When Covid-19 forced Christina and Christian Thoreson, owners of Chattanooga Vacation Rentals, to lay off 15 of their 17 employees, they wanted to help more than with unemployment alone.
Two years ago, Christina Thoreson gave her husband, Christian, an unusual Christmas present: paperwork to form a nonprofit. The couple wanted to create a foundation that could help fund personal and professional development for employees at their short-term rental management company, Chattanooga Vacation Rentals.
Christian, better known as “Thor,” is an avid hang glider and airplane pilot who had been helping their reservationist fulfill her dream of learning to fly and earning a pilot’s license.
“We thought, ‘If we are willing to do this for her, we really would be willing to do it for any of our team to help them develop,” Christina said.
So the Thoresons filled out the nonprofit paperwork, and it sat on a shelf as they tended to their growing business, which manages properties in Tennessee and Georgia.
Covid grounds business
Then came COVID-19. In March, the Thoresons realized that the pandemic would force them to put the business on hold for at least a few months and they would have to lay off 15 of their 17 employees. They helped their staff apply for unemployment, but that only covers 60% of previous earnings. The Thoresons wanted to do more.
So they dusted off their nonprofit paperwork and relaunched the Fly Foundation, funding it with their personal savings, with a new mission: to supplement what unemployment does not cover so their laid-off staff could receive their normal level of income even while the business is down — and be ready to pitch in once business comes back.
“We want the gang to be together when we get back in business,” Thor said.
A new flight path
Before the pandemic, the Thoresons had planned to double their vacation rental management business. They had previously grown Chattanooga Vacation Rentals from two properties they operated themselves in 2014 to the management of 28 properties at the start of 2020, all by word of mouth. Their goal this year was to start marketing their services to more vacation rental owners. That’s still the plan, Christina said.
In the meantime, the Thoresons said they are looking at the current circumstances as a unique opportunity to retool their business: “Thinking about every piece of the puzzle independently and as it fits together to make sure it makes sense,” according to Thor.
That also includes tasks that can get overlooked in the busy day-to-day, such as scrutinizing every budget item, upgrading their website, upgrading software, and more. And then taking it slow.
“When we come back, we’re not going to come back all at once. We’re going to come back and rehire our people and have a long conversation with them before we do and do it right,” Christina said.
For the industry as a whole, the Thoresons believe it’s a great time for property managers and individual hosts to band together and learn from each other. And they believe that short-term rental businesses who get the fundamentals right will be able to come back stronger than ever, but that it will “distill” the industry.
But no matter how Chattanooga Vacation Rentals adjusts for the post-coronavirus world, Fly Foundation will still be a guiding star. Any funds remaining in the foundation after the pandemic will be used to fund the Thoresons’ original goal of helping their staff achieve their dreams.
“Teaching people to fly is both literal and metaphoric,” Christina said. “We want our team to be happy and successful whether that’s with us or not.”
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