Have you ever considered going into the vacation rental business with your partner? Is it a great idea, or a sure-fire way to end the relationship? And if you do take the plunge, how can you set yourself (and your relationship) up for success?
On February 14, 2024, Lodgify SEO & Content Manager Alberto Fernández sought out to answer these questions by hosting our first-ever Valentine’s day special webinar on managing a vacation rental with your partner.
Alberto was joined by two couples-turned-vacation rental management partners:
- Kit Leggett and Chet Long from KBL Advantage and Sunken Escapes, who manage 24 properties
- Daniela Derin and Vincenzo Scognamiglio from Skol Apartments Marbella, who manage a total of 90 properties
The result was an hour filled with helpful answers and tips about how to maintain successful properties over the years while still nurturing healthy and happy relationships at home. Whether you are new to the vacation rental industry or a seasoned expert, and whether you’ve been with your partner for years or decades, you were sure to find valuable insights to implement.
But if you missed the webinar, don’t worry: We include the recording, a recap, and some of the best answers from the Q&A session below.
Webinar recording
Webinar recap
The webinar began with an introduction to the speakers, Kit and Chet and Daniela and Vincenzo. The two couples are unique in that they come from different parts of the world and have spent different amounts of time both together and managing rentals, enabling them to speak to a diverse array of strengths and challenges.
Kit and Chet live in Nova Scotia and began their personal and professional relationships almost simultaneously in 2021. Daniela and Vincenzo, on the other hand, live in Marbella, Spain, have been together for 28 years, and manage a total of 90 properties.
After introducing the couples, Alberto went on to briefly explain Lodgify’s main features and benefits, offering a preview of our latest feature: Dynamic Pricing. To be officially released next week, Dynamic Pricing is an in-house tool that uses an algorithm to automatically calculate and adjust your nightly rates, ensuring they’re always competitive.
Introductions and explanations complete, the webinar’s Q&A session began, giving us a first-hand look at what it’s like to manage a vacation rental with your partner.
Q&A session
Question: How do you divide roles and responsibilities in managing your properties?
Answer (Daniela): We have everything divided: the house chores and the business chores. I manage bookings, client communications, and owners. And he does operations, cleaning, maintenance, and finances. So all the roles are completely divided. I do mine, he does his. Because with this amount of properties, you have to have processes in place.
Answer (Kit): We own quite a few properties ourselves. And so Chet really takes the reins on the guest communications and making sure that’s okay for our properties. And then for the ones that we manage on behalf of other people, I take the reins and manage all the guest communications and the cleaning.
Answer (Chet): Outsourcing really alleviates the time that each person would potentially have…And that’s just part and parcel of Lodgify. With all the automated tools that Lodgify provides, such as the PM modules side to automatically assign cleaners and send messages at certain points, it really alleviates a lot of the day-to-day stuff…Lodgify solves a lot of that. So that allows us both to have a more flexible schedule and to step in and help each other when the other person just needs the assistance.
Question: Can you walk us through how you make major decisions regarding your rental properties?
Answer (Chet): She’s calculated and I’m more of a “we’ll fix it later” kind of person. Both have their strengths, and that’s kind of how we work well together…As long as you’re willing to do the work, I’m a firm believer in just “being a yes.” And everything else can work itself out with hard work and support systems. And sometimes being super calculated has its benefits, for sure. But I think that’s why we balance each other out. We probably just meet in the middle most times.
Answer (Kit): We do kind of meet in the middle. And if one of us is a hard no on something, then it’s a hard no, or maybe put a pin in it and come back to it. But if one of us is really against an idea, then it just wouldn’t happen.
Answer (Chet): You just need to be aligned with your partner.
It’s not like you go home from work at the end of the day. If you aren’t aligned in a decision, you’re going to bed with that person at the end of the night and you’re waking up beside them the next morning.
Answer (Vincenzo): She’s the boss. She makes the decisions.
Answer (Daniela): I have all these fun ideas…And if I come up with an idea I’m really passionate about and he says “don’t even think about it,” then I get very angry. But then maybe six months later, I go back and say, “you were right.” So, I’m totally aware that a lot of my ideas are unrealistic. Having somebody who grounds you—because I’m flying all the time and he grounds me; he brings me down—this is the key of our partnership, both personally and professionally.
Question: How do you ensure that business discussions do not overshadow your personal relationship?
Answer (Daniela): It’s important to unwind at the end of the day, either together or alone. We go for walks along the promenade. Yesterday we went for a cycle. On Fridays we go out for a drink. It’s important to unwind.
Answer (Vincenzo): It’s a fusion of private and business.
Answer (Kit): They really go hand in hand. It’s kind of one and the same. Because we’re doing the same thing and we’re together. And sometimes when you’re trying to unwind, something business pops up. And because we are in a customer service business, a people business, sometimes you do have to just step away, take care of the business thing, and then go, “Okay, now are we done? I hope so. Fingers crossed.” And continue on with our night.
Answer (Chet): I would say, to answer that question, that you don’t [separate your personal and business lives]. And if you have the expectation that you can, that would create problems…That would be nice, but just letting go of that concept is what works for us. You truly do have to be understanding that this business is 24/7 and you can put systems in place, but the idea that I’m done working at 5 and we’re not talking about anything else is a ridiculous concept.
And if you want to get into business with your partner, ensuring that alignment is there before you make that decision is important…We don’t have an issue with that overlap because we aligned on that before we decided to go into business together.
Check out the webinar recording to hear the rest of the questions and answers!
How to contact our speakers
Learn more about Kit and Chet by visiting the websites for KBL Advantage and Sunken Escapes. You can also follow Kit (@kittykit247) and Sunken Escapes (@sunkenescapes) on Instagram.
For more information on Daniela and Vincenzo, check out the Skol Apartments Marbella site and follow them on Facebook, Instagram (@skolmarbella), and LinkedIn.
Finally, learn more about how Lodgify can help grow your vacation rental business with a free 7-day trial or demo call!
