As the hospitality industry evolves, guest screening and verification have become essential components of a safe and seamless guest experience. In this episode, we sit down with Ela Mezhiborsky, President and Co-Founder of AutoHost, to explore how cutting-edge technology is reshaping the way hotels and short-term rental operators manage risk, prevent fraud, and enhance security.
Ela shares her insights on the growing role of AI and cybersecurity in guest verification, the challenges of "bad AI" in fraud prevention, and the regulatory changes driving the need for stronger screening solutions. From mandatory ID checks to advanced biometric verification, this conversation unveils the future of trust and safety in hospitality.
Key Topics Discussed:
1️⃣ The Evolution of AutoHost & Guest Screening
2️⃣ The Role of AI in Fraud Detection & "Bad AI" Risks
3️⃣ Regulatory Changes & Compliance Trends
4️⃣ Hotels vs. Short-Term Rentals: Who’s Leading in Security?
5️⃣ The Future of Guest Verification & Embedded Security Solutions
6️⃣ Addressing Human Trafficking & Ethical Responsibility
7️⃣ Where AutoHost is Headed Next
8️⃣ Final Thoughts & How to Connect with Ela
Connect with Ela:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elamezhiborsky/
Autohost Website: https://www.autohost.ai/
Ready to take your operations to the next level? Visit https://tnsinc.com/podcasts-alex-and-annie/ to learn more.
Get $50 credit and $0 onboarding fee when you sign up for Beyond, the leading dynamic pricing tool for vacation rentals: http://beyondpricing.info/alexandannie
#guestscreening #vacationrentals #fraudprevention
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alex Husner (00:00):
Music. Welcome to Alex and Annie the real women of
(00:04):
vacation rentals with more than35 years combined industry
experience, Alex Husner andAnnie Holcomb have teamed up to
connect the dots betweeninspiration and opportunity,
seeking to find the one storyidea, strategy or decision that
led to their guests big ahamoment. Join them as they
highlight the real storiesbehind the people and brands
(00:26):
that have built vacation rentalsinto the $100 billion industry
it is today. And now it's timeto get real and have some fun
with your hosts, Alex and Annie.
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Welcome to Alex, Annie, the realwomen of vacation rentals. I'm
Alex,
Annie Holcombe (01:41):
and I'm Annie,
Alex Husner (01:41):
and we're here today with Ela Mezhiborsky, who
is the co founder and presidentat auto host. I think I did
better before we hit play atsaying your last name, but good
to see you, Ela
Annie Holcombe (01:52):
Ela, it's so good to have you here, and
apologies from both of us. It'sbeen a long time we've been
wanting to have you on. We triedto record a couple of years ago,
and something happened, and forwhatever reason, it didn't work.
So we're grateful that you gaveus the time back. But could you
tell us a little bit about youand auto host and kind of your
journey to where you are today?
Yeah,
Ela Mezhiborsky (02:10):
it's true. We did try. It would have been a
really different I feel like abreakdown back then. It was
good, like, what, three or fouryears ago?
Alex Husner (02:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
2021 I think we figured it out.
Yeah, wild,
Ela Mezhiborsky (02:22):
yes. So my name is Ela Mezhiborsky, you did
almost, almost perfect, Alex.
And I am the president, cofounder of Authost. And then for
those who don't know, auto hostis a guest screening and
verification platform. So weprimarily focus on the world of
short term rentals andhospitality, and we pretty much
handle everything in the guestjourney when it comes to
collecting information,verifying the guests, IDs,
(02:45):
selfies, credit card payments,we have our background comes
from cyber security, so we havea whole underlying part to the
platform where we look at fraudcases and validating
transactions Online, all ofthat, all that good stuff, and
basically work with hospitalityoperators to mitigate that part
of the risk and make the processseamless, so that hospitality
(03:07):
operators can really focus onhospitality.
Alex Husner (03:11):
Gotcha, yeah, and gosh, how much has changed
within the industry. For almostfour years ago, you know, to
that to this point, but when wehad met you, you had actually
just won a pretty major award.
We were just coming out of theVR may fall conference at San
Antonio, and auto host had wonthe focus right battleground as
the Innovator of the Year. Andagain, some pretty steep
competition that was that wasexciting, but my gosh, like just
(03:33):
thinking back to that time, howdifferent is what auto host is
now to what it was then, wouldyou say it
Ela Mezhiborsky (03:42):
was also the first conference coming out of
COVID? Yeah, everybody was at acrazy kind of hype to see
everyone. And that was a reallyfun when I met some of, I mean,
amazing industry kind of playersat that battleground
competition. I almost feel likeauto host is kind of the
projection that we said we'regoing to be so so much has
happened, especially on the kindof technical side, deeper into
(04:05):
our integrations, gettingembedded everywhere. I almost
feel like at the time, it wasthe early days of us really
preaching the importance ofguest screening, the concept of,
you know, verifying who'swalking through the door for
your safety, for your guestsafety. It feels like the
narrative at the time was verymuch, well, screening is
important, whereas now it'stable stakes. Now it's we're
(04:26):
kind of talking, I mean, ofcourse, you don't want a black
box. And now we're talking AI isin the picture. We're getting
deeper into what types of fraudcan you be facing, or
chargebacks a big deal. So we'reon the same projection, but just
feels like we're pretty muchreally advancing everything we
said at the time we will bedoing. So it's exciting, uh,
exciting times. So you
Annie Holcombe (04:45):
had, you had mentioned something there that
actually popped into my headwhen we were talking earlier
about innovation with AI andwith the amount of, I guess, the
deep fakes or the false youknow, things that people can put
out there. How are you going to.
Navigate through that, because Ifeel like that, that is
potentially another layer of thesecurity conversation that we
need to be having, that maybewe're not yet, but I'm sure you
(05:07):
guys are not
Ela Mezhiborsky (05:09):
only that, we are. We have been for a while
now, and it's almost like, Ilike to call it bad AI. I think
we're so focused, and it's thehype, it's the I mean, how can
we use AI better? And we shouldbe talking about and it's
exciting, but there's an elementof being kind of also proactive
and understanding, okay, great.
So we're using it for thebetter, but the bad actors and,
you know, bad players and thosethat are looking to exploit
loopholes, how can they be usingit? So first of all, I think
(05:30):
that even back in the day, whenwe're talking about looking at
objective data points, where youscreen, rather than relying on
gut feeling, or, you know,fingers crossed is my best, you
know, strategy kind of well, Ihope nothing happens, and you
know you're using your judgment.
But that opens the door not onlyto, I mean, bias,
(05:51):
discrimination, and we can gointo the ethical side of
screening, but it also givesloopholes to sophisticated fraud
to very easily trick your staffthat is really trained to give
the best hospitality possible.
So even from before, when wewere talking objective data
points, we were prepping for thefact that we can be blinded by a
good cover story. And if before,somebody sent in a message and
(06:11):
it sounded sketchy, now with AI,nothing's gonna sound sketchy.
So everybody have a really,really good cover story and an
incredible looking ID photo thatyou know to go along with it,
and so. So first of all, we'reat constant innovation and
staying on top of any type offraud trends, any ways that I
just can be exploited, any newadvancements on how to match
(06:32):
data points so that, you know,we take not only that photo of
the ID, but we look at IPaddress. We look at whether
people hide behind VPNs. There'sso many attempts to mask your
identity online, which reallydoesn't happen with your average
innocent guest. I mean, Anniewill not be a credit card to
book a stage, just so that youdon't pay out of pocket. Alex
(06:53):
might,
Annie Holcombe (06:57):
you never know.
I might get a little squirrely.
So
Ela Mezhiborsky (07:01):
it's really that, I think it's the point
that the more we rely on that'swhere the passion is, the more
that we saying you can beobjective. So gut feeling is
lovely when you're running oneor two properties and you're
going to meet the person andgreet them and shake their head,
but it changes a lot. Whetheryou're running a hotel, be it
with a front desk or not astimes progress, or a short term
rental operation, where you'reusually not meeting the guests
(07:23):
in person, and that's part ofthe beauty of it, and that's how
we reach economies of scale, butyou have like you're leaving a
really big gap of who walksthrough the door. So the more
objective, the more tech we'reusing to kind of screen and scan
everything to do with thereservation, the better prepared
we are to also deal with the onthe surface AI exploits, yeah,
Alex Husner (07:44):
for sure, it's interesting to see too. I mean,
there's definitely a lot ofdifferent areas that have been
more specific and what they'reenforcing for STRS now. And one
that comes to mind, of course,is Arizona that you have to pass
that you're not a sex offenderto stay in a short term rental,
which I don't believe you haveto do that to stay in a hotel.
But how has your businesschanged with some of those more
specifics instances like that,or even just overseas? I know in
(08:07):
a lot of the foreign countriesin Europe, they have to submit a
lot more information about theguests that they're getting
actually to the police and localauthorities. Have you guys ran
into that? And do you helpclients with that?
