We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elisa Foster. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elisa below.

Elisa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Haustay was founded in January of 2020, during the start of a world-wide pandemic. Though it may sound crazy to start a property management business for vacation rentals at this time, we quickly realized that property owners needed assistance at this time more than ever. So even though it seemed risky at the time to start a vacation rental property management business, it proved to be beneficial and surprisingly needed at the time.

COVID-19 disrupted and brought the vacation rental industry in most of the country to its knees. Like other vacation rental operators, we had to adapt quickly. We listened to our guests, and we developed a thorough disinfecting check list for cleaning our properties, as well as contact-less check-in. We went the extra mile to make sure our guests had a safe and clean visit during their stay at our properties. We still follow these guidelines and will continue to make them our priority.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My husband and I purchased a condo in Carlsbad Village in August of 2016 from our friends that were moving to Colorado. We always had our eyes on this condo due to its location in the Carlsbad Village. It has a beachy, laid-back vibe and we purchased it to operate full-time as a vacation rental.

We have enjoyed making the condo our own while providing a relaxing stay for hundreds of guests over the years. From the beginning of our ownership, the condo, which we have since named the Coastal Casita has been a popular vacation rental in Carlsbad having many repeat guests that come back year after year.
We immediately recognized that we enjoyed hosting and realized that we could manage vacation rentals for owners who didn’t have the time to manage on their own.

Prior, I worked in commercial real estate for over a decade.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

So far, we have grown our clientele by word of mouth from current clients. Providing a great service has benefited us tremendously.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

As a co-founder of Haustay, we are not just managers but vacation rental property owners as well. We began as managers of our Carlsbad condo and we able to apply our knowledge on how to run that condo as a successful vacation rental.

As owners, we know the struggle to find quality property management. We’ve found companies with seemingly low management commissions, but hidden add-on fees, companies with high employee-turnover rates, and companies with antiquated “set-it-and-forget-it” pricing strategies.

At Haustay, property owners work directly with our co-founders, encounter no hidden fees, and see higher returns with our dynamic, market demand-based pricing strategies. We also offer full-service set-up and curated interior design services for new-to-market rental properties or to elevate the marketability of your current property.

We’re here to take the stress out of managing your vacation rental.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.haustay.com
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