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Welcome to Alex & Annie, the real women of Vacation Rentals.
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With more than 35 years combined industry experience, Alex Euser and Annie Holcomb have tuned up to connect the dots between inspiration and opportunity.
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Seeking to find the one story, idea, strategy, or decision that led to their guests to be a hard moment.
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Join them as they highlight the real stories behind the people and brands that have built Vacation Rentals into the $100 billion industry it is today.
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And now it's time to get real and have some fun with your hosts, Alex and Annie.
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Welcome to Alex and Annie, the real woman of Vacation Rentals.
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I'm Alex and I'm Annie.
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And we are joined today by Tim Hubbard, who is the CEO of Coursley.
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Tim, welcome to the show.
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Pleasure to be here.
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Thanks for having me.
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So you're dialing into us today from Columbia.
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So that just tells me that there's a really great story about to come out here.
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But we are meeting you for the first time.
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So why don't you tell us a little bit about your background and I guess what we're going to talk about today, which is your business Coursley.
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Awesome.
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Awesome.
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Okay.
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Well, let's see, a bit about the background.
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So I've been in real estate for quite a long time.
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I started in the long-term rental investment side of things.
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But a little over a decade ago, I started switching some properties that I had into short-term rentals.
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It was working well, as you know, all short-term rentals were over a decade ago.
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And so I expanded.
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I'm from California originally.
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Left California, uh, started investing in Tennessee and eventually in um Oklahoma, and then eventually outside of the US.
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So I had been traveling a lot.
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That's sort of how I discovered Airbnbs and short-term rentals.
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And uh just kept coming back to Columbia.
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And after my portfolio had grown quite a bit in the US, I uh decided to make it more permanent.
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So ended up moving to Colombia.
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I'm we're currently building a small boutique resort here, which I'm really excited about with short-term rentals.
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Um, but uh along that path, or I guess along that journey, I also started a podcast.
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It's called Short Term Rental Riches.
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Uh, and so I've had that for, I guess, over six years.
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And they're really they're quick, short, act, actionable episodes.
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It was just talking about my own portfolio and how I was managing properties from thousands of miles away.
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And uh a lot of people just sort of naturally reached out from the podcast and said, Hey, can can you help me with my properties?
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And my team got bigger, and so we started doing that, and that that branched out into Corsley, uh, which I I run today with an amazing team.
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And um yeah, that's kind of that's kind of the background.
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It's been quite a journey, but I feel like just getting started in a lot of different ways.
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Oh, that's really cool.
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And you know, we have people that reach out to us thinking that we actually manage properties sometimes, asking Andy and I to manage them, and we're like, no, no, no, we don't do that.
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But we have plenty of friends that we can refer that would love to manage your property.
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But that's really cool.
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Yeah, I'm I'm excited to listen to your podcast.
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I've heard of it before, but I don't know that I've actually listened to it.
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So you started six years ago.
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That's we started five years ago.
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So you've been doing this for quite a while.
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Do you record it like every week or bi-weekly, or what's the cadence?
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Yeah, every Tuesday.
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Uh you know, I batch them up, uh, but they're they're short episodes.
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I guess I don't, yeah, I think we're on episode like 330 or something.
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However, that adds up.
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I think that's like six years or something, but it's been been through uh, you know, some some fun times, COVID and you know, all that.
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So uh yeah, it's been good though.
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It's it's actually been really nice having the podcast.
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It's been a good opportunity to meet a lot of other people in the industry as well.
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I'm sure you guys have found that too.
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Yeah, for sure.
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That's definitely opened doors that we didn't know.
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And we always joke about it.
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It's like uh I was in property management before I got into the technology side, then I became a supplier.
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And when you're a supplier, nobody wants to talk to you.
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Um so the podcast absolutely changed that for me.
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Um, but curious, just to get before we get kicked off, Coursley, how did the name originate?
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Yeah, so the the idea behind the name is that we're this core operating center on behalf of all of our partners' properties.
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So we're virtual management companies, so we're we're different than the traditional, and that we're not there physically at the properties.