Ela Mezhiborsky (08:18):
Yeah, so I mean in the States and in various
areas. So Arizona is nowbringing it into regulation. But
that's just the last one coupleof years of that change has
happened, right? So we have,when I'm talking about the
various data points that's beenkind of on the list of
verifications for a while now,where you we are looking to get
all the information about theguests. So for them to submit
(08:40):
their ID, we check the list. Youhave travel sanctions, you have
sex offender lists, you have nofly list during political
events. We're looking throughall of those no fly, no zone
kind of things where you're nottrying to let people putting
your company at risk. So all ofthat gets scanned through the
system. Now, if you uploadsomebody else's ID, it's a real
(09:00):
ID, but it's not you. That'salso where we're looking. You
know, to do whatever we can withyour biometric scan and your
selfie match, we'll look at yourlocations, all of these things
to really avoid the people thatshouldn't be staying in
properties, including sexoffenders, won't be staying
there. It's
Annie Holcombe (09:13):
really interesting. So I go down the
rabbit hole of spy shows on likeNetflix and stuff, and we've
watched a lot of that stuff, andyou were talking about like the
biometrics and things of likeworld events. So do you guys
look at situations? So I'm justthinking of like Taylor Swift
traveling around the world, likeevents like that, where there
are people that maybe, like, ifthere was somebody that was
flagged as a stalker for TaylorSwift, could that be in your
(09:36):
system so that you could know ifthat person showed up in a
rental in a country where shewas at like, is your system
capable of doing that? I
Ela Mezhiborsky (09:45):
love the idea.
I don't know that there would bea list. Yeah, if I tell you
swift stalkers, there's publiclists from every like
jurisdiction, and when you doscan, I mean, in theory, will be
like any celebrity stuff. So Iwish we could do something.
Taylor Swift, specific. But ingeneral, anybody that will be
screened should not be allowedto, you know, book properties
and yeah, so it's probably
Annie Holcombe (10:08):
anything, anything that the police have as
public record you can access fora market and know if somebody
books like it flags them. Isthat correct? Correct? So it
doesn't have to be Taylor Swift.
It could be anybody. It's
Ela Mezhiborsky (10:21):
funny. Specific the types of risk really ended
up being moms taking theirteenage daughters and getting
too drunk. Oh, anecdotalstories. It's not the real crime
and fraud was problematic duringbut it was the more kind of gray
(10:42):
area of real compliance here andthere, but it wasn't really
crazy. But some cities saw verycrazy traction. Yeah,
Annie Holcombe (10:49):
I think Leo from wide can't remember the name of
their company now, superhog,former superhog, he talked about
some things like that. Whenthere was the hendus and the
bachelor parties, that there wassome misbehavior and some crazy
stories of like, you know,people's stiletto heels being
stuck in a in a stove orsomething. You know, people
just, just behaving very badlysomeone
Alex Husner (11:10):
you never know. I love his point. He always says,
you know somebody you might be agreat guest when you go away
with your family, but now you'regoing on a girls trip or a guy's
trip. And you know, you vacationdifferently depending on who
you're with, but understandingwho those guests are is
certainly important. We all dothat,
Ela Mezhiborsky (11:26):
and them knowing that they're liable for
their stay and they went throughthat type of it is also really
valuable, because they're justlike something about the check
mark of my ID is on file, mycredit card is there. There's a
security deposit. I signedagreements. I agree to, house
rules and so on. It's valuable.
Alex Husner (11:44):
Yeah, absolutely.
Now, and we just saw we werejust at the track next event in
Nashville a couple weeks ago,and got to spend some time with
a couple of your teammatesthere, Roy and Cam, and they
were telling us a little bitabout kind of the new direction
that you're going in, a way ofyou're working with more
companies on the supplier sidetoo. So wanted to hear a little
bit more about what, what yougot going on there. Yeah,
Ela Mezhiborsky (12:08):
that's a really, really exciting part of
where we're headed. So we've,like we mentioned, we've been
kind of in operation since, Imean, 2019, going back, and so
we really started by workingwith direct clients and and
operators. So SMBs largerenterprise, and we're integrated
through many of the of the PMSis in the space. But in recent
(12:30):
years, we really saw the need ofso many, be it guest experience
or PMS that are going with adirect type of a channel, where
other platforms that areparallel to us would want to be
embedding things like auto hostor other types of services. And
it was interesting, because sofor so long, I feel like I was
on the in that equation of, youknow, do you go all in one
(12:51):
solutions or dedicated build?
There was so much to say about,you know, auto host being a
standalone platform, and ourdirect clients are enjoying
everything to do withcustomizing their entire
screening process the way theirteam uses it, business rules,
customizations and so on. Butthere really was a business case
made for a much more coreproduct, and for that core
(13:13):
product, we slowly saw that thesystems that were integrated
with just want to offer it ontheir own, and we don't
necessarily need to create awhole client profile and have
customers become direct. Sothere's actually been a lot of
really exciting work done on ourtech side for both them, I mean,
our API capabilities and areally impressive SDK, just
developers toolkit forembeddability. And so we're
(13:34):
working with a lot of operatorsnow where tech vendors basically
want to be offering auto hostjust as a module in their
system. And so what we areextremely passionate about and
is the fact that we don't haveto impose minimum unit
requirements or look at size ofclients, because really now it's
a matter of for the basicscreening, making sure you're
safe. Have all the guests gothrough that verification. You
(13:56):
know you dot your i's and crossyour t's. You know that you have
on file whatever you need, andthat you're safe letting go of
the door code, of the check ininstructions and so on. It's
really exciting to see that comethrough, not just as
integration, but just being theembedded solution on on
platforms. I mean, Enzo has beenoffering it for a while,
journey, hospitable, a handfulof other players, and we're
(14:17):
growing and getting into more ofthe PMs and guest experience
apps. So that's really, reallyexciting that we want to be able
to show our kind of small,medium players that you know,
whichever platform you're using,you can just go ahead and enable
auto host. And I see a very nearfuture where for guest
verifications. I mean, it'sgoing to be the basic, bare
minimum requirements, so you canopt out of it, but the default
(14:38):
should be that every guestshould really be submitting
their ID, agreeing to the rulesyou make sure that they are who
they say they are. And so I'mexcited for that next phase.
Yes, I
Annie Holcombe (14:49):
imagine that that gives you scalability on a
level that you wouldn't have ifyou were trying to do all these
custom integrations. And so Iknow that next pack says
something that we've talkedabout is like having that
marketplace mentality. Because,you know, I think for vendors in
this space, where we struggle,is to being, being able to get
to all of those independentoperators or people have, like,
(15:09):
bespoke systems. And so if youare part of something that you
don't have to have, you know,you don't have to impose these
minimums. You don't have toimpose these, these basic
requirements. You are able toget out to the masses a lot
quicker, and I imagine for you,that's been great. So out of
curiosity, I can't remember whenwe first met you, like, how many
partners you had in yourplatform, but where are you at
(15:29):
right now in terms of users? Sowe're,
Ela Mezhiborsky (15:32):
I mean, can growing. We're pretty much
integrated with all the majorPMS is out there. I believe we
process about, I want to say50,000 reservations a month,
okay, which is a reallyimpressive graph. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. I mean, the mission fromfrom the get go was really to
offer that protection layer tothe industry, so that pretty
(15:56):
much, I won't even say shift,but enhancement and strategy to
to go more to the tech vendorsis really just the next step.
And, you know, putting our moneywhere our mouth is and making it
available. So the growth hasbeen really impressive, and and
the integrations are really apart of it. So, I mean, and you
touched on just tech so the techstack argument we have, you
know, the best technology outthere, and we pride ourselves in
(16:18):
the quality of integrations. Butat the end of the day, the
operator that isn't very techsavvy or doesn't want to
navigate all those integrations,we really so much value in them
just having the core the brainof auto host without the bells
and whistles. And you know, ifyou need the no full solution,
and just like I need themverified and good to go, it made
a lot of sense to start gettingembedded more and more and being
(16:40):
the kind of the solution ofchoice on
Alex Husner (16:44):
No, I love that.
And I think, you know, Annie andI are definitely firm believers
in collaboration overcompetition. And it just it
makes sense, you know, for youto be able to grow and scale, to
do that through all theserelationships, and you know, the
companies that you kind of workside by side with for many years
here. So I think that's reallycool, and a great way to do it,
investing
Ela Mezhiborsky (17:01):
in the tech, which is really, really
exciting, I know. So you guysknow Roy very well, and Roy's so
he's my co founder, he's the CEOand CTO of auto host. But Roy
comes from the cyber securityspace. So for us to look at, you
know, the bare minimum, youknow, I'm equating it to, like,
Beware of Dog versus actuallyhaving a dog. It's one thing to
ask for, for an ID, and you canupload a picture of your cat,
(17:22):
but it's a whole other thing toactually go deep to the level
of, Is this a real ID or not,and is it the person who they
say they are? And like, does itmatch all the other data points,
and with all the moresophisticated fraud and AI being
such a big factor, we get tokeep investing in the tech
itself, rather than try toexpand horizontally, and, you
know, compete on the guestexperience side, because there's
(17:43):
so many beautiful apps outthere. I love our guest portal,
but is it the prettiest one? Imean, it's great. You can use
another one too. And we really,really care for the screening
part to be, to be effectiveacross all those platforms, so
that any operator, whatever itis they use, is kind of
protected by auto host, whichwould make us really proud.
