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Amy: [00:00:04] Hey, everyone, this is Amy, and I’m here with Jamie Stark Inlow from Be Still Getaways. I am super excited for this interview. I’ve been following Jamie for a long time on Instagram, and it’s obvious that she’s crushing it from online perspective. So happy to have her here so that we can get behind the scenes with all the nitty gritty about co-hosting. So before we get started, welcome, Jamie.

Jamie Inlow: [00:00:33] Thank you, Amy.

Amy: [00:00:35] Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, and yeah, how did you get your start in co-hosting?

Jamie Inlow: [00:00:41] Sure. I’m Jamie, and I’m the owner of Be Still Getaways, a boutique management and design company located in the Shenandoah Valley in the Central Virginia area. And I started Be Still Getaways, I guess, a few years ago at this point. It’s weird to think about timeline because I feel like COVID makes everything feel really extended and strange.  

But we started just before the COVID pandemic and my background is actually in higher education. My husband and I relocated back to Virginia from Boone, North Carolina, where I was working in higher education, and I always had it on a back burner for myself. I had friends in real estate development who were starting to get into short-term rentals, and that was on the cusp of Airbnb, where you were like, you saw people renting them, you saw people creating them, but it wasn’t as prevalent as it is now.  

I was watching them do this. They actually did a really cool tiny house in Boone, North Carolina, and I was like, I want to do that. That is so cool. And I think a really important part of my story is that even in higher education, I worked a lot in leadership. I was in upper administration.  

And my theme and how I did everything, and I vocalized this to anyone who walked into my office, but I always wanted hospitality to come through for me. I wanted my office to feel like a space that people could sit down and feel welcome. I wanted it to feel safe. Hospitality is a whole feeling, as we know. And that is so ironic. I gave a whole speech about it at Appalachian. It’s just crazy looking back on that, that I am now in the hospitality industry.  

So we relocated back to Virginia. I was working in a contracting role with higher ed at that point. And we were living on a mini farm in Scottsville, Virginia. I had just had a baby, and my neighbor had a really killer luxury barn apartment, and I can’t remember why, but I had gone through it, and my wheels started spinning, and I was like, this would make a killer Airbnb. So I wrote my business proposal, and he was like, yeah, let’s do it. I was like, I’m going to furnish it. I asked him for $2,000, and I just– so funny, right, Amy? Now, thinking about $2,000–

Amy: [00:03:04] It won’t get you–

Jamie Inlow: [00:03:05] Just insane.

Jamie Inlow: [00:03:06] Yeah. That’s right.

Amy: [00:03:07] It won’t get you very far.

Jamie Inlow: [00:03:08] Right. Now we’re doing six-figure design installs, and I’m looking at $2,000, and I’m like, wow, I cannot believe I did that. And it just took off. And that the birth of Be Still Getaways. I loved it. It was extremely successful. And I was like, this is going to be my full-time gig. And that’s how we were born. And it’s just been a three-year evolution from that. But that’s a very abbreviated origin story for Be Still Getaways.

Amy: [00:03:37] Yeah. And how cool is it that your neighbor trusted you to do this without having any experience yourself?

Jamie Inlow: [00:03:45] That’s right. That was very kind of him.

Amy: [00:03:49] So in only three years, then how many properties are you up to now?

Jamie Inlow: [00:03:56] Sure. So we are not just in the vacation rental industry. We do motels and inns. I would say that’s one of our biggest lines of defense in our portfolio right now. That’s mostly what we’re onboarding at this point. So doors, we currently have 127 doors that are live, but we have almost 170 doors under contract launching before the end of 2024.

Amy: [00:04:23] That’s incredible. This is another reason why I just want to dig in to all of this. Yes. So you said that you’re in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Do you any properties that are outside of that geographically that you’re co-hosting for as well?

Jamie Inlow: [00:04:41] Yeah, we do. So when we were first starting out, I think maybe my fourth property was a cabin in Linden, Virginia. So we have two houses. I don’t know why my SEO is so dialed in for Linden. There’s no management companies up there. If anybody wanted to do that, it’d be a great moneymaker because our SEO is so dialed in. We get Linden management inquiries at least twice a week, and I’m like, I can’t. I’m not expanding in Linden.

Amy: [00:05:09] Wow.

Jamie Inlow: [00:05:10] But I also own a property management company on the Eastern Shore. We own Cape Charles Escapes as well. I’m purely owner. I do have a property manager out there, and I’m pretty hands-off with that. But we do have a pretty awesome portfolio on the Eastern Shore.

Amy: [00:05:25] But it sounds like most of them then are focused in this one geographical area.

Jamie Inlow: [00:05:31] You got it. Charlottesville, Staunton, Waynesboro, Nelson County. Those are our spots.

Amy: [00:05:37] And do you have any properties of your own, or are you purely co-hosting for other owners?

Jamie Inlow: [00:05:46] Yeah, 100% co-host. But 2024 goal, ESG starts acquiring real estate.

