Jyrki Matilainen and Tuomas Kankaala founded the Varaamokki.com website, which offers a platform for renting traditional Finnish cabins. Jyrki and Tuomas launched the website in 2021 with the aim of making it easier for travelers to find and rent authentic Finnish cabins.

THE STORY BEHIND US

We will remember the spring of 2020 for a long time, when Covid-19 changed the course of the world. At the same time, travel and our way of spending holidays changed.

The idea of Varaamökki.com was born from the experiences of our second founder, Tuomas´s family ecperience of renting cabins for their own vacations and also renting family owned cabins for other people. The idea of establishing a new booking service to compete alongside the established services that have remained unchanged for years had been simmering for a long time, but only Covid-19 gave the plan wings.

Tuomas´ s background in the world of hotel chains and airline sales and marketing gave perspective on how the new service could work in the field of domestic holidays after the corona virus.

The service should be effortless for the customer and work flawlessly on mobile, provide sufficient information about the destination and offer visually high-quality pictures of the cabins. It should be a digital solution that guides the customer from booking to arrival at the cabin and offers unrivaled service and care at different stages of the customer experience path.

Konttainen is a hill located in the municipality of Posio in Lapland, Finland. The hill is known for its stunning views of the surrounding wilderness, including the nearby Riisitunturi National Park.

It is not uncommon for visitors to Konttainen to take a moment to rest and enjoy the beautiful scenery. A woman with her hands on the Konttainen hill could be admiring the views or taking a moment to catch her breath after hiking to the top of the hill.

The area around Konttainen is popular for outdoor activities such as hiking, skiing, and snowshoeing, depending on the season. The nearby Riisitunturi National Park offers a range of hiking trails, with stunning views of the surrounding forests, lakes, and hills. In the winter months, the area is also popular for cross-country skiing and snowmobiling.

Overall, Konttainen is a beautiful and peaceful destination, offering visitors a chance to experience the natural beauty and tranquility of Lapland.

MORE THAN A HOLIDAY HOME BROKER

We have developed more towards a service-shaping technology company than a traditional holiday home brokerage company. We offer cabin and holiday home owners a platform representing the latest digitalization, where they can rent their vacation homes to consumers with the most efficient, highly automated system.

And since we make even more searches and purchase decisions online, the reservation service must also represent this day for consumers looking for holiday homes. We are constantly developing our operations from the point of view of both parties.

We believe that success comes from meeting the customer's expectations and sharing a successful service experience. We don't stop, we fall in love with challenges! This feeling creates good starting points for development.

We succeed - because we want to!

MISSION

Our mission is to make holidays more fun, carefree, and responsible!

VISION

We want to be the most reliable and responsible provider of cabin and holiday home vacations in Finland. With us, your vacation starts already with a reservation which we want to be a pleasant experience.

We work in cooperation with the owners of the cabins and apartments, so that each holiday experience is safe, truthful and clean. We want to ensure the property owners to maintain the value of the property, the best possible return and high utilization rate. We aim to have the best partners in the destination area, the most cutting edge digital tools, and a passion to help the customer succeed in creating the best possible vacation experience.

STRATEGY

The basis of our strategy is to grow through the satisfaction of our customers. The measure of this is the satisfaction of both the vacationer and the cabin owner.

Our strategic focus is to develop concepts that catalyze sales growth and new earning models through digital automation. The most important investments are full digitalization of bookings, increasing responsibility in Finnish cabin holidays and profitable growth in cooperation with customers, cabin owners and business partners.

THE VALUES THAT GUIDE OUR OPERATIONS

Thanks to its values, the company develops. Or it fades away when they are absent, and the meaning becomes low. Our own values make our existence possible, motivate us and make us do more than our competitors!

INDIVIDUAL

Each of us is an individual. We create experiences. They are created because we know that each customer's experience is personal – their own. This requires seamless cooperation with us, the cabin owner, the cleaner, property maintenance and our partners.

