to understand what the scene even looks like. And I'll just be in the back of the room like quiet, too nervous to say anything, don't know anything about the I, you know, like putting the idea in a sentence, um, until I got confident. And that's what I'm building now.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Wow, I would call you a massive action taker. Because for you to do something like that, like I have ideas about how you just started networking, and then like it's almost like everything that you put out there is gonna come back to you because you ended up finding somebody who could program who was also in the hospitality industry.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

It was that and for me, I but and before I even like the idea of manifesting and all of those things even came into my practice, I was like, that's gotta be a sign. Like, if you found somebody who worked directly across the street from you, he's able to bring it to life. And originally, um, the funny thing is, Marco was like, I was just gonna pay him as a like uh consultant to build it, and then we was gonna part ways. And then after a few months in, because I had all these amazing, once the ball started rolling, oh, can we do this? Oh, what if we do this? Once the ball started rolling, he said, actually, I'll join the team after all. And he became a co-founder and a CTO. And I had to ask Marco, why did you do that? And he's like, It was something about you. He said, I've owned multiple businesses, but it was something about your uh personality or your hustle that made me say, This is gonna go somewhere. Let me let me get on the train because it's gonna move with or without me.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

People don't buy the ideas in my teaching.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

No, no, no. And Marco bought into the idea in Samala and has been with me since day one.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Yeah, you got you, you had the hustle behind it. So, how how big is your team now?

SPEAKER_02 8:10

It's still me and Marco, surprisingly. Oh, well, okay. By it being a software company, we have the ability, we bring in consultants as needed, marketing sales, things of that sort. But we are um extending an offer soon to an employee. Um, so we're looking to build, but I was able to build an

Q1 2025 roadmap: direct integration with Airbnb and Vrbo

SPEAKER_02 8:32

advisory board as well. So I have three advisors who's been helping us out um along the way.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Okay. And like as far as like integrations, do you ever plan on like doing like a direct integration with like Airbnb, property management systems? What's that looking like?

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Yes, that is in our very soon roadmap. Um, that should be Q1 for 2022. Um, we're actively raising, you know, you got to get some money to make some money and make more money. So we're actively raising because those um integrations are not cheap and they take they they take a little bit of time. And so that is the plan to do that immediately because for from a host standpoint, that makes their life that much easier so that their technology, their bookings go directly into Sabea, and then now the guest experience is even more streamlined.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Wow. Wow, that's that's crazy. So you can you're you're on it. So, okay, so like let's say how would one sign up for Sabaya or is it being are you able to have people sign up today, or how does it work?

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Yeah, so what we like to do is ensure that they understand the software. So it'll start with, hey, I'm interested. We schedule a live demo, we walk them through the technology, and of course, we want to understand their pain points prior to the demo, right? So that we can show them how they their team can actually use these things, understand some goals, and if we can accomplish them, we get them signed up. Um, the beauty about Sabea is it's customizable. So it's not just uh it's based on your location, right? So we build you an app and it can be with your logo, it can sit on your domain. Um, and so your end user don't even need to know that Sabea exists, they just know that you have your very own app that does

White-label progressive web app - no download, guests think it's your brand

SPEAKER_02 10:20

all of these cool things.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

So it sounds like you kind of like a what is it, like a splash page, really. They don't even know it exists, they just see that ShareBnB has all these accessible features.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Absolutely. And then another beautiful thing that we were able to do, because when we originally started, we were called MySierge, and we wanted to change our name because it was very limiting. People only thought about concierge services when the platform is built for so much more. Um, and so in the process of changing our name over, we went from the app stores to a progressive web app. So literally it's just sending a link. And so now your traveler doesn't even have to download it, right? Like they could just click this link and they use it the same way as an app works, um, but just with the link. And so now they don't have to say, well, I'm only there for two days. I'm not sure if I want to download it. We alleviated that as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Oh, okay. And then you said there's no location restriction. So, like, are you guys partnering up with like these different people here and like in different locations, or are you just kind of searching the area and seeing what add-ons you can add for that specific location? How does that work?

SPEAKER_02 11:26

You mean what services will be added in your app? Like, do we do that for you? What correct?

SPEAKER_01 11:34

So, like what services are gonna be added? Like, I'm in Dallas, Texas, right? How do you know what service to add, or is that something customizable by me?

SPEAKER_02 11:43

So we like to partner, as especially because we're very early, we like to hand hold whatever you need. We want to partner with you because we believe that you know your travelers better than we do. We know that for a fact, right? And so if you have traveling nurses, they're probably not looking for a nightclub, right? So we're not gonna put nightclubs in your app, right? Maybe we put one instead of five. Um, so we want to kind of understand who your customers are, and then we can build upon that. If you already have pre-existing relationships with vendors, absolutely. Let's make sure we get you more money, right? So we list them within the app. But if you do not have any relationships and you don't know where to start, and all you know is like this is the type of customers I usually get, we can build it out for you from there.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Wow, okay. So I like that. So you're basing it off, okay, I know my customer, you set it up to I tell you, hey, this is my type of customer, this is what they like, and then you start building it out.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Absolutely. And then again, it's branded, right? So if you choose to have it white labeled, it's gonna show up with your colors in it. It's going to show up on your domain. And so again, the traveler just thinks that you're an extremely sophisticated host and want to sell more services.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

And this is just a website and an app. So it's a progressive web app, is what it's called. That's what our technology is. But it's a three-part platform. So you have your guest app, so they see the jazz festivals coming in town. They request an additional towel. Then you have the uh staff app. So now if you have a housekeeper or a maintenance person, they can get these requests in real time. And then you have a dashboard, so now the property manager, say you you have people on the ground, but you're not even in the same city, you can understand what's happening at your properties. How long is it taking to close out tasks or to um how much interactions your team is having with the guest and be able to kind of understand your flow?

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Oh, okay. So now basically I can charge for these. Like, so if they requested stuff through this app, I now have I can add on charges for these.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Absolutely. That's the go. Literally, when we made it, we was like, why are they leaving money on the table? Because somebody else is getting this money, it's just not you, right? Like somebody else is getting that money that uh the city concierge or you know, the restaurant directly is getting this money. So why not get a piece of it, right? So Instacart, for example, is getting this money. So why not be able to pre-stock their refrigerator before they arrive? Why not, you know, have a relationship with a yacht company so that, you know, they want to book a yacht, you get 10% off top. You know, why not have these additional services? And it can be as glamorous or as simple. I literally have a customer, she has a kayak rental in her

The $100 extra per guest from a single kayak rental in the app

SPEAKER_02 14:50

app because she's um she's right on like a bay or whatever. She has a kayak rental and she's seeing an extra hundred dollars per guest because they're renting the kayak. And so it's it's essentially based on what you again knowing your customer. So once you understand your customer, you know what services they want to have, why not put them in the app and make, you know, and we all eat together.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Yeah, that's now that's I love. I love that. I love that. See, because I've been adding certain things to my like rentals, like I've been adding Tesla chargers, things of that nature. Now, if I could really go find out somebody who has a Tesla, put the like could I put somebody's Toro link in there? Like, hey, this dude has a Tesla you can rent, mean you could charge it at the house, something like that.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Yes, absolutely. You can definitely, you can in and the beauty of the software is it so when the guests make a request, like an on-demand request, it can go directly to a page, i.e. that Toro page, or it can say request more information. And then that's when your site is notified. But you can send them directly to a page. Imagine having a um a discount code or something, right? You send them directly to their website, they got to put your discount code in to know, and then that's how you track. Oh, I've sent you 25 customers this month. Cut the check.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

I'm loving this, I'm loving this. Wow, and y'all are based out. Where did y'all and y'all based out of where?

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Miami, Florida.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Miami. Wow. Oh, that's like the perfect place.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Yes, Miami is doing, yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Because yeah, because the person I have a friend down there, and he's he just got into those boat rentals. And well, he's not just boat rentals, he he basically takes people on private tours on boats, and he was wondering like how to connect the two of the Airbnb side to the private tour. And this sounds like a perfect idea. I love this.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

Yep. Subey, look, Sabaya is a connector, and again, your traveler doesn't even know Sebaya, right? They don't have to even, they just see Share BNB, and then they see uh yacht company A and they get to request it. And then now everybody, you know, and it can be as streamlined as possible. Imagine putting a transportation in there as well, right? Like, so now not only are you picking them up from your unit because you have the address, you're taking them to the yacht, and then you're getting them back home. Because Uber's getting that money, another broke company is getting that money, so why not streamline it so that you can piece these relationships together? And then guess what? In turn, you get a better review, and then you can focus on direct and repeat business. So now they come in town, they don't want to stay with nobody else, they just want to keep staying with you.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

