Three years ago, Domenica Mastroianni found herself needing a vacation from vacation planning. She realized there was a gap between travelers increasingly turning to short-term rentals and the lack of concierge-type services available to them, so she started Stock the House to bridge the two.
Stock the House provides luxury on-demand concierge services in vacation destinations across the Northeast, including Vermont, the Adirondacks, and the Jersey Shore.
Their dozens of concierge jobs are perfect for those who need flexibility or don’t fit the typical corporate boilerplate, as Domenica puts it. Their concierges are often moms, college students, and retirees like Maureen McLoughlin. Domenica looks for those who are fiercely loyal to their communities and love promoting them.
“Creating jobs around this particular industry gives me an enormous amount of satisfaction because I know that not only are we doing right by our clients by hiring these people, we are giving people like Maureen new opportunities that they didn’t necessarily have before,” she said.
A Global Hiring Freeze
Usually, this time of year, Domenica would have recently hired their seasonal summer staff. Maureen and the other concierges would be busy arranging grocery deliveries, gear rentals, custom local experiences, and special requests for their clients.
Stock the House was just about to cut the ribbon on a new service market in the Cape Cod area and hire for new concierge jobs there when Covid-19 hit, decimating the travel industry and grinding their business to a halt.
“We had been investing in launching in that area, and then we really got our knees cut off, because it’s unclear when that area will even open up.” Stock the House is evaluating how to reorganize their efforts there, which is difficult with uncertain reopening timelines and mixed quarantine rules in the region.
(At the time of publication, leisure accommodations, including short-term rentals, throughout Massachusetts are allowed to operate, but all arrivals to the state must quarantine for 14 days unless they meet testing requirements or certain exemptions.)
So far, Domenica has not had to go through layoffs or furloughs. “Thankfully, we’ve always operated in a way that allows us to flex up and flex down from a staffing perspective.”
During the shutdowns in March, April and May, Domenica refocused the work of their year-round concierge team to keep them employed and the business running. “That’s not easy, because you cannot predict when markets are going to open back up, but it’s really important to keep good talent and keep them busy and engaged,” she said. “If our primary markets had remained closed for much longer, we may not have been able to retain our concierges at the same rate. That’s a huge stressor.”
Stock the House concierges have been working on how to adapt the business for the Covid world, launching new services and creating ways to serve their clients and local businesses better.
The result: Doorstep Delivery, a new online ordering service and contact-free delivery for local businesses that don’t have an online shopping presence.
Doorstep Delivery
On June 29, Doorstep Delivery launched in Stowe, VT, followed by the Jersey Shore in mid-July. Guests can purchase online from local businesses, and Stock the House concierges will pick up and deliver their orders to their vacation homes contact-free.
“The charm and value in local businesses in smaller towns has been the ability to go into the store and shop and interact with the business owner and pick out the things that you love. But in this new era, that’s going to be slow to come back,” Domenica said. “In the meantime, we want to help local businesses have an online store and the ability to still sell their goods and products through a platform that doesn’t take away from what they’re already doing.”
She compared the service to DoorDash or UberEats. “But the real gap is that those models take a significant percentage from the business owner, and business owners are running on super slim margins to begin with,” she said. “We’re partnering with small local businesses helping them put their goods online and promote them to our network of clients and partners, so when they are shopping online and they want local products, that business owner has a footprint there.”
Many of the offered products are created custom for Stock the House clients. For example, Maureen worked with The Butchery in Stowe to create dinner packages designed specifically for vacation rental guests, including grilling assortments, a cocktail hour buffet, and even a special 4th of July bundle. The Butchery also offers its signature seasonings and sauces through Doorstep Delivery.
In Stone Harbor, NJ, guests can order from The Painted Pie, a fine baking and catering company. Prior to Covid, the company primarily offered large-scale catering services, but they adapted to meet the new world of social distancing and no large gatherings with meal and bakery options for small groups and intimate occasions. Stock the House customers can now order The Painted Pie’s prepared dishes and desserts for a delicious in-home experience while they’re on vacation.
