We recently connected with Caroline Ramos and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Caroline, thanks for joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

I’ll start off with a preface that I run a Vacation Rental Investment firm called Host and Keep in South Florida focused on buying, selling, financing and managing short term rentals. We are now expanding into deal syndications and larger acquisitions with the sole purpose of renting them to travelers visiting Miami and its surroundings.

With that said, I was one of those New York City corporate ladder hopping employees for years. There are many reasons why New York has been dubbed the city that never sleeps; and long work hours, after office events and stressful commutes are a few of them.

During my time in the hustle and bustle of working for others in New York I was so focused on chasing that next promotion, title or commision check that I didn’t realize I was learning a lot. In the moment you don’t really see it that way, but in hindsight the problems, solutions, sales skills, the knowing who to hire and fire all roll up into a nice package of critical skills for your own business.

Sales and marketing are the foundation to any business growth engine. I worked in sales and marketing for 11 years before I made the leap to work for myself. My expertise always was digital marketing for all sorts of client verticals and then later on, sales and marketing for hospitality, specifically special events in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

Hospitality exposure to the largest scale and highest profile events in these markets taught me so much about the guest experience, and how to host in a memorable way. From the moment the guest is invited to the event, to when they walk in- What do they see? What do they smell? What do they feel? What is that one memorable thing at the event that is worth spending most of the budget on that they will take away with them for years to come?

My personal background, and forever side hustle as a real estate investor and agent exposed me to the upside and value of real estate assets. I learned quickly how to find investment opportunities, how to analyze them and better yet how to add a value add component- from a rehab, to a complete shift to short term rentals. By doing this right I was able to 3x my returns from them.

People management is a whole story within itself, which I have been doing for years ( I say that both regretfully and luckily). It’s not easy and requires a delicate balance. You are only as good as your team and knowing how to lead a team is invaluable in the business ecosystem. You only have so many hours in the day and without the proper leverage you can only grow a business so much. Company culture, alignment, growth paths, incentives all need to be carefully set in place.

It was just a matter of time until I decided to marry the two- Real Estate and Hospitality, pairing them with sales and marketing to boost the efforts. That’s essentially how I landed here! If it wasn’t for my previous years working for others, I would have never been able to stack these mistakes and personal growth lessons into the backbone I have developed today to run a successful business in Vacation Rentals, with Host and Keep.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Host and Keep is a vacation rental investment firm based in South Florida. They specialize in asset procurement, financing and monetizing in the short term rental sector.

Caroline is a Founding partner of Host and Keep and oversees Business Development, Marketing and Acquisitions for the company. Prior to Host and Keep Caroline worked in corporate marketing in New York City for Unilever, Matomy Media, part of The Publicis Group and others. Her hospitality background comes from her 6 years in the events and tourism space for the largest productions in New York and Miami, Including the Met Gala, US Open and SoBe Food and Wine Festival. Caroline is an experienced superhost, realtor and investor. She is a licensed Real Estate Agent and Community Association Manager. Caroline received degrees from Northeastern University, Florida Atlantic University and Fairleigh Dickinson University.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

My business acumen helped differentiate me in the vacation rental and real estate sector. It’s a low bar to entry vertical with easy licensing and run by mostly mom and pop shops. The moment you shift your focus to educated investors and partners the clients appreciate that. Guests appreciate the spaces we create and curate with our interior designer keeping in mind those memorable moments during your stay, and how to foster them.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I work with my husband. We met in London 13 years ago. He is a CPA, real estate agent and Mortgage broker. His background in private equity and fund administration are what will propel us to the next level as we begin our shift to syndications and funds for Host and Keep. We are very open to strategic partnerships. Host and Keep expects to manage one of the largest STR portfolios by 2030.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hostandkeep.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hostandkeep/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HOSTANDKEEP
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/host-and-keep-vacation-rental-investments-management/?viewAsMember=true
• Other: TikTok @Hostandkeep