July 28, 2026

#195 ​​​​How Maddie Malek Scaled Her Short-Term Rental Co-Hosting Business by Dropping Perfectionism

When Maddie Malek launched Nomad Vacation Rentals, she looked her very first client in the eye and admitted she had absolutely no idea what she was doing. That honest conversation about managing two initial properties sparked a short-term rental co-hosting business that has now grown to 27 doors in Greensboro, North Carolina. She didn’t have a massive portfolio to leverage. She simply had an obsession with learning and an owner whose incredibly high expectations set her baseline for success.

Most operators think they need a perfectly polished background before they can successfully pitch outside investors. We see talented people hiding behind endless website redesigns while their local market sits wide open. Maddie proves you don’t need years of hospitality experience to thrive. You just need a willingness to tackle the messy, everyday reality of building a short-term rental co-hosting business.

The Discomfort of Growing a Short-Term Rental Co-Hosting Portfolio

Growth is never a smooth, comfortable ride. Maddie’s journey to 27 properties was filled with trial, error, and intense moments of panic.

She remembers the exact feeling of panic when a property’s AC failed in the middle of a 90-degree summer day. Eventually, she had a day where five different air conditioning units went down at the same time. When you’re the sole business owner, you’re the only person who can put out those fires.

As Maddie explains, “There is no growth in comfort. If you are comfortable, you’re not growing”.

This brings us to a massive operational bottleneck I see constantly.

Your surface problem looks like a broken AC, a demanding guest, or a sudden maintenance emergency.

But the underlying pattern is letting operational fires dictate your emotional state and taking property issues personally.

Are you running this company, or are the daily emergencies running you?

Your practical next step is to standardize your crisis response. Build an emergency vendor list this week so you aren’t scrambling on a Saturday. Stop beating yourself up over a broken appliance, focus entirely on the solution, and take the emotion out of your operations.

Structuring a Lean Short-Term Rental Co-Hosting Team

Once she had a few doors under her belt, Maddie quickly realized she couldn’t handle the physical load alone. But instead of hiring a bloated corporate team, she built a lean, specialized group.

Her internal roster for her short-term rental co-hosting operation includes an administrator, a systems-focused operations manager, and two dedicated quality inspectors. Those inspectors are the absolute secret weapon of her growth strategy.

“I would worry that what if the cleaners didn’t go that day? What if it fell off their schedule?” Maddie shares.

Having an inspector audit cleanings before guests ever arrive brings total relief. They catch minor maintenance issues and missed dust bunnies that would otherwise lead to a three-star review. It takes the guesswork completely out of the equation.

Simple Financial Systems for Your Short-Term Rental Co-Hosting Business

When it comes to the back office, Maddie keeps her ecosystem highly functional. She uses Hostaway for owner statements and calendar management.

For expense tracking, she doesn’t use wildly over-engineered software. She emails all receipts to a dedicated inbox and tracks the balances in the Notes app on her phone. Then, she adds those details to her monthly owner invoices.

It isn’t perfect, and she admits she’s still evolving the process. But it works right now. She prioritizes financial transparency over complex data dashboards that look impressive but actually slow down the daily work. Don’t let a lack of perfect software stop you from bringing on your next client.

Establishing Strict Short-Term Rental Co-Hosting Boundaries

Transitioning from casually helping a friend to running a multi-property enterprise requires a massive mindset shift. As her short-term rental co-hosting portfolio grew, Maddie had to learn to draw a firm line in the sand with her clients.

That means learning to say a confident no. She recently had to tell a prospective owner that their property was in a bad area and wouldn’t attract the right guests. If an owner doesn’t share her exact property standards, she won’t take the contract.

When you’re desperate for growth, you’ll take any door that comes your way. That’s a dangerous trap. A misaligned owner will drain your operational time, argue about essential maintenance costs, and ultimately ruin your guest reviews. Saying no to the wrong property is exactly how you make room for the right one.

If you decide to take on a misaligned property and manage the renovation yourself, you have to charge for your time. Working for free to secure a door will leave you exhausted and resentful.

If you’re ready to stop guessing and start dialing in your own operational processes, explore the advanced resources at Stacey St. John to see how we’re helping operators build highly profitable portfolios.