And I'm happy you bring this. This is really dope that you're doing this. One as an African-American female who's starting this company up, and then like we definitely got to start hitting that tech industry because that that's that's what we ain't in. So we definitely got yes, I'm really loving this idea. I I'm definitely I I can't wait to sign up for it because it that's definitely that's what I'm all about is value ads.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Yes, yes, absolutely. And then the the real you know key here is becoming more independent because when your guests create a profile, it's just a few things, but first name, last name, email address. Because right now, if we're being real, these travelers are being borrowed to you from Airbnb, from Orbits, Booking.com, wherever you're borrowing these customers, they're not truly yours because you don't even have direct access to them. So, guess what? When you begin to collect email addresses, you can market directly to them and build a again more repeat business. And so collecting data is huge, right? So you can be able to uh market yourself how you choose.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

I didn't know, like I love you, and you hit a good point, and I hope the listeners really heard what you said. Like, you're really borrowing these guests like somebody booked through Airbnb, it really ain't yours until you get them to push over to that other side, you know. Absolutely. I can't wait to see what this is gonna do. Um, so what are y'all plans? Like, how how are y'all planning on uh you know growing the business, moving on in the future?

Scaling plan: islands, boutique hotels, and exclusive hotel portfolio partnerships

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Any new releases y'all got? What's what y'all plans right now?

SPEAKER_02 19:07

So the the the one thing we did wrong when we were starting out is we just built all these amazing features, right? Like we built um scanner in the app before QR codes was even a real thing. Like we built a scanner in the app because our original focus was hotels and we knew that packages come in for hotel guests, right? So we built a scanner in the app so that they can know that a package is here. We haven't unlocked that, right? We haven't started using that, but so we built all these really amazing features that we need to start releasing and being able to have customers say, Yeah, you know what? I'm interested. I want to try that, I want to test that out. Um, and so we have a lot of exciting things in the future that we in terms of features, but then um another thing that we did right is we bootstrapped. So we didn't go out and get any money from anybody. We built it, the development, the technology is all fully done. And so where we're at now is essentially I own 100% of the company, right? Which is a beautiful thing at this stage. So what I have to do now is go out and say, hey, Miss Investor, Mr. Investor, this is what we've done. Give me some more money so I can scale this. Leave for Miami and go to a few islands, go to a few, you know, go to Orlando, go to expand my wings a little bit and um be able to focus on because an island traveler or even an island host is not the same as a Miami host. So um when we think about scaling, we definitely have to be intentional on where that's going to be and where the biggest opportunities are. But that's how we are planning for 2022. Again, we have some exciting things. Um, and then what we realized, even though we're focused on BB, short-term rental right now, boutique hotels are like, hey, we got to go contactless. Let's talk. You know, so we're having conversations with brands, like one of my customers. Um she's growing her portfolio really quickly. And so we have an exclusive partnership. Every hotel that she opens, Sabea opens as well, right? And so it's almost like it's gonna be in graded into her brand DNA, which then makes us that much more powerful.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Wow. So okay, so wow, that's actually very powerful. So you guys are doing whole so you guys are doing hotels as well.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Okay, I didn't because it's it's the core at the core, it's very, very similar needs at the core.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

I think. That's very lucrative for you guys. Because if you guys start getting on the B side and the hotel side, now you know you can be the back man, let y'all battle it out, but you know, your product is still working. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

Exactly, exactly. And it's a demand, right? Like we had when we built our technology, we was like, okay, how can we get people to use it? And the QR code was it, but people were so like, QR code, what? You needed a QR scanner to be able to, you know, pre-COVID, you needed a QR scanner. But then COVID for us made we went from like a nice to have to a must-have. And so we're just ensuring that we spread continue to, because it is a piece of education that comes behind it. We do understand that it is a piece of education to get our customers to sign up.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Okay. So when you said QR scanners, you needed the scanner to what to get the app, or what do you mean?