Amy: [00:05:52] Nice, nice. That’s exciting. So your neighbor was your first homeowner. Once that took off and you were like, this is a thing, and I want to do it more, how did you start recruiting more homeowners? How did they find you?

Jamie Inlow: [00:06:13] Sure. That’s a great question. So I am an Enneagram Type 3. When I started the barn, it wasn’t necessarily an evolution. It was like, oh, okay, here is the strategy for how this is going to be a thing. So I immediately started working on a branding package. I contracted a search engine optimization company immediately when I had one property. 

So I had somebody design my website, which is really cool. It actually was one of my former students at Appalachian State who now is a killer graphic designer. But he did my website and all of my branding, my fonts, my logo, everything. He is amazing. And we just really honed in on that. I pictured it from the beginning. I was like, I want this logo to be something that is going to come across really strong in marketing. I was already picturing it on the side of a truck. I just wanted it right from the beginning.

Amy: [00:07:07] Yeah.

Jamie Inlow: [00:07:10] So I was paying an obscene amount of money for search engine optimization, trying to get myself on the first page of Google for boutique property management. And that was successful. And I just really leveraged social media and marketing myself. We all know this, but networking is everything.  

And so I just started making connections. I think my third or fourth property was a girl I had gone to middle school with who had seen Be Still Getaways on Facebook, and she was like, oh, my husband and I just bought these two units in downtown Staunton. Can you do it? 

And that was also my first design project, my first official contracted design project. So we still manage their units. They’re immensely successful. And it just kept going from there. I think the other biggest thing that I did in the beginning, and I have to mention this until the end of time, but I could see the importance of leveraging social media influencers. And so stays and getaways– she had 600 followers then. Julia Randall. She’s amazing.

Amy: [00:08:21] She is amazing.

Jamie Inlow: [00:08:23] She’s amazing. And now, we’re friends. I love it. We still do business together. And she had 600 followers or something at that time. And she had been interacting with some of my posts, and I was like, hey, she was still doing in-kind stays at that point. So I was like, come stay at the barn. Let’s like do a trade.

Amy: [00:08:42] I think I actually saw that stay.

Jamie Inlow: [00:08:44] Yes. Yeah. It was one of her first stays. She had done a press stay in West Virginia or something. And then she stayed at the barn. And then she later did a giveaway at one of our tiny houses, which was crazy. It was viral. And a lot of our growth came through that in the beginning. And that’s what really huge part of our story.

Amy: [00:09:06] So growth in the sense of you got more owners interested or bookings from guests?

Jamie Inlow: [00:09:12] Sure. Both. And that was the pandemic, and we were doing farm stays at that point. We’re talking 100% occupancy on two units all the time. No openings until three months out, which, as a co-host, you’re like, would love for that to–

Amy: [00:09:29] We all want that.

Jamie Inlow: [00:09:30] Yes. And that was a different time. But that was my first taste of co-hosting. I was like, is this how it always is? Is this how short-term rentals are? And so we were gaining a lot of social media following. And so I did obviously gain traction from owners looking for management. At that time, I had partnered with a local realtor in Charlottesville.  

And Sydney is now one of my dearest friends and also my business partner, but she reached out to me via Instagram and was like, hey, what are you doing over there? I see you. I don’t know anybody else doing that in this area. I have a lot of buyers wanting to purchase short-term rentals, but they just don’t know what to do. It’s like whole process.  

So we got together, and it just became a really, really beautiful partnership that still flourishes deeply to this day. And she sent a lot of buyers my way that are like, hey, now I see a way that I could purchase this huge property, but I don’t want manage it. I don’t want to do anything with it. So I’m going to buy it. And here you go.

Amy: [00:10:38] Right. And do you have any part of that process of speaking into this would be a successful short-term rental?

Jamie Inlow: [00:10:46] Absolutely. So Sydney and I, about, I don’t know, I guess it was a year after Be Still Getaways started, we started Carriage House. And so Carriage House is an acquisition company in which Sydney is our realtor. And Sydney will just send out– we have a really deep mailing list, but Sydney will run numbers. She’ll send out investment properties that we think would be good for anybody on our mailing list. And so a lot of our buyers are out of state.  

And then Be Still Getaways and Carriage House, we project manage. We bring in the contractors. We do the full design and outfit all the way to the management process. So it’s the perfect thing to hand an owner. We just wanted to create a one-stop shop where somebody’s not having to piecemeal.  

Like, what contractor do I want to use? What about a project manager? I’m out of state. Who’s picking tile? Who’s doing finishes? And we just created this really beautiful thing to become, again, one-stop shop for an investor looking to purchase short-term rental real estate in this area.

Amy: [00:11:44] I love that. I think that’s so smart, especially for investors who hear about short-term rentals, and yet, yeah, they don’t know where to start. They want it to be successful, and you’re obviously killing it, and yeah, I can see how so many would come to you. Plus, the area that you’re in is beautiful, lots of wineries. I know because I’m only one hour from your area. 

I am so curious. Can you walk us through that process of onboarding a property? It sounds like Carriage House is involved in the acquisition. And then what happens? And how do you get to 127?