Click here now to listen to the full podcast.

HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY POINTS:

Golden Nuggets:

• “You have to want that growth.”
• “There is no growth in comfort. If you are comfortable, you’re not growing.”
• “It’s okay to sit and not know, and then go learn what you can.”

Connect With Stacey:

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/MadelaineMalik

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/nomad.elaine/

 

Full Episode Transcript:

 

Stacey:

So today we are joined by Maddie Malek and we are hearing all about her journey at Nomad. Nomad. Wait a minute. Let me say that again. See, you remember what I said? This is why we have editors. Editors. Cross that out. Nomad. Wow. Nomad Vacation Rentals. All right. Let me try that one more time.

So today we’re joined by Maddie Malek and we’re hearing all about her journey at Nomad Vacation Rentals. Maddie, thanks for being here.

Thank you so much for having me. Honestly, this is going to be so fun. And this is actually the first time that you and I have met. I would love for you to walk me and our audience through a little bit about who you are and how you got started in the world of short term rentals.

Yeah, so I got started around twenty twenty three. I was a part of that twenty twenty influx of like local real estate agents that came through. So I was originally a real estate agent that kind of transferred to doing Airbnb’s. Not that they’re at all even relative to each other, honestly. And like real estate sales and residential sales, it’s not necessarily the same as Airbnb really at all.

But I had a friend of a friend who wanted to start these two properties and they didn’t have the time to do it themselves. And I was like, okay, well, I would love to help you. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I would love to learn. And it sounds really cool. So it kind of just started from that one client who needed that one little bit of help and then has kind of developed a little bit from there.

Amazing. So let me just recap. So you got a client when you had no idea what you were doing.

And they also knew I had no idea what I was doing. So that was great.

I just want to highlight that because so many folks are interested in, you know, jumping into the world of short-term rentals and they feel like they don’t know enough yet. Right. So I just want to pause and say that is huge. The fact that you got a client, you were brand spanking new, you were open and honest to say, hey, I’d love to help you, but this is going to be a learning process for me. How much did you feel like you were drinking from a fire hose in those early months?

It was, I feel like to this day, it’s still, you’re still learning. So this was back in twenty twenty three. It’s now June of twenty twenty six. So I’m still learning things all the time. But definitely in that beginning, it’s like, OK, does the owner want me to do this? Like trying to figure out what I wanted my job to really entail and what I really wanted my business, it became a business, what I really want my business to be.

And so it was a lot of trial and error. It was a lot of making mistakes, honestly. Like you really learn from those mistakes. You learn by kind of getting kicked in the dirt a little bit and you’re like, oh, okay, let’s never do that again. And let’s, you know, figure out how you want to handle it to go forward.

It just was kind of a transitional period of just figuring out the basics. I was good at the customers. I’m good at talking to people. I’m good with the guests. Am I supposed to be extra picky walking through the house? Am I supposed to, you know, be paying attention to all these extra things? The answer is always yes.

And, but you don’t know that really to begin with. So I started from nothing, learned from trial and error, learned from podcasts, learned from YouTube videos and decided what I wanted to pay attention to, decided what I wanted to incorporate into my business. And then grew it uh did it from there.

So how far into that journey did you realize oh this has potential oh this is a viable business not just me helping out somebody and watching youtube videos to try to figure out what i’m doing when was that turning point for you?

So for me, I feel like my situation, I mean, I’m sure everybody’s situation is unique. So in my situation, I feel like it was unique because there was a need for a co-host for Airbnb in my area. I’m located in Greensboro, North Carolina, about an hour west of Raleigh, an hour and a half north of Charlotte. Small niche, you know, kind of just a little area. But there was a need for somebody to help with people who had Airbnb and didn’t have their own time to be able to commit to them.

So it really just happenstantially kind of developed and grew from there. By word of mouth, I got more clients. By word of mouth, I got more people. And I think that is where my realization came in. Like, oh, people need this help. This is something that obviously, if I’ve only been getting clients by word of mouth, then clearly there is a gap that I have to kind of fill.

