Let’s Manage U: Sian and Rhys Morgan

Names of founders: Sian and Rhys Morgan

Location: Cardiff

Date Launched: 01/11/19

Number of employees: 2

Age of founders: 31 and 34

Website: https://letsmanageu.co.uk/

Which university, if any, did you attend? University of the South West of England (UWE)

Sian Morgan explains how a cleaning business led to the creation of an Airbnb property management startup, which is currently based in the Cardiff area with plans to expand further afield!

Tell us what your business does: 

We are an Airbnb property management company specialising in short-term holiday lets.

Where did the idea for your business come from?

We have been running a cleaning business for the past three years and within that we have gained two clients who we started cleaning their Airbnb properties for them. Recently, we managed a few properties while they were away and really enjoyed it. This is when we decided to come up with Let’s Manage U.

How did you know there was a market for it?

As we clean for several Airbnb properties, we saw they were being let out each week and even being let out each day. We did some further research and saw that Cardiff was ranked 11th in the world for being a popular destination to rent out properties through Airbnb, with Wales being ranked number one. We could see this for ourselves and knew it was a good venture to get into.

What were you doing before starting up?

We have been building up and growing our cleaning business. But now we are excited for this new venture!

Have you always wanted to run your own business?

Yes, ever since I was 16 I wanted to run my own business. I went to university to study Business and very much enjoyed seeing how several businesses work. I have never seen myself as a person who wanted to work for other people.

How did you raise the money?

The good thing about this business is that there is not a lot of money we needed to raise. I did the website for free. I am only paying £1.20 a month to host it! I’m trying to get the word out about our new business through social media sites and friends. My brother is a SEO marketing expert so he is also giving a helping hand. Then we gain commission at the end of the month from each client – any startup costs are down to them.

For each property, we do the following:

• Listing creation
• Price optimisation
• Professional photography
• Arrange insurance
• Guest management and communication
• Arrange self check-in for guests
• Arrange linen, toiletries, cleaning and maintenance management

In return, we charge 14% commission of the monthly bookings.

What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them?

It can be quite tricky trying to get in new clients. It is very different from our cleaning business. There are a lot more clients to think about and trust is a very important thing in this type of business. We are trying to overcome this through reviews on websites and also having a face-to-face informal chat with them so that they get to know us a little better.

What was your first big breakthrough?

Our first breakthrough was when a client first got in touch, knew what Airbnb was about and could see all the effort and organising that goes into our business. It was great to see us implementing that and the huge bookings we are getting in as part of all that hard work.

What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?

Never give up. We have had a couple of hiccups from a couple of potential clients wanting to go ahead and then pulling out at the last minute. It can be disheartening. However, it’s important to keep going as there is always more business around the corner.

Where do you want to be in five years’ time?

In five years, we would like to see our business grow from just the Cardiff area and look at opening offices further afield in locations such as Bristol, Birmingham and even London.

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