Jamie Inlow: [00:12:33] Yeah, we’re definitely at a pump the brakes point right now. We have a wait list. We are really being very, very, very selective on what units we are taking on. We specifically have a couple of investors who are real estate addicts, and we are very loyal to them. And when they purchase new property, we gladly take them on.  

So what that process looks like is, obviously, Sydney always brings the buyer. Shout out to Sydney. And she typically identifies the property as well. So I’ll use a wonderful example of one we have coming on because we are just beginning this process. We are doing a historic mansion in downtown Staunton right now, Oakdene, something like– I don’t want to butcher the date and do her dirty like that, but it’s an 1800s build.  

It’s absolutely gorgeous. Character like you just have never seen before. It’s immaculate. So Sydney located the property, and then usually, what happens is she sends me the link, and I’m like yes. And then typically her and I will go to the property. We do a walkthrough. We talk through things, numbers. What would this look like?  

And then Sydney almost always has a buyer in mind, and she presents it to the buyer. And then she usually brings the offer that day. From there, our team– we have a really amazing team. We have an awesome project manager on staff. And she and I do a lot of our design. She typically preps the designs. We discuss the vibe, we create a mood board, and then we really hone in on our design boards when I’m like, yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking. 

She’ll usually do a rough take on design boards, and then we really start narrowing it down. We create our purchasing list. We present it to the owner. Owner approves. Like, yes, this is exactly what I envisioned. Let’s move forward. So from there, for this Oakdene property, we’ve had all the furniture ordered for about a month.  

We have a 3,000 square foot warehouse here in Waynesboro. So everything is parceled into little piles within our warehouse of what property it’s going to. So everything is received at our warehouse, and now we have closed on the property. So we’ve been working with the contractor. We work with an architect first to finalize any renovations, and we really take a long time finalizing this part.  

Where do we need to fit a washer and dryer? Because we’ve moved into this inn market so heavily, obviously not every house that you come across is ready to be an inn. So that means converting a lot of closets into bathrooms or sticking another room wherever you can, converting third-level floors to, I don’t know, four more individual suites, adding bathrooms.  

So working with an architect, finalizing plans. And many, many, many hours is spent on this part of the process. And once everyone feels good about it, contractor goes in. Our project manager or myself are usually on site daily, checking in on how things are going, making sure that no decisions are randomly being made without our oversight. And then it’s the fun stuff. It’s picking out tile, picking out finishes, light fixtures, flooring.

Amy: [00:15:53] And are you doing that? Who’s doing that?

Jamie Inlow: [00:15:55] Yes, we do all of that in-house. We do all of that in house. And then once finishes are done– yeah.

Amy: [00:16:03] Sorry. Have you ever had an owner who didn’t approve of your choices? Do you run these things by the owners?

Jamie Inlow: [00:16:12] Oh, yeah. Yes, we definitely do. We lay it all out. We create really beautiful design boards, in my opinion. It’s like, this is what it’s going to look like. This is what we have selected.

Amy: [00:16:23] How can they not be excited?

Jamie Inlow: [00:16:26] Yeah. This owner, he has very high-end particular taste, and we’ve done many properties with him at this point. He’s been, thankfully, pretty pleased with our work, but we definitely still make sure he is on board before we really move forward. So yeah, occasionally, there are times when an owner is like, can we try maybe something like this? But for the most part, our owners are looking for a more hands-off approach.  

And they respect our guidance. And I’m really appreciative of that. It makes our job very easy. From there, once the contractor has finished their work, we’re ready for a move in. And so after the construction clean has happened, which we do not do typically, we work with an amazing contractor who does an outstanding construction clean, and then usually, our team goes in. We roll really deep.  

We will have anywhere from five to 15 people on site at a project for a solid one to two weeks, depending on how big the project is, completing, putting furniture together, unboxing, cleaning, running linens, you name it. And then from there, sometimes, depending on how big the inn is, that process can take up to a month. 

And then from there, we’re ready for deep clean and photos. And we’re also doing all the back-end work, you know, preparing everything to receive a guest. It’s very, very intensive and time consuming, as you know.

Amy: [00:17:56] I do, and I–

Jamie Inlow: [00:17:58] But I move as quickly as possible.

Amy: [00:17:59] I love it when you post that at that point in the process on your Instagram stories. It just looks so involved and everybody hands-on. It’s just an amazing thing to watch.

Jamie Inlow: [00:18:14] Thank you. Yeah, that’s a really beautiful part of it. We have about 60 really amazing ladies, and now a few men, on our team. 

Amy: [00:18:27] 60? Did you say 6-0?

Jamie Inlow: [00:18:30] 6-0. They are amazing, amazing human beings, and this is our turnover staff. And so this has been such a beautiful part of creating ownership for our team of being like, okay, we’re at the outfit phase. And this is when our team falls in love with the property. And this is when we’re all learning about all of her quirks, all of her strange things, like, oh, that door won’t close all the way. We got to get that figured out.  