And I have very high standards for my specific Airbnbs. So it’s that clientele that cares about their property, that cares about their customer satisfaction. And then I can handle all of those things from them. So just realizing like I’m getting a lot of word of mouth, a lot of people who are coming to me. So it sounds like there is a need in the area and I can grow from there.

I’m curious, looking back, what do you feel like caused you to have momentum in your business as you were, you know, you realize, hey, there is a need and people were coming to you. Obviously, if there was a gap in the market, that can create momentum. However, I’m going to say, if there was a gap in the market and you weren’t doing a good job filling it in, that business would not be coming to you, right? So I’m curious again, when you look back and you think about those early stages of growth, what do you believe helped you gain momentum maybe faster than others out there?

To be completely transparent, and I don’t know if this is true or not, but I really feel like it was my regular interest in learning more. I feel like I really wanted to get, I do still wanna get good. So my drive to be good at the job. I think the clients, the owners, the property owners, I think they see that and saw that. And I think that if you have a property manager or a co-host that doesn’t care about your property, why are you going to hire that person?

But if your properties are being taken care of, if your guest satisfaction is high, if your reviews are going well, if you’re able to communicate through issues with guests effectively, I feel like all of those kind of put you on a path to just being the best at what you are doing.

And truly, I do think I take feedback. You know, maybe I don’t take it well sometimes, but like I love hearing feedback from people because that’s obviously a pain point. So how can I do that better next time and how can I set expectations better? What can I do differently? And I think that my willingness to learn even now, I mean, it’s only been three years, three and a half years, but still learning more every day. I think that sets me up for success and leaves an impression on some of these property owners.

Absolutely. And I’m just curious, how many properties are in your portfolio today?

Twenty seven.

Twenty seven. OK, so again, I just want to say time out. A lot of folks have this limiting belief that, oh, gosh, I can’t handle onboarding more properties or I can’t handle growth. First of all, you have to want it, right? You have to want that growth. But second of all, the sky is the limit. And here’s Maddie in a matter of two and a half, three years has built an amazing portfolio of twenty seven properties and girlfriend is still growing, right?

I will tell you the topic of learning and continuous improvement is one of the things that I feel like has also made a tremendous impact on me. I have been doing this since twenty twenty. OK, so not a whole ton further than you. I learn new stuff every day. It changes all the time, too. It changes all the time.

And the other thing that is very interesting. When I think about continuous improvement is there are always going to be new challenges that come up in our businesses. And so if we have kind of this static mindset, this is just the way I’ve always done it. I’ve never had to deal with this problem before. Why am I having to deal with this now? It’s a lack of accountability, it feels like. This is your business. You run this company. This is yours. You got to take that ownership. What are you going to do better next time?

Amen, sister. Yeah, absolutely.

So again, I just think it’s really, really important to pause and highlight some of these mindset perspectives that you have had, because candidly, other people can learn and benefit from that. So anyway, I’m on a little soapbox there.

I want to also ask you, you know, a lot of folks who watch and listen want to grow. They want to grow their co-hosting business. They want to have a bigger portfolio, but that growth can feel overwhelming and scary. And it’s very real. Did you feel fear? Did you feel like it was overwhelming? And what did you do to push through that?

Still to this day, all the time. I mean, there is one quote that sits with me like for the past several years, it is something that runs my life, this quote. And I wish that I know who specifically said it, but it’s quick and easy. There is no growth in comfort. Mm-hmm. So if you are comfortable, you’re not growing.

So that’s one part of it. But then also, if you’re uncomfortable, which happens to me very regularly, then you are growing. You’re developing through that. You’re changing who you are. You’re developing your thoughts about whatever that specific instance is. And that could be about anything. Like when you’re running the business by yourself, you could feel uncomfortable in the first time your AC goes out in that house. You’re uncomfortable, you’re panicked, you’re stressed. Like, what am I supposed to do? What’s the plan?

But you realize it’s not really that the sky is falling. It’s, you know, now it’s, okay, how can I make the guest feel heard, comfortable? Oftentimes, sometimes maybe you have to reimburse them for something because it’s a big issue. But then it’s also, okay, how am I going to handle the situation so that the guest satisfaction at the end of the day is still there? Yeah, the AC went out, but what did you do to kind of make up for that problem?

