Sanders was founded by the company CEO Bo Sander, who had been in the long-term rental business for over 20 years. They started to broaden their focus to short-term rental in the past 5 years under their mother company, Nordic Housing.
They had such success with STR in their native Danish market that in 2019 they decided to go abroad. In the meantime, Covid lockdowns gave them extra free time without many guests to figure out how they were going to tackle expansion. In 2021, Sanders was born.
Today, they are one of the largest short-term rental companies in Denmark with properties in all major cities. They also have physical operations and rentals in Cyprus, Spain and Portugal. Roughly 500 of their properties are currently online or getting online as we speak.
And they’re not planning to slow down. They’re aiming to reach four digits by the end of this year, and double that the following year.
For Sanders, the strength of their brand is of highest importance. That’s how they build their reputation and secure repeat guests. They have dedicated brand and interior design departments, as well as a quality control department that visits their apartments and villas.
That attention to detail is something that you can’t automate. In all other areas of the business, they firmly believe in automation. That’s why Minut and Your.Rentals play such an important role in their day-to-day operations.
Sanders started working with Your.Rentals in March 2019:
"It’s been an amazing journey. Both companies have been growing and helping each other, almost like a joint venture.”
Your.Rentals software is helping Sanders collect payments, which is quite a huge task, as they have thousands of guests every week globally. Sanders also gets their occupancy rate report from Your.Rentals every Monday morning, which they use to move their prices up and down.
Sanders pays a lot of attention to guest experience, from high-quality furniture to impeccable guest communication. They have a guest communication center that operates 24/7, 365 days a year, in 8 different languages. They answer every single review, good or bad, within 24 hours. (Much of it is automated, with out-of-the-ordinary comments triggering an alert in their system; only then does the team get involved.)
With all the focus on guest experience, the homeowner experience can often get overlooked. Not so for Sanders:
“In our business, I think many people don't recognize that guests aren’t the only stakeholders we report to. Of course, they are very important and we always keep reminding ourselves that they’re our priority; but our landlords and homeowners, who are trusting us with their properties, are equally important.”
According to Peter, Sanders simply cannot afford to have unhappy homeowners who take their properties back following property damage or disputes. It gives them a bad reputation, weakens their brand and also eventually makes them lose business.
“Minut has been amazing when entering new markets. We’ve only received 100% positive feedback from new homeowners, developers and investors. They welcome Minut, as it makes them feel secure, knowing that we’re going to take good care of their properties.”
They also really appreciate that Minut measures the temperature in the property.
“It’s a really great service. Let’s take a rental somewhere in the Mediterranean as an example. If there aren’t any guests, and it’s the middle of the summer, but Minut shows that the temperature is 18°C, then we know that the air conditioning has been running needlessly for days and days.”
When that happens, they send a member of their cleaning team or an operational manager to the rental to turn off the AC. It saves electricity and lowers the bill, either for the homeowner or Sanders, depending on their agreement. In Denmark, the same goes for heating. The Sanders team is trained to turn it down to a normal level when they clean the properties:
“Typically, guests arrive and they turn it up to maximum. Of course, if that's what they want to have while they're staying with us, that's fine. But the issue is when they check out and there is no guest for a couple of days, and it's still 28°C. Thanks to Minut, we will notice that and can send somebody there. Save some energy for the owner and ourselves. And it also helps us run a greener business.”
Peter says that the environmental aspect has also been a big plus when they’re talking to new homeowners: “It's definitely been a great help in onboarding new clients.”