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But you know, what I found with my portfolio and with all the short terminals that we work with now is that the core operations are essentially the same.
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Yeah, you can have a really nice, luxurious property, or you can have an inner city urban property, but people are still checking into the properties, they still want a really good guest experience, they still want good communication.
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And then from the operator side, you still have to manage it really well, especially in today's market, or you're gonna get a little bit left behind.
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So we take all of those core operations um off our partner's plate.
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That's that's the whole idea.
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Yeah, that's great.
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And so do you go to like the conferences and stuff, or are you more on like the STR conferences?
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Because I don't think that we've met you at a show before.
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I don't think we've met, but I swear I I've seen you both.
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Uh, I was just at the IMN conference recently.
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I don't know if you guys remember.
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I was there, yeah.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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So yeah, I was just at that.
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And I've gone to a lot of conferences over the years, you know, I don't know, like a couple dozen at least.
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Um, you know, VRMA, all of the all of the normal ones.
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Yeah.
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Gotcha.
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So you you started growing this business.
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And uh do you own, do you say you own some of the properties too?
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Or are they all you're getting these are third-party management contracts?
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Yeah, so it started with my personal portfolio.
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So I I own several dozen actually that I've acquired over the last decade plus.
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Uh and that required me to have a team.
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It required me to figure out a lot of the operations.
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And of course, I wasn't living near them.
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So it also allowed me to figure out how to do all the things that we can do virtually, virtually.
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Uh, and so yeah, I started with my my personal portfolio and then it's it's sort of blossomed into to working with now with uh partners in over 40 cities.
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So we're we're pretty pretty spread out.
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And how are besides the podcast, how are you bringing that inventory onto your platform?
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Like what's maybe some tips you've you've found that are working?
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Podcast has been a big one.
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Yeah.
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That's been a big one, you know, and um also referrals, you know, we've sort of grown organically and then I guess a lot of connections through meeting people at conferences, things like that.
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Um, we we also have a list, sort of our ideal partner right now is the smaller property manager that's juggling a lot of the things themselves.
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Maybe they've wanted to hire someone, or maybe they've already hired someone, but then they don't exactly know how the best way to train them on all the different things.
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Um, and that's kind of between like the 10 and 60 unit property manager that's just doing a whole bunch of things.
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And so we do have some sales guys on our team that are that are calling out and about to some of the smaller property managers, and we've we've brought on some partners that way as well.
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One of the things we talk about a lot on this show is the technology aspect of things.
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And so we've talked to a lot of people, you know, when you're trying to work with multiple markets and you're working with different managers, I mean, I would imagine you've got some people who have adopted technology and some people who have don't have any idea that there's technology out there that exists.
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So, how do you streamline that for your, you know, for people when they want to come, if they're already on something?
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Do you just adopt their software or do you move them over to yours?
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We move them over to ours, yeah, at the moment.
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Um, and a lot of people, again, in that smaller property management space are exploring technology.
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They've maybe used it for a little bit, like they're considering moving to a new one.
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And we love the technology space.
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I worked for a software company for quite a long time when I was getting started with real estate.
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I sold business management software to automotive repair shops, which in a lot of ways is very similar to like what our PMS does for a property manager these days.
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You know, it you know, it had all the pieces, but we're actually using less and less of property management platforms now as we go on.
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Like um, you know, we do our accounting outside of it, we do our messaging outside of it, we do our revenue management outside of it, we do our task management outside of it.
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And so um, yeah, long story short, we we we bring them onto our platforms, but everything stays under their name.
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So it's it's more of like a white label setup.
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Gotcha.
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Okay, that's cool.
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So the guests don't actually know the brand Coursley then, unless maybe maybe in your properties, are they branded as Coursley?
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Uh nope.
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Uh I'm set up basically just like our partners are.
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So I had a company called Midtown Stays, which used to be Coursley before we rebranded.
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Uh, and I'm set up just like everyone else.
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Um that's cool.
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And yeah.
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That's interesting.
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And we we talk about this on the show a lot.
