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

Sydney and joe, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Our area (Fredericksburg) is very saturated with short term rentals and airbnbs, so we’ve worked hard to carve out a niche for ourselves. We operate more like a boutique hotel with a curated experience with high quality service. We have 28 units across town but they all have the same Porch Light standard of service and amenities. We have guests that have come back to stay with us 5+ times just to try out different units because they know they will still get the Porch Light experience. Yes, we are a STR management company but our curated experience, standards and service are what have set us apart in this competitive market.

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.

Long story short, Porch Light was started by Joe’s parents in 2011 when they built their first guesthouse, The Cottage, next to their family home. It started as just a way to make an extra few hundred bucks a month. When that was successful, things started growing and people began to take notice and asked them to design/manage their properties. Around 2019 things really took off and Joe and I came into the picture in 2020 to run the management side of Porch Light. Since then we’ve expanded to 28 guesthouses and now have a team of 4 managers and 7 housekeepers.

Our vision for Porch Light has always been to provide a 5-star experience for our guests, staff and property owners and be the best hospitality management company in the Hill Country. Maintaining those standards and ensuring that every guest has the same 5-star experience across all units is really difficult in a 24/7 business where you always have guests on the property and have new check-ins everyday. Of course, there are mistakes along the way but most guests are really understanding as long as you value your guests. We always use a guest issue as an opportunity to show them our service, attention to detail and care. And as far as quality, we don’t skimp on the important things – especially guest facing amenities – pillows, linens, soaps, coffee.

We really value our team, our Porch Light family. We take care of each other, have fun and make it a great environment to work.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

We just made a huge pivot at the end of 2022, going into 2023. Since starting Porch Light, we’ve been pretty set on only managing properties that we designed from the ground up. Meaning we weren’t interested in managing just anybody’s units, they had to be units that we built and designed to meet our standards/experience. However with STR’s increasing by 50% in our area over the past year we weren’t able to keep up with the new influx of competition. We needed to grow our inventory quickly to keep up with our financial goals for the year. In January, we went out and started marketing ourselves as a management company to bring on owners/new units that aligned with our standards as a hospitality company. Since then we’ve brought on 10 new amazing units that were not designed by us, but still feel like Porch Light properties. It’s been a great learning experience working with new property owners that share our same vision but just hadn’t been able to find the right management company fit until now.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Building our social media has been a process! We’ve had it running since 2018 but it really didn’t take off until 2020 when we started investing into it with influencer marketing and paid ads. The platforms and algorithms change so much over the year that you really have to keep up with what’s current to continue to build your brand. We’ve focused heavily on making our platform a resource for people traveling to the Hill Country. I think it’s super important for your account to 1) be personal and show the faces behind your business to connect with people and 2) offer content that people can takeaway from your account. Ask yourself why followers would want to see your content and what are you providing? It can be a travel resource, business advice, design and lifestyle inspiration, etc. Have fun with it!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.porchlighthospitality.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/porchlightfbg/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PorchLightHospitality/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxFEEGpENkD179XuxULBTw