Yeah, what's the
Annie Holcombe (18:01):
next leveling up of auto host? Because, you know,
you're helping everybody screentheir guests. And I think again,
going back to the earlier, theAI component is going to throw a
lot of leg balls in the air,like you're gonna have to, you
know, really be cautious ofthat. But what do you think that
auto hosts can be doing, or, Iguess, in the future, are you
looking to expand into other Imean, you're doing vacation
rentals, and, I guess hotels aswell. You mentioned, are there
(18:24):
other scenarios where you seethis technology being deployed?
Ela Mezhiborsky (18:29):
Yeah, so the big picture, one day
potentially, could be to kind ofexpand beyond hospitality.
There's a handful of industriesthat are really adjacent to us.
So you have the long term marketnow we're dipping our feet
there, because we have so manyoperators that play in the whole
short term slash long termspace. So there's your long term
screen you have. So you havelong term tenants, you have
(18:50):
anything from car rentals andcruises and airline and so on.
So just so many transactions aremoving online than in our bigger
picture vision. We're notspecifying hospitality. We're
just looking at validating thosetransactions. So if we can have
any exchange between two peoplebe trusted online, that would be
a huge win with where we'regoing. I just feel like
(19:10):
hospitality is such a unique wassuch a unique starting point for
us, because you're not justexchanging you're not just
buying a shirt, and it's notjust did the payment go through
or not. You're giving keys to aproperty, and something happens
behind closed doors, and you'reliable for it, be it from your
ethical, moral or legalresponsibility you care about
your pocket, for sure, achargeback sucks, but there's
(19:31):
also so much more and kind ofhospitality, you know, keeping
its name, and it's such abeautiful industry that, I mean,
yes, we will be expanding, but Ithink that at first, in terms
of, You know, if we can makesure that any reservation in
hospitality is properlyscreened, just like maybe, you
know, you used to be able todrive without a seat belt or fly
without a passport, but that'slong gone, and not the
(19:52):
responsible way of doing things.
It's really where I seehospitality going. Yeah,
absolutely
Alex Husner (19:56):
great answer too.
We'll be back in just a minute,but first a message from our
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Alex Husner (21:53):
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(22:13):
your thoughts on I mean, it wasprobably right around 2021, I
think, when we were probably atthat conference, and Simon
Lehman said to Annie, and Isaid, Take a good look around,
because a lot of the suppliersthat are here in this vendor
Hall, they won't, they won't behere next year or the next year,
that there's just going to be alot, there was so much overlap
in product and just, you know,people that came up with
(22:34):
something during COVID, andthen, you know, realized, well,
you know, the software alreadyoffers that. But what is kind of
your take on consolidationwithin the type of tech that you
do or that you guys offer in theindustry. Like, where do you see
that going? Is it going to isthere going to be more
consolidation, or is it going tobe continued development of just
all these different products?
And people have to figure outwhich
Ela Mezhiborsky (22:55):
one they want.
It's a good question. And Iremember that I spoke to Simon
too, and it was like, there waslike, that hype. Yeah, I think
that we saw some companies kindof, you know, names wind down
and disappear. So that's kind ofhappening already in terms of
consolidation. I mean, I thinkthat at least in our
perspective, we've worked sohard to be able to find the
strengths and and weaknesses ofevery company. So, you know,
(23:20):
even in the world of screening,I mean, it's wanting to to
collect ID so that you have iton file and you've done your
check mark. But it's anotherthing to to kind of go deep into
preventative measures. And youknow, you don't want to be in
the news with a sex traffickingscandal, and you don't want to
be right into those things forprevention. So I think that our
(23:40):
approach to to really empowerthe screening side and be able
to offer that. I mean, SDK isjust a way for any operator to
embed the screening in theirtool. I think that there is some
consolidation. You can seepretty much of you don't have to
choose one or the other. So inpieces, we can be joining forces
and pretty much giving the bestsolution out there. And if you
(24:03):
know, some companies offer thepreemptive and some companies
are more focused, focused onyour plan B or your insurance
side of things, or, you know,keeping kind of a well rounded
picture of all of it. I wouldlove to see more consolidation
in terms of area of expertise.
Wise, we are working with a lotof vendors out there to pretty
(24:24):
much be that provider of thescreening side so that
everything else can runsmoothly, including going into
the different PMS and guestexperience apps.
Annie Holcombe (24:35):
Yeah. So on the hotel side of things, I was just
thinking, because the hotelside, to me has, I don't want to
say they've lacked this, but itfeels like the vacation rental
part of the industry isdefinitely honed in on the need
for having this security inplace. And you take it almost
(24:56):
take it for granted that you goto a hotel and you're just as.
Yeah, and so true. And Alex andI were just in Nashville, and
there was a situation where Ihad gotten off an elevator and
somebody followed me to my like,down the hall. And thankfully,
somebody else on the elevatorsensed that this person might
not be on the up and up and act,so they took me to my room to
(25:17):
make sure that I got in my room,and then this person left. So in
thinking about that later, itwas like, okay, this person
somehow convinced everybody inthe elevator that he didn't need
to put his key to get on theirjust very trusting of it. And so
we put ourselves in harm's wayin a hotel where we might not do
it in a vacation rental. So howhave you seen the adoption of
(25:38):
hotels in your tech to say,like, yeah, we definitely need
to put that in place. Or do youthink that maybe they're not
adopting it, because by doingthat, it admits that they have
in they have some securityflaws? It's a
Ela Mezhiborsky (25:50):
really good question. I think it's moving in
the right direction, but I wishit was for the reasons that
you're saying. So I think thatthere's a false sense of
security just for the mereexistence of a front desk now, a
desk, the staff is not qualifiedto tell a fake ID from a real
one. Or, you know, nobody'sstopping people at the elevator.
So this example you'reproviding, it is really serious,
(26:11):
and it's interesting to seethat, yeah, when you're sharing
a house, it's just you and yourfamily on Airbnb or our
booking.com or Expedia orwhatever is your booking. But
when you're going to a hotel,you're exposed to so many
people, what we do see withfront desk is that they are
doing the shift, but not for theethical or moral reasons, but
because they're moving away fromfront desks. So better screening
(26:35):
is being introduced, sometimesnot even intentionally.
Sometimes they just want toavoid the person at the front
desk looking at IDs, so they'rebringing in the automated
solution. So I feel likeautomation and scale is their
top priority. And it's, it's amoney game. I like that. The
result is that people get vettedbetter. And I think there's
still a long way to go. Feellike short term rentals kind of
had to do that were beingexploited. So it's nice to drive
(26:57):
the, you know, drive that changethe hotels are going there. You
mentioned things like, you know,sex offender stuff, hotels are a
big problem there. And slowlyacross the states, I don't know
if the world is catching up asfast. I know in Europe, not so
much. I was talking to DeborahAbby, and she was saying, that's
a big problem. And, you know,America is leading the charge.
But even the US, so many statesare bringing in, you know,
(27:18):
mandatory courses and awareness,just because there's been cases
of just front desk personnelpretty much letting in what is
clearly, clearly sextrafficking, but they didn't
either know how to call it,choose to call it. So that
awareness thing is being raised,probably because the problem
became so big.