Yeah, absolutely. I just had that happen last week in a property. AC went out, it’s ninety degrees outside. You know, of course you can send fans. But what are you going to proactively do.

Exactly.

And I also want to highlight the quote that there’s no growth uncomfortable. I haven’t heard it said like that. Where I learned as I was making a shift in my own mindset, in my own life back in the day, the quote that I heard was get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And it’s the same concept, but I just want to highlight this. So if we think about a line going from left to right, or maybe four circles on the far left is your comfort zone. That is where your subconscious mind wants you to live. Your subconscious mind has its job as being the most efficient database computer for your body. And when you are comfortable, it can operate easier, okay?

Why so many people aren’t comfortable with being uncomfortable is outside of that comfort zone is your fear zone. And when things are uncomfortable, when we’re afraid, our subconscious mind is not operating in its most efficient manner. And so it will naturally and organically try to push you back into the comfort zone.

So in order to push through that fear, we have to have habits in place, at least in my experience, put things in place to give ourselves the right tools to push through that fear.

And also not let it like take over your brain. That was my personal issue when I first started. If these problems popped up, I almost took it personally. The issue happens and then it makes the problem so much more of a problem rather than you kind of refer, like focusing on solving it and making it less about you. And that protected my mental ability too. Yeah.

Because it can add up if once you get several properties, then if there are several different issues happening at once. I like to say that it’s my threshold growing. My ability to withstand a lot more things is it’s much higher now than it was three or three and a half, three years ago, for sure. Yeah. And that all helps play a part.

Absolutely. And to your point, at every new level you get to, you’re going to have a glass ceiling at every level. And so to your point, you’re just pushing through that glass ceiling at that level. And then, oh, by the way, we’re going to have a new glass ceiling. You’re going to get uncomfortable again. And then you’re going to have to grow through that too. And it’s going to be continuous in life through all of the things all the time, I feel.

I think you’re right. I think I’m way older than you by the looks of your skin compared to mine. And I can tell you that you are right. You are always going to have to grow through that uncomfortableness. And the sooner we can realize that and embrace it, the easier it becomes.

You notice it more as it comes up. You definitely do. So you had an air conditioning issue. The other day I had five different properties air conditionings go out.

Oh boy.

That’s a lot of problems to solve and fires to put out. People to make happy, solutions to come up with. And when you’re a sole small business owner, you are the only person that can solve those problems. So your threshold gets so much higher versus when that first unit goes out, then it’s a couple units. But you know what to do now. You’ve got an idea of how to handle it. You’re not taking it personally. You’re handling the situation. That makes a big difference on your mental state, too. Rather than taking it personally, beating yourself up about it, handle it. What are you going to do to make them happy? And that helps a lot.

Amen. I want to ask you about what your business looks like today. So we have twenty seven properties. Talk to us about some of the behind the curtains. Do you have virtual assistants? What systems are you using? Tell us about that.

Yeah. So I don’t have any virtual assistants incorporated in my business at this time. Except if you count marketing. I have somebody who does my email marketing and she’s fantastic. So that’s important. And I do like having that incorporated. But in my day to day for the business, I have a admin person who helps me with adjusting anything in my listings, especially at this quantity. It ends up taking more time to do quick adjustments.

So I have an admin person to help me with stuff like that and also restocking properties, doing inventory. I have an operations person to help me with my systems and my checklists. This is a new position in Nomad and it’s very much needed because we personally did not start with any checklists, any lists, any systems. It was just me. It was all me learning those things and I retained it. But it’s not easy to replicate when you’re just trying to talk to somebody about it.

So I hired an operations person to help me get these systems in place so that it can be replicated and communicated through lists rather than communicated by memory. So that’s something that we’re actively working through. And then I have two property inspectors that go through, they’re called quality inspectors, and they just make sure that the cleaner’s got everything good. And they just kind of do a couple of fluffing items and make sure that the property is perfectly ready.