SPEAKER_02 22:59

That's like before the pandemic, you needed an app on your phone to scan QR codes. Like it wasn't like your your camera, it wasn't a thing for your camera to do it. You needed the app to scan any QR codes. And a normal person, you know, probably didn't have it. So we were a little bit nervous about that being a barrier for us to make it that much more attractive. That was one. And then the idea of having to go and download an actual app, right? And I'm only here for two days. And so again, COVID helped with the QR code and then the progressive web app. You just click a link and it acts just like an app. And now you didn't have to download anything.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

I love that. See, a lot of people, COVID, you know, it hurt a lot of people, like, but in business, it did. But it did help a lot. It like the the remote work, the QR codes, all that, that really kind of you know brought to the light. Um, and I'm happy you said you're going to islands because one thing I noticed about islands, if you well, if you take a cruise, right? The cruise has everything already set up. You go to the excursions, whatever. Me and my wife just went to Mexico a few months ago, and there's certain things we just didn't have access to because, like, if somebody would have had Seba in their unit, we could have just set up excursions, snorkeling, all that. I think y'all were really hit. Like, do y'all have any islands in mind?

SPEAKER_02 24:22

Um, I do I lived in the U.S. Virgin Islands for a year and a half. I lived in St. John. Okay. Um, and that was when I was still working at the hotel, beautiful resort. Um, and so US Virgin Islands, I know I feel comfortable with. I still have amazing friendships there. And so um we're looking at that. Turks and Caicos, I think. Um, Haiti actually would be quite interesting for us. Um, I'm I'm thinking about areas where traveling is happening, but nobody's calling it sexy, right? Like nobody's actually paying attention to it. Yeah, I would say, yeah. But that again, that comes with the level of education because the property managers there, they're managing like villas, right? Like two-bedroom to six-bedroom villas.

Why Tulum, Haiti, and Virgin Islands are next - supporting local vendors with no websites

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Gorgeous, but they literally have like binders, like this thick binders. Like ain't nobody reading it. Ain't nobody reading it. It's probably dirty. Like, I definitely don't want to touch it. That information is expired. This restaurant, unfortunately, didn't open since the pandemic, you know, like all those things. Now, think about an app that can stay active and updated, you know, can be able to push this uh this island experience even further. And then on the other side, we're supporting the local ecosystem, right? So that jet ski company who didn't have a website, that um grocery store who didn't um have delivery, like we're able to make those relationships so that now the jet ski company can eat because he got somebody booking him, right? That grocery store seeing more business because people are asking for these groceries in their unit before they arrive. So it's a it's it's a twofold, honestly. Um, with a network effect, essentially.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Yeah. So it looks like you're targeting places that don't already have that. Well, I guess places like Virgin Lines have heavy tour tourism. Like, would you consider going to a place like Tulum? Because Tulum, during the pandemic, like everybody was going to Tulum, like they would not shut down, right? So would you consider places like that?

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Or listen, we're not restricted to one place at all. That's another beauty about software, right? Like, yeah, if we can get a customer in Tulum and then another one in um Cancun and then another one in Jamaica, we're not upset about that at all. But knowing that my team is this big and I'm still working on a what they say a shoestring budget, then I have to stay focused, but absolutely like that's the goal to be able to ensure that tourism is like streamlined. And imagine booking it before you go, right? So now you have your whole itinerary and you know what it is, you know what time you got to be there, and it's all done for you. You'll pay people pay for that, you know, people pay premium for that.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

Facts. Because that that's what we didn't have. We was down in what I think I forgot before Tulum. It wasn't Tulum, the place above it. Uh, anyways, we was down in Mexico. We didn't have like no itinerary, but we've seen the jet skis, but it's like, dang, okay, we got to go over there, schedule it. But if you already had it set up, yeah, this is perfect. That's a game changer. I can't.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

And think about it, the um the jet ski company is happy to pay you $15 per rental, $25 per rent. Because guess what? They know that they're losing business from the people who don't know about them. So now that you just open their share up even further because you're putting it in your app, people are going to be booking it more. Absolutely. I'll get you, I'll give you 10% on every book in or whatever that looks like. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Yeah, I think that I think that's your big the biggest beautiful part about it. It's like you said, you're supporting the local economy economy. That's the biggest thing.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Absolutely, absolutely. Ensuring that they can eat as well.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

Yeah, especially in places like you know, down in Mexico, Tulum, and all that. That that's a really beautiful thing, even here locally in Dallas. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

And then it'll even get to the point in my mind, these experiences because I feel like it's so many more amazing experiences, so many more amazing restaurants that we just don't know about because they don't have the reach, right? The restaurant, if it did go on social media viral, then so what about those like curated experiences? Guess what? That restaurant could decide for your group of people, we can do this, or the just you know what I mean? Like then it becomes a little bit more exclusive, or you can book a tier to it. So it's definitely the possibilities I feel like are endless with what we have. It's just being strategic about it.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Okay. So you guys have experiences, and I think you also said a concierge service as well, correct?