Or like, oh, a guest is– the amount of times that we say we’re going to hear about that from a guest, and then we’re like, Bobby. Bobby’s our head of maintenance. Shout out, Bobby. I would be dead without you. But we’re like, here’s your list, Bobby. These things need to be fixed before a guest comes in.

Amy: [00:19:13] It’s important to get all those preventative complaints out of the way.

Jamie Inlow: [00:19:18] Absolutely. 100%. So it’s a really fun time of just camaraderie, of our team being together in a beautiful space and just oohing and aahing all over all of the beautiful selections as we unbox. And that’s my favorite part. It’s just so fun all being at a property together and getting to that point and the final stage before photos and– the back-end work is obviously the most complicated we do. 

The revolutionary part about all of our inns and motels is that they are all self-check-in. There is no staff on site 24/7. So we do a lot of third-party integrations to make that operate smoothly. So all of that back-end work, again, our project manager oversees a lot of that. But that is definitely the most tedious part, and making sure all of our systems are in order before receiving a guest, especially to a very high-end property, it really needs to go off without a hitch.

Amy: [00:20:13] Absolutely. It’s so important. Can you break down what is your team look like? Who’s doing what? What role are you at this point? What are you doing on a day-to-day basis?

Jamie Inlow: [00:20:26] Excellent question, Amy. And full disclosure, we have been amidst a pretty intense restructure for the past couple of months. And so basically, the best metaphor that I can give you for what this has looked like is we’re like the Weasley house from Harry Potter, where it’s like we started as one thing. We had three or four properties, and we started as this team. And then we just kept adding things on, and it became this really peaceful structure.  

But we were still trying to make our same team work into this structure. We were trying to make a team work on this business that had scaled immensely. And that has required a lot of trying something and failing, hiring a certain position and failing. And I finally feel like we are getting in a place where our team makes a lot of sense. Not that it hasn’t before, but sometimes I feel like we’re doing a lot of work spinning our wheels unnecessarily. Our system could be more efficient.  

So right now, what our team looks like is, I, Jamie Stark Inlow am the CEO of Be Still Getaways. And then we have our project manager, our executive project manager and co-host. That’s Emily, and she’s pretty much my right hand. When I’m overwhelmed, I’m like, okay, this is an Emily job. She project manages all of our units. She keeps our calendars. She keeps everyone on track.  

She makes sure we’re hitting our benchmarks to be able to open when we say we’re going to open. She does all of our ordering. She finalizes our designs. Her largest role is that she oversees all of our commercial units. So she’s the front line for anything that comes down for our commercial units, whether that’s ordering, whether it’s a maintenance issue, whatever.

Amy: [00:22:23] Got it.

Jamie Inlow: [00:22:25] And then we have another co-host, and she is also our photographer, Jill, and she oversees all of our vacation properties. She’s the boss of our vacation units. And these are your traditional short-term rental homes, whatever that may look like. So she is the one overseeing all of that. She does all of our guest communication. 

She does our reconciliations in the morning for our turnover software and our property management system. She sets all of our codes in the morning. She is just holding down all things vacation rentals. So she’s pretty much sat at the computer all day, talking to guests, answering phones.

Amy: [00:23:06] Is she on every day of the week? Does she get breaks? It sounds like you’re dividing up your team by how you get these properties.

Jamie Inlow: [00:23:20] Sort of. Yes. So me, Jill, and Emily, we are on all properties. So any of us can cover for anyone. So we do an on-call schedule for weekends. As anybody listening to this can probably know, work-life balance is hard to come by in this industry.

Amy: [00:23:34] Absolutely.

Jamie Inlow: [00:23:34] So I would say that’s one of my core values as a leader and in my own life, and it’s taking me a long time to figure out what that looks like. But I value it for my team, and I value it for myself, that breaks are absolutely necessary to be able to keep going in this industry. So everyone works traditional hours, Monday through Friday, pretty much 7:00 to 5:00, whatever this job is always going. 

And that ebbs and flows. We have times when we’re not busy. Jill has a day during the week that she’s off, but most importantly, we rotate for weekend on-call schedule. So that starts at 5:00 PM on Friday, and it goes through Sunday around 2:00 PM. And we all just switch that. Sometimes things come up, and we’re like, can we all tag team today? We all have fun plans. Can we just all tag team this Friday? Which doesn’t work out.  

But we actually did just hire another on-call co-host who’s going to take two weekends a month, which is going to allow us– sometimes we’ll have a whole month off without being on call, which is beautiful.

Amy: [00:24:35] Yes.

Jamie Inlow: [00:24:36] So that’s what that looks like. Otherwise, it’s traditional. Jill would tell you that she lives her life throughout the day. I’ll call her. She’s like, hey, I’m on a walk, or I’m whatever. And that the beauty of it, on your phone. It’s like, go to the grocery store. Do what you need to do. But be attentive if a guest needs something.

Amy: [00:24:54] Right. Yeah, you can live your life, but knowing there’s going to be interruptions. And some days it’s a lot more interruptions than others.

