It started with a winter at grandma's.
In 2017 I moved back to Colorado and spent the winter living at my grandmother's vacation home in Grand Lake. I worked at a ski resort, fell in love with the area, and got to know the house inside out. Airbnb was just starting to take off. Her costs of ownership kept going up. The idea of the house sitting empty most of the year didn't sit right with either of us, so she let me list it.
Years later, in March 2024, I bought Antler Ridge in Branson. New construction, ready to open the day we closed. First year, $80,000 in revenue. Year two, $120,000. On pace for $140,000 in year three. Friends who owned other rentals were stuck working with property managers and VAs who couldn't keep up with the operational reality, always fighting fires, never ahead of anything. Building STRop the way I'd want a manager to run my own homes wasn't a strategy. It was the only way the work actually got done.
STR Ops, sharpened.
STR Ops
Short-term rental operations. The unglamorous work that makes the glamorous part possible: pricing, cleaning logistics, guest comms, vendor coordination, financial reporting.
The strop
A blade-sharpening tool. The thing you keep coming back to before every cut so the edge stays true. We sharpen our processes the same way: regularly, deliberately, with the goal of staying ahead of where the market lands next.
Last year I read through one of our owners' annual HVAC inspection report and pushed back on the root cause of a $1,500 repair the original technician had quoted. The second opinion fixed the actual underlying issue for free. That's the kind of work that doesn't show up on any management dashboard. Multiply $1,500 across a portfolio across a year and it's not a small number.
We also keep the properties competing with the top of the market. Reshooting Jack's Lake Place's listing photos last year moved it to the first page of search in its category. A sauna goes into Sundowner in fall 2026. Pricing, photo strategy, amenity selection, the small upgrades that move the needle: these get revisited every quarter, not when someone complains.
Hospitality that doesn't end at check-in.
A digital picture frame sits on the kitchen counter at every property. It greets you by name, shows the days you're with us, and rotates through area context relevant to your stay: the hike worth the drive in the season you're visiting, the diner we'd send our own family to, the kid-friendly spots if there are kids in the group. That's the kind of detail we want guests to find on their own. Clean homes, fast replies, kitchen stocked with usable cookware: those are table stakes.
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