Speaker: Welcome to Keynotes, a podcast just for Casago homeowners.
This is where we explore how to get the most out of your relationship with
Casago, learn tips and tricks on how to make more income with your property,
and learn a little bit about the short term rental industry along the way.
I've been a vacation rental nerd since my twenties, and the team has finally
let me have this podcast so I can share everything I've learned with you.
I'm your host, Steve Schwab, and this is Keynotes.
Thanks for watching.
Hey, welcome to Keynotes.
My name is Steve Schwab.
I'm here with Brendan and Wendy today from Frio River.
Guys, welcome to the show.
So glad to have you here.
I've had so much fun with you guys this past year as you have come
onto the network and become part of Casago , and all the fantastic
ideas and talents you bring
. And I'm really going to have fun today getting to be able to have
a good conversation with you about being owner centric and all the
different things different than other property management companies.
I'm going to start off by just asking you guys a little bit about you.
I know you have a young son and you're generational in this business.
Can you just give me a little bit of background about how you got
started and what you did beforehand?
Speaker 2: Sure.
I'll start.
Um, As Steve said, my name is Wendy.
We have owned Frio River Resorts in Concan, Texas since 2018.
But it's been in Brandon's family for much longer than that.
We came into the business from complementary kind of spaces.
I've been in property management for as long as I've had a career.
Across all facets of it, multi family housing.
Standardized and subsidized, subsidized housing, worked for the Austin
Housing Authority at a high level and had the opportunity to buy this
business and made the jump in 2018.
Speaker 3: And I'm Brandon.
I started my career in software development.
That's been 25 plus years ago.
I retired from software development in 2018 to Purchase this business
with Windy and really had to just dedicate most of my time to property
management So how did you guys end up deciding to become part of the saga?
Speaker 2: So ours, I think, probably is not a terribly unique story.
We are in a very small market geographically and physically.
There are 209 and counting actual residents of our hometown.
And then of course, during the summer months, there's
multiple thousands of people.
Being part of a small market lends itself to not having a ton of peers.
You can't make a phone call to the other property management company
down the road and say, Here's what I'm dealing with right now.
the guest or here's an owner encounter that I've had . So we were looking
for a way to build a community around us that's doing the same work that
we're doing, has the same kind of struggles and opportunities that we do,
having a community around us, having true peers.
Was something that we just needed to have and we're so excited to be able to have.
Speaker: Can you guys tell me a little bit about your personal approach when it
comes to delivering a great experience for both guests and homeowners?
Speaker 2: I think one of the things that our business has been known for
from both the owner side and the guest side, even before joining Casago was
that we have relationships with people.
From our guest perspective, we've got a huge percentage of our
guests that are legacy guests.
They've come year over year over year.
It's part of their annual family plan.
They come, they visit Con Can for, you know, four or five or six nights.
Um, we've built relationships with them.
They know our family.
They know.
Who we are.
They expect us to come and knock on the door and say, Hello, how are you?
And that type of thing.
Our owners have that expectation as well.
And it's something that we we work very hard at.
We want to make sure that they know that we're available to them.
They have our direct personal cell phone numbers.
They're not going through a call tree or something like that.
We make sure that we visit when they come and visit.
in as much as possible.
And we make sure that we let them into our personal lives.
They know, you know, we've had some recent health struggles with Brandon's dad, who
is kind of the patriarch of our family, of course, and our company and our business.
And they were excited about that.
But at the At the same time, we had a kiddo graduate from college
and they're excited about that.
We get to do that with them as well.
So it's really more about the relationship, which creates a partnership.
And we always say with our guests and with our owners, we are in this for the
relationship and everything else will fall into place the way it's supposed to
for the success of our property owners and for the enjoyment of our guests.
It's just having that personalized approach where we are open book.
They know who we are, if we see them at a restaurant in town, if they happen
to be at the dance we're at that night.
We have that relationship with them where there is kind of a friendship there.
Speaker 3: Right.
We try to treat them like family.
We incorporate all assets of our family and their family together.
And just, we are, this is a partnership.
This isn't a, we don't work for you, you don't work for us.
We want them to understand that this is a partnership and a
family that we're trying to build.
Foster,
Speaker: I love that by the way.
And a big part of the credo is building relationships that transcend business.
I think when you guys just spoke about that, you were incredibly genuine and
authentic and it really came out and I think it honors that part of our credo.
What do you guys do operationally?
That's different than other people in your market that makes you stand out.
Speaker 2: We, Our boots on the ground.
We are local.
We aren't outsourcing.
We're not splitting our time between a different city in in Texas or a different
country, which our competitors are doing.