And that’s it it’s just the few of us that’s amazing and i want to say you know it’s like music to my ears to hear you say you have a quality inspector so i have quality control inspectors in my business i believe they are a critical part of us having the ability to catch issues before a guest arises, right? And I actually, this is part of my five-star turnover system. And Maddie, I’m curious, what would you say you would feel like if you didn’t have those quality control inspectors?

I think the anxiety would regularly be there, you know, and I’m not sure if that quite answers what your question was, but I would worry that what if the cleaners didn’t go that day? They forgot. What if it fell off their schedule? What if something happened? Like it brings me so much reassurance that there’s another layer of eyes before it’s there. Making sure the property is cleaned to start, making sure that the property is detailed and organized, not cluttered, spread out well, all of the design and everything is where it should be. It helps you with house inventory and things like that. So I would say it is super important and it really brings like a relief to my brain knowing that somebody trained is there and monitoring and making sure that your guests is going to have a good time.

Amen. Amen. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. And then I’m curious about your growth. So obviously, you’ve grown your portfolio in a relatively short amount of time. What have you utilized in order to capture those new co hosting clients? Are you using email marketing? Are you using social media? Are you using outreach to local real estate agents? What does that look like for you?

I would say I have social media, but I honestly, every single one of my clients, between my twenty seven properties, I have about six or seven owners. So a lot of them have quantity. But it was all every single client was word of mouth, just either recommended by a past client that I had or another current client that I had or from a designer friend or from a friend that is also in Airbnbs. Like those were all just kind of my how I grew up.

And then also on Instagram and social media, Facebook, we do have Facebook pages and Instagram pages. I’ve met a lot of local real estate agents that actually reach out to get more information about Airbnbs. Or maybe they have a client that wants to buy for an Airbnb, so they have questions. And it’s really grown a pretty good referral network between the real estate agents. So that’s good.

Yeah, that’s awesome. And are all of your properties still in the one market? Have you branched out to other? Okay.

Yep. They’re all in Greensboro. However, I would still love to continue growing. So I would love in the next couple of years to be able to keep, you know, Nomad in Greensboro and then expand to another geographical market of some sort.

Well, I feel like if your business name is Nomad, like it’s going to be a requirement. Right. There’s going to be multiple locations.

One hundred percent. I love it.

OK, I want to go back to systems a little bit, because obviously, you know, you and I both know how important they are in our day to day. What would you say if you had to think about a system that has made the biggest impact on your business? What would you say that is?

A system that has the biggest impact? Honestly, I would say financial clarity. It’s probably one of the most important things, not only to us, but also to our clients. They want to make sure that the owners, of course, the owner statements are, you know, showing proper numbers that is connecting to their bank, making sure that you’re being very transparent about any expenses. I like to be very upfront and communicative in a lot of things. I don’t aspire to be a shady person. So I really, I think that just being very financially transparent with your clients, making sure that they can see everything about their property. I think it really proves that you are a credible and respectable company. just because you’re able to directly correlate all of these things with the things that you do. And I think that that provides a lot of value.

Yeah. Talk to us a little bit about the behind the scenes for your business. So is your fee structure, because different people do it in different ways. By the way, are you a full service property manager or are you a co-host?

I am a co-host. Okay. In the state of North Carolina, you have to be licensed to be a property manager. I am a co-host. So nothing, it doesn’t like quite, match property management duties.

Right. And so do you have the model where your owners are paid the payouts from Airbnb or any other OTAs, and then you are invoicing for your services?

Yes, ma’am.

Okay. And then talk to me about the expenses. So let’s say you have to buy a fan for a guest that the air conditioning has gone out. How does that work from a logistics perspective? Is Maddie buying the fan and then sending the receipt to the owners or the owners buying the fan and shipping the fan to Maddie? What does that look like?

So I try, even though I am a co-host, I try to offer as much help to my property owners as I possibly can. So the way that my system is, is if a property needs a fan, Maddie or Nomad goes to the store, buys that fan and goes and sets it up for the guest, gets it ready for them, puts it there, and then I will add it to my monthly invoice for reimbursements for my property owners. And these are all people that I’ve had relationships with for a few years now. So credible, respectable property owners that I know that they will reimburse me for these things.

Right, right. And so what system are you utilizing to capture the expense and generate the owner statements? Are you using QuickBooks? Are you using other owner statement software? What does that look like for you?