COURAGE

Success comes from learning. A mistake is an opportunity - so learn not to make the same mistake again and do things better and better again. We learn from incidents and happenings and share this information with our entire service chain. We do the work that needs to be done for the success of the customer, cabin owner and liaison partner.

ALACRITY

Alacrity is the new fast! We don't rush, but we are constantly on the move. Keeping pace with technical development and staying ahead of the competition requires staying on top of things.

GROWTH

A company that does not pursue growth will wither. We grow together with our partners so that we can be valuable to each other and our customers.

RESULT

Result is the measure of our work. The verified outcomes give our customers, cabin owners and partners a reason to cooperate with us. Verified customer satisfaction results give us purpose to continue our work.

THE MANY FORMS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Our values include responsibility in various forms. We commit to social responsibility by respecting the law and all regulations, and we strive to use only local partners so that our operations enable increased employment in the locality. We also make sure that our partners follow the same principles as us.

Environmental responsibility is in the DNA of more and more vacationers. Many holiday makers recycle at home and expect it to be possible during vacation as well. In cooperation with the cabin or apartment owner, we want to promote environmental responsibility, e.g. in recycling and reducing waste.

Our task is to make environmental issues as effortless as possible for the owner of the cabin or apartment. Our partners are committed to doing their part in realizing environmental responsibility, taking care of recycling until the end.

WE ENTREPENEURS

ENTREPRENEUR, HOLIDAY RETAILER

JYRKI MATILAINEN

My name is Jyrki and I'm a trader - that is, a holiday trader. I also sell apartments - so I am also a licensed real estate agent and rental agent.

I have ended up as a holiday retailer through my own and my family's entrepreneurial background. I am aiming to retire from this new career of my later life. This post might turn out to be long hardworking one but that doesn't matter. Holidays are just cool to broker.

I do this job because what's better than making people happy and getting a little compensation for it. And you must visit those cabins sometimes for a sleep test, to make sure there are no small stones in the mattress or that dripple from the toilet bowl is not keeping the tenants awake.

The best background for starting a service business is life experience. When you have sold and bought services, given yourself service and welcomed service, you understand where the problem lies sometimes. Then you must swallow one´s pride and do the job better.

Fun fact: A dog-mad animal lover.
Motto: Serve others as you would like to be served.

ENTREPRENEUR, CABIN MOGUL

TUOMAS KANKAALA

Tuomas grew up in the Tynkä village of Kalajoki. He spent his childhood and youth in Kalajoki Hiekkasärkkä area with sand in his shoes and sensing the world of tourism at a very early age.

The road took me to Turku to study hotel and tourism at Turku University of Applied Sciences. In Turku, Tuomas also started a hotel career. During the first years of his career, he had time to do everything that can only be done in hotels; restaurant, hotel and sales service management tasks, room cleaning and much more. Almost everything except massage and cosmetology treatments. Tuomas worked in different hotels in Finland as well as in Sweden.

After this, at the turn of the millennium, the fascinating world of hotel and tourism sales and marketing took its course. In 2006 I moved to Helsinki to become A Sales Manager of Sokos Hotels, Radisson Blu and Holiday Club spa hotels, and through twists and turns I joined Kämp Group and e.g. to the Sales Director of the legendary Hotel Kämp.

For ten years, Tuomas worked in international sales and tourism development at the SAS airline company, focusing on business and leisure sales and creating cooperation networks in the Nordic countries, especially in Germany and the UK. Both the broad outlines of tourism and the small details remained under control.

In his free time, Tuomas can most often be found somewhere other than his home. He is an avid traveler and vacationer who always likes to take his friends and family with him. Singing and music are among the basic characteristics of the rather extrovert Tuomas, who always has a twinkle in his eye and is ready for a chat.

