Max Watson, a retired IT professional in the picturesque community of Seaside, Florida, had never owned a vacation rental. He had, however, heard increasing complaints from his neighbors about the companies managing their vacation rentals which is where Homeowner’s Collection was born.
Max’s outsider perspective on his neighbors’ dissatisfaction with the agencies managing their vacation rentals gave him an idea. His vision would revolutionize his neighbors’ experience as vacation rental owners.
“As I was talking to neighbors, they were getting unhappy with the cottage rental agencies,” Max said. “They were getting charged what I thought sounded like an outrageous amount of money. It appeared at that time that the agencies weren’t very responsive.
“So, I said, why don’t you let me find somebody who knows how to do this? We can talk to homeowners and put together an agency that is owned by the homeowners themselves so they actually have a share in the company.”
Max enlisted the expertise of Amy Wise-Coble, a longtime community rental operator whom he knew through another homeowner. Together, they founded Homeowner’s Collection Vacation Rentals in October 2012 and signed on their first 25 homes.
Just like any other vacation rental company, Homeowner’s Collection provides full-service, turnkey rental management operations. The company also conducts sales, marketing, reservations, housekeeping, maintenance, renovation coordination, owner services, and accounting.
Owner-owned vacation rental management company, Homeowner’s Collection.
What sets Homeowner’s Collection apart is that the homeowners own the company that manages their vacation rentals.
Each homeowner is required to buy a share of stock in the company, Rental Owners Group Inc. The share price is consistent for all shareholders. At the end of the year, if revenue exceeds expenses, the shareholders receive a refund for their share of the profits and can use the credit toward their fees for the next year.
“It is unique in that it gives vacation rental owners greater control over how their company operates,” Amy said.
A Board of Directors, made up of five homeowners/shareholders, decides how the company is operated, down to small details such as what kind of linens are used. The homeowners elect their representatives for the board during the company’s annual meeting.
“The owners get to determine the characteristics of their cottages, and then Amy puts together a budget and says this is what it’s going to take to run that,” Max said.
The company’s financials are open for review by any owner simply by scheduling an appointment with Amy.
“We are delivering a much better product, and the homeowners are actually paying less to have it done,” Max said.
Sustainable future for vacation home rental owners
Homeowner’s Collection works because it is directly owned by those with the most vested interest in its success and knowledge of what the Seaside experience is all about, Amy said.
The model reflects the character of Seaside and promotes its unique brand.
The 80-acre master-planned community, distinct for tin-roofed cottages with different architectural designs and pastel-hued exteriors, was the birthplace of New Urbanism in the early 1980s. Seaside appeared in the 1998 movie, “The Truman Show,” starring Jim Carrey.
At one point, nearly 20 other vacation rental companies were operating in Seaside, Amy said.
“You have so many operators coming in that think anybody can do a vacation rental, and I can make some quick money,” Amy said. “You are dealing with people who don’t understand the Seaside brand. They don’t understand the guest expectation. Their service levels can be all over the board. Their responsiveness is all over the board. We believe a guest who comes to Seaside should have a very high expectation of all aspects of their experience, and we know we deliver on those.”
Homeowner’s Collection also reinforces Seaside’s brand by using local products such as Modica Market wine and Amavida Coffee Roasters coffee.
“Everything we do is about these 80 acres, what it stands for, and what we’ve been from founding values forward,” Amy said.
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Metrics of vacation rental success
Homeowner’s Collection started out with just 25 homes. The company now manages 145 homes, more than half of the vacation rentals in Seaside, according to Key Data, a rental market data platform. It is now the largest rental provider in Seaside and the only rental provider exclusive to Seaside.
About a year ago, Homeowner’s Collection partnered with Key Data to evaluate its performance against competitors in Seaside and in the Highway 30A corridor.
The average daily rate of units under management by Homeowner’s Collection is up 11% year-on-year from 2020, according to the company’s quarterly progress report by Key Data. Meanwhile, the company’s inventory grew 42%. [To learn more about what data you need and where to find it, check out our guide here.]
“We use Key Data to benchmark ourselves against our competitors in Seaside and in the region to make sure we are keeping up in the occupancy trends,” Amy said. “We recently picked up another aspect of the system which is the one that allows you to evaluate performance.”
Now, she can provide prospective shareholders with reports comparing Homeowner’s Collection with other management companies in terms of growth, average daily rate, occupancy, revenue, and other key data points that vacation rental owners care about.
“Our homeowners keep coming back to say they love the report. It just was very well received,” Amy said.
“We can see that we are trending well ahead of the competitors of the global Seaside community,” she said.
Key Data also allows the company to issue a report on the performance of each house they manage. Homeowner’s Collection plans to run individual house reports annually for the first time this year.
The reports will compare each house with other vacation rentals in the area. If a house is experiencing less growth than other vacation rentals, Homeowner’s Collection will provide advice on how the homeowner can catch up with the competition.
“We can talk to them about it, and say, you might want to add this, that, or the other. You might want to upgrade this,” Amy said. “It allows us to just really take a deep dive into each individual home, which is very helpful as well.”
Taking a risk in the short-term rental industry
When Max first approached Amy to found Homeowner’s Collection, she was slow to believe that his nontraditional vision of an owner-owned company could really work.
“Finally, I remember thinking, but what if it does? It could change the industry,” Amy said.
“I truly felt the concept was very ‘Seaside.’ It was visionary and challenging, and the rest is history.”
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