Jamie Inlow: [00:25:03] That’s exactly right. And slow season can be so hard, but it’s also like you need it. You just need to be able to refuel in that way. And so we’ll send messages to each other of being like, hey, I’m playing with my kids right now. I’m going to be on Do Not Disturb for the next two hours. Please hold it down. That is a very regular part of our communication that we’re having. So that’s a big part of it.  

That’s our co-hosting team. And then on the other side, we have operations. And so we have an operations manager, and she is the big boss. She oversees all things turnover, quality control, just making sure all jobs are covered, making sure everything’s happening how it should. And then we have an inventory specialist. 

So she is responsible for keeping our warehouse stocked with all of the essentials for all of our units. She makes sure that every single property we have is stocked with the supplies that it needs, which is a very big job. That was something that was really bogging down our turnover team, and we were like, this needs to be a dedicated position. This is so much. It is just such a big role to make sure that every single STR, inn, and motel is supplied with what it needs. 

It is hours and hours and hours of work. So we’ve streamlined that. That is amazing. And then we are moving into a role where we have a couple of quality control specialists where they oversee all of our photos from our turnover staff. But they also are going in and doing in-person inspections as well, which is really critical. And then we have our maintenance team. We have three full-time maintenance, which is amazing. We have our head of maintenance– 

Amy: [00:26:57] Yeah. This is in-house.

Jamie Inlow: [00:26:59] In-house. In-house. Only work for BSG, which is really, really wonderful because I feel like one of the most stressful parts of this industry in the beginning was when things would go wrong, and I was calling a contractor. I didn’t have preferred contractors then, but calling someone to be like, I have a check-in at 3:00. Are you able to come fix this?  

And we’ve all been there. It’s a really, really stressful feeling. And having that in house now is one of the most valuable things that we did for Be Still Getaways. So in-house maintenance, assistant to maintenance. And then all of our lawn care is in-house as well.

Amy: [00:27:39] That is so important to have those people who can come in a pinch, because so many contractors don’t quite understand the necessity of, we got to have this now.

Jamie Inlow: [00:27:49] That’s right. They really don’t. But our head of maintenance, he’s so skilled and talented. He can do almost anything. But thankfully, we’ve reached a point where we definitely have our preferred HVAC companies. And we send them a lot of business, so he stays pretty available for us, as we frequently need him.

Amy: [00:28:09] Your maintenance people, I’m assuming that some of them are on your setups, and then they’re also helping any issues that arise. You can keep them busy, I’m sure– more than full-time.

Jamie Inlow: [00:28:24] More than full-time. That’s exactly right. We definitely got to a point where head of maintenance was more than full-time, which is when we pulled in an assistant. So yes, they have trailers. They have trucks. They are the receiving company. They’re receiving all of our outfits. They’re bringing them to a property. They’re doing all the assembly. It’s anything. It’s truly anything. 

It’s like this morning, a freight company calling me at 8:00 AM being like, hey, we’re on the way to your warehouse with a refrigerator. And I’m like, okay, great. Maintenance will meet you there. It’s a lot. It’s a lot for anyone to be able to do that. So maintenance really oversees that entire receiving and assembly process as one of the roles of the 10 million things that that they do. We do pool and hot tub maintenance in-house, all of that. 

Amy: [00:29:15] Yeah. And what about your cleaning staff? Is that also in-house?

Jamie Inlow: [00:29:19] It sure is. So yeah, I think we’re up to about 60. We have 60 amazing, amazing people on our team. Truly, the heartbeat of Be Still Getaways. I will die on this mountain where I say that. Our turnover staff is just outstanding. They are amazing. And our protocols are really, really intense, where we are asking a lot of our turnover staff. 

We use TurnoverBnB. We’ve used it from day 1, and we have a 150-point checklist for every single property down to like, make the bed like this. Now take a photo of how you made the bed, exactly how we showed you the bed should be made. So it is extremely detailed. The creation of checklists is very involved. And we have turnover staff.  

And our ops manager goes in to take specific photos that she wants our staff to be able to duplicate. And that makes it so we can obviously review photos on our end and make sure all is well with a clean. but obviously, in-house inspections are critical. But we’ve really, really honed in on this turnover piece. 

And we really pride ourselves on the cleanliness of our units. That’s something that just always comes through. That was one of the things I never wanted to compromise on. I was the cleaner in the beginning of Be Still Getaways.

Amy: [00:30:46] Really. Yeah.

Jamie Inlow: [00:30:47] It was me with my baby strapped to my chest.

Amy: [00:30:54] Scrubbing those toilets.

Jamie Inlow: [00:30:55] Yeah, I created the majority of our protocol, and it’s really evolved. And that was one thing that myself and our ops manager were like, no matter what happens, no matter how big we get, we will never compromise this aspect of Be Still Getaways. Our units are really clean. Yeah. Attention to detail. It’s critical. We have a lot of details that we leave for our guests.  

