As a single mother, Danielle Lindsey had no time to lose with her teenage daughter.
But her job as a brand ambassador often took her out of town on business trips.
Moonlighting as a short-term rental host quickly demonstrated that she didn’t have to choose between time with her daughter and earning a decent income for her family.
She quickly expanded her side gig into an all-inclusive property management company called Prepped Place. Within a few months of founding the company, she quit her day job as a brand ambassador.
Prepped Place offers short-term rental management, housekeeping, and maintenance as well as meal prep, organizational services, and housekeeping for busy people.
“The company was an opportunity to take control of the direction of my life,” Danielle said.
Flexibility draws women to short-term rentals
The short-term rental industry is especially appealing to women, Danielle said, because it allows women to “have it all” – to balance career, family, and personal development.
“Women carry so many burdens, and I think the flexibility of this industry takes away some of those worries that we have at the end of the day,” Danielle said.
Recent data from The State of the STR Community Survey by Rent Responsibly and the College of Charleston supports that idea.
Out of 3,510 respondents from the STR industry, nearly 58% were women. About 39% were men, 0.1% were nonbinary/third gender, and 3% preferred not to disclose their gender.
Despite their advances in the workplace, women continue to bear most of the burden of caretaking, whether that be of a child, an elderly parent, or a family member with a disability.
About 58% of all unpaid eldercare providers are women, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In 2017, mothers spent twice as much time caring for children as fathers did in the U.S., the Pew Research Center reported.
That disparity in time spent on child care gaped even wider during Covid-related school closures last year. A worldwide study by the Center for Global Development found that women provided 173 more hours of unpaid child care in 2020 compared with 59 additional hours for men.
Hence, it’s easy to see why employment opportunities with flexible hours or work-at-home options hold a special attraction to women.
“Women wear so many hats,” Danielle said. “Any opportunity that we have to rewrite the narrative, be our own boss, and still be a mom, still be that backbone of the family, [is priceless].”
Employers with flexible work options are more likely to attract and retain female employees. Mothers who had access to remote work options, for instance, were 32% less likely to report intending to leave their jobs, according to a study by Catalyst.
“I wanted to be home for dinner”
Michelle Williams, a Yale graduate who lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts, used to work in the corporate tech world before joining her family’s business, Atlantic Vacation Homes. She has since taken on leadership roles in the short-term rental industry, serving on the Board of Directors for the Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) and as the chairperson of the Vacation Rental Housekeeping Professionals (VRHP) Council.
“I was really burned out on my corporate life,” Michelle said of her career metamorphosis. “I had to travel a lot or I had a long commute. My kid was getting older, I was never home for dinner, I was gone all day, and we were paying nannies.”
Now, Michelle can adjust her schedule to the needs of her life.
“My commute is like 10 minutes or less,” she said, “so even if I’m working late or on the weekend, I still have that flexibility. I’m home in time for dinner. I am able to spend more time with family, and if I have a doctor’s appointment, it’s not a huge ordeal.”
A gathering of women in vacation rentals
The theme of work-life balance featured high in the Vacation Rental Women’s Summit in New Orleans earlier this month.
Amy Hinote of VRM Intel founded the summit in 2019 to encourage, inspire, and celebrate women in the industry as well as create a space where they could swap ideas and information, network, and become more comfortable sharing their expertise onstage.
This year, in addition to the traditional topics on business best practices, there were sessions on self-care, building confidence, figuring out what you’re good at, and resilience.
“And as a woman, how do you tap into those pieces of yourself to then have a better business?” Michelle said.
Men’s voices still dominate the short-term rental space
When it comes to everyday operations on the ground, women lead the short-term rental industry.
However, men’s voices still dominate when it comes to short-term rental investment, technology, thought leadership, and education, said Mike Ortegon, an international vacation rental advisor and a VRMA diversity, equity, and inclusion subcommittee member. He has been tracking the gender of keynote speakers and breakout session panelists at recent STR conferences and events in North America and Europe.
On average, about 68% of speakers at the last 10 events before the December 2021 Vacation Rental Women’s Summit were men, and just 32% were women, he said.
“When you look at the numbers, it clearly demonstrates that we still have work to do,” Mike said.
Nonetheless, women in the short-term rental industry are charting their own paths to independence, freedom, and flexibility.
Becoming her own woman
In Danielle’s case, Prepped Place not only filled a void for a one-stop-shop for short-term rental and home services in Dallas, but it gave her a flexible schedule and the ability to spend more quality time with her daughter, 16-year-old Sahmya.
Suddenly, Danielle was able to participate in activities and school projects with Sahmya that she rarely had time for in her previous career.
One of her most memorable activities with Sahmya was helping out on a food drive in South Dallas.
“We would go to the neighborhoods there and hand out hot meals and clothes,” Danielle said.
Danielle also was able to help out with her daughter’s junior fall dance.
Sahmya is the junior class president at her school and was responsible for planning the dance – the first after Covid-19 shutdowns.
“It was awesome to see her leadership skills in action,” Danielle said.
The admiration goes both ways.
“She thinks it’s really awesome what I’m doing,” Danielle said. “I feel like I’m kind of living the dream. She tells me, you’re a superstar; you’re a rock star. It teaches her a lot about being her own woman.”
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