Annie Holcombe (27:37):
Yeah, I remember a few years ago I was at a
conference. And I want to say itmight have been at Verma in
maybe sanitary it was aconference anyway, and they were
talking about, in Florida,there's, there's, there was a
mandate by the governor severalyears ago that hotel workers had
to go through training when theystarted front desk, that, like
they had to be able to recognizethe signs of sex trafficking. So
(27:58):
the people at this conferencewere talking about, like, how do
we introduce this to thevacation rentals? Vacation
Rentals? And so it was, it wasinteresting, because it's like,
that was a training module, notan actual service. Like, what
you're providing is more of adeeper service, to be able to
cut it off before it becomes anissue, instead of just
recognizing when it's alreadyunder your nose. And I think
that that's kind of like, youcatch it before it becomes a
(28:21):
problem. But like, in Florida,that's just a huge problem. And
I think, like, I live in thepart of the state where I've
read articles about the amountof trafficking that goes from,
like Orlando over to Texas,where they're bringing, you
know, where people are coming inillegally from the southern
border. Like there's thattrafficking that's going through
this part of the state, andlike, they're stopping at these
roadside motels, and thesepeople just are not aware and
(28:44):
paying attention, because again,front desk is in one part of the
building, and the you know,where they're checking it, or
where they're arriving in theroom is a completely different
part of it. So they don't haveany way to really stop this. So
I think, you know, you kind ofcan bridge that gap. And I do
hope that hotels that arelistening to this, because I
know we have some hotel peoplethat do listen our podcast will
will recognize that there,there's value in it, and it's
(29:04):
safety for everybody. And Ithink at the end of the day, if
everybody had these, these inplace, it would just make us
more aware of what's what'shappening and try to really stop
some of this bad behavior thathas become so prevalent. Yeah,
Ela Mezhiborsky (29:19):
and it's not either or. I mean, you need your
first line of defense. Need towork kind of to be proactive and
do things before the stay. A lotcan be eliminated and mitigated
by demanding that a reservationisn't a black box, especially in
the criminal activity. So I meaninnocent damages or intentional
damages, they suck, and you canprotect with that, both with
(29:43):
initial security deposits,vetting your guests, agreeing to
rules, damage control, you know,insurances afterwards. All of
that should be in place, butit's really that mix of act
proactively, know who's walkingthrough the door, so that they
don't think like it's a freefor. All in a black box for
whatever type of activity there.
I think training of staff forshort term rentals as well. Even
(30:03):
when you're communicating,there's ways to, you know, I
mean, door locks, noise sensors.
And noise sensor sounds verydifferent when it's a party
starting or when there's escortservices happening in the room.
Yeah, yes, yeah, you're gettingand it's important to flag those
and be aware of it and be awareof it and for the team not to
just dismiss it. Well, if thepayment went through, we're
(30:23):
good. No, you're not
Annie Holcombe (30:24):
good. It's interesting, because I think, I
think it goes through some ofthe conversations that a lot of
people I had yesterday, actuallywith somebody about, you know,
we're in hospitality, and thissense that everything can be
done with no touch, and, likeyou said, a black box, and just
everything just be so technologybased that you don't think about
the human factor of it all. Youneed to have both pieces of it.
And there's there is just that.
I mean, it's like, how do we howdo we not protect our staff? How
(30:47):
do we protect our investment?
But how do we protect ourguests? I mean, at the end of
the day, it's like, we want toprotect all the people, and you
have to think that the humancomponent is far more valuable
than the monetary component ofit all. And this kind of answers
all of those questions. I think,yeah,
Ela Mezhiborsky (31:04):
yeah. I mean, even cleaning stuff should be, I
mean, they're, they're right, nomatter how not hands on of an
operation you're running.
Somebody walks into that unit,somebody sees the, you know, the
usage of facilities, and how theplace is looking and and seeing
the guests. So there's ways toto be on the lookout to get the
training that's necessary tomake sure that, you know, our
(31:24):
industry isn't gettingexploited. Because, I mean,
trafficking is a reallydifficult topic, and I'm
extremely passionate about and Ithink that we should own up to
our responsibility. We by nomeans encourage it, but we
enable it without meaning it's aplace to do something. And then
short term rentals is,unfortunately, that much, I
wouldn't even say easier. It's areally big problem with hotels,
but short term rentals with withan operator OR staff that isn't
(31:47):
trained is that much easier toexploit, right?
Alex Husner (31:51):
Yeah. I mean, that's such a good point that
you make it. Just becausethere's a front desk doesn't
mean that it's any more safe.
Those people don't know whatthey're looking at when they're
looking at an ID. I mean, on onehand, I'll say the two sides of
the story. But if I'm at a hoteland I order the Door Dash or
something, I always ask them tobring it to my room because I
don't want to have to walk downin the lobby past the front
desk. But at the same time, Iunderstand why the hotels that
(32:13):
don't allow that don't right,you have to have a room key, but
it's like there's no, there's nolike consistency across the
board as to whether people canjust get up into rooms at
hotels, or if, like, youactually have to be a guest and
have a key but I feel like youknow, our industry has taken
such huge strides, as far as youknow, trying to eliminate a lot
of these risks, because we hadto, in a lot of cases, from
(32:36):
regulations and other things.
But do you ever foresee autohost or technology like you guys
getting into hotels. I mean,could hotels ever have something
just at the front desk, likewhat you have that it is
actually putting it through ascanner before somebody checks
in 100%
Ela Mezhiborsky (32:53):
and that's already active. So it's not,
it's not a big part of ourmodel. But there's a handful of
operators that they pretty muchtouch on that hotel experience,
even, you know, the mid houses.
There's a handful of hotelchains in Prague that we were
working with, so they havepretty much, like, a kiosks at
the front desk with the autohost module. So there's things
(33:14):
that get enabled on that frontso if they didn't do the
verification in advance, theycan do it at the door. There was
one in Chicago. So hotels aredoing it. And there's, I mean,
the line is getting very, veryblurry. I mean, Airbnb, you
know, short term rentals is nolonger Ella renting out in her
second bedroom. The hybridmodels are doing it faster. And
then we're seeing traditionalhotels absolutely catching up.
Interesting, very cool.
Annie Holcombe (33:36):
Well, Ella, one of the things we like to ask all
the people that come on the showand you now that we've known you
for a couple of years, you've,you know a lot of people that we
know, and you're engaged in alot of things going on. But do
you think that there's somethingin the industry right now that
maybe we're not talking enoughabout? I mean, obviously I think
that, you know, I just, let's doan interview that you did about
the, you know, human traffickingand stuff, and that is so
(33:58):
important. And I do think thatwe've been neglecting talking
about that, but is, are thereother things that you think that
we're missing the mark on?
Ela Mezhiborsky (34:05):
Trafficking is a big one I'm passionate about.
I think that we're doing a greatjob increasing that awareness.
The other one would really bewhat you know, the bad AI
conversation so you don't knowwhat you don't know. And I would
love to bring up more awarenessand kind of the spotlight into
how you can get exploited. So Ithink that this isn't like an
immediate, you know, this monththing, but in the coming little
(34:28):
while, we're doing whatever wecan on the tech side. But even
just like education kind ofsaying, Hey, before I mean, jump
on the bandwagon, like dowhatever you can, let's bring AI
into everything, but also, let'sincrease that education and
awareness on what our guests aredoing with AI. There's talk
about, you know, booking kind ofoptimization and algorithms and
(34:48):
how you can optimize yourlistings, but on the safety
side, and you know, we're goingto keep preaching that word of
caution, I would say that as weget excited about what
everything that AI can do, just.
Really important to also keep inmind what can be done with AI to
exploit us, how our team needsto be trained, and what tech
tools we could be using. So youmentioned, you know, the human
touch that's always going tostay there. That's the beautiful
(35:09):
part of hospitality. I mean, Idon't think we just want, you
know, hotels that are boxes. Youneed the people element, but
decide where. So there's areaswhere tech and kind of the more
objective way of looking atthings would be a lot more
valuable, and then focus thehuman efforts and other things.
So combating AI would combatingbad AI, that is, will not that
feeling and and kind of humanjudgment. So we need to be
(35:33):
better prepared for it. Yeah.
Alex Husner (35:37):
Great answer. Yeah.
Great topic. Here's another onefrom the vault. So this was we
actually, we remembered on our200th episode that we used to
also ask everybody back in theday. We probably asked you this
a few years ago when we tried tointerview you, but we used to
ask our guests, and I think weshould ask it more of what is
what you do, you know, throughauto host and in your career,
what does that say about Ellaand your just, just you as an
(35:59):
individual.
Ela Mezhiborsky (36:02):
So many things I mentioned to you guys that I
just came back from a trip tothe Azores Islands in Portugal,
and just, I've always beenpassionate about travel, like of
all industries on Earth, this isthe one where your discretionary
income goes towards that. Imean, business travel is great,
and you know, a lot of companiesare making money of that as
well. But just in general, theworld of travel, it's such a fun
(36:25):
space that we get to be in. Sowhat it says about me? I mean,
I'm doing whatever I can to stayin it. So yes, I'm on the side
that is on the safety andprotection and risk. But that
just because, I mean, part of myfriend, shit hit the fan when I
was running operations, and wehad to develop this, right? We
used all the tools out there,but then when we saw that gap,
that's how auto host came about.
And, you know, I used to run aproperty management company, we
(36:46):
spoke about it too. So it'salmost like I like being in that
industry. I like being theguest. I like being the host. I
like working in the tech thatempowers this industry. So, you
know, the better we can kind ofkeep it safe and beautiful and
avoid the bad apples. I thinkwould be something that I'd be
proud to do, a big check markwith my life. Yeah.
Alex Husner (37:08):
Well, you certainly are. So I think you're doing
that for sure. But Ella so goodto finally catch up with you
again. And we were just soexcited to get to see Roy and
Cam last week, and that's kindof how we all got back together
here. So thank you for comingon. And when will we see you?