And that’s obviously become more streamlined as we grow. I can’t leave fresh-cut flowers for every guest like I used to. There are a lot of things that we don’t do anymore as we’ve grown, but we’ve been able to keep some really nice touches. And shout out to our turnover team for keeping this train moving every day.

Amy: [00:31:43] Absolutely. They’re the most critical piece of the team. So what are you doing, Jamie? What role do– 

Jamie Inlow: [00:31:52] I just sit around. I don’t do anything on this. Yeah. So, so much of my role, I’ve really been able to move into a place where I’m like, here is what I like to do. I like designing. I like thinking big picture. Where are we going? What are we onboarding? What are we doing? A lot of my day-to-day, is spent, unfortunately– I wish I had less meetings, as I think we all do, but the majority of my days are spent in meetings, whether those are project management meetings, whether it’s meeting with staff, leadership meetings.  

We just have so many projects that are coming on all the time. And that might mean running through a proforma with the bank with a property owner. It’s all of those initial stages of preparing to bring something to my team, of being like, okay, I’ve been having all these meetings, and it’s finally going through. This is going to happen. Everyone meet whatever the next unit is. This is coming on shortly. 

And then that’s when Emily will begin her game plan. She’s usually with me in those meetings as we’re making those plans, but that’s when Emily really starts honing in on her project management plan. And so a lot of my day to day is either spent with her or spent in meetings, as we’re just planning, doing so many admin. There’s it’s so much admin. This is insane. But I actually do all of my own bookkeeping, and payroll, and all of those items, so that bogs me down a lot.

Amy: [00:33:21] Wow. Do you enjoy that? Is that just something that comes naturally for you?

Jamie Inlow: [00:33:25] Does it come naturally to me? It’s a control thing. I feel like my book keeping is so nuanced that– I’ve met with bookkeepers, and I explain it, and it’s like, it’s confusing. We’re doing so much different types of purchasing and how things need to be categorized. So I do daily bookkeeping, and then yeah, it’s very adminy.  

But I so deeply enjoy my days when I’m picking out tile, picking out whatever those pieces are, finalizing design plans, and being on site, seeing those things coming together. That’s a large part of my role, hiring, planning, making sure that we’re just operating as efficiently as possible, which is–

Amy: [00:34:09] Well, with that many–

Jamie Inlow: [00:34:10] A daily assessment.

Amy: [00:34:11] With that many units, I can’t imagine. How does it look like as far as the ratio of you getting to work in your business versus on the business? Do you feel like you have time to look at the bigger picture and think about what would propel Be Still Getaways forward?

Jamie Inlow: [00:34:31] Sure. I really have to make dedicated time for it. In the evening, I’m usually like, okay, here are three critical tasks admin-wise that have to be performed tomorrow. But I’m always writing things down of like, okay, we need to figure out how to restructure this. How can we do this? Let’s think about potentially pulling this into our units.  

And I think team meetings, you can probably relate, Amy, but that’s a really beautiful time for me to be able to do that and hear the perspective from others on my team. And it’s a way that I can put the idea into the universe. And then that doesn’t necessarily mean that I have to execute it. We have really talented people on our team that can assist me with executing it or completely execute it. 

And I’m very thankful for that because there are many times where I’m doing a task, and I’m like, this is not a good use of my time. I need to be doing something else. Who can help me with this? And then I’ve gotten better at having that thought process as I’m doing it and being able to delegate it in that moment. 

Delegation has been a huge, huge part of our scale model. So yeah, I prioritize it. I’m like, I have to be in the unit. We’re doing a pretty small design project right now on a little loft in downtown Staunton, and I’m there. I’m in it. I value that, and I don’t ever want to lose that piece.

Amy: [00:35:54] Yeah, you’re boots on the ground as well as providing the leadership and oversight of moving it forward.

Jamie Inlow: [00:36:03] Absolutely. Yeah. It’s really important. I try to be present. I try to get into our units regularly even though I’m not necessarily completing a task there, but I’m like, oh, I’ll go. Let me go drop that off. Let me go do what I need to go there. We have a motel that has a shop, and I like to go stock the inventory. It gives me a time to be at the property and seeing how things are going.  

It’s energizing to me when I run into a guest because I feel like in this role, when things are getting to me, it’s the bad. By the time something is escalated to me, it’s like I’m having to crisis-control something, or I’ve received some type of complaint that we’re having to mitigate. 

And when I go to a property, especially a 22-room motel, it’s very energizing to me because there’s people outside at fire pits. They’re like, this place is great. We love it here. Thank you. I have to make time for that. I absolutely have to make time for that.

Amy: [00:37:07] Absolutely. Those are the moments we’re creating in all of us. And we can’t lose sight of of that when we’re in the weeds of operations, and cleanings, and turnovers, for sure.

Jamie Inlow: [00:37:17] That is exactly right.

Amy: [00:37:19] So in the beginning, though, you didn’t have people that you could delegate things to, and it was probably all on you. At what point did you say, it’s time to hire help?