SPEAKER_02 29:18

So I mean, it's so funny because I feel like if you offering experiences, that is a level of concierge services, right? So um, what we do is our our vision is to ensure that we're blending both a human touch and technology, right? So we don't want to remove people. We still want you to be able to talk to someone, we still want you to feel like you're texting some a person, but be able to scale it, right? Like to automate it. So, yes, right now, while we're still this young, I'm literally picking up the phone. You can call Sebaya and you talk it to me as we grow. Um I'm sure that's going to change, but we want service is always going to be at the core of what we do and how we do it.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

Okay. So let's just say someone right now, hey, I need a towel or whatever. Do y'all have something set up like y'all door dash it out and y'all charge the host, or how would that work?

SPEAKER_02 30:22

So, no, the the goal is for you to keep all the money, right? Because what we like to understand is how would you delivering that towel at first? How would you doing that service at first, right? Oh, well, I have a maintenance person who lives 30 minutes away. So, you know, we just let them deliver it. Okay, so cool. We give the maintenance person his own version of the app, the staff app. And now when this request comes in, maintenance sees it in real time, and then he can even respond, allow us 45 minutes. It's gonna take 22 minutes. I'm on the way, right? So, especially when we're thinking of um host with five units and under, right? Like most of the time they they might even live on property or live in the building. So, but the allusion to the guests is that you're offering full service, even if you are all the service providers, but they feel like, oh, I can ask something from housekeeping. Guess what? I'm housekeeping. Oh, I need this. Oh, guess what? I'm maintenance, right? So we want to um kind of shift the bring in the hotel experience to the BNB. That's that's our focus.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

Okay. So question I know everybody's probably wondering how much is this service cost for their listing?

SPEAKER_02 31:47

Yes, absolutely. So we charge right now a per unit per month fee, but it's three tiers, right? So the first tier is fifteen dollars per unit per month. And so with that fifteen dollars, you get your custom app

Pricing: $15, $25, or $37 per unit per month with optional guest-relations agent

SPEAKER_02 32:05

and you and your team go and manage it, right? Like so we build your custom app with all the services that you offer, your location, and then you and your team take over from there. The second tier is um $25 per unit per month, the custom app, but it sits on your domain. So now, again, the traveler doesn't know about Sebaya, they only know Share B. The third tier is $37 per unit per month, and that is with the guest relations agent. So the custom app, it sits on your domain, and now you don't have to respond to the customers. We give you your own dedicated agent because when I talk to hosts, the most tedious thing that they do is respond to guests. And so we we help you. Um essentially, we give you an agent, they're responding to your customers, but your customers believe that it's it's they're acting as an extension of your team. And so, you know, you don't have to be sitting around responding when your phone goes off, or you know, you on the yacht, you're trying to have a good time, you at the baby shower, right? Like you, you busy doing other stuff. We can give you that agent to offer that full spectrum.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

Okay, so you can do so. Basically, this is fully get everything, all the experience stuff in there, and then $37, they'll take care of everything else.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

Right. The agent, yes, the agent will respond to everything else. And in the future, we're looking to right now is uh chats. In the future, you know, you want to be fancy, maybe it looks like video chats, right? Like now your customer, you know, and I feel like when you think about luxury and you think about, you know, this seven-star experience, this 10-star experience, I feel like it's absolutely obtainable because maybe they are paying $10,000 a night for this villa. Why can't I get somebody? And I need to see them, you know, like that seems like that should be reasonable, right? But then if you have somebody who don't really want to talk to nobody at all, chatting is gonna be the best thing. But now to think that you got somebody responding, and we built a chat bot, but it just don't sit right with me because I think it conflicts with the idea of the human touch. That is, and so um the the guest relations agent is is what sits well right now.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

Now I have a question. So you said earlier you said somebody that written out a kayak and she's charging like a hundred dollars more per night. Have you able have you been able to see like, hey, this guest put Sabaya out there, let's just say the $37 package, right? And they were able to increase prices. Have you guys have you guys been able to gather that data yet?