Our, again, owners and our guests know that when they're there, we're there,
and when we're hosting a festival in our market, they know that we're
going to be there supporting it.
So the thing that sets us apart is we are and always have been and will
continue to be boots on the ground.
We are going to be a five minute drive from you at all times, and if not,
we're going to deploy somebody who is, and we'll be 15 minutes behind them.
Yeah.
Speaker: Within the Casago ecosystem, we have something that we call a credo.
It's a set of principles we've all agreed to, and we talk
about it often with each other.
And I think it's really unique when it comes to companies making sure
to always continually talk about the principles and how, We interpret
them and finding, you know, ways to showcase when we've both done a good
job and sometimes when we failed at it.
Do you guys have any good stories about how you've worked with homeowners
that really stand out to you?
Speaker 2: As far as standout homeowners, we, we probably have
a couple of different examples.
I think one that comes to mind immediately is a new owner of a
property that we had from, uh, build up.
So we had that owner, then that owner sold the property to someone
who was familiar with our market, but already had a relationship with
another very small kind of management group that they felt beholden to.
They had a very emotional connection with this group.
And we've certainly asked for the interview and the opportunity to kind
of show them what our program was and what we had done with the house.
Again, we took it from the slab to through the first 2.
5 years of operation.
So we certainly had the experience, the numbers, all of that to back it up.
Uh, we didn't win the situation and we didn't think that we were going
to, but we certainly didn't create a contentious situation out of it.
We made sure that we let them know we understood what their intentions
were and That we would still be here in the market when not to sound rude,
but when the company that they were working with was no longer an operating
company and that we would be happy to kind of pick back up with the same
program, reach out to our same group of guests who really had enjoyed
that home and welcome them back in.
And that's something that we got to do at the beginning of
this last operating season.
And we've been able to build some really neat relationships out of it.
It's, it's kind of a couple of different groups of families who all come from
very different like walks of life and has exposed us to a different
ownership type than what we're typically used to dealing with and certainly
what we've built our company on.
Um, and just be able to turn that around and they'll have them kind
of be a champion for us and go.
First of all, you guys stay true to your word.
You said that you would welcome us back and you would still be here.
And you were second of all, never was there any ill intent or malice
towards them or the other company.
We still have relationships with both of them, and now
they're part of our operation.
And It's one of my favorite houses in our portfolio.
If I need a break from the day, , I will definitely pop over to that
house if it's vacant in the off season and go sit on the porch and stare
at the hills for ten minutes and remind myself why I love what I do.
Speaker: So, along those lines What does owner centric mean to you guys
and how do you go about implementing that in your business every day?
Speaker 2: My, my best example is owner centric is the lens that I look
at every decision we make through.
Because our guests are why we are in ComCAN, why we're there.
Our owners are why we're there.
Cause us to be able to do that and our owners are our partners like Brandon
said when we Even have a very quick first discussion with an owner whether it's at
a restaurant or someone who's reached out to us intentionally We let them know that
our practice is building a relationship And before we have any discussion about
what our program is what our fees are what any of those kind of you know hard
And fast rules and topics are we want to make sure that we're going to be in a good
relationship relationship Do you like us?
Do we like you?
Can we compliment each other?
And so everything that we view is through the lens of owner centric.
So if it's a tough guest call at two o'clock in the morning, I want the guest
to have the experience that we have sold them and that they expected to have.
But I also want to make sure that The decision that I'm making, my response
to that, our response to that, is later on tomorrow morning after we've all
gone to sleep and cleaned up the flood or whatever it is, that I can have a
conversation with the owner, that they go, Absolutely, that's exactly how we
would have wanted you to handle it and thanks a lot for doing that for us.
So it's just, it's the lens that we use.
I think it's a great opportunity for us to view everything to
Speaker: through.
I love that those homeowners.
We have a few dishes to them, right?
And something you said that I really love is about taking care of
those guests when we do a fantastic job of taking care of guests.
We are serving our homeowners because we're serving the guests of that property.
So they'll leave good reviews.
They'll take good care of it, they'll come back, and giving outstanding guest
service is owner centric, I think.
So guys, if a homeowner is interested in signing up their property with
you and discovering more about Casago Infrio River, how can they find you
and how can they get a hold of you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so to reach us via telephone or text, you can do one.
830 232 5544.
That's our telephone number.
You can text us at that number as well.
There's going to be a response anytime, day or night.
Our primary email address is info, i n f o, at FrioRiverResorts.
com.
Speaker: Fantastic, guys.
Thanks so much for coming on.
I really enjoyed my conversation with you all.
I'm looking forward to another successful year coming up.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
We're excited.
Speaker: Yes, we're super
Speaker 3: excited.