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And I know both Annie and I have have property management companies that come to us and are trying to figure out how they get more of the the clientele that it sounds like you have, that they they have a couple properties and they might have done it, it might have self-managed, but then they decided this is way more than what they had thought.
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Um, but it's it it can be tough getting in front of them.
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I mean, the podcast is definitely an interesting approach of doing that.
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You've kind of cracked the code on that.
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So that you're the only one I know that's building it that way through a podcast.
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So that's really cool.
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Yeah, you know, we we we do charge a discounted model too, uh, because we are virtual.
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We work with the the existing on-the-ground team and we have lots of ways to make sure, you know, cleanings get done right and all those different things.
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But because of that, we charge a discounted model.
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So I think that has been more attractive to to some people or some people that were maybe doing it themselves, uh, you know, like the smaller portfolios.
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But we've also worked with with larger portfolios that they weren't bringing on new properties because they're concerned about the quality of how they could manage the new properties, you know, from onboarding and the whole the whole piece of it.
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So um, you know, our goal is is to work with all sizes of of property managers and and actually to continue driving down our operational costs on our end.
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So we we've hired quite a lot of developers and um I mean just coming back to the idea that a lot of the operation is pretty much the same, like no matter what type of property you have or or where it's at.
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And so everything that we can automate, I mean, we really do want to automate.
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And a lot of what we've already automated, we've found is improved the guest experience at the same time, you know.
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So it's it's made the business more efficient, guests are happier, uh, and it allows us to be more competitive.
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Yeah.
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So that's that's where we're headed.
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What is the makeup of like your markets?
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Or do you is it mostly urban or is it a mix between like urban beach and ski?
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Like, what does that look like for you guys?
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Because I know that that's where the a lot of the variables come in with like again, seasonality and and the the wants and needs of of the customer.
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We're all across the board.
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So I a lot of my properties were urban inner city properties, but I mean, now we're lakeside, ski resort, ocean front, all of the above.
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Yeah.
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And how how much are you deploying AI?
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That's always like that.
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That's the big buzzword now, and everybody's trying to figure out exactly where to plug it in.
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So how what have you what have you adopted wholly and like what are you looking to test out?
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So, you know, we started with the easy stuff, you know, uh what the PMSs would have used like their uh automation for, you know, back in the day where your check-in instructions were the same.
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And so we've taken that, you know, to a new level where the tone can be uh unique and all those types of things.
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So we started with guest communication and we're still working on that.
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Um I mean, obviously there's a lot of things that we can't automate and they need to be escalated to humans.
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Uh and so we've built some systems to help us do that and to track all the communications, basically.
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You know, we're we're not a software company right now, uh, per se.
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I mean, we're we're using the industry-leading tools that we've found, but none of them are really perfect.
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Uh, and so we've basically added on to them.
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Um, you know, and you you probably you hear like quite a people out, quite a few people out there, they're really going down the AI rabbit hole.
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Some people saying, oh, like we've automated 80% of our communication, you know, but I think the reality is some of these AI tools that are available aren't showing really accurate numbers.
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Like maybe they've automated check instructions and you know, sending internet instructions, but where we're spending a lot of time are on that like the actual workflows, things that can have like multiple, multiple levels to them and that can be really different between different property managers.
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So, like even just an early check-in request, for example, you know, we're uh working with a whole bunch of different properties, it depends on whether the owner allows early check-ins, whether the property's clean, of course, whether you know we've confirmed with the housekeeper.
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And then maybe we want to charge for an early check-in, but maybe we don't charge if they're checking in an hour early.
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Maybe we only charge if they check in three hours or more early.
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So, like a lot of these workflows can just have lots of uh layers, and that's where we're spending a lot of time, like trying to build out these workflows to kind of go pretty deep.
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Yeah, no, that that's that's interesting.
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And that I mentioned before we hit play that I work with boom, and that's kind of like the the uh crux of their business model is that you know, when you have multiple systems, multiple disconnected systems, it's like there are so many different parameters there.
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If your example is perfect, of if you can offer the early check-in, there's so many things that have to be checked for that to happen.