So I will say that our current system is probably a little bit more like writing it down in a book. I think that’s because we’re still in our development phase on how we properly want to improve our owner statements and display things like expenses rather than just the numbers. I use my property management software. It’s HostAway. It’s my software that I use for my owner statements, for my calendar, for my inbox, all of those things.

And then for my invoices, my invoiced items, I email myself all of my receipts to my Nomad receipt email specifically. So it’s all tracked in there. And then I’ll take those receipts and I’ll write the balance on my notes for what property it’s for. And then when I do my monthly invoices, I just put those notes into the invoice. And I’m not going to say that that’s the most efficient way to do it because admittedly, I don’t think that it is. But it’s just how we have it set up now. It’s just easy for me to track right on my notes on my phone. And then I’ll just put that information on my invoices at the end of the month.

Yeah, no, and I think, you know, taking a listen to what you’re doing will help other people who may not have any co-host clients yet. And maybe they’re thinking, hey, that’s a great idea to have a receipts inbox for me to email.

Yeah. Just a Gmail to track your stuff. And then in Gmail, you can put labels on each email so you can have it categorized by year and property. It’s pretty easy. And then I like the Notes app on your phone because you always have it. And it’s really easy to refer back to. And it’s free. You don’t have to pay any monthly subscription. It’s really easy to kind of figure out what you want to do while you’re still figuring out what you want to do.

Yeah. Yeah. No. And I think the other thing that you mentioned that is important to highlight is, Hey, this may not be the most efficient system and I might evolve in the future, but it works for me now. And so again, I just want to highlight that because so many people let that get in their way and they don’t start or they don’t grow because they think, Oh, I don’t have a way to do receipts yet. So I just have to figure that out. And then I’ll take the next step.

And I will say the receipts email did not come into play until about the last year and a half. So the first year and a half, I was saving them and putting them in envelopes and making sure the owners got them at the end of the year so they could do their taxes. And all of that is good for tracking, but how can I make it less time intensive on myself? And how can I make it more seamless for the owners? And so it’s not, yes, exactly like what you’re saying. It’s not step one is perfection. It’s step one is starting and then make it perfect as you go.

Amen, girl. Amen. Amen. And here’s the scoop. If we ever get to be perfect, we probably need to be dead, right? There’s always room to grow. There’s always room to learn. Yes. Right.

All right. So I am curious. Yes. You know, it’s very clear to me that you are a very wise soul. I want to ask you, entrepreneurship requires a lot of motivation because no one is telling you what to do day in, day out. It requires you to have the vision, you to have the foresight, you to have the prioritization. How do you stay focused when the excitement about, oh my gosh, I love this property or I’m so excited about this new client, when that excitement wears off, how does Maddie stay focused?

Um… I think it kind of boils down to people are relying on me. I know that my clients need this to get done. I know that my guests need to have a good stay. I just have a couple of girls working under me. I know that these girls need me to be there. Yes, you’re still working for yourself, but at this point where I’m at, I have a lot of people that do need me to be present and do these things.

And it doesn’t mean that, you know, some days aren’t absolutely crazy and some days aren’t super boring sometimes. I mean, seldom, but sometimes, you know, um, but I think that people still rely on me and I do have to mentally remind myself, Hey, these things are real. Like these are real problems. These are real things that need to get done. So don’t slack off. Like don’t delay. Not to say sometimes, oh, I’ll do it tomorrow, you know, and I make sure it’s on the calendar for tomorrow. And that’s probably something that I need to work on still a little bit. But those would be small things.

But still making sure that things are taken care of because there are people who are relying on you to make sure that this stuff gets done. And that really pushes me and motivates me to make sure that not only it’s good, but also that I’m, I’m doing a good job in that person’s eyes. That’s a lot to me personally.

I love that. So good. Okay. I’m switching gears. I want to move to the lightning round. Okay. So I’m going to ask you a few questions and you just answer with the very first thing that comes to mind. Okay. First question, where is your favorite place to vacation?

Ooh, like ever in, in all of the locations ever?

Ever.

