San Francisco: Multifamily technology instigator and executive producer at Joshua Tree Conference Group, Steve Lefkovits, speaks about how the short-term rental industry can learn lessons from the electric car disruption led by Tesla and GM.
In 2014, Tesla introduced its all-electric Model S sports car. Despite being the quickest car on the planet and the most technologically advanced, electric vehicles (EVs) were derided as ‘not the future of transportation’.
But the EV has arrived anyway.
In 2020, GM, Ford, VW, Audi, Porsche, Nissan, Jaguar and Mercedes Benz will all offer electric vehicles. By 2023, GM is expected to launch 20 new car models that are electric or use non-traditional propulsion.
Even if Tesla does not survive, the disruptor will have forced the largest car makers in the world to pivot to create products they disdained a few years prior.
Tesla’s cars are built around technology, appeal to appealing demographics and benefit from having far fewer moving parts and fewer suppliers than internal combustion vehicles. It takes 40 per cent fewer working hours to build a Tesla as it does a gasoline engine car.
Tesla disrupted the auto industry from within with a better operating system, and an innovative product, not with flying cars or anything from Star Trek.
I see a parallel to short-term rental innovators in multifamily housing.
Renter-initiated lodging, suite lodging and master leasing all create additional income for apartment owners.
These flexible rentals also offer more flexible experiences for consumers. They provide nationwide branding opportunities. They offer whole new career options. They are technology-first, mobile-dependent activities. And they’ve attracted investors to place more than $1 billion into the short-term rental market in the past three years.
It is not magic. The transformation is happening internal to existing real estate, at the expense of the lodging industry.
Three years after the Model S, GM and Ford both had to invest over $1 billion each to buy innovative car tech startups that will power their next generation of cars and attract the computer science talent necessary to create them. Do you think you should pay attention to the disruption benefiting the multifamily industry?
Join us at FLEX from 22-23 October 2019 in San Francisco to find your place among the early disruptors, creating the next product evolution in multifamily apartments.
For more information, visit the FLEX [Flexible Rentals Investments] Conference website here.
ShortTermRentalz and Serviced Apartment News are media partners for FLEX 2019.
