Luca Zambello: From AI Expert to Hospitality Industry Disruptor

Meet Luca Zambello, the young Co-Founder and CEO of Jurny, an AI-driven hospitality platform.

Hailing from the city of Mantua, Italy, Luca's journey to becoming a recognized entrepreneur in his field is nothing short of inspiring. Driven by an unwavering entrepreneurial spirit, he embarked on a transformative quest that led him to the bustling epicenter of innovation itself - Silicon Valley.

“I was inspired by the young entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley who were building multi-billion-dollar businesses,” Luca states, “Starting my own entrepreneurial journey early on, I soon realized that while I loved Italy, it wasn't the ideal place to pursue my dreams. So, at 21, I made the decision to move to the U.S. despite speaking very little English."

Having arrived in Los Angeles, Luca embarked on his entrepreneurial journey in the nightlife industry, organizing exclusive events and promoting clubs. His budding success led him to identify a gap in the market - an absence of online options for luxury house rentals. This realization prompted him to build a website and advertise through Google, resulting in an astonishing $1.2 million in revenue within a year.

As the short-term rental space evolved with the emergence of Airbnb and VRBO, Luca recognized the need to adapt. Managing 300 units across five cities, he experienced firsthand the limitations of existing software and the fragmented nature of the industry. This pivotal moment sparked his vision to create Jurny, a fully automated property management solution powered by AI.

Launched in 2019, Jurny aims to make AI and automation easily accessible to hospitality businesses of all sizes, from individual Airbnb management companies to large-scale vacation rental companies.

Jurny's breakthrough technology, powered by GPT-4, has garnered widespread attention and acclaim, as Luca's insight and expertise have been featured in renowned media outlets such as Bloomberg, Entrepreneur and Business Insider, among others. Additionally, he was appointed as an Advisory Board Member for Entertainment and Hospitality Management at California State University, Fullerton, solidifying his status as a thought leader in the field.

Luca's entrepreneurial journey has also been supported by prominent venture capital firms such as Mucker Capital, Okapi Venture Capital, VITALIZE Venture Capital, Singularity Capital, and SaaS Ventures. With their support, Jurny has harnessed cutting-edge technology to transform the rapidly growing vacation rental industry, enabling property managers to streamline operations and maximize efficiency.

The company's vertically integrated system sets it apart from competitors, offering a streamlined, modern approach to hospitality management. By focusing on one vendor per vertical and developing in-house solutions like access control and IoT control, Jurny ensures scalability, user-friendliness, and a trailblazing integration of services.

In a rapidly evolving landscape, traditional hotels and accommodations face the challenge of adapting to technology-driven changes and evolving guest expectations. Luca recognizes this shift.

“The future lies in their ability to embrace technology and rapidly adapt to changing guest expectations. Our team intimately understands this dynamic and has always been at the forefront of bringing transformative technologies to this sector,” the entrepreneur says.

“One example of how we’re doing this is the recent launch of our free PMS (property management system). This is an industry first; all of our competitors charge for the software and most have deployment and integration fees on top of that. The ability to offer a free product is made possible only through an extremely streamlined system, facilitating fully automated self-onboarding, something our competitors can't provide. In the first month of availability, we saw a 100% increase in our user base - the response has been phenomenal!”

Jurny also strikes a careful balance between automation and the personalized human touch that is crucial in the hospitality industry.

Central to this balance is Nia, Jurny's GPT-4 powered AI. Nia's advanced machine learning capabilities enable it to handle tasks that traditionally required human attention. By automating inquiries, troubleshooting guest complaints, and personalizing responses, Nia enhances the overall guest experience, leaving hosts, property managers, and guests more satisfied than ever.

Jurny's impact on hotels and guests is evident in the numbers. Property managers using Jurny save an average of $2,200 per year, per property on software costs alone. Furthermore, Jurny's AI, with up to ten times the output of a human agent, allows a single agent to handle the workload previously performed by ten support agents, resulting in an estimated decrease in labor costs of $7,400 per year, per property.

As the hospitality industry continues to grapple with the challenges of technology adoption and implementation, Jurny stands ready to assist hotels in overcoming these obstacles. With its intuitive platform, Jurny simplifies complex processes, empowering early adopters within the industry to shape the hotels of tomorrow.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, Luca offers timeless advice: expand your knowledge and be prepared to find creative solutions. By constantly improving oneself and striving to be the best in all aspects of life and work, he believes ultimate happiness and fulfillment can be achieved.

“My life and work’s guiding principle is to constantly improve myself and always aim to be the best I can be at whatever I commit to in life. As a CEO, as an entrepreneur, as a husband and a father. Striving to be the best you can be at whatever you do, I believe, will lead to ultimate happiness and life fulfillment.”

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Photos courtesy of: Jurny