After more than 20 years of teaching preschoolers, Beverly Latham craved a change that would allow her to work with more grownups.
Through a parent of one of her preschool children, she found a job in guest relations in May 2019 at Harris Vacation Rentals in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
Beverly made the career leap look easy, shining her “radiant joy” on her coworkers in the process, said Sable Marston, executive assistant at Harris Vacation Rentals.
Bringing housekeeping in-house
Seven months after joining the team, Beverly was promoted to warehouse manager in the property management company’s new housekeeping department.
Company owner Brian Harris had wanted an in-house housekeeping department for some time because he wanted to improve the quality of housekeeping at Harris properties and boost the number of five-star ratings from guests.
“Brian would have more control over the details of what gets cleaned to make sure we get a five-star rating,” Beverly said. “For example, some of these companies come in and aren’t concerned if the outside grill is clean. Harris Vacation Rentals’ focus is to get the inside and outside of it cleaned. The outside grill is one of the things that we require to be cleaned.”
The Harris housekeeping department started out with five housekeepers who were responsible for just 20 of the 120 vacation rentals that Harris manages. As the Quality Assurance Department built up the team to 25 housekeepers in summer 2021, the company was able to limit the amount of outsourcing.
Since January 2021 when they started tracking it, Harris Vacation Rentals has earned more than 800 five-star ratings. Beverly designed the poster the company uses to highlight their five-star ratings at their properties.
The company uses Breezeway to schedule maintenance and housekeeping and provides customizable checklists for cleaning. Cleaners can accept or decline cleaning on the platform.
Checklists can be customized to individual houses, so if the house has a pool, cleaning the pool area is on that specific house’s checklist, Beverly said. Breezeway will tell her how long a maintenance tech or housekeeper spent on a job, and the platform allows the housekeepers and techs to upload photos of completed tasks.
“Mama Bear” cares for the team
Her role in the new housekeeping department was to make sure that cleaners, inspectors, and maintenance crew had everything they needed before they went out to work at the vacation rentals. She accepted laundered linens and towels, folded them, and stored them on shelves. She bagged up cleaning and toiletry kits and queued the bags up for housekeepers to pick up before their shift. She made the schedule for housekeepers and cleaning inspectors, and she did kitchen inventories. She also cleaned houses if they were short-staffed and needed help.
“I love organizing things,” she said, “so keeping the warehouse organized and having things just ready to grab, whatever you needed at the moment, was big for me.”
But even more than organizing, Beverly loves her team.
“I loved interacting with the housekeepers,” she said. “We’ve created lots of friendships that still to this day mean a lot.”
Her coworkers noticed her efforts and nicknamed her Mama Bear for her nurturing and caring attitude toward her colleagues.
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Breezeway Excellence Award during International Housekeeping Week
Then, earlier this year, Sable nominated Beverly for a Breezeway Excellence Award. The awards program began in February 2021 “to highlight the exceptional work performed by the Breezeway community and recognize those outstanding in their field,” said Koryn Okey, head of customer success.
In September, the awards focused on excellence in housekeeping to mark International Housekeepers Week, which is Sept. 12-18. A panel of Breezeway employees selected five award recipients out of 150 nominees, and Beverly was one of them.
“Vacation rental professionals’ commitment to excellence is what makes this industry so successful,” Koryn said. “Without the diligence from housekeepers, inspectors, maintenance techs, and front office staff, guests wouldn’t experience the first-class service they’ve come to know and love.”
The nomination highlighted Beverly’s joyful attitude, resourcefulness, and ability to multitask.
“She is a walking encyclopedia, GPS, and wealth of knowledge; if you ask her where an item is located, what time an employee is coming back from lunch, or when the next owner is checking in, she knows the answers to them all,” Sable wrote in the nomination. “She selflessly puts other needs above her own and makes sure the team has what they need to start and complete their day.”
All of the recipients, including Beverly, received an award certificate and a $100 gift card in September.
“I have just one word to describe it – completely overwhelmed,” Beverly said. “I didn’t know I was nominated. I got a call one day from Sable, and she said, hey, I’m going to add Elizabeth, another employee. We’ve got something to tell you. And of course, my first thought was this can’t be good.
“When they told me about the award, I was at the point of tears that I received this honor and the kind things that Sable said.”
Professional growth in vacation rentals
Beverly’s success in the vacation rental industry didn’t stop with Breezeway’s honor. She was recently promoted to interim quality assurance manager at the company.
“It’s just unreal how things have unfolded for me in this industry,” Beverly said, “and it’s just been exciting; it’s been fulfilling; and I’m completely overwhelmed by all of this.”
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