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And you know, a lot of times when we see operators that they've got multiple different tools going on, it's like it can only go so far that it's like the AI is it's helping part of it, but there's still now you've got to come in and now you've got to check this other system, and then you've got to update this.
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And it's like, you know, that's that's not the the goal of where AI is going.
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Um, but you know, it's gonna take us some time to get there as an industry of like, okay, and you know, fully, fully connected system and people seeing the benefit of what that actually allows you to do.
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And and Annie and I talk about this all the time of like, we're having these conversations that AI is now being looked at out of like, okay, it's not, it's not scary.
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It's actually gonna let me provide a better level of hospitality because I'm able to focus on the conversations that really do need my human touch when there's an issue, which when there's an issue, that's normally one of the best opportunities that you have to get a five-star review if handled properly, right?
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Um, or if it's just you know, spending more time trying to get property owners, you know, doing a podcast.
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Like the AI is allowing, you know, people to do that.
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So that's that's the good side of where we're going, I think.
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Yeah, I I think it's amazing.
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And and it's, I mean, not just in the short-term rental industry, you know, but like in our lives in general.
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I mean, I was researching an insurance policy lately, just as an example.
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I started using this new browser called Comet.
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I don't know if you guys have heard of that, but it's like an agentic browser can do things for you.
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Uh and insurance policy is coming up, and I asked it, can you find this insurance policy in my Google Drive?
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Um, you know, we know those are really long.
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They're like 50 pages plus, and they're full of all this stuff that, you know, like legal mumbo jumbo, and analyze that and send an email to the to the agent letting them know, you know, like what I'm looking for.
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And it just pulled up my Google Drive, found the file, analyzed it, created a draft email in my Gmail that I can approve before sending.
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Um and I feel like every week there's just it's just so much more advanced than it has been.
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So I think there's a long way I can go and just making the best guest experience possible, which as we know is like ultimately what allows a property to be successful or not.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So with your growth and being in multiple markets and and you sound like you've got all the foundational things to be able to grow.
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How many properties are you at now?
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We're around like 225.
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Okay.
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So what is your what is your strategy for this year?
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I mean, what like do you have a five-year target that you'd like to see yourself at?
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Yeah, I guess five years is kind of far out.
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Uh, we wanted to 10x this year, you know, so um we're hoping to be in several thousand.
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Um, and I think it's doable.
00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:25.279
I think it's doable, you know, because I I do have a lot of friends that have large property management portfolios that I've just known over the years.
00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:30.399
And I know that everyone's looking for efficiencies, you know, running a business.
00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:34.080
But there is quite a lot that goes into creating a lot of these things.
00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:41.279
And so hiring a team or, you know, building out workflows and things like that that specifically that are specific to your business.
00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:47.200
I think we're finding it takes a little bit more time than maybe you might expect in in the beginning.
00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:49.120
So um, yeah, we're excited.
00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:50.720
Hoping to grow 10x this year.
00:16:50.720 --> 00:16:51.600
That's the goal.
00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:53.759
10x is a good goal.
00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:55.600
Yeah, yeah, that's a big goal.
00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:57.200
Yeah, we'll be back in just a minute.
00:16:57.200 --> 00:16:59.519
But first, a word from our premier brand sponsor.
00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:01.200
Hi, my name is Frederick Armer.
00:17:01.200 --> 00:17:04.240
I'm a property manager, currently managing 18 properties.
00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:07.039
Been with Host Flee for about four years now.
00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:19.839
I was going it alone with Airbnb and booking.com and VRBO and attempting to try to merge those calendars and prevent double bookings from happening and reached out to a good friend of mine who was also managing properties.
00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:21.039
He had done some research.
00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:24.960
I tried a few other uh PMS and he was very happy with Host Flee.
00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:28.240
So uh I gave them a shot and I've never looked back.
00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:33.440
Once I contacted Hostflee and gotten into the onboarding process, things became very simple.
00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:38.559
My onboarding coach knew what she was doing and made the process very smooth.
00:17:38.559 --> 00:17:40.240
I was very happy with the results.