Are you going to any other showscoming up this year? I'm going
to
Ela Mezhiborsky (37:26):
do my best to there's a few April ones. We're
still kind of finalizing thing,but I I'd love to see people in
person. And so yeah, to do somewonderful it was way overdue,
but I'm glad we got to do this.
Yeah, it's good to see you. If
Alex Husner (37:41):
anybody wants to reach out, Ella, what's the best
way for them to get in touchwith you?
Ela Mezhiborsky (37:44):
So LinkedIn, probably I am happy to connect.
I love, you know, be it autospecific or anything, I can get
involved with. So always just, Imean, reach out. And I like to
talk to people in the space.
Alex Husner (37:56):
Awesome, great. If anybody wants to get in touch
with Annie, and I you can go toAlex and Annie podcast.com and
until next time. Thanks,everybody. You.
Music. Welcome to Alex and Annie the real women of
(00:04):
vacation rentals with more than35 years combined industry
experience, Alex Husner andAnnie Holcomb have teamed up to
connect the dots betweeninspiration and opportunity,
seeking to find the one storyidea, strategy or decision that
led to their guests big ahamoment. Join them as they
highlight the real storiesbehind the people and brands
(00:26):
that have built vacation rentalsinto the $100 billion industry
it is today. And now it's timeto get real and have some fun
with your hosts, Alex and Annie.
We'll start the show in just aminute, but first a message from
our premier brand sponsor.
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N, S, I n,c.com/podcast-alex-and-annie,
Welcome to Alex, Annie, the realwomen of vacation rentals. I'm
Alex,
Annie Holcombe (01:41):
and I'm Annie,
Alex Husner (01:41):
and we're here today with Ela Mezhiborsky, who
is the co founder and presidentat auto host. I think I did
better before we hit play atsaying your last name, but good
to see you, Ela
Annie Holcombe (01:52):
Ela, it's so good to have you here, and
apologies from both of us. It'sbeen a long time we've been
wanting to have you on. We triedto record a couple of years ago,
and something happened, and forwhatever reason, it didn't work.
So we're grateful that you gaveus the time back. But could you
tell us a little bit about youand auto host and kind of your
journey to where you are today?
Yeah,
Ela Mezhiborsky (02:10):
it's true. We did try. It would have been a
really different I feel like abreakdown back then. It was
good, like, what, three or fouryears ago?
Alex Husner (02:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
2021 I think we figured it out.
Yeah, wild,
Ela Mezhiborsky (02:22):
yes. So my name is Ela Mezhiborsky, you did
almost, almost perfect, Alex.
And I am the president, cofounder of Authost. And then for
those who don't know, auto hostis a guest screening and
verification platform. So weprimarily focus on the world of
short term rentals andhospitality, and we pretty much
handle everything in the guestjourney when it comes to
collecting information,verifying the guests, IDs,
(02:45):
selfies, credit card payments,we have our background comes
from cyber security, so we havea whole underlying part to the
platform where we look at fraudcases and validating
transactions Online, all ofthat, all that good stuff, and
basically work with hospitalityoperators to mitigate that part
of the risk and make the processseamless, so that hospitality
(03:07):
operators can really focus onhospitality.
Alex Husner (03:11):
Gotcha, yeah, and gosh, how much has changed
within the industry. For almostfour years ago, you know, to
that to this point, but when wehad met you, you had actually
just won a pretty major award.
We were just coming out of theVR may fall conference at San
Antonio, and auto host had wonthe focus right battleground as
the Innovator of the Year. Andagain, some pretty steep
competition that was that wasexciting, but my gosh, like just
(03:33):
thinking back to that time, howdifferent is what auto host is
now to what it was then, wouldyou say it
Ela Mezhiborsky (03:42):
was also the first conference coming out of
COVID? Yeah, everybody was at acrazy kind of hype to see
everyone. And that was a reallyfun when I met some of, I mean,
amazing industry kind of playersat that battleground
competition. I almost feel likeauto host is kind of the
projection that we said we'regoing to be so so much has
happened, especially on the kindof technical side, deeper into
(04:05):
our integrations, gettingembedded everywhere. I almost
feel like at the time, it wasthe early days of us really
preaching the importance ofguest screening, the concept of,
you know, verifying who'swalking through the door for
your safety, for your guestsafety. It feels like the
narrative at the time was verymuch, well, screening is
important, whereas now it'stable stakes. Now it's we're
(04:26):
kind of talking, I mean, ofcourse, you don't want a black
box. And now we're talking AI isin the picture. We're getting
deeper into what types of fraudcan you be facing, or
chargebacks a big deal. So we'reon the same projection, but just
feels like we're pretty muchreally advancing everything we
said at the time we will bedoing. So it's exciting, uh,
exciting times. So you
Annie Holcombe (04:45):
had, you had mentioned something there that
actually popped into my headwhen we were talking earlier
about innovation with AI andwith the amount of, I guess, the
deep fakes or the false youknow, things that people can put
out there. How are you going to.
Navigate through that, because Ifeel like that, that is
potentially another layer of thesecurity conversation that we
need to be having, that maybewe're not yet, but I'm sure you
(05:07):
guys are not
Ela Mezhiborsky (05:09):
only that, we are. We have been for a while
now, and it's almost like, Ilike to call it bad AI. I think
we're so focused, and it's thehype, it's the I mean, how can
we use AI better? And we shouldbe talking about and it's
exciting, but there's an elementof being kind of also proactive
and understanding, okay, great.
So we're using it for thebetter, but the bad actors and,
you know, bad players and thosethat are looking to exploit
loopholes, how can they be usingit? So first of all, I think
(05:30):
that even back in the day, whenwe're talking about looking at
objective data points, where youscreen, rather than relying on
gut feeling, or, you know,fingers crossed is my best, you
know, strategy kind of well, Ihope nothing happens, and you
know you're using your judgment.
But that opens the door not onlyto, I mean, bias,
(05:51):
discrimination, and we can gointo the ethical side of
screening, but it also givesloopholes to sophisticated fraud
to very easily trick your staffthat is really trained to give
the best hospitality possible.
So even from before, when wewere talking objective data
points, we were prepping for thefact that we can be blinded by a
good cover story. And if before,somebody sent in a message and
(06:11):
it sounded sketchy, now with AI,nothing's gonna sound sketchy.
So everybody have a really,really good cover story and an
incredible looking ID photo thatyou know to go along with it,
and so. So first of all, we'reat constant innovation and
staying on top of any type offraud trends, any ways that I
just can be exploited, any newadvancements on how to match
(06:32):
data points so that, you know,we take not only that photo of
the ID, but we look at IPaddress. We look at whether
people hide behind VPNs. There'sso many attempts to mask your
identity online, which reallydoesn't happen with your average
innocent guest. I mean, Anniewill not be a credit card to
book a stage, just so that youdon't pay out of pocket. Alex
(06:53):
might,
Annie Holcombe (06:57):
you never know.
I might get a little squirrely.
So
Ela Mezhiborsky (07:01):
it's really that, I think it's the point
that the more we rely on that'swhere the passion is, the more
that we saying you can beobjective. So gut feeling is
lovely when you're running oneor two properties and you're
going to meet the person andgreet them and shake their head,
but it changes a lot. Whetheryou're running a hotel, be it
with a front desk or not astimes progress, or a short term
rental operation, where you'reusually not meeting the guests
(07:23):
in person, and that's part ofthe beauty of it, and that's how
we reach economies of scale, butyou have like you're leaving a
really big gap of who walksthrough the door. So the more
objective, the more tech we'reusing to kind of screen and scan
everything to do with thereservation, the better prepared
we are to also deal with the onthe surface AI exploits, yeah,
Alex Husner (07:44):
for sure, it's interesting to see too. I mean,
there's definitely a lot ofdifferent areas that have been
more specific and what they'reenforcing for STRS now. And one
that comes to mind, of course,is Arizona that you have to pass
that you're not a sex offenderto stay in a short term rental,
which I don't believe you haveto do that to stay in a hotel.
But how has your businesschanged with some of those more
specifics instances like that,or even just overseas? I know in
(08:07):
a lot of the foreign countriesin Europe, they have to submit a
lot more information about theguests that they're getting
actually to the police and localauthorities. Have you guys ran
into that? And do you helpclients with that?
