How to fix your owner acquisition – Emily Tunggala, Hospitable

By Emily Tunggala, Senior Product Manager, Hospitable

When Hospitable asked property managers what makes growing their business hardest, 40% gave the same answer: finding new owners. That put owner acquisition ahead of every other challenge, including operational capacity and hiring. Almost a quarter said they struggle to find new owners at all.

If that sounds familiar, the problem is usually the pipeline itself rather than the quality of your service.

Why referrals cap your pipeline

93% of the property managers we surveyed rely on word-of-mouth and referrals to win new owners. Paid advertising barely registers, and industry events even less. Referrals close well and carry built-in trust, so it makes sense that managers lean on them.

The catch is that referrals don't scale with ambition. A manager who wants to double their portfolio can't wait for twice as many neighbours to come through their network. They arrive on their own schedule, and they tend to run out well before your growth targets do. Build on referrals alone, and your pipeline is capped by how many people happen to know you.

Here's the part managers often miss: owners are struggling to find you too. When we asked owners currently managing their own properties how they'd go about finding a property manager, 59% said word-of-mouth, and around 13% admitted they wouldn't know where to start. There's real demand sitting just out of reach, defaulting to the same informal channel you are.

The information referrals can't give you

A referral tells you that an owner is in need of property management services. It tells you very little about whether you and that owner will actually work well together.

And fit is what determines whether the relationship lasts. When we asked owners what they care about most when choosing a manager, proven revenue performance and guest review scores came out on top, followed by fees and communication style. Their biggest concerns were high fees and losing control over how their property is run, with guest communication close behind. Those are simple questions a recommendation can’t answer, and they surface long after a referral has handed you the lead.

That mismatch is expensive. Managers tell us they spend 10 to 20 hours assessing a single opportunity, and plenty go nowhere once a difference in expectations shows up that could have been caught on day one.

Move the fit conversation to the front

For years, owner acquisition has started with geography and availability, with the harder questions about operating style and involvement pushed to the end.

Turning that around can save hours on every opportunity. When you establish fit at the start, the wrong opportunities fall away in minutes rather than weeks, while the ones you pursue begin with expectations already aligned. You stop chasing every lead that lands in your inbox and start building the portfolio you actually want.

Build an owner acquisition pipeline that scales with you

This is the problem we set out to solve at Hospitable. Our Owner and Property Manager Marketplace connects owners with managers based on how they operate and what each side expects, rather than proximity or who happens to know whom.

Instead of paying to appear on a list and fielding calls you have to qualify from scratch, you see a clear view of each opportunity first: the owner's goals, their property, its performance, and their priorities. You decide whether it's worth pursuing before you invest your time in a conversation. When you pass, you pass in minutes. When you're interested, the introduction happens only once the owner sees a fit too.

For a growing management business, that turns owner acquisition from a waiting game into something you can build on.

If you're looking to grow your portfolio with owners who fit how you work, click here to explore the Marketplace.

Notes to Editors

Figures are drawn from Hospitable's recent survey of short-term rental property managers and owners. Property manager findings are based on responses from those surveyed rather than the wider industry, and are intended as a directional read on how managers are approaching owner acquisition.