How Bansko Properties scaled from 60 to 180 units without hiring ops staff
A ski-resort operator added 120 apartments in one season using Shortrental's AI — and their team of 3 didn't grow.
3×
portfolio growth, same team
97%
occupancy during peak ski
+€127
average upsell per booking
28s
median response time
Context
Bansko is the largest ski resort in southeast Europe, with a 3-month peak season that makes or breaks the year. Bansko Properties runs serviced chalets across Bansko and Pamporovo — apartments with ski-in/ski-out access, premium finishes, and guest concierge expectations.
Their problem was seasonality. From October to April they needed ops capacity for 180 units. From May to September, they really only needed capacity for 40.
Hiring seasonal ops staff was painful. Good coordinators wanted year-round jobs. Cheap coordinators burned out or made expensive mistakes (one missed ski-rental handoff cost them a €400 refund and a 3-star review).
Why Shortrental.ai
Bansko Properties had three non-negotiables:
- Response time under 60 seconds, 24/7. Ski guests plan aggressively and expect fast answers. A 2-hour delay at 7 PM means they book elsewhere.
- Native German, English, Bulgarian. Their guest mix is roughly 40% German-speaking, 35% English-speaking, 25% local. Google Translate replies were killing their reviews.
- Smart lock integration. Chalets are spread across the mountain. Key handoffs ate 45 minutes per guest.
Shortrental nailed all three out of the box.
The scale-up
- Oct 2025 — 60 units, 3-person ops team
- Nov 2025 — imported 120 new units (new building contracts). Shortrental's bulk import did it in 2 days
- Dec 2025 — season opens. 180 units live. AI handling all guest messaging, task dispatch, lock PIN generation
- Jan 2026 — peak week. 97% occupancy. Zero double-bookings. Team of 3 unchanged.
The numbers
- 3× portfolio growth over 2 months, zero ops hires
- 97% peak-season occupancy (up from 91% the prior year)
- 28 seconds median guest response time (down from 7 min in 2024/25)
- +€127 average upsell per booking (early check-in + ski rental partner fee + late checkout)
- 4.91 guest rating (up from 4.78)
The unexpected win
Bansko's team thought the AI would save them coordination time. It did. But the bigger win was the upsell revenue.
The AI proactively offered:
- Early check-in (€25) to 100% of guests. 28% accepted.
- Late checkout on departure day (€35) — offered the morning of. 19% accepted.
- Ski rental handoff (partner, €0 to BP, 15% commission) — offered at confirmation. 41% accepted.
- Mid-stay cleaning for stays >5 nights (€40) — 12% accepted.
Total: €127/booking average in incremental revenue. Over a 180-unit portfolio running at ~95% occupancy during 14 peak weeks, that's €300k+ in pure margin they weren't capturing before.
Bansko Properties is expanding to Borovets for the 2026/27 season. See if Shortrental.ai works for your portfolio →.
“We added 120 units in October and opened the season in December. In the old world we'd have needed to hire 2 more people. With Shortrental we just added listings and the AI scaled with us. Literally zero extra ops hires.”
Maria Petrova
Operations Director, Bansko Properties