Today we’d like to introduce you to Johnny Cortes.
Hi Johnny, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Johnny Cortes Jr, I am 29 years old, the oldest of 3 brothers, and was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I spent most of my life in Philadelphia until joining the United States Air Force where I served for almost 4 years. After my time in the military, I went on to attend Temple University, where I studied Architecture and Planning & Community Development. I’ve always known I wanted to start my own company and one that involved things such as creativeness, experiences, fun, family, and memories. It was during that time of my college years that my brothers and I had discussed numerous business ideas and plans but one, in particular, kept standing out to us, the short-term rental industry, or as most people know it as, Airbnb. During the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, we gave life to Stay, a company that specializes in short-term rentals. This business idea encompassed everything we had envisioned since day 1, creativeness, experiences, fun, family, and memories but also included our love for traveling. Most people would question starting a short-term/vacation rental business during a time where heavy travel sanctions were imposed, but the idea of the business not working never occurred in our minds as our focus was on the future of the business and the future development plans. We have been in business for over a year and a half and in that time, we have expanded into management for other property owners, consulting, and development. Today we have short-term rentals in Florida and Puerto Rico, while still expanding in those markets, and also currently developing plans to expand into the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Beginning stages of business were a lot smoother than expected although we were in the middle of a pandemic. Within 6 months of business, we secured 3 properties that took off quickly with high occupancy percentages. Some of the struggles along the way were just the growth of a startup company and figuring out what does and doesn’t work. Now with this high sudden surge in the cost of living, we are now facing our toughest challenge to date, with 59% of travelers saying they are less likely to travel due to the rise of high gas prices.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Stay Vacation Rental Management?
Stay is a management company specializing in short-term rentals. We offer services such as management, consulting, and interior design, while also partnering with investors on development plans. Our management services include things such as marketing and advertising, professional photography/videography, writing desired listing, updating listing, observing market trends, calendar management, to comprehensive cleaning and preventive maintenance checks, thorough guest identification, and much more – we deliver an end-to-end solution. We offer a truly passive income for our partners and investors.
Our consulting services include 2 options, option number one is helping those that are already in the short-term rental industry and giving them our expert advice, and connecting them with members of our team or partners which can help expand their business. Option number 2 is helping people get up and started in the short-term rental industry and we will guide them from phase 1 through completion. Interior design is a new service that we are expanding on and growing, this service is for any all clients whether in the short-term rental industry or not.
One thing we are truly most proud of as a brand is the trustworthiness and respect we have gained early on in business. Because of this, we are referred to tons of people whether it may be to rent one of our properties or to do business together.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
What I feel has been most important to our success is honesty, trust, respect, unselfishness, hard work, and confidence in all we do.
Contact Info:
- Website:www.staywithstay.biz
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stayvrm/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/Stay-Vacation-Rental-Management-101954455326348/?ref=py_c&__nodl&_rdr