Jamie Inlow: [00:37:33] Sure. So when I was doing the bulk of the cleanings, I became very aware that I was like, we need more cleaners on our team. And when we started expanding into other regions, like when we expanded into Staunton, I was living in Scottsville, which was about an hour drive. And that was when I was like, I need some boots on the ground in Staunton. I need a really killer cleaner that can have more responsibility than just cleaning a unit.  

And that was when I brought Heather on, who is still our ops manager to this day. But that was when she joined my team. And she was cleaning, I don’t know, two or three units at that time, which we still laugh about to this day. Like, wow, remember when we just had two or three? So when it got to the point where I was like, I can’t do this, and obviously, when you just start a business, there is great money in a cleaning fee. So offloading that to someone else– 

Amy: [00:38:31] It’s hard. Yeah, it’s hard to give that extra money over.

Jamie Inlow: [00:38:36] Of course. Yeah. So that was the start of everything. And then from there, as we grew, Heather just became my person of being like, okay, Heather, what do you think? Is this feasible for you? Is this feasible for the other people we have on our team? Do we need to be hiring more? And she totally spearheaded that whole process from day 1, all of our hiring, all of our interviewing, all of our training people on our processes. That is her thing. And she has absolutely nailed it. She has hired an absolutely amazing group of ladies.

Amy: [00:39:09] Are you involved in the hiring process?

Jamie Inlow: [00:39:15] Not for our turnover team. No, I’m not. There are times when she’s like, I’m very overwhelmed. Here are four people. Please take them and do some screening, and then let me know if they’re a yes and I need to move forward. So in the beginning, her and I did that process together, but that quickly became a part of her role as our ops manager. I do the hiring for all of our other positions, all of our core leadership positions. But yes, turnover staff is very much under Heather’s leadership, our ops manager.

Amy: [00:39:46] Got it. Got it. So let’s talk about, what have the pain points been over the last three years? I can’t even imagine to go from one to over 125 units. What challenges have you faced, Jamie?

Jamie Inlow: [00:40:06] Okay, everyone, get out your notepads. We’re about to write a book. Wow. Where to begin? So I think in the beginning, it very quickly became about work-life balance. And I have a young child, and it was really hard for me. It can feel very isolating to be the only, especially in short-term rentals, and to feel like you’re the only one receiving a notification from a guest. You’re the only one who if you’re not available, all of that goes unanswered.  

And that quickly became very overwhelming to me. I was able to handle it. Honestly, I handled it alone until property– we were at 15. And I was like, I need another set of eyes on this. This is a lot. And I just put out a posting for a part-time co-host, like, help me with messaging. And that was life-changing. To feel like I could put my phone down and like I could walk away and somebody else had my back really was a pivotal point for me.  

And work-life balance. It doesn’t stop there. Work-life balance remains a pain point forever. There are times when it’s like, ah, I want to sit, and I want to do this. And thankfully, as we’ve grown, I just wanted to grow to the point where we could have multiple people, and everyone could text and be like, hey, I have date night, or like, hey, going out to dinner with my family. I’m not going to be able to do this. 

And to know that that’s just held down and your team has it– and we’ve also created a lot of really beautiful automations along the way as well that have assisted us hardcore. But pretty huge pain point. 100%. And I think just recently a feeling of isolation that I’ve been working through is feeling so– this is just to be incredibly transparent.  

But feeling so responsible for other people’s livelihoods is a very big thing to sit with and to run very large payrolls several times a month. Sometimes the what if creeps into your mind of being like, but what if? But what if you didn’t book? But what if you didn’t meet your quota to be able to run payroll? That has never happened. Thank goodness. But those are obviously things that creep into my mind when you have 60 plus people working under you. It’s very stressful. It can be. There are times when I’m like, I’m feel so alone.

Amy: [00:42:47] Yeah, especially in that low season when you’re like, are we going to make it? That fear never seems to go away. It’s good to know, even at 127 units, it’s still there.

Jamie Inlow: [00:43:03] It’s really scary. Of course. Confrontation is always very challenging and unsettling in this business and with so many people being involved and working with so many different investors. Confrontation can be sometimes a regular part of this industry of someone being upset about something or some type of misunderstanding. And that’s always really hard. 

And it can be really hard to pour so much into something and to be like– I’ve seen it on your stories before, Amy, but it’s like– we pour everything we have into this industry. It doesn’t stop. We have created system after system after system.  

This is something even now that I get a text, and I’m like, okay, I know my team has it. But if it’s been like a few minutes, I’m like, okay, I’m still here. We need to respond to this. I still have that response. We take this very seriously. Somebody on my team says it so perfectly. Sometimes she’s like, you know what, Jamie? We’re going to live through it.

Amy: [00:44:17] Sometimes we need to know that. Yeah.

Jamie Inlow: [00:44:20] Where I’m like, oh my gosh, I just can’t take this. Oh, this contract is so challenging. What are we going to do? She’s like, whatever happens, we’re really going to live through it. The way that that grounds me.

Amy: [00:44:32] We will survive.

Jamie Inlow: [00:44:33] We’ll make it through.

