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The short-term rental industry has always attracted an unusual breed of entrepreneur. Unlike traditional real estate, where careers follow predictable paths through property management firms or hospitality chains, STR operators tend to stumble into the space. In Tom’s case, it happened while on holiday, staring at a villa in Greece, wondering how the economics work.
That was Tom Fisher's journey from mechanical engineer to CEO of Bloqq. But what makes his story worth examining isn't just the career pivot; it's how he's applying operational lessons from scale property management to solve a specific, underserved niche in bringing short-stay strategies to student housing and build-to-rent portfolios.
This is the story of how one operator is bridging two worlds that rarely speak the same language: the fast-paced, hospitality-driven culture of short-term rentals, and the slower, more institutional approach of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) and build-to-rent (BTR) assets.
After a couple of years working as an engineer, Tom found himself restless. "It wasn't fast paced enough for me. It wasn't dynamic enough," he explains. Growing up in the Middle East surrounded by successful entrepreneurs had planted a seed, but it took that family holiday in Greece to make it germinate.
While most people would be enjoying the beach, Tom spent his downtime doing mental arithmetic on villa economics. The revelation was simple but powerful: an owner could use their property whenever they wanted, but monetize it when they didn't. That itch needed scratching. Over a decade later, he's still in the industry.
What kept him here? The same thing that keeps most operators engaged: it's an industry of entrepreneurs who actually help each other. "I would guess that's probably rare across most industries," he notes, "but I'm very proud to be part of our industry where a lot of people are open to sharing business practices and ideas."
After working across various software providers and spending time at Lavanda managing 600 properties across London, Tom knew one thing: if he was going to start a property management business, it needed to solve a specific problem for a specific market.
"Knowing the hum of those operations rooms and just how intense it was, I think for me, it was always around if I'm going to start a property management business, it needs to be a niche within a niche."
That niche turned out to be PBSA and build-to-rent — institutional asset classes that were starting to explore short-term rentals but lacked operators who truly understood both worlds. These weren't traditional STR markets. The buildings were designed for long-term tenants. The teams were staffed like real estate operations, not hospitality businesses. And the decision-making cycles were measured in quarters, not days.
But the opportunity was clear. As these markets matured, operators faced new pressures:
Short-term rentals could plug these gaps, but only if delivered by someone who understood the institutional context.
The shift toward flexible rental strategies in PBSA and BTR isn't about abandoning the core business model. These operators aren't trying to become Airbnb hosts, they're trying to solve a very specific problem: how do you maintain revenue and occupancy when your primary market doesn't fill every unit, every week of the year?
"Short-term rentals are being considered in the context of a backup strategy," Tom explains. "It's not about taking stock off the market and fundamentally having these operators change their business model. It's around helping them adapt their business model to better cater for the realities of operations."
The buildings themselves don't need radical transformation. They already have the amenities: gyms, pools, communal spaces. What they lack is the operational infrastructure to handle short-stay guests whose expectations are fundamentally different from long-term tenants.
A student moving in for six months will tolerate a 48-hour response time for a maintenance issue. A business traveler staying two nights before an important meeting will not. That's a hospitality expectation, and it requires hospitality-level operations.
This is where Bloqq's model diverges from typical STR operators. Rather than trying to retrofit institutional buildings with remote-first operations, they staff the buildings with their own people.
"We're one of the few operators out there that staff these buildings with our staff to solve these issues. We become an extension to the site team's resource."
This approach solves two problems simultaneously:
As Tom puts it: "We're only as good as our last clean." That's a hospitality mindset, not a real estate one. And it requires people on the ground who understand the difference.
Tom’s time at Lavanda taught him what operational excellence looks like. He recalls walking into a room full of cleaning teams, maintenance crews, logistics coordinators, account managers, and guest communications staff, all working in sync.
One weekend, while on skeleton staff duty, a property was broken into. Glass everywhere. Homeowner abroad. Guests arriving that week. What happened next demonstrated the power of a well-oiled operations team:
"No one ever likes a break-in and it's not ever something to be happy about. But in that moment, it was wonderful to see how that team reacted."
That lesson shaped Bloqq’s culture: when things go wrong, how you respond matters more than the mistake itself.
In traditional STR operations, speed is everything. You can take a booking in the morning and have a guest arriving in the afternoon. But in institutional real estate, deal cycles stretch for months, sometimes over a year from first meeting to a signed contract.