Ooh. Um, I went to Greece and Malta a couple of years ago and I would say Malta specifically, it was just the most coolest thing ever.

Oh, okay. So I went to Malta last spring and I didn’t even know it was on earth. So I was like, right. We went there. And I was like, wow, I’ve never heard of this island. And then kind of as a joke, I was like, oh, is this where the Maltese is from? And sure enough, it was. Come to find out, Mark Zuckerberg has a yacht that he parks in Malta. So I got to see that from across the bay. Mark did not personally invite me on board. So I was a little disappointed. But yes, isn’t it stunning?

Yeah, it’s such a different world over there. And how people drove was so different. The atmosphere was so different. It was a really beautiful place to go. Yeah. In Malta was the first time I’d ever been to a bathroom. like a public bathroom where there was someone outside taking money for toilet paper and come to find out like, that’s a thing. Like I didn’t know this at the time, but, um, anyway, that was my first experience with paid toilet paper as well.

Very important. That’s how tourism dollars. Yeah. Okay. Next question. What’s one place you’ve never been that you want to visit?

I would love to go to France or Spain. I would say that those are super high on my list here soon. Maybe Spain first, but you know, maybe both the same trip.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Exactly.

But I would say that those are super high on my list because it’s just, again, another experience of feeling like you’re in a different world.

Yeah. Yeah. That’s so good. I’ve never been to Spain, although my husband tells me I love it because of all the Spanish wine. Cause I, this girl loves some red wine. Okay. Um, but France is pretty stunning as well. I’ve been there a couple of times. It’s, it’s pretty gorgeous. Lovely.

Yes. I’m a big nature person. So anywhere that I can go and see a beautiful scene is, That’s kind of what I end up chasing when I travel.

There you go. Okay. Next question. What’s one thing you know now that you wished you knew when you were starting out in the world of short-term rentals?

Honestly, I’m going to swing back to my quote, um, because I think I learned my quote when I was already started and it really helped me change my mentality towards a lot of things in life too. So it really helped me be able to see, Hey, you’re stressed. This is stressing you out next time. It’s going to get better. It’s going to get It’s going to be nice because like you were saying earlier, it can be like drinking from a fire hose. Like there’s so much information and so many things that you don’t know.

And that’s okay. Like it’s okay to sit in not knowing and then go learn what you can. If it’s a specific thing, go learn about that one thing. If it’s a topic, go watch a podcast on that topic or like, or if it’s an internal thing, how can you be better next time? Like, I think it’s, it really helped me, you know, be able to not take it all so personally. Being the business owner, the person that’s in charge, the manager, essentially a lot of things are your responsibility. But to learn from it and not eat yourself away about it or feel like you’re going to get it wrong, just let it be what it is, grow from it and learn from it. And next time you’ll be more prepared and you will be able to kind of evolve a little bit from that point.

I’m going to tie that quote for sure. Love it. Love it. Love it. All right. Next question. What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Ooh, been given. Um, um, I think I have a prop, my first property owner, he started me at a very high threshold for, uh, of expectations for himself. OK, for his properties. So I learned off of the highest expectations and I feel like that set me up for a lot of the success that I’ve had.

I now look at properties with the highest expectation and highest potential. And I think that maybe that’s not specific advice, but it was his expectations that gave me the entire thought process on how I wanted to run my business. He wanted it to be perfect. He wanted these things to matter a lot. He wanted this guest impression to be memorable. And because of those expectations that he put on me, I think that I took that as an advice to myself. like constantly have that expectation as well. And I think that that in a way was advice. It really did help me grow into something that’s important and influential and makes people happy.

I love the way you put that. It’s like advice through expectation. And normally advice is what’s spoken, right? But that to your point, that expectation, you’ve been able to cascade throughout all of your business to the rest of your clients.

Yes, and I think it made a difference because I attracted property owners that also had those expectations. And I was already ready for that. And also it makes, at the end of the day, it makes my job easier. When my property owners want the best, I know exactly what I can provide. But if they don’t want the best, maybe we’re not the best fit, which is totally understandable. But then also, you know, I want my guests to have the best time too. So those expectations really do need to meet for my clients as well as me. We need to be on the same page of what we want the property to be.

