Former Entertainment Group and Ignite Travel marketing and digital leader, Jake Falkinder, lands general manager role at home rental scaleup, Homhero.

Australian home rental management SaaS player, Homhero, has brought on experienced marketing and digital leader Jake Falkinder to the newly created role of general manager.

Falkinder was most recently CMO of Entertainment Group, which produces the annual Entertainment Book. Prior to this, he spent two years as marketing director for Ignite Travel Group, which has since been acquired by Flight Centre.

Falkinder's resume also includes marketing and digital strategy at Mantra Hotels, as well as time on the agency side with Kinesso Australia, Morrison Media and Clemenger BBDO. He also spent two years as digital marketing director for Boardriders Australia, a sports and lifestyle company.

Homhero is an independent provider of property and channel management systems for holiday accommodation rentals in Australia, with a substantial market share within the short-term rental category.

Falkinder is being tasked with focusing across several facets of the business, including operations, commercial, marketing and people. He's also gearing the company up for the launch of new features on Homhero and its associated suite of applications such as Homtrust, and a parallel online travel agency (OTA) business unit known as Staymakers.com.au, a framework unlocking joint venture opportunities for white-labelled holiday accommodation websites.

"I was initially attracted to the role as we share common values when it comes to innovation and putting customers at the forefront of everything we do," Falkinder told Mi3. "It quickly became apparent to me that Homhero have established an indisputably positive reputation within the short-term rental industry. When combined with our collective passion for leisure travel, the choice was easy."

Falkinder reports directly to the group's Board of Directors - Hayden D'Arcy, Kim Richardson, Rob Jeffress and Anne Greyling.

"Our business is at the precipice of an exciting new phase, and we are thrilled to have Jake at the helm to guide us on this journey," D'Arcy stated.

For Falkinder, one of the top-line priorities has to be people and culture.

"Due to our rapid growth, Homhero have recognised the need to transition from a startup mentality, and to bring Homhero's unique ethos and values to life and share this spirit across the workplace and marketplace," he commented.

Then of course there's the customer. "We are always looking to innovate and improve our product in line with the collective needs of our customers," Falkinder said. "A key focus will be establishing a robust pipeline of new features and applications through our futureMarket expansion plans. This is about exploring growth opportunities within additional categories and markets."