SPEAKER_02 34:59

So we're still in the process of gathering it. But one of our um the way that we think about it, and mind you, this is from a hotel side. So when hotels measure their success, it's called ADR,

RevPEG model - revenue per available guest, not per room

SPEAKER_02 35:12

so average daily rate. What we want to do, um, I'm sorry, uh they yeah, they do it by the average daily rate, but what we want to do is um like a Rev Peg model, revenue per available guest, right? So we want you to make money per head, not per room. Okay, and so if you're selling something and it's two people standing there, we want you to be able to make two times that amount instead of just one for that unit. So that kayak, you're you're renting it for two people. That yacht, two people need it, right? Like, whereas the original mindset was let's just make money for that one room. We want to make money per guest.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Rev tag, that's a new one for me.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

Yeah, RevPEG, revenue per available guest.

SPEAKER_01 36:07

Okay, you just taught me taught me something new. You went you went Jay Massey on me. Talking about Rev Pag and RevPAR. I didn't think about it that way. That's really smart.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

And that's and that's the way that we're approaching it. Again, we're still very early. Um, and our goal, we have um one of our advisors is a data analyst. And so we want to see what's the important information to collect, and then what do we need to do with it? How can we help you increase once we collect it, right? Is that an increase in reviews and ratings? Is that an increase in in revenue? Is that an increase in bookings? Like what does that increase look like and what information is important to collect to be able to do that? So, right now, the host that's using it, um we allow them to tell us what reports they think is important, and then we set it up from there. And as we continue to build, we want to just make it regular. You can extract this report whenever you choose.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

Yeah, okay. And because I could personally see, I'm pretty sure if you had like all the everything that was going on in the city in the app and they could choose from it, I could see a guest easily paying $50 to $100 more. And especially when you kind of use that example of, hey, this person's paying $10,000 a night. Of course, you better have all that. I would want to have all that if I'm paying all that, you know. So I definitely, yeah, it's definitely why would I not have a chef?

SPEAKER_02 37:28

Why would you not have a chef as an option for me? Why would I not be able to walk into a bottle of champagne? Actually, my favorite champagne, not just any champagne, a cheese tray, right? Like, why would I not be able to do that? And why should you not be able to eat from that being done? You know, so and and I but I do believe that um too much information is as bad as no information. So I do believe that it should be um limited, right? Like the amount of things, because if you give me too much information, I feel overwhelmed and I just do nothing. But if you give me three to five, five to seven, or seven different types of things, then I feel like, okay, I could let's book two excursions, one dinner, and stay in. You know, like you get to be able to decide, but imagine just throwing like everything in there now, and you're just like, that's that's obnoxious.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

I agree. And and I think it goes back to what you said earlier. It goes back to that person knowing their guests. And I think that's really comes down to if you know your guest and you know what things to offer them, I think that's where the value is at. So that that I that I love. Like, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That goes deep in the guest.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

When she put the kayak in there, I was like, who even wow, like, yes, that makes perfect sense. Put a kayak rental in your app because you're right there on the water, you're making money, then nobody that's not even a competition, right? Like nobody else is renting out kayaks to their guests because you know, maybe now you have a bike or a scooter, you know, whatever. Maybe you have a business traveler and they don't want to, they don't, they didn't come in with a car. So you got a scooter and they get back and forth to the office or whatever that looks like, but being able to curate these experiences, right? Because now the other people in your area, while they can take advantage of the mall being this close or this happening, they're not offering that scooter. So you you standing out amongst those other four listings that's within a five-mile radius or something.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

I don't even see, see, and I like how you're doing it. You're kind of putting the host kind of in control because then the host can kind of go to they know what type of guests is coming in. They can go to different stores in the mall. Hey, give me a discount code if I send somebody in. That this is a lot. This is I love this. This is a really a lot of opportunity coming.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

It is a lot of opportunity, but again, staying focused is part of the key because I see so many like, ooh, ooh, you know, stay focused, yeah, tame it in, and then let it build. It's gonna naturally build because what's gonna happen is collecting that data from the traveler is going to let us know what's important to them when they really travel. And I think we already know that people pay for premium and people pay for exclusivity, right? So if they feel that you're offering something that they didn't know about or they didn't have access to in Tulum, oh yeah, why would I not go to that fancy dinner that you set up for me in it's at sunset? My friends, when my friends came here, they didn't tell me about this. Watch me, I'm a doing it. You know what I mean? Sure, I'll pay the $200 a plate to do it because you put me in the game on something that I didn't even know existed.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Yeah, I know for a fact this is like this this will really like help me when I travel. Because, like I said, like the one reason why I always do cruises is because everything's right there. And then when you get to the island, hey, you can do this, this, and this. And here's where you go. If the host had this, this would be off the chain. Yeah, this, and I'm happy you're you've got into it early because it ain't too many people doing this. I I've seen a few people do it, but they ain't really just hopped all the way in. That's what I think the power play is.