Ela Mezhiborsky (08:18):
Yeah, so I mean in the States and in various
areas. So Arizona is nowbringing it into regulation. But
that's just the last one coupleof years of that change has
happened, right? So we have,when I'm talking about the
various data points that's beenkind of on the list of
verifications for a while now,where you we are looking to get
all the information about theguests. So for them to submit
(08:40):
their ID, we check the list. Youhave travel sanctions, you have
sex offender lists, you have nofly list during political
events. We're looking throughall of those no fly, no zone
kind of things where you're nottrying to let people putting
your company at risk. So all ofthat gets scanned through the
system. Now, if you uploadsomebody else's ID, it's a real
(09:00):
ID, but it's not you. That'salso where we're looking. You
know, to do whatever we can withyour biometric scan and your
selfie match, we'll look at yourlocations, all of these things
to really avoid the people thatshouldn't be staying in
properties, including sexoffenders, won't be staying
there. It's
Annie Holcombe (09:13):
really interesting. So I go down the
rabbit hole of spy shows on likeNetflix and stuff, and we've
watched a lot of that stuff, andyou were talking about like the
biometrics and things of likeworld events. So do you guys
look at situations? So I'm justthinking of like Taylor Swift
traveling around the world, likeevents like that, where there
are people that maybe, like, ifthere was somebody that was
flagged as a stalker for TaylorSwift, could that be in your
(09:36):
system so that you could know ifthat person showed up in a
rental in a country where shewas at like, is your system
capable of doing that? I
Ela Mezhiborsky (09:45):
love the idea.
I don't know that there would bea list. Yeah, if I tell you
swift stalkers, there's publiclists from every like
jurisdiction, and when you doscan, I mean, in theory, will be
like any celebrity stuff. So Iwish we could do something.
Taylor Swift, specific. But ingeneral, anybody that will be
screened should not be allowedto, you know, book properties
and yeah, so it's probably
Annie Holcombe (10:08):
anything, anything that the police have as
public record you can access fora market and know if somebody
books like it flags them. Isthat correct? Correct? So it
doesn't have to be Taylor Swift.
It could be anybody. It's
Ela Mezhiborsky (10:21):
funny. Specific the types of risk really ended
up being moms taking theirteenage daughters and getting
too drunk. Oh, anecdotalstories. It's not the real crime
and fraud was problematic duringbut it was the more kind of gray
(10:42):
area of real compliance here andthere, but it wasn't really
crazy. But some cities saw verycrazy traction. Yeah,
Annie Holcombe (10:49):
I think Leo from wide can't remember the name of
their company now, superhog,former superhog, he talked about
some things like that. Whenthere was the hendus and the
bachelor parties, that there wassome misbehavior and some crazy
stories of like, you know,people's stiletto heels being
stuck in a in a stove orsomething. You know, people
just, just behaving very badlysomeone
Alex Husner (11:10):
you never know. I love his point. He always says,
you know somebody you might be agreat guest when you go away
with your family, but now you'regoing on a girls trip or a guy's
trip. And you know, you vacationdifferently depending on who
you're with, but understandingwho those guests are is
certainly important. We all dothat,
Ela Mezhiborsky (11:26):
and them knowing that they're liable for
their stay and they went throughthat type of it is also really
valuable, because they're justlike something about the check
mark of my ID is on file, mycredit card is there. There's a
security deposit. I signedagreements. I agree to, house
rules and so on. It's valuable.
Alex Husner (11:44):
Yeah, absolutely.
Now, and we just saw we werejust at the track next event in
Nashville a couple weeks ago,and got to spend some time with
a couple of your teammatesthere, Roy and Cam, and they
were telling us a little bitabout kind of the new direction
that you're going in, a way ofyou're working with more
companies on the supplier sidetoo. So wanted to hear a little
bit more about what, what yougot going on there. Yeah,
Ela Mezhiborsky (12:08):
that's a really, really exciting part of
where we're headed. So we've,like we mentioned, we've been
kind of in operation since, Imean, 2019, going back, and so
we really started by workingwith direct clients and and
operators. So SMBs largerenterprise, and we're integrated
through many of the of the PMSis in the space. But in recent
(12:30):
years, we really saw the need ofso many, be it guest experience
or PMS that are going with adirect type of a channel, where
other platforms that areparallel to us would want to be
embedding things like auto hostor other types of services. And
it was interesting, because sofor so long, I feel like I was
on the in that equation of, youknow, do you go all in one
(12:51):
solutions or dedicated build?
There was so much to say about,you know, auto host being a
standalone platform, and ourdirect clients are enjoying
everything to do withcustomizing their entire
screening process the way theirteam uses it, business rules,
customizations and so on. Butthere really was a business case
made for a much more coreproduct, and for that core
(13:13):
product, we slowly saw that thesystems that were integrated
with just want to offer it ontheir own, and we don't
necessarily need to create awhole client profile and have
customers become direct. Sothere's actually been a lot of
really exciting work done on ourtech side for both them, I mean,
our API capabilities and areally impressive SDK, just
developers toolkit forembeddability. And so we're
(13:34):
working with a lot of operatorsnow where tech vendors basically
want to be offering auto hostjust as a module in their
system. And so what we areextremely passionate about and
is the fact that we don't haveto impose minimum unit
requirements or look at size ofclients, because really now it's
a matter of for the basicscreening, making sure you're
safe. Have all the guests gothrough that verification. You
(13:56):
know you dot your i's and crossyour t's. You know that you have
on file whatever you need, andthat you're safe letting go of
the door code, of the check ininstructions and so on. It's
really exciting to see that comethrough, not just as
integration, but just being theembedded solution on on
platforms. I mean, Enzo has beenoffering it for a while,
journey, hospitable, a handfulof other players, and we're
(14:17):
growing and getting into more ofthe PMs and guest experience
apps. So that's really, reallyexciting that we want to be able
to show our kind of small,medium players that you know,
whichever platform you're using,you can just go ahead and enable
auto host. And I see a very nearfuture where for guest
verifications. I mean, it'sgoing to be the basic, bare
minimum requirements, so you canopt out of it, but the default
(14:38):
should be that every guestshould really be submitting
their ID, agreeing to the rulesyou make sure that they are who
they say they are. And so I'mexcited for that next phase.
Yes, I
Annie Holcombe (14:49):
imagine that that gives you scalability on a
level that you wouldn't have ifyou were trying to do all these
custom integrations. And so Iknow that next pack says
something that we've talkedabout is like having that
marketplace mentality. Because,you know, I think for vendors in
this space, where we struggle,is to being, being able to get
to all of those independentoperators or people have, like,
(15:09):
bespoke systems. And so if youare part of something that you
don't have to have, you know,you don't have to impose these
minimums. You don't have toimpose these, these basic
requirements. You are able toget out to the masses a lot
quicker, and I imagine for you,that's been great. So out of
curiosity, I can't remember whenwe first met you, like, how many
partners you had in yourplatform, but where are you at
(15:29):
right now in terms of users? Sowe're,
Ela Mezhiborsky (15:32):
I mean, can growing. We're pretty much
integrated with all the majorPMS is out there. I believe we
process about, I want to say50,000 reservations a month,
okay, which is a reallyimpressive graph. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. I mean, the mission fromfrom the get go was really to
offer that protection layer tothe industry, so that pretty
(15:56):
much, I won't even say shift,but enhancement and strategy to
to go more to the tech vendorsis really just the next step.
And, you know, putting our moneywhere our mouth is and making it
available. So the growth hasbeen really impressive, and and
the integrations are really apart of it. So, I mean, and you
touched on just tech so the techstack argument we have, you
know, the best technology outthere, and we pride ourselves in
(16:18):
the quality of integrations. Butat the end of the day, the
operator that isn't very techsavvy or doesn't want to
navigate all those integrations,we really so much value in them
just having the core the brainof auto host without the bells
and whistles. And you know, ifyou need the no full solution,
and just like I need themverified and good to go, it made
a lot of sense to start gettingembedded more and more and being
(16:40):
the kind of the solution ofchoice on
Alex Husner (16:44):
No, I love that.
And I think, you know, Annie andI are definitely firm believers
in collaboration overcompetition. And it just it
makes sense, you know, for youto be able to grow and scale, to
do that through all theserelationships, and you know, the
companies that you kind of workside by side with for many years
here. So I think that's reallycool, and a great way to do it,
investing
Ela Mezhiborsky (17:01):
in the tech, which is really, really
exciting, I know. So you guysknow Roy very well, and Roy's so
he's my co founder, he's the CEOand CTO of auto host. But Roy
comes from the cyber securityspace. So for us to look at, you
know, the bare minimum, youknow, I'm equating it to, like,
Beware of Dog versus actuallyhaving a dog. It's one thing to
ask for, for an ID, and you canupload a picture of your cat,
(17:22):
but it's a whole other thing toactually go deep to the level
of, Is this a real ID or not,and is it the person who they
say they are? And like, does itmatch all the other data points,
and with all the moresophisticated fraud and AI being
such a big factor, we get tokeep investing in the tech
itself, rather than try toexpand horizontally, and, you
know, compete on the guestexperience side, because there's
(17:43):
so many beautiful apps outthere. I love our guest portal,
but is it the prettiest one? Imean, it's great. You can use
another one too. And we really,really care for the screening
part to be, to be effectiveacross all those platforms, so
that any operator, whatever itis they use, is kind of
protected by auto host, whichwould make us really proud.
