Success story
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Ian Haet is the founder and CEO of Emerge Rental Network, a virtual STR management company that helps property owners list in areas with limited access to common payment transfer systems.
Location: US, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Aruba, Puerto RicoNumber of listings: 100+Using Hostfully since: 2021Favorite features: Open API as first-class infrastructure, enterprise-grade channel management, custom workflows
Hostfully gave us the infrastructure we needed to build our own product without being boxed into someone else’s workflows. The API is flexible, reliable, and constantly evolving. Hostfully feels less like a vendor and more like a technical partner.
Emerge Rental Network was sparked by an insight Ian Haet had while traveling through Latin America. Many vacation rentals in countries such as Colombia and Panama offered exceptional on-site experiences but struggled to compete digitally. Listings were poorly optimized, distribution was limited, and guest communication was inconsistent. In many cases, property owners could not list on major booking sites at all because local payment systems were not supported.
“I kept seeing great properties that were essentially invisible to international travelers,” Ian says. “The quality was there, but the technology was not.”
Ian set out to build a fully virtual vacation rental management company that could connect these properties to North American and European demand while giving owners real visibility into performance and finances. The challenge was execution. No existing property management system could support the level of customization, automation, and channel connectivity the business required.
“I knew we could build the software,” Ian explains, “but without reliable connections to Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com, the model would never scale.”
Hostfully’s open API became the foundation that turned Emerge Rental Network from an idea into a scalable business. The API allowed Ian’s team to build custom software while relying on Hostfully for reliable channel connectivity, synced calendars, booking data, and listing updates.
“The API saved us an enormous amount of development time,” Ian says. “It let us focus on building our core product instead of solving problems that were already solved.”
Today, Emerge Rental Network uses the Hostfully API as its central data layer, powering multi-channel distribution, pricing updates, lead intake, and booking management. The same API enables integrations with dynamic pricing tools, payment processing, and custom guest communication workflows using WhatsApp and email.
Hostfully’s API also connects Emerge Rental Network’s broader ecosystem, including Host Secure for local compliance and Latin Hosts for digital guest recommendations and experiences. By sharing real-time vacation rental data across all systems, the business operates efficiently at scale while giving owners transparency and control.
“We push the API to its limits and regularly come up with new requirements,” Ian says. “Hostfully listens closely and continues to evolve the API with us.”
By combining custom development with Hostfully’s open API, Emerge Rental Network built a fully virtual, automation-first vacation rental management company capable of scaling across international markets.
Does Ian’s story inspire you to build a tech solution? Let’s talk.