Fun fact: Tuomas lost the Finnish Rock & Pop Karaoke Championship in 2005 to Ari Koivunen after finishing second. Ari Koivunen won the Finnish Idols competition in 2007.
Motto: To have dash and courage do not cost anything.

Social media creators often work as influencers and collaborate with brands to increase their visibility.

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

Jemina Salmela

I'm Jemina and I live and breathe Varaamökki.com's social media. I create content there and take you with me on the journey of Varaamökki.com to follow its story. I love traveling and life in all its full spectrum, so this job made for me.

By using social media for communication, I also want to bring you the feeling how we Finns feel and do our domestic traveling in our country and how our foreign guests enjoy Finland, regardless of place and time.

My passion for creating images in marketing stems from my studies in audiovisual communication. After graduating in the media field, I thought about how I can use the many strengths of my own personality and my education as efficiently as possible. My strengths are visuality, graphics, social skills, creating mental images, finding the best aspects of people and things, and communicating them to the world in the right form!

Welcome to follow us on social media and join us on the journey!

CABIN ASSISTANT

Nita Juntura

My name is Nita and I am an accommodation professional from Kittilä, Northern Finland. My background is in the hotel and accommodation industry, having worked in ski resorts in the north as a front desk, reception and service manager until I became an entrepreneur in late 2021. My long career and experience in the hotel industry has since expanded into the apartment rental and cabin world.

I have been part of the Varaamökki.com team since summer 2023, focusing on developing services, concepts and processes for about one day a week through my own marketing company. My strengths include managing and implementing various systems and online booking channels, as well as producing visual brand materials.

In my work as an accommodation specialist, I assist professional operators and individual resort owners in the overall promotion of sales. Developing the customer experience before, during and after the holiday is close to my heart!

I enjoy flyfishing, mushroom picking and skiing in the winter to balance my work on the computer!

CABIN MANAGER / CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER

Iina Salmela

I'm Iina and I joined the Varaamökki.com / Cabin Dreams Oy team in July 2023.

I grew up in Kalajoki surrounded by tourism and later further plans were crystal clear; the tourism industry called for me also workwise! After getting my degree in tourism, I have worked in many positions in the accommodation industry, both in a campsite and in hotels in Kalajoki, Lapland and the capital region. The best thing about the industry is the versatility, and I've done it all, from the restaurant dishcorner to the hotel housekeeping and from receptionist to sales negotiator and reception manager.

In 2016 the burning flame to experience and see more was awakened and I started my career as a tour guide. I worked with different Finnish tour operators in Europe and Africa, both as a guide and as a destination manager. As a result, I also settled in Egypt for few years and returned to Finland in the aftermath of the pandemic at the end of 2021.

During the years abroad the Finnish culture and its special features, such as cottage vacations, have gained a much deeper meaning personally, even though renting cabins has been a familiar activity since childhood. It is really inspiring and interesting to play part in bringing Finnish cottage and leisure apartment rental to present day and beyond and to make it easier to reach for everyone safely and reliably.

Motto: If you have to regret in life, regret the things you've done instead of the things you didn´t do.

CABIN AGENT

Minna Heikkinen

I am Minna Heikkinen, and I work as a cabin agent for Varaamökki.com through my company Minnagent Ky, which started operations in May 2012. I represent various travel destinations in Finland and nearby areas, and my clients include travel agencies, transport operators, ferry companies, businesses, and associations.

With over 30 years of experience in the tourism and hospitality industry, I have a solid understanding of the Finnish customer base. Additionally, I have worked as a real estate agent, giving me insight into the dynamics of property transactions. From 2005 to 2007, I also worked as a sales manager for cottage rentals in the Tahko, Vuokatti, and Ruka regions for FinFun/Lomarengas.

I am currently involved with the parent company of Varaamökki.com, Cabin Dreams Oy, in an expert role. Through me, you can place your holiday apartment or cabin with a growing and experienced national operator. Join our expanding group of satisfied cabin owners and renters today!

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