Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Morrison.
Hi Daniel, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My best friend Marty Bauguess and I started about 8 years ago. We had a mutual friend that had bought a cabin in Pigeon Forge TN. We both loved the outdoors and the mountains so much, we scraped our money together and bought our first cabin. It was a 1 bedroom studio log cabin. We had decided to take it slow, buy 1 cabin a year. From there, we went on to buy 7 more log cabins, we grew faster than we expected. We named our business Hidden Haven Vacations. We had no idea how to manage a business so we learned as we went and of course, we had to keep our full time jobs because any money we made went back into saving for the next cabin to buy. About 4 yrs ago, we bought a beach house at Myrtle Beach SC. It was in a campground named Ocean Lakes. It was a 3 bedroom 2 bath trailer with a nice deck and a tree coming out of the deck. It wasn’t upscale at all but It was very cute and was decorated really beachy. People loved it. So, we started buying more beach houses in Ocean Lakes. We had gotten pretty good at renting the beach houses by this time so we started managing other peoples houses. We really have a passion for the short term rental business. It has always made us happy to see our guest leave happy.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Some of the biggest struggles was financing sometimes. Banks really don’t want you to have over 4 mortgages in your name at a time. So Marty and I would take turns buying houses. Keeping good cleaners and having good communication with them. Growing pains such as bookkeeping, guest communication, social media, and tax strategies. As we grew, we had to raise the bar in order to be competitive.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Marty makes a good salary at his job so I was the first to quit my Job. We had no employees and was catching guest calls/messages 20hr a day. I now drive to the beach every weekend from April till Aug to guarantee the quality our guest expects 12-16hr days. We are known for getting our clients high rental numbers and having good customer service. The cabins are doing OK, but rentals have slowed because of over saturation in Pigeon Forge, TN so we specialize more of our growth at the beach market. We came from 1 house 8 years ago to 34 today. We are still learning about the STR business everyday. I think what makes us different is we came from humble beginnings and we never forget that when dealing with our guest and the hustle it takes to be successful.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters to us is to continue to grow, continue learn about this business and keep a passion for making every guest stay memorable for the right reasons.
Pricing:
- Book early, we offer discounts.
- Book trough our website to save money
- Also, we have discounts for last minute stays.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.seasideescapevacations.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seasideescapevacations
- Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/biz_info/OzVqTdZFo-vLhUyhiEVdWA
- Other: https://www.hiddenhavenvacations.com