00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:50.559
One game changer uh with Hostfully that uh has significantly improved my business is the integration of multiple channels, Airbnb, Booking.com, BRBO, etc.
00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:53.279
AI has been a huge game changer as well.
00:17:53.279 --> 00:18:00.240
The ability to answer guest questions is fantastic and even as easy using the mobile application with Host Fly.
00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:03.200
The ability to use the app has been very important to me.
00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:07.200
Looking at my calendar, answering guest questions, for example.
00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:13.039
So I can literally run my tests from anywhere in the world, providing I've got access to data or the internet.
00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:15.519
Another big one would be the reporting.
00:18:15.519 --> 00:18:24.000
I've worked with my success coach in developing uh customized reports to allow me to use payouts for the owners at the end of every month.
00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:28.079
Hopefully, it's improved my guest experience primarily with the communication aspect.
00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:52.319
Uh, we've set up templates and triggers to uh notify guests prior to their check-in, ensure that they're filling out the appropriate forms, for example, a guest petitions form or pre-arrival form, greeting them on the next day they come in, reminding them when the checkout is and some of the post rules and of course the big one is the follow-up a couple days later, ensuring that they leave us a review, as well as giving them an opportunity for direct booking and saving money.
00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:59.839
If somebody was holding back and waiting to go with host flea, I'd highly recommend you get a hold of one of the uh reporting coaches.
00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:06.559
The team is fantastic, they're very helpful, they're very open, they understand the business from the start to now, which has been about four years.
00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:08.559
My experience has been just fantastic.
00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:10.079
And uh, we've grown together.
00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:15.519
I'd recommend Hostflea to others in my network primarily because it's made my day-to-day business life fantastic.
00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:24.559
Reduced the amount of time and effort that I've had to put into my business, increased my profit in my bottom line, and allowed my business to grow uh exponentially.
00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:28.720
Looking for a smarter way to manage your short-term rental operations?
00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:33.279
Get started with Hostfully and bring everything into one streamlined platform.
00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:39.440
Alex and Annie listeners, get free onboarding when you mention you heard about Hostfully from the Alex and Annie podcast.
00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:41.920
Click the link in the description to get started today.
00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:44.319
What's one of the biggest challenges in scaling?
00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:56.000
We've talked to people that want to be multi-market, and I think sometimes companies will try that and they realize it's you know more complicated than they thought, or they're not able to uphold the standards of their brand.
00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:58.000
But like, what are some things that you've ran into?
00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:02.799
Yeah, um, well, I mean, you definitely have to have a good on-the-ground team, you know.
00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:08.720
Like my personal portfolio is a little bit smaller and I haven't grown it that much in like the last four years.
00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:13.599
Uh, and I've I've got a really good team that's stuck around for a long time.
00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:19.359
And so um we've been able to keep consistent, um, consistent results.
00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:23.279
I think just finding good people, though, is only part of it.
00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:29.920
Like you really do have to have really good organization to allow them to do the best job that they can do.
00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:37.359
Uh, and so that kind of comes back to like, you know, I know with Boom, like you guys do a great job with this as well, help helping with all that.
00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:42.720
But bringing that organization to the on the ground team, I think is really, is really important.
00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:50.640
But yeah, treating people well goes a long way, having good housekeepers on the team and and setting right the right expectations.
00:20:50.640 --> 00:20:58.160
You know, I think a lot of times we see new owners or investors go out and hire housekeepers and maybe they don't set the right expectations.
00:20:58.160 --> 00:21:01.279
You know, maybe they're allowing pets, but they didn't, they didn't tell the housekeeper.
00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:04.640
So they show up and there's you know dog hair everywhere or something like that.
00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:13.039
So setting the right expectations and and being organized, I think, goes a long way at making sure that you know the team that you are working with is is doing the best job that they can do.
00:21:13.279 --> 00:21:20.960
And you mentioned earlier that if they have their own boots on the ground team, like does that happen often, or is it mostly that you're having to hire the full-blown team?
00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:23.039
We actually don't hire any anyone on the ground.
00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:25.440
So yeah, we work with their existing teams.
00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:32.240
Um, and we're working more now with smaller property managers that have teams in place.