Yeah, what's the
Annie Holcombe (18:01):
next leveling up of auto host? Because, you know,
you're helping everybody screentheir guests. And I think again,
going back to the earlier, theAI component is going to throw a
lot of leg balls in the air,like you're gonna have to, you
know, really be cautious ofthat. But what do you think that
auto hosts can be doing, or, Iguess, in the future, are you
looking to expand into other Imean, you're doing vacation
rentals, and, I guess hotels aswell. You mentioned, are there
(18:24):
other scenarios where you seethis technology being deployed?
Ela Mezhiborsky (18:29):
Yeah, so the big picture, one day
potentially, could be to kind ofexpand beyond hospitality.
There's a handful of industriesthat are really adjacent to us.
So you have the long term marketnow we're dipping our feet
there, because we have so manyoperators that play in the whole
short term slash long termspace. So there's your long term
screen you have. So you havelong term tenants, you have
(18:50):
anything from car rentals andcruises and airline and so on.
So just so many transactions aremoving online than in our bigger
picture vision. We're notspecifying hospitality. We're
just looking at validating thosetransactions. So if we can have
any exchange between two peoplebe trusted online, that would be
a huge win with where we'regoing. I just feel like
(19:10):
hospitality is such a unique wassuch a unique starting point for
us, because you're not justexchanging you're not just
buying a shirt, and it's notjust did the payment go through
or not. You're giving keys to aproperty, and something happens
behind closed doors, and you'reliable for it, be it from your
ethical, moral or legalresponsibility you care about
your pocket, for sure, achargeback sucks, but there's
(19:31):
also so much more and kind ofhospitality, you know, keeping
its name, and it's such abeautiful industry that, I mean,
yes, we will be expanding, but Ithink that at first, in terms
of, You know, if we can makesure that any reservation in
hospitality is properlyscreened, just like maybe, you
know, you used to be able todrive without a seat belt or fly
without a passport, but that'slong gone, and not the
(19:52):
responsible way of doing things.
It's really where I seehospitality going. Yeah,
absolutely
Alex Husner (19:56):
great answer too.
We'll be back in just a minute,but first a message from our
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Alex Husner (21:53):
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(22:13):
your thoughts on I mean, it wasprobably right around 2021, I
think, when we were probably atthat conference, and Simon
Lehman said to Annie, and Isaid, Take a good look around,
because a lot of the suppliersthat are here in this vendor
Hall, they won't, they won't behere next year or the next year,
that there's just going to be alot, there was so much overlap
in product and just, you know,people that came up with
(22:34):
something during COVID, andthen, you know, realized, well,
you know, the software alreadyoffers that. But what is kind of
your take on consolidationwithin the type of tech that you
do or that you guys offer in theindustry. Like, where do you see
that going? Is it going to isthere going to be more
consolidation, or is it going tobe continued development of just
all these different products?
And people have to figure outwhich
Ela Mezhiborsky (22:55):
one they want.
It's a good question. And Iremember that I spoke to Simon
too, and it was like, there waslike, that hype. Yeah, I think
that we saw some companies kindof, you know, names wind down
and disappear. So that's kind ofhappening already in terms of
consolidation. I mean, I thinkthat at least in our
perspective, we've worked sohard to be able to find the
strengths and and weaknesses ofevery company. So, you know,
(23:20):
even in the world of screening,I mean, it's wanting to to
collect ID so that you have iton file and you've done your
check mark. But it's anotherthing to to kind of go deep into
preventative measures. And youknow, you don't want to be in
the news with a sex traffickingscandal, and you don't want to
be right into those things forprevention. So I think that our
(23:40):
approach to to really empowerthe screening side and be able
to offer that. I mean, SDK isjust a way for any operator to
embed the screening in theirtool. I think that there is some
consolidation. You can seepretty much of you don't have to
choose one or the other. So inpieces, we can be joining forces
and pretty much giving the bestsolution out there. And if you
(24:03):
know, some companies offer thepreemptive and some companies
are more focused, focused onyour plan B or your insurance
side of things, or, you know,keeping kind of a well rounded
picture of all of it. I wouldlove to see more consolidation
in terms of area of expertise.
Wise, we are working with a lotof vendors out there to pretty
(24:24):
much be that provider of thescreening side so that
everything else can runsmoothly, including going into
the different PMS and guestexperience apps.
Annie Holcombe (24:35):
Yeah. So on the hotel side of things, I was just
thinking, because the hotelside, to me has, I don't want to
say they've lacked this, but itfeels like the vacation rental
part of the industry isdefinitely honed in on the need
for having this security inplace. And you take it almost
(24:56):
take it for granted that you goto a hotel and you're just as.
Yeah, and so true. And Alex andI were just in Nashville, and
there was a situation where Ihad gotten off an elevator and
somebody followed me to my like,down the hall. And thankfully,
somebody else on the elevatorsensed that this person might
not be on the up and up and act,so they took me to my room to
(25:17):
make sure that I got in my room,and then this person left. So in
thinking about that later, itwas like, okay, this person
somehow convinced everybody inthe elevator that he didn't need
to put his key to get on theirjust very trusting of it. And so
we put ourselves in harm's wayin a hotel where we might not do
it in a vacation rental. So howhave you seen the adoption of
(25:38):
hotels in your tech to say,like, yeah, we definitely need
to put that in place. Or do youthink that maybe they're not
adopting it, because by doingthat, it admits that they have
in they have some securityflaws? It's a
Ela Mezhiborsky (25:50):
really good question. I think it's moving in
the right direction, but I wishit was for the reasons that
you're saying. So I think thatthere's a false sense of
security just for the mereexistence of a front desk now, a
desk, the staff is not qualifiedto tell a fake ID from a real
one. Or, you know, nobody'sstopping people at the elevator.
So this example you'reproviding, it is really serious,
(26:11):
and it's interesting to seethat, yeah, when you're sharing
a house, it's just you and yourfamily on Airbnb or our
booking.com or Expedia orwhatever is your booking. But
when you're going to a hotel,you're exposed to so many
people, what we do see withfront desk is that they are
doing the shift, but not for theethical or moral reasons, but
because they're moving away fromfront desks. So better screening
(26:35):
is being introduced, sometimesnot even intentionally.
Sometimes they just want toavoid the person at the front
desk looking at IDs, so they'rebringing in the automated
solution. So I feel likeautomation and scale is their
top priority. And it's, it's amoney game. I like that. The
result is that people get vettedbetter. And I think there's
still a long way to go. Feellike short term rentals kind of
had to do that were beingexploited. So it's nice to drive
(26:57):
the, you know, drive that changethe hotels are going there. You
mentioned things like, you know,sex offender stuff, hotels are a
big problem there. And slowlyacross the states, I don't know
if the world is catching up asfast. I know in Europe, not so
much. I was talking to DeborahAbby, and she was saying, that's
a big problem. And, you know,America is leading the charge.
But even the US, so many statesare bringing in, you know,
(27:18):
mandatory courses and awareness,just because there's been cases
of just front desk personnelpretty much letting in what is
clearly, clearly sextrafficking, but they didn't
either know how to call it,choose to call it. So that
awareness thing is being raised,probably because the problem
became so big.
Annie Holcombe (27:37):
Yeah, I remember a few years ago I was at a
conference. And I want to say itmight have been at Verma in
maybe sanitary it was aconference anyway, and they were
talking about, in Florida,there's, there's, there was a
mandate by the governor severalyears ago that hotel workers had
to go through training when theystarted front desk, that, like
they had to be able to recognizethe signs of sex trafficking. So
(27:58):
the people at this conferencewere talking about, like, how do
we introduce this to thevacation rentals? Vacation
Rentals? And so it was, it wasinteresting, because it's like,
that was a training module, notan actual service. Like, what
you're providing is more of adeeper service, to be able to
cut it off before it becomes anissue, instead of just
recognizing when it's alreadyunder your nose. And I think
that that's kind of like, youcatch it before it becomes a
(28:21):
problem. But like, in Florida,that's just a huge problem. And
I think, like, I live in thepart of the state where I've
read articles about the amountof trafficking that goes from,
like Orlando over to Texas,where they're bringing, you
know, where people are coming inillegally from the southern
border. Like there's thattrafficking that's going through
this part of the state, andlike, they're stopping at these
roadside motels, and thesepeople just are not aware and
(28:44):
paying attention, because again,front desk is in one part of the
building, and the you know,where they're checking it, or
where they're arriving in theroom is a completely different
part of it. So they don't haveany way to really stop this. So
I think, you know, you kind ofcan bridge that gap. And I do
hope that hotels that arelistening to this, because I
know we have some hotel peoplethat do listen our podcast will
will recognize that there,there's value in it, and it's
(29:04):
safety for everybody. And Ithink at the end of the day, if
everybody had these, these inplace, it would just make us
more aware of what's what'shappening and try to really stop
some of this bad behavior thathas become so prevalent. Yeah,
Ela Mezhiborsky (29:19):
and it's not either or. I mean, you need your
first line of defense. Need towork kind of to be proactive and
do things before the stay. A lotcan be eliminated and mitigated
by demanding that a reservationisn't a black box, especially in
the criminal activity. So I meaninnocent damages or intentional
damages, they suck, and you canprotect with that, both with
(29:43):
initial security deposits,vetting your guests, agreeing to
rules, damage control, you know,insurances afterwards. All of
that should be in place, butit's really that mix of act
proactively, know who's walkingthrough the door, so that they
don't think like it's a freefor. All in a black box for
whatever type of activity there.
