STR Owners Beware - Do NOT Work with Evolve If You Value Your Bottom-Line

[Matthew Spiers]

My family and I got into short-term rentals this year and we thought things were going well but since the property was several states over, we had to rely on a virtual property manager. The one we chose was Evolve.

I know there have been a good number of debates on here as to which one to go with (Vacasa vs Evolve for instance), and I can safely say that I would avoid Evolve at all costs if I were to use them again in the future. Their lower percentage to manage is enticing at first but they cost us thousands of dollars because of horrible mismanagement and bad enforcement of their own policies and terms and conditions. I've been putting reviews of them to try and prevent someone else from losing profits from their bad management and if I could provide 0 stars I would. 

The two largest incidents that happened were when they miscalculated over $700 in missed taxes that they never charged the customers, then as we talked to them about correcting the issue they told us we were essentially out money ourselves. The last straw was finally when we had a guest not cancel, not notify us at all that they weren't going to be staying over our peak season (Christmas week) totaling nearly $600 for a few days. We then got a chargeback despite Evolve's rental agreement stating no refunds with no notice and then they pulled the money back out of our accounts. DO NOT ever work with Evolve. 

Vacasa seems like a much better alternative and will be who we work with in the future.

[Andres Murillo]

One of my mom's favorite sayings - "Lo barato cuesta mas". 

Translation - "Cheap costs more".

I think the order of preferred management is as follows:

1. Self Managed - do it all. 

2. Self Managed with support - hire what support you need. Interior design, marketing, cleaning, etc. Pick what you don't have the knowledge or bandwidth for and find quality help. 

3. Local Manager - can typically offer partial support for "2" but is also designed to be full service. Fees will vary and you'll have to work with several if you scale, but their local contacts, knowledge, and smaller books of business provide better results. 

4. National Manager - can be great for helping create a similar process as you grow your portfolio. Don't plan on "economies of scale" here. They will still use local vendors so your costs won't compress because of their nationwide presence.