00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:37.200
But for like the individual people that come to us, they just go out and find someone.
00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:38.960
I think that's another thing that's changed.
00:21:38.960 --> 00:21:45.920
Like 10 years ago, finding a short term rental or vacation rental housekeeper, uh, depending on what market you're in.
00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:50.079
Of course, you know, there's the vacation rental markets that have been operating for decades.
00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:57.440
Um, but in other markets where short term rentals weren't as common, it was a little more difficult to find housekeepers.
00:21:57.440 --> 00:21:59.680
But I think like there's so much more of the industry.
00:21:59.680 --> 00:22:02.880
industry being supported now, you know, with service people.
00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:05.839
So they'll just go out and find someone and then we we take over from there.
00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:08.160
So I would imagine, and I could be wrong.
00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:12.559
So tell me, do you have a lot of virtual team that works with you?
00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:17.759
Like so I mean does your does your um development team, do they are they offshore?
00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:20.960
Do you have like uh customer service people offshore, that type of thing?
00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:21.839
We do, yeah.
00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:26.240
It's actually no one lives in the US, not even me, uh, you know, and I'm from California.
00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:31.279
So it's it's a little crazy, but our whole team is virtual and and we are really well spread out.
00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:38.160
Um I mean we have a lot of our reception team is in the Philippines or Eastern Europe or South America.
00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:42.240
All of our developers for the most part are in Pakistan.
00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:47.200
We have some in Eastern Europe as well, um South Africa.
00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:56.000
So we're we're just spread out all over the place basically but um yeah so not a not a lot of team not a lot of team gatherings happening huh?
00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:15.680
I've met up uh I went to Eastern Europe two years ago and met up with with some of our team which was great but yeah not as much as I would like uh and we've tried to find a good balance of you know for having a virtual team and still having like a good culture and one of we use Slack for all of our back end communications.
00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:29.759
And one of the ways we've done that is we just hold really long meetings every day where they're basically like virtual work hours where everyone shows up and you know maybe we touch base on everything that we're working on that day.
00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:54.640
And then the rest of the time people are kind of you know off doing their own thing but we're still in a in a call just like like this and just naturally being together on the call you start to learn more about people you start to build more connections and so we sort of have this like blended even though we're totally virtual we have a little bit of the elements of like a an office presence I guess you could say that's interesting.
00:23:54.799 --> 00:23:57.599
I don't know if I've heard anybody really do it exactly that way.
00:23:57.599 --> 00:24:21.200
And I'm sure there probably are companies I just haven't heard that but that's that's a good that's a it's a good idea because I think what happens when you only have dedicated meetings that it's 30 minutes or an hour like you're you're talking about exactly what you got the meeting together for but you're not talking about the other 10 things that come up today that I'm like I need to remember to ask them this next time I talk which you you know you normally don't so that's a cool philosophy.
00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:22.559
I like that that's cool.
00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:38.720
And there's some creativity that comes out of it too you know like everyone's got different backgrounds and so especially like with our development team, you know like maybe someone doesn't know how to actually do something but someone else on the call does and so I guess there's there's quite a bit of synergy that can go into it.
00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:41.440
And uh we found that it's it's been working pretty well.
00:24:41.680 --> 00:25:07.839
Yeah I I I've worked for several companies where there was teams in multiple like super regions countries and stuff and it is nice whenever you can get um people on and I think Expedia I feel like we did it at Expedia where they had like similar what you're talking about where there was like times when like they would do brown bag lunches and like people could just come and go as they please but there was different conversations happening but you got to meet people and learn about people and and you know their families and their children and their culture.
00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:19.599
And so you know um I think working in travel we all get to travel to these places and so you can start asking for recommendations from people if you're going to Eastern Europe or you know to say or hey if I come to Columbia I'm gonna ask you about it.
00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:22.079
I mean Alex has been but I'll ask you about it because you're living there.