SPEAKER_02 41:19

You're in early, and I and I do have competitors, right? But the market is growing so fast, nobody's a leader, first of all. There is no leader in what I'm doing because it's first of all, hosts are their own independent like silos, right? So you can't say that you have them all because a host could pop up tomorrow and then another one in two days, and then you know, so that's the beauty because the market share is growing, but also um my experience in hotels is seeing how the team was upset because things fell through the cracks and it was old school, and then seeing a customer like, wait, so y'all don't even offer that? Wait, so I can't, how do I book it? And I'm like, well, you know, so being able to kind of put all of that experience into one, and then being able to offer it to you from the comfort of your phone, like you ain't got to touch that nasty binder no more.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Right. Even like even, you know, and even uh, you know, running another thing, even resorts have been offering that for years, you know, all the little pamphlets and then, but man, to have it on tech, that's that's next level.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

And your own, like your own phone. So you and then maybe like um we partnered with this hotel pre-pandemic, and they didn't even the they put it in a key packet, right? Like, hey, use this app. But what we seen was guests didn't automatically download it right away until they realized, oh, wait, I want in-room dining. Wait, I wonder, do I need this? And so it's like, how do I get it? Oh, use the app. Oh, okay, I could place my in-room dining menu right here,

Pandemic pause: the rebrand from MySierge to Sebaya and why contactless made it a must-have

SPEAKER_02 43:00

or I'm at the beach and you're looking around for a server and you're like, oh, I can order it in the app, you know, like that type of thing. So sometimes the guests don't even know that they need it um or want it until they need it.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

Right. So now you talk about pre-pandemic. Now I know the pandemic had its ups for you guys because of certain things that came to light, you know, like, but how how did it affect you guys in like other ways? Like there was there any other ways that the pandemic affected you? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 43:29

So we were very early, we had just launched when the pandemic hit. Um, and so we and and mind you, we were like new to this. The app was so ugly. And the colors, like I created everything, like logo, everything, just threw it up like, let's do it, let's do it, let's keep the train moving. And so I always wanted to rebrand and give it a facelift and feel more confident about when people look at it. And so So when the pandemic hit, it was like there's nothing, but it didn't hit us as hard because we were already early. You know what I mean? So while while the everything closed down here is mandated, everything closed down. Um we didn't take that big of an L because we were still early, right? And so what we did, we took that time to regroup, rebrand, go from my Sierra to Sabaea, reintroduce ourselves. What story do we want to tell? Who are we interested in? Who needs us the most? How can we make this prettier? And so um it was a bit you know, like we said, it was very sad how it affected others, but for us, it gave us the opportunity. It was like I was gifted the opportunity to be a smarter founder on the same project, right? Like a second time around. So I kind of like reinvented, we we reinvented ourselves, right? And then just start telling people the story that we wanted them to hear.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

Sounds like y'all had that sounds like y'all had that woo-saw moment. Y'all kind of slowed down, refocused, and then you came out better on the other side through it.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

Because I would have never um, we were getting some traction, we were getting some PR, cute, you know, I was cute, like, oh, this is good, but I don't see myself with just a team of two being able to say, like, wait, we need to reprint, we need to change our name. If it would have the ball would have kept going, right? Like, that was the perfect opportunity to take the time to reprint. Don't nobody know us anyway. We're small, you know, like we small. How do we want to look? Let's do it right now, and then go out and tell the story. So it absolutely worked in our favor. And again, we became more of a must-have because contactless, everybody's on the market for contactless. How can I get something without you us actually interacting? How can I check in without that, you know, that process happening? And so um, future integrations look like smartlocks, like being integrated with smartlocks. So we unlock your door.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

Oh, I like that.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

Very innovative. You know, so it's it's it's so many opportunities. It's just raising this round because we're actively fundraising, raising this round and then being able to put the right people in the right places. And I can see somebody knocking on our door trying to purchase us. Absolutely. I can I can totally see it.