“As a small business, especially during Coronavirus, it’s hard juggling all the different hats. For us, Stock the House coming in and giving us the option to get to people’s homes directly and safely is a game-changer,” said Dylan Gormley, whose family owns and operates the business. Though The Painted Pie has been live in Doorstep Delivery just a couple of weeks, they’ve already received numerous orders from the service.
Guests can also order new and locally sourced linen and bedroom sets and have all of their beds made pre-arrival. After their stay, guests can take the linens home or have them donated to a local organization in need, including a refugee resettlement organization in Vermont and Catholic Charities chapters in New Jersey.
Finding Strength in Flexibility
Both Domenica and Maureen anticipate more services like this with the way travel is changing. Previously, their typical clients were vacationing for a week or a long weekend. Stock the House would make most of its core income around milestone events during guests’ visits, such as birthday parties or special dinners with a private chef.
Particularly in Vermont, many travelers are now coming for much longer, sometimes the entire summer. With these longer visits, social distancing measures, and events nearly nonexistent, Stock the House’s primary business is now day-to-day errands services, such as package deliveries or grocery pickups. They will have to do a lot more volume of these types of tasks to make up for the lost occasion-related income.
They’re also taking on tasks that might have been considered unusual pre-pandemic but are now part of the new normal. Maureen, for example, has turned a bedroom into a complete home office for a guest working remotely. She has also served as a pseudo property manager for a partner who can’t get to a home because of quarantine requirements.
They have also proactively become the experts for guests in helping them navigate the maze of travel advisories. (At the time of publication, arrivals to Vermont are also required to quarantine for 14 days unless they meet certain exemptions.)
Stock the House concierges educate their clients on state and local orders to make sure they can visit safely and comfortably. For example, for one extended family coming to Vermont for their parents’ 50th anniversary, Maureen held a Zoom call with the whole group, including a pair from Germany, to walk them through what to expect when they arrived.
The video calls have been an unexpected benefit to Maureen, who plans to incorporate them into her regular communication practices after the pandemic. “I’m kicking myself for not having done something like that sooner,” she said. “It’s such a great personal touch.”
“What I really like is finding ways to just make this situation easier for people and more palatable,” Maureen added. “You come to Vermont and you’re supposed to stay on-site and not go anywhere for two weeks, what can we do to make that easier to swallow and make that not feel like a punishment?”
Fostering personal connections with their clients has always been a cornerstone of Stock the House’s service. Previously, concierges would normally meet their clients at the vacation rentals or spend a few hours in the homes with them assisting in an event like a catered dinner.
For now, the in-person welcomes are paused as a part of their safety measures. They have also implemented safety precautions like gloves, masks, and face shields when a concierge must enter a home, such as to deliver groceries or make a bed, as well as disinfection practices and minimum vacancy times.
Vacations Are More Essential Than Ever
While it may never look the same as it did prior to Covid-19, travel will always exist, and vacations will always be an important part of our lives. “You still have to do things like wear a mask and wear gloves, and when you go to places like Vermont, you still have to quarantine for 14 days – but if you can go, you should go,” Domenica said.
“What I have seen more and more in these early reopening phases of people starting to vacation is how valuable that vacation really is, and how special it is to be able to go somewhere and relax and recharge now more so than ever,” Domenica said. “We are in a very unique period of time, and we have to continue to value the importance of change of location, change of scenery, experiencing the outdoors, and getting quality family time.”
She said Stock the House clients are heading home much more relaxed and ready to face whatever comes their way next. So for those who can travel safely, Domenica encourages it. “Please, go vacation. Do it in a way that’s safe, and spend your money at the small local businesses who are thrilled to have you and could really use your help.”
Read More: Local as it Gets, Part I: Maureen McLoughlin
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