00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:48.240
But you know I think that the we that's the neat thing about the industry that we're in is that you know I I think about it when I was in high school I mean I'm a pre-internet child so I'm old but you know there was this sense of like you still had to go to a travel agent if you wanted to go and if you wanted to go outside the country where you had to plan you know six months in advance and it was a definitely only the very like affluent could say that they could go to Europe inside six months.
00:25:48.240 --> 00:25:50.240
I mean you just wouldn't you wouldn't do that kind of thing.
00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:56.480
And so now it's like I tell my son all the time I'm like if you have a passport and the money you can pick up tomorrow and be halfway across the world.
00:25:56.480 --> 00:25:57.519
It's just so easy.
00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:10.559
And so I think it's nice that you can have teams that are from all over the place because it makes your company operate on a different level you're not closed minded to like maybe just American style operations or or the market that you're in operations.
00:26:10.720 --> 00:28:43.519
So I think it's it's smart and it's good for you in terms of like branching out you're gonna have all these different all these different input that a lot of people won't necessarily have but on that just kind of your growth and your positioning do you see yourself similar to I guess like an Evolve would that be someone yes somewhat um although we like to think we do a whole lot more you know and and one of the big differences is evolve owns all the listings right uh and so they're they're under their name uh and if something's not working out well or the reviews are headed in the wrong direction uh it sort of locks those owners or investors in and so we're we're on the back end but yes a little similar that's interesting so uh the properties that you have do they have their own book direct brands in some cases yeah well you know especially for the the property managers like we'll create dedicated phone lines that have their own inboxes so everything on the back end uh we've got separated out we respond on their behalf you know they have their own direct booking websites and uh we just kind of plug in in the background like the Intel inside I guess you could think of it yeah yeah yeah well there's so many so many ways to do this business these days that it didn't used to be that way at all I mean there's a lot of different uh options out there and this is uh an interesting an interesting one what about uh on the real estate real estate side are you still trying to acquire additional properties I haven't uh so I've been working on this this project down here in Columbia for the past three years and fingers crossed I I feel like every time I say this like the the timeline gets pushed back but I think we're gonna be launching the first units in like a few weeks you know they're furnished utilities are in and this was a ground up construction project so it's pretty much been you know all my resources for the last few years um but I'm really excited about it I you know I um I think this city the city is one of the fastest growing in tourism like in all of South America and it has been for several years uh and it has a lot of challenges just like any market with short-term rentals you know there are regulations here there are a lot of properties with HOA that you know don't allow short-term rentals and so I think there's some really good fundamentals in this market um and so aside from that that's been that's been my main sort of acquisition or you know investments.
00:28:43.759 --> 00:28:45.599
So tell us a little bit about this project.
00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:56.960
So I I'm curious because I you know I know what people face just in the US and trying to build anything is you know depending where you are it can be just like a a literal act of Congress to get anything done.
00:28:56.960 --> 00:29:07.200
What is that like as an American in a foreign country trying to build things I'm assuming you have to have an entire team of Colombian lawyers and that type of thing.
00:29:07.200 --> 00:29:08.640
But give us some insight on that.
00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:23.920
Yeah it's um you know a lot of the same challenges you'll have in the US you know so the the city we're we're we're in Medellin is it's very well developed actually I think it's much more developed than most people might imagine.
00:29:23.920 --> 00:31:37.759
It is the Pablo esque of our old stomping ground so when people hear of Medellin they're like oh you know those are the cartel uh series so a lot of people have that mindset but it's very well developed like you know there's zoning by lot and so we bought this lot that was zoned agricultural but it had a commercial license and it was sort of sandwiched in between two uh like in a really nice part of town uh the city's in a valley um and so we're kind of up in the mountains and this particular lot is like up on the side so it has an amazing view of the of the city but it's also really close to the airport you know you can take an Uber to you know all the nearest restaurants it's it's really uh in a good location and so we bought it with a commercial license in place uh thinking we were going to start building like right away and we were we were wrong on that one by about two years actually yeah so there there is quite a permitting process here I mean just like there is in the US and long story short we were trying to modify this existing listing which we were told we could do and it didn't end up so we had to get a new license but um you know fast forward to today we've we've got all the infrastructure in we've got our hotel license um so it's set up like a a little resort there'll be 20 units in total uh eight of them are individual sort of like cabana style but you could actually live in them I mean they have kitchens and laundry and uh they're pretty nice uh and then we have two other little six unit buildings going in and then a restaurant so it'll be like a a nice little nice little um uh resort type property and no I wouldn't do it all by myself so I do have a partner luckily uh and he's also an American but he's lived down here for maybe like 13 years pretty much like straight through so he's basically Colombian now and uh you know that that's been a really big help um and he also has some other real estate projects including another successful restaurant that he's launched and so had it not been for him like I definitely wouldn't have have ventured out but I'm happy that I did I think it's uh it's gonna work out really well.