Yeah. I’m curious, have you ever had a potential client reach out to you that you’re like, whoa, this is not a good fit?

Yes.

And how did you handle that?

Oh, those are like, they’re hard conversations. Those are conversations that you grow through, you know, that very first client that you have to tell, Hey, that house that you bought is in a really bad area. And I really don’t think it’s going to be profitable. And I think we’re going to attract the wrong guests. And I’m not going to be able to be the manager for you only because of that.

But it’s at the end of the day, your business and your expectations and what you want in your company. And so you just have to have the conversation and say how and why it might not work and then maybe set them up for success at the end. If you know that that property is not gonna work for you, Maybe go find somebody else locally that has a different concept in how they run their business and send that client to them or vice versa. Send that person to that client. So that way you’re still offering help because then again, that impression is still left in that client’s brain. And then maybe the next house that they buy better fits a different standard.

Yeah. I love that. That’s exactly what I’ve done. I do have, I’ll say, higher than most expectations on aesthetic for properties. And there are many properties that I’ve walked that I’ve said to the owners, hey, listen, unfortunately, This particular property is not going to be a good fit for my portfolio. It doesn’t quite meet my standards. But let me connect you with someone who has a different set of standards than I do. To your point, because I don’t want to tell them no and not give them value. And then number two, they’re going to remember my expectations and standards moving forward. And so when they come back, they’re going to be ready to… take the step that makes the sense for us together as partners, right?

And sometimes I’ve had this happen too. I went and walked a property and it was not to expectation and standard. And one of my options were, if you give me five grand to put into this house, I will make it to the expectations and standards.

So same thing. You can also turn it into another opportunity to help that person if it’s something that still could potentially fit your portfolio. but that’s another thing as well, as you can say, okay, right now, how it sits is not quite it, but we need new, new floors. Let’s get rid of the carpet. Let’s do a couple extra pictures on the wall. Let’s get nicer bed frames and then let’s try it again and see what we think.

And I, I just want to point out. When you take that path, it’s very important in my opinion to make sure you’re paying yourself because I have definitely managed many renovations for clients and boy, oh boy, by the time you do the calculation and you think, oh, I’ve got this, you know, fee in the, in the line item for my fee with all the work that you put in, you’re getting paid like a dollar seventy nine an hour.

So I have made that mistake for a very long time in the beginning. And working for free was a problem that I had, too, in the beginning. And it’s still a transition period for me because I want to help. But also my time is important, too. Like I have value to bring. And that’s something that I have to keep reminding myself now, too.

Love it. Love it. Maddie, last question. What’s one thing and or person that you’re grateful for today?

I’m going to say that property owner that started me out. He gave me that chance. It went from I don’t know what I’m doing to he said, you know, a year or two later, all right, here’s six more properties that I want to put on Airbnb. Like I was so grateful for him and his wife to allow me to learn through them. They gave me the expectations that I needed. And now it’s to a point where they really feel involved in my company and in my business that they, they care for my development now too. And I’m just very grateful for those specific clients that started me and are still with me and still want me to grow. Um, They are definitely some of my angels.

That’s awesome. And if you haven’t, I’m going to challenge you to get uncomfortable and reach out to them and tell them how grateful you are for them. Not for the opportunity to manage their properties, but for the growth opportunities that they have provided you. Sometimes it can be very weird and awkward to like call somebody out of the blue and just say, I just want you to know I’m grateful for you. But I can tell you it’s something that will stick with them for many, many years.

Yes, absolutely.

Maddie, if people want to learn more about you or perhaps explore how Nomad could help them out as a property owner, where is the best place for them to find you online?

We have a Nomad Vacation Rentals Facebook page. I would also say following at nomad.elaine on Instagram is going to be the best way to find all of our properties and our day to day stuff. It’s just ran by me. I post little cute snippets of things that we do and new properties that we have and good reviews that we get. So at nomad.elaine on Instagram or nomadvacationrentals on Facebook.

So good. Maddie, you were such a delight to talk to. Thank you for being here.

Thank you so much for having me and letting me share my story. And it’s been lovely. Thank you so much.

You bet.

 

 

 

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