Amy: [00:44:34] Yes.

Jamie Inlow: [00:44:35] Yeah. And I think that applies to– there are property owners that can be pain points, or you get connected with a unit, and you’re like, I don’t think we are on the same page regarding this, and we might have to have a breakup. And that’s hard. That’s really challenging for me still. And I have to remind myself, you know what? This is my business. And I’m not doing this to work with someone who maybe isn’t the best fit.

Amy: [00:45:06] Ooh, we could do a whole other episode on that, for sure.

Jamie Inlow: [00:45:11] We should.

Amy: [00:45:12] Yeah.

Jamie Inlow: [00:45:12] I’ll have to be anonymous.

Amy: [00:45:16] Don’t listen in clients.

Jamie Inlow: [00:45:20] I have this dream. This is a random side note. I’m always like, okay, where are we going? What are we doing? And sometimes I just want to start an anonymous Instagram account of all the crazy things that happen in short-term rentals and just spill all the tea. But I’m like, ah, I would totally be exposed. 

Amy: [00:45:40] So we’re getting close to the end, but I want to know, what’s next for Be Still Getaways? How much do you want to scale? Do you have a certain number of properties in mind?

Jamie Inlow: [00:45:50] We don’t have a certain number, but we really think about everything really deeply when it’s presented to us, of being like, okay, can our team, one, handle this load, and what will it look like for our systems? So we have four inns in the wings. And that is a very important thing for me to keep in my mind all the time because I’m like, okay, some of these we’re even looking at 2024.  

But that means that we say no to a lot more vacation rentals that previously would have been just yeses all day. Like, yeah, great. That’s perfect. And now we have to be extremely selective of our vacation rentals. One, because the short-term rental industry has been strange lately. It’s obviously evolved a lot over the past year for how seasons have looked.  

So even thinking about operating costs. I’m constantly crunching a number of being like, okay, we do use– so we spend a lot of money on software. We spend an immense amount of money on software. So it’s like, okay, what does it cost me to put this unit that’s going to make 120 bucks a night to pull it into four different software? What’s my overhead? And we just were not really taking units that are 120-dollar night units anymore. That’s just not where we’re going. We’re like really leaning into this luxury-end market.

Amy: [00:47:26] Got you.

Jamie Inlow: [00:47:26] I don’t know.

Amy: [00:47:27] It’s got to be a fit. It’s got to be more quality at this point. It’s got to fit your brand. And it sounds like the owner relationship is going to be an important role–

Jamie Inlow: [00:47:39] Critical.

Amy: [00:47:39] In what you’ll take.

Jamie Inlow: [00:47:41] Absolutely critical.

Amy: [00:47:41] So a lot of our listeners are probably just getting started in co-hosting, and they’re listening to you like, you are a rock star, which you are. So what advice would you give to them, even the ones that are still scrubbing the toilets and maybe just have one or two homeowners that they’re helping out?

Jamie Inlow: [00:48:04] Sure. Yeah. Create a mission statement. Define, why are you doing what you’re doing? And make the assumption that you know you’re going to grow. If you want to grow, you will. There are so many people looking for this service, and they deeply need it, especially if you’re doing it well. Invest in your systems 1,000%. And I did this from the beginning. I was like, okay, these are the things that I will never, ever compromise on.  

This is what I want. This is what Be Still Getaways is. And that was, one, our cleanliness standards, creating a really, really involved process for that. Automating that, and creating a system that would guarantee that our guests were walking into a space that they would be wowed by every single time. 

And, two, products are really, really important to me. They’ve been my mission from day 1. But I was like, I want to provide a quality product to our guests. The products that our guests are using in our rentals, I want them to be nicer or equivalent to the ones that they’re using at home. And that meant a natural product, like blue Dial soap. No shade if you’re doing that. 

But that is a personal mission statement in my own life. And so I wanted a high-end product in all of our units where guests could feel like, oh, this is safe. I would use this on my children. That’s always been important to me. And we’ve done that. We have maintained that. And lastly, just beautiful spaces.  

Working with property owners that have the means to create beautiful spaces and to listen to us about what’s needed in a space, and then, two, provide our team with what they need to do their job efficiently and well. That is also a very critical part of that piece.  

So don’t compromise. It’s your business. There are many ways that you will want to bend to the will of someone else to be like, but I just want one more property. Can we make it work? I just want one more property? Don’t do it. Stay true to whatever you’re wanting to establish.

Amy: [00:50:12] That is excellent advice. And I just love how you’ve let those brand values, those core values guide you throughout this process. So where can our listeners connect with you? Where can they book your properties?

Jamie Inlow: [00:50:28] Sure. Yeah. So you can follow us on Instagram at @bestillgetaways, and you can look at our website and all of our rentals at bestillgetaways.com.

Amy: [00:50:40] Awesome. Jamie, this has been so good and such a pleasure to finally get to connect with you. And yeah, thanks for giving your time and sharing with us.

Jamie Inlow: [00:50:51] Thank you, Amy. Thank you so much for having me.