SPEAKER_01 46:38

For sure. I think it's and we've talked about this before, you know, this podcast, we've been running it for about three or four years. And one thing we've always said was I think the short-term rental space, like especially around Airbnb, is still in its infancy because there's so many things that can be created around it. And something like this, guest experiences, you know, that's that's a market that really hasn't been touched by not too many, but you know, especially in a controlled space, that's what's up. So, how would how does LLT help Subway Survey or growth?

SPEAKER_02 47:09

Um, I think, first of all, being able to let hosts understand, yes, it's technology, but it's for your favor, right? So maybe the first few days you feel like, I don't have time to on board, how does this work? I don't know, you know, like I see that host, because they are an independent business owner, they feel overwhelmed with the idea of incorporating technology, right? So I'm here to tell you, yes, those maybe those three days or whatever may make you feel stressed out. But on the other side, when you're eating and selling more and your reviews are growing, it's absolutely worth it, right? And and we literally are doing this for the host. We're not making any money today, in the future, we will, but we're not making any money from the travelers, right? We want to help the host, we're not focused on the traveler, we're focused on what do you need to do your hosting better? What do you need to stand out amongst your competition? Because while we're saying the industry's growing from our host perspective, that means more competition. And so now when you think of competition, you have to have a level of innovation within you to be able to make it through, right? Like to be able to look up four years later and now you're killing it, and everybody comes to you, right? Like you have to in this moment, incorporating technology is probably part of that process.

SPEAKER_01 48:43

It definitely is. It definitely is. Wow. So I can't I can't wait to see the future of this thing. Um, I definitely can't. I'm about to definitely be signing up and thank you for coming on. Uh, and tell also tell the guests where they can sign up and where they can find you.

SPEAKER_02 48:57

Absolutely. So um, a little shameless plug. If you're in Miami for Art Basil, we're hosting a um art,

Art Basel exhibit and where to sign up

SPEAKER_02 49:07

tech, and hospitality exhibit called the Art of Hospitality. And what we want to do is give a lens of the future of hospitality through Sabea. Um, and so uh that landing page is up and it's really the artofhospitality.sabea. But then we're on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and it's Sabaya.io.

SPEAKER_01 49:36

Got you, got you. Thank you for coming on, Samella. This is awesome. I'm definitely gonna be signing up. Uh, I'm letting everybody know in the podcast world and all the listeners, definitely go sign up. Definitely helps with the host guest experience because that's really where everything's moving to. Um, especially if you can create a brand around your experiences. I think that's how you're gonna grow your business, especially with like Samella said, it's too many people out here just hopping on Airbnb. So this is definitely definitely people making the money.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

So why not let you get it, right? Get the get get money beyond hits and bids. Facts, facts experience. So, yeah, thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited. Um, and we'll talk about getting you on boarded and continue to spread the word throughout the community.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

We'll do. All right, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 50:24

All right, it was good talking to you.

SPEAKER_02 50:26

Have a great day, you too.

SPEAKER_01 50:28

Bye. All right, y'all. That was Samela Watson with Sebea. That is something definitely I would want y'all to kind of look into. Um, I don't know too many other people in that space. I think a few other people with like the QR codes are kind of in that space. And then, you know, I always hear the Airbnb hosts saying, How do they get that Turo host and try to connect it? I think this is like really something good that's gonna be coming in the future. Like, you know, you already have it in the app, go ahead and add those value ads on there. Um, like even like things like a Tesla charger, you know. I've been like I've been telling you, I've been putting Tesla chargers in mind, but if I had an app that just says, hey, you have a Tesla charger in the garage, you know, some people might not even look out there, but to have that is a very, very cool feature. Um, but yeah, that that's that's really cool. And I think that's the future of short-term rentals is having those value ads. So definitely look into Sabea. Um, hit up Samella and her team and see if you can see if it'll help your business. Now, anyway, send us an email at live let thrive at gmail.com. Email us, uh, follow us on Instagram, live let thrive. You can follow me and Steve on Instagram as well. I'm very active on there. And uh, yeah, thank y'all for continuing to listen and uh hope we've been able to provide value. And we are out.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Livelet Thrive. Be sure to tune in next week for all the latest in the world of Airbnb and all that entails. Bye-bye.