This creates a dangerous gap: after investing six-12 months to close a deal, the worst thing you can do is take another six or seven weeks to deliver value.
Bloqq's solution? Get the first guest in a bed within 13 days of contract signing.
"The first thing that is number one priority is getting that first guest, getting that first bum in the bed, so to speak."
This requires orchestrating multiple workstreams simultaneously:
For a student-only site launched this year, Bloqq managed to cut the average time from onboarding to first guest arrival to just a couple of weeks. Time-to-value is what separates a successful partnership from a disappointing one.
Tom is a self-described "data guy" and "process guy,” someone who loves diving into systems to understand what can be improved. But he's also seen firsthand how the best software in the world can fail if the people and processes aren't right.
"If you've not got the right people in place, if you've not got the right processes in place, it doesn't matter how good your software is. It doesn't matter how many API connections you have and how many two-way syncs you've got."
The real gaps in operations are usually human, not technological:
This is why Tom spent so much time at previous roles creating process maps and running whiteboard sessions. The goal wasn't bureaucracy but clarity. When everyone knows exactly how the system should work, the software can do its job.
There's enormous hype around AI in property management right now. Tom sees the potential, but he's measured about it.
"We have to remind ourselves as an industry at our core, we're a hospitality business and we really need to focus on empowering our people to be at the forefront of delivering that guest experience."
The opportunity isn't replacing humans. It's unburdening them from work that doesn't require human judgment. Bloqq has already seen this play out with guest communications. By implementing better guidebooks, chatbots, and self-service tools, they've changed what their guest communications team spends time on.
Previously, the team answered questions like "how do I operate the microwave?" Now they focus on enriching the guest experience by recommending local restaurants, suggesting the best coffee shop in Sheffield, and overall helping guests truly experience the city they're visiting.
"The guest that stays in a building in Sheffield, they don't necessarily know what Sheffield is about, what's to see in Sheffield. And I think there's a huge opportunity for software and people to deliver a better experience for guests."
One of the challenges in bringing STR strategies to institutional landlords is education. Every conversation starts from a different baseline:
To address this, Tom launched The Short Letter, a newsletter focused on the UK and Ireland STR market, with a specific lens on PBSA and build-to-rent applications.
The goal is genuine education rather than solely marketing. Concepts that STR operators take for granted — RevPAR, occupancy optimization, booking lead times — aren't necessarily obvious in the context of institutional real estate.
One insight from the data: booking lead times are getting shorter across the board. For traditional STR operators, this creates pressure. But for PBSA operators, it creates opportunity.
If a building realizes in spring that summer group bookings won't hit occupancy targets, they can bring Bloqq online and start filling beds immediately. The shortened booking window actually works in their favor.
Another trend: September is underutilized. Most PBSA operators want short-stay operators out by August to prepare for the new student intake. But September is actually a fantastic window to keep a handful of units live. Students arriving early need somewhere to stay, and if they have a great experience, they often convert to long-term tenants.
"What we've been very successful at doing is actually passing student guests onto our operational partners saying, hey, this student has tried the building, they've really enjoyed their stay, they want to renew long-term, you know, over to you and go and sign them."
Right now, Bloqq is seen as a Plan B — a backup strategy when primary revenue sources don't fill the building. And Tom is fine with that. "We always say congratulations to our clients when they say we need to take two floors back from the building."
But the vision for five years from now is different. He hopes short-term rentals become another arrow in the quiver, a tool that's integrated into the fundamental business model from day one.
This means using STR strategies:
The benefit is cash flow that can be reinvested in marketing, community events, and site team support — all the things that make these buildings attractive to long-term tenants in the first place.
On finding your niche:
On operations:
On building for the future:
On institutional STR:
Tom’s story is a reminder that the most interesting opportunities in short-term rentals often aren't in the obvious markets. They're in the gaps, the places where one industry's problem is another industry's solution.
Student housing operators don't want to become Airbnb hosts. But they do need to fill beds during summer breaks, manage unexpected vacancies, and compete in increasingly crowded markets. Short-term rentals can solve those problems, if delivered by someone who understands both hospitality operations and institutional real estate.
That's the bet Bloqq is making. And based on their ability to get buildings live in 13 days, their human-led approach to service delivery, and their focus on education over evangelism, it's a bet that seems to be paying off.
The question isn't whether institutional landlords will use short-stay strategies. It's whether they'll use them well, with the right partners, the right processes, and the right respect for what hospitality requires.
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