What it takes to grow organically
We sat down with one of our partners to understand her growth, challenges she has faced, and insights for other property managers with similar goals. In this episode of How We Grow: The Vacation Rental Show, host Lynell Gordon is joined by Rachel Alday of Abode Luxury Rentals at the 2023 Streamline Conference. Together, they discuss what it takes to organically grow a property management company, including letting mistakes happen and fostering authentic relationships.
Rachel Alday is the Co-Owner and Co-Founder of Abode Luxury Rentals, a Utah-based property management and vacation rental company that guarantees peaceful and serene experiences in the Rocky Mountains.
An Organic Growth Strategy
Since its foundations in 2011, Abode Luxury Rentals has grown organically, but quite slowly.
Rachel and her husband founded the company with no investors, and no trust fund to fall back on. She explains:
“It was just a mom-and-pop shop from nothing and letting it just grow slowly over time so that we have authentic, genuine relationships with the homeowners, that we have a reputation in the towns that we work in that is real, and we have a sense of community there.”
To Rachel, this growth would not have been possible without one thing: letting mistakes happen.
When we’re leading and proud of our business, it’s easy to fall into the trap of perfectionism, and not allowing ourselves to simply be human and get things wrong. For Abode, mistakes have been nothing but beneficial. They have seen what works and what doesn’t, and adapted their strategies based on these learnings.
That being said, sometimes things go wrong and they’re not a mistake on any of your team’s part. Several years ago, Rachel and her husband were overjoyed to sign their dream house in Park City. Everything was going well, it was seamless. Well, it was until a competitor came onto the scene.
This competition approached the homeowner, offering them benefits that Abode could not match. Sadly for Rachel, the homeowner left, becoming a huge loss for Abode. Instead of just moving on, the Abode team reflected on what they could have done differently to retain the property, seeing the experience as a learning opportunity.
It’s all a part of their mantra, Rachel explains:
“So when things go great, let’s hold on for whatever the next thing is because maybe it won’t be so awesome, but maybe it’ll at least be a chance to learn something.”
Homeowner Relationships, The Abode Way
Mistakes are, of course, not the only way that Abode grew over the years. Rachel and her husband have been focussed on building and maintaining homeowner relationships the whole time.
Although they now have a team of fifty, only the co-founders initially engage with potential homeowners. As they build up a relationship, they add more people into the pool, up to a maximum of four. Rachel explains that this restricted group ensures homeowners have the same consistent team communicating with them, allowing them to build authentic, friendly relationships:
“We’re super careful just making sure that our homeowner communication is really consistent with a group of people that are always going to be the same so that the homeowners can have actual friendly relationships with us.”
The Abode team also believes in transparency. When mistakes are made, because they do happen, they are honest with their homeowners, letting them know the situation and how they are planning to handle it.
So there you have it! The secret to organic growth is making mistakes and fostering relationships.
To listen to the full conversation between Lynell and Rachel on How We Grow: The Vacation Rental Show, follow the links here: