Building Better Businesses
Your Vacation Rental Design Consultant
Running a vacation rental business is full of challenges, and we know this because we are homeowners and short-term furnished apartment owners ourselves. Due to our unique combination of skills and experience in architecture, property management, graphic and interior design, construction, and travel, we are constantly asked for advice by other home and rental property owners.
We have been offering free and paid consulting services to selected people via word-of-mouth for over two decades, and finally decided to open up our services to be available to anyone. We have been travelling the world for over 10 years, and have stayed in 100s of vacation and holiday homes, AirBnBs, house sits and hotels in over 70 countries, each of which could have been improved with our help, and many were.
Our Founders
Nanci and Jesse Lopez are Americans from California. They met in high school in 1994 and have been happily married since 2008. They have complementary skills and training that allow them to conquer a variety of projects, from working together at a San Diego design firm to remodeling a 4,000 sq. ft. penthouse. They remodeled their first home together in California in 2007. The duo began traveling the world full-time and tackled their first international remodel and vacation rental set-up in Cuenca Ecuador in 2012. It went on to become the most successful vacation rental in the city, a short-term furnished rental with an unprecedented 87% occupancy rate and the highest nightly rate in that market. Since then, they have done projects of all sizes and offered consulting to home owners around the world while continuing to manage their own properties remotely.
Nanci Lopez
Dreamer & Designer
Jesse Lopez
Delegator & Decider
Nanci comes from a family of contractors. She graduated with honors from the prestigious California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly SLO), where she majored in architecture and art and design. She worked her way through college by managing a 60 unit student apartment building and went on to manage 216 luxury units in the Los Angeles area for Equity Residential, the largest publicly held apartment owner in the United States at the time. After years in professional property management, Nanci joined Jesse at his design firm where the both worked until their own vacation rentals were profitable enough to support them. Nanci’s hobbies include art, scuba, TV and hiking.
Jesse is one of the most brilliant men you will ever meet, and as such he is smart enough to spend his life pursuing his passions. While Nanci was in college, Jesse was serving as a sergeant in the U.S. Army being trained in everything from French to orienteering to first aide and marketing. His quick thinking and bravery earned him the Meritorious Service Metal. When he wasn’t overseas, he used his GI Bill to attend night school where he studied advertising and graphic design. After his service, Jesse was immediately recruited into a design and advertising firm, where he moved up to the position of Vice President before the company was acquired by a larger firm and the couple went into business for themselves. In his spare time, Jesse enjoys reading, scuba diving, video games, working out and volunteering at animal shelters.
Away Team Members
Nicole is a social media legend, creating the most popular blog in the world for Rockabilly music and culture. Her custom-designed mid-century modern home was featured on TV on TLC, and she specializes in furniture, fabrics and antiques from this time period, the 1950s and 60s. This American was also a feature writer for Vintage Rock Magazine in London, and has worked as both a model and as a photographer in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Nicole
Noble
Social Media
& Antiquities
Jenny is currently getting her PhD in Sustainable Tourism. When she’s not working on her Doctorate, she’s traveling and working as a professional tour guide in locations across the globe. So, she knows your audience. This impressive Chinese-Italian woman speaks 7 languages, including Italian, Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, French and is currently learning Russian and Japanese. Jenny also teaches languages online, as well as yoga and qigong.
Jenny
Wu
Sustainability
& Translation
Our Skills
Interior Design
Interior design is more than just decorating and requires more than good taste. Spatial awareness, lighting design, ergonomics, color theory, ecology and more go into making a great space.
Photography
Anyone can take a photo, but not everyone has the training, eye, and equipment to get photos that will make your property stand out. We can do wide-angle, and even 360° virtual tour photos.
VideoGraphy
In addition to professional photos and 360° virtual reality tours, we can also film your property in HD or 4K and edit it into a custom video that will really make you stand out from the competition.
Web Design
Vacation rentals and hotels with their own websites are able to get direct bookings and avoid fees from 3rd party listing sites. You can also get organic traffic from search engines allowing clients to find you.
Construction
We can assist you with various DIY and handyman tasks that don’t require a license, such as painting, hanging art and curtains, mounting TVs, refinishing furniture, clearing drains, tile and more. For bigger jobs, we can manage and supervise local contractors as they work from our designs.
Shopping
Knowing what you need for your property is the first step, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for. We know where to look, in places you may not have considered in person and online, new and used, to get what you need at the best price. We can even help import items.
Writing
The writing on your listing or website forms people’s opinions of the quality of your property. Put your best foot forward with detailed descriptions written by native English speakers. Correct mistakes in your writing and list details that your potential guests care about to avoid questions that waste time.
Marketing
Having a great rental property won’t benefit you if no one knows about it. We can help you get noticed on various platforms such as AirBnB, Booking.com, TripAdvisor and FaceBook .We combine our other skills with SEO to improve your listings, advertising and search rankings. Get your vacation rental seen.
Upcoming Schedule
8
June 2023
June 8 – July 1 (23 days)
Ohrid, North Macedonia
1 project | 1 available
1
July 2023
July 1 – 29 (28 days)
Ksamil, Albania
0 projects | 3 available
2
Aug 2023
August 2 – 30 (28 days)
Budva, Montenegro
1 project | 1 available
6
Sept 2023
Sept 6 – Oct 4 (28 days)
Algarve Region, Portugal
0 projects | 3 available
72
Countries
37
Projects