I think training of staff forshort term rentals as well. Even
(30:03):
when you're communicating,there's ways to, you know, I
mean, door locks, noise sensors.
And noise sensor sounds verydifferent when it's a party
starting or when there's escortservices happening in the room.
Yeah, yes, yeah, you're gettingand it's important to flag those
and be aware of it and be awareof it and for the team not to
just dismiss it. Well, if thepayment went through, we're
(30:23):
good. No, you're not
Annie Holcombe (30:24):
good. It's interesting, because I think, I
think it goes through some ofthe conversations that a lot of
people I had yesterday, actuallywith somebody about, you know,
we're in hospitality, and thissense that everything can be
done with no touch, and, likeyou said, a black box, and just
everything just be so technologybased that you don't think about
the human factor of it all. Youneed to have both pieces of it.
And there's there is just that.
I mean, it's like, how do we howdo we not protect our staff? How
(30:47):
do we protect our investment?
But how do we protect ourguests? I mean, at the end of
the day, it's like, we want toprotect all the people, and you
have to think that the humancomponent is far more valuable
than the monetary component ofit all. And this kind of answers
all of those questions. I think,yeah,
Ela Mezhiborsky (31:04):
yeah. I mean, even cleaning stuff should be, I
mean, they're, they're right, nomatter how not hands on of an
operation you're running.
Somebody walks into that unit,somebody sees the, you know, the
usage of facilities, and how theplace is looking and and seeing
the guests. So there's ways toto be on the lookout to get the
training that's necessary tomake sure that, you know, our
(31:24):
industry isn't gettingexploited. Because, I mean,
trafficking is a reallydifficult topic, and I'm
extremely passionate about and Ithink that we should own up to
our responsibility. We by nomeans encourage it, but we
enable it without meaning it's aplace to do something. And then
short term rentals is,unfortunately, that much, I
wouldn't even say easier. It's areally big problem with hotels,
but short term rentals with withan operator OR staff that isn't
(31:47):
trained is that much easier toexploit, right?
Alex Husner (31:51):
Yeah. I mean, that's such a good point that
you make it. Just becausethere's a front desk doesn't
mean that it's any more safe.
Those people don't know whatthey're looking at when they're
looking at an ID. I mean, on onehand, I'll say the two sides of
the story. But if I'm at a hoteland I order the Door Dash or
something, I always ask them tobring it to my room because I
don't want to have to walk downin the lobby past the front
desk. But at the same time, Iunderstand why the hotels that
(32:13):
don't allow that don't right,you have to have a room key, but
it's like there's no, there's nolike consistency across the
board as to whether people canjust get up into rooms at
hotels, or if, like, youactually have to be a guest and
have a key but I feel like youknow, our industry has taken
such huge strides, as far as youknow, trying to eliminate a lot
of these risks, because we hadto, in a lot of cases, from
(32:36):
regulations and other things.
But do you ever foresee autohost or technology like you guys
getting into hotels. I mean,could hotels ever have something
just at the front desk, likewhat you have that it is
actually putting it through ascanner before somebody checks
in 100%
Ela Mezhiborsky (32:53):
and that's already active. So it's not,
it's not a big part of ourmodel. But there's a handful of
operators that they pretty muchtouch on that hotel experience,
even, you know, the mid houses.
There's a handful of hotelchains in Prague that we were
working with, so they havepretty much, like, a kiosks at
the front desk with the autohost module. So there's things
(33:14):
that get enabled on that frontso if they didn't do the
verification in advance, theycan do it at the door. There was
one in Chicago. So hotels aredoing it. And there's, I mean,
the line is getting very, veryblurry. I mean, Airbnb, you
know, short term rentals is nolonger Ella renting out in her
second bedroom. The hybridmodels are doing it faster. And
then we're seeing traditionalhotels absolutely catching up.
Interesting, very cool.
Annie Holcombe (33:36):
Well, Ella, one of the things we like to ask all
the people that come on the showand you now that we've known you
for a couple of years, you've,you know a lot of people that we
know, and you're engaged in alot of things going on. But do
you think that there's somethingin the industry right now that
maybe we're not talking enoughabout? I mean, obviously I think
that, you know, I just, let's doan interview that you did about
the, you know, human traffickingand stuff, and that is so
(33:58):
important. And I do think thatwe've been neglecting talking
about that, but is, are thereother things that you think that
we're missing the mark on?
Ela Mezhiborsky (34:05):
Trafficking is a big one I'm passionate about.
I think that we're doing a greatjob increasing that awareness.
The other one would really bewhat you know, the bad AI
conversation so you don't knowwhat you don't know. And I would
love to bring up more awarenessand kind of the spotlight into
how you can get exploited. So Ithink that this isn't like an
immediate, you know, this monththing, but in the coming little
(34:28):
while, we're doing whatever wecan on the tech side. But even
just like education kind ofsaying, Hey, before I mean, jump
on the bandwagon, like dowhatever you can, let's bring AI
into everything, but also, let'sincrease that education and
awareness on what our guests aredoing with AI. There's talk
about, you know, booking kind ofoptimization and algorithms and
(34:48):
how you can optimize yourlistings, but on the safety
side, and you know, we're goingto keep preaching that word of
caution, I would say that as weget excited about what
everything that AI can do, just.
Really important to also keep inmind what can be done with AI to
exploit us, how our team needsto be trained, and what tech
tools we could be using. So youmentioned, you know, the human
touch that's always going tostay there. That's the beautiful
(35:09):
part of hospitality. I mean, Idon't think we just want, you
know, hotels that are boxes. Youneed the people element, but
decide where. So there's areaswhere tech and kind of the more
objective way of looking atthings would be a lot more
valuable, and then focus thehuman efforts and other things.
So combating AI would combatingbad AI, that is, will not that
feeling and and kind of humanjudgment. So we need to be
(35:33):
better prepared for it. Yeah.
Alex Husner (35:37):
Great answer. Yeah.
Great topic. Here's another onefrom the vault. So this was we
actually, we remembered on our200th episode that we used to
also ask everybody back in theday. We probably asked you this
a few years ago when we tried tointerview you, but we used to
ask our guests, and I think weshould ask it more of what is
what you do, you know, throughauto host and in your career,
what does that say about Ellaand your just, just you as an
(35:59):
individual.
Ela Mezhiborsky (36:02):
So many things I mentioned to you guys that I
just came back from a trip tothe Azores Islands in Portugal,
and just, I've always beenpassionate about travel, like of
all industries on Earth, this isthe one where your discretionary
income goes towards that. Imean, business travel is great,
and you know, a lot of companiesare making money of that as
well. But just in general, theworld of travel, it's such a fun
(36:25):
space that we get to be in. Sowhat it says about me? I mean,
I'm doing whatever I can to stayin it. So yes, I'm on the side
that is on the safety andprotection and risk. But that
just because, I mean, part of myfriend, shit hit the fan when I
was running operations, and wehad to develop this, right? We
used all the tools out there,but then when we saw that gap,
that's how auto host came about.
And, you know, I used to run aproperty management company, we
(36:46):
spoke about it too. So it'salmost like I like being in that
industry. I like being theguest. I like being the host. I
like working in the tech thatempowers this industry. So, you
know, the better we can kind ofkeep it safe and beautiful and
avoid the bad apples. I thinkwould be something that I'd be
proud to do, a big check markwith my life. Yeah.
Alex Husner (37:08):
Well, you certainly are. So I think you're doing
that for sure. But Ella so goodto finally catch up with you
again. And we were just soexcited to get to see Roy and
Cam last week, and that's kindof how we all got back together
here. So thank you for comingon. And when will we see you?
Are you going to any other showscoming up this year? I'm going
to
Ela Mezhiborsky (37:26):
do my best to there's a few April ones. We're
still kind of finalizing thing,but I I'd love to see people in
person. And so yeah, to do somewonderful it was way overdue,
but I'm glad we got to do this.
Yeah, it's good to see you. If
Alex Husner (37:41):
anybody wants to reach out, Ella, what's the best
way for them to get in touchwith you?
Ela Mezhiborsky (37:44):
So LinkedIn, probably I am happy to connect.
I love, you know, be it autospecific or anything, I can get
involved with. So always just, Imean, reach out. And I like to
talk to people in the space.
Alex Husner (37:56):
Awesome, great. If anybody wants to get in touch
with Annie, and I you can go toAlex and Annie podcast.com and
until next time. Thanks,everybody. You.
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