00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:39.119
Why Columbia though?
00:31:39.119 --> 00:31:43.039
What was was there something had you been there on vacation that you just were drawn to it?
00:31:43.279 --> 00:32:06.160
Yeah so I was you know when things were really taking off when I was first getting started with short-term rentals uh I had a little bit more freedom and I was always traveling a lot and I had come down to Columbia uh to visit an old college roommate he ended up living down here for like a year and he said you got to come check this place out so I went I went came down and stayed for about a month and then I just kind of kept coming back.
00:32:06.160 --> 00:32:46.400
I mean the weather's really nice the people are are really nice it's just it's it's a nice place uh to live and then yeah uh a few years later ended up getting a place down here making it more permanent and I don't spend the whole year here anymore my my wife's actually Brazilian so now we spend a lot of time in Brazil so we're we're kind of like bouncing between here and there um although this year I I do plan to go to a lot of conferences because we're excited about Coursley I kind of took a break last year I wasn't going to so many and it's also pretty far from Brazil so uh this year we'll be going to a lot more conferences uh but yeah that's that's that's the story.
00:32:46.400 --> 00:32:47.200
That's awesome.
00:32:47.440 --> 00:32:51.119
How has demand for Columbia been this or in 2025?
00:32:51.119 --> 00:32:52.720
It's still really strong.
00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:58.559
Uh you know I think the cost of living here is so much lower than it is in the U.S.
00:32:58.559 --> 00:33:08.079
And we're only three hours from Miami and uh you know there's lots of direct flights here from Florida uh and so there's a lot of people coming down.
00:33:08.079 --> 00:34:31.039
At the same time there's also a lot of new hotels that have been built there's a lot of buildings that have been built specifically for short-term rentals so they're fully licensed uh and so there's a lot of competition it'll be interesting to see what happens and honestly like as someone who's worked in the industry for you know over a decade I don't it I don't know exactly how well this this project's going to do though the one advantage that we do have is that it is very unique like it's a very quiet sort of resort style vibe in a city basically which you just don't which you just don't find so um like my conservative estimates I'm still comfortable with but I think it it has a lot of room on the upside so we'll we'll have to see yeah well we might just have to come down and check it out so yeah I uh loved uh went to Cartagena a few years ago and then there was an island that we went to off of Cartagena that was just spectacular but um it's it's a great country amazing food and I I just Cartagena was just a literally such an amazing city I mean just absolutely the artwork and the culture just really blew me away but would love to see more of the country yeah well you guys have my contacts so yeah make sure to give me a heads up if you come out to a few pointers.
00:34:31.679 --> 00:34:41.039
Well Tim if anybody wants to reach out and find out some more about Coursley if they wanted to maybe get their property managed by you and your team what's the best way for them to reach out?
00:34:41.280 --> 00:34:57.360
Yeah um they can go to coursley.com at C-O-R-Z-L-Y dot com uh or they can check out the podcasts I've been doing for a long time Short Term Rental Riches we we talk about the way we're managing things and there's a lot of quick tips and actionable episodes there.
00:34:57.360 --> 00:35:00.480
So either way and we'd love to chat with anyone.
00:35:00.480 --> 00:35:01.280
Awesome.
00:35:01.519 --> 00:35:11.280
Great well thank you for coming on and if anybody wants to get in touch with Annie and I you can go to alexandanniepodcast.com and until next time thanks everybody
