When one of her guests mentioned that medical professionals were sleeping in tents in their garages to protect their families, short-term rental host Tyann Marcink stepped in to help.
Tyann runs Missouri Haus Vacation Rentals, a small collection of short-term rentals around St. Louis and Missouri wine country which she owns or manages together with her husband, Nat Hammond. While the homes are convenient to local tourist attractions for the area’s usual leisure travel guests, they’re also all between two and 15 minutes to a hospital, making them the perfect self-contained properties to house front line healthcare personnel during the coronavirus pandemic.
So, she opened her extended stay program to include all six homes and created a special discount program exclusive to frontline medical staff. “We wanted to open that up because our calendar was open, we had the availability, and it’s definitely a need right now,” said Tyann.
One of her most recent guests in this program was a medical professional whose daughter is immunocompromised. Any chance of him bringing the coronavirus home could be extremely dangerous to her, so his wife began searching for place he could stay comfortably. When Tyann welcomed him to one of her rentals, “she messaged back that she was in tears because we said ‘yes,’” Tyann said.
The program is playing an integral role to keeping many people healthy. She has since hosted another healthcare professional and an electrical engineer, and at the time this article was published, a firefighter had inquired as well.
For all guests, Missouri Haus cleaners have been following CDC protocols, running ozone air purifiers, and leaving properties vacant for 72 hours in between rentals.
Hospitality for the Whole Community
The intersection of hospitality and creative solutions isn’t new to Tyann. After her parents bought two vacation rentals in Branson, MO, in 2006, she built her first just a year later. In 2009, she built her second and then became quite addicted, as she puts it.
In 2017, once she discovered her long-term rental in Union was being used for drug dealing, she rehabbed and converted the property to a short-term rental, the first in the town. The following year, she purchased a historic Marthasville bank originally built in the late 1800s (plus the property next door), which she meticulously renovated into a unique short-term rental named the Bank Haus. They now host guests visiting to bike the popular Katy Trail or tour the nearby wine country (or both.)
Her hard work did not go unnoticed, and others began asking her to manage their short-term rentals as well. Most of their shared guests (pre-coronavirus) visit the area for weddings, family reunions, business, romantic weekends, or events at Purina Farms, an event center and attraction for pet lovers outside of St. Louis.
Along with Missouri Haus, Tyann runs Branson Family Retreats, homes specifically designed for family vacations around Branson, MO. She also does real estate photography, serves as an ambassador for digital guidebook platform TouchStay, speaks at industry conferences, and teaches other hosts through the five-day VR Mastered Bootcamp.
Throughout all of her work in short-term rentals, Tyann bakes in support for other local businesses, from recommending them to guests to partnering with them on exclusive local experiences. For the guests who were forced to cancel their stays due to COVID-19, they were fully refunded. Still, Tyann asked that they put some of their refunds toward supporting those their hometowns. “Since you’re not spending it with us as a small business,” she said, “we asked that you spend it in one of your local small businesses.”
Tyann empathizes with the many that are struggling given the current circumstances, and she is proud to help them, local medical professionals, and her broader community through her rentals.
“One of the main purposes of our vacation rental business is to be able to provide a place for families and travelers to have peace and security,” she said. “I strongly believe one of the best parts of my job is being able to provide that peace and security for those that are working on the front lines of this crisis.”
Know of other people or companies stepping up to help others through the coronavirus crisis? Email info@rentresponsibly.org.
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