Reviews on Evolve as PM for STR

[Bryce Bunton]

Hi all,

I'm buying in Branson, MO and considering using Evolve to manage and promote the condo's instead of local PM's.  Anyone had experiences (good or bad) with evolve and willing to share?  Thanks in advance for any feedback or advice.

Bryce

[Jon Crosby]

@Bryce Bunton  I have been an Evolve client for nearly 5 years now and as with most companies, I have had good experiences and bad experiences.  : ) 

Because everyone's goals and availability to manage properties is different, I think Evolve is a good fit for some and not so much for others.  I will say a few things though: 

Pros:

• My experience with them improved over the 5 years each year as they added more features, services and personnel
• There 10% fee (10% of nightly rates and cleaning fees) is still reasonable for what they do if you don't want to worry about setting up and managing listings, professional photos, payments, guest inquiries, calendars, etc.
• They basically handle everything up until check in, they then set you up with one of their 'partners' in the area for the rest or you self-manage everything after check-in (I opted for the latter)
• Their staff is friendly and their owner portal is a really nice feature to go in and look at your portfolio of homes with them in a single space.  You can chat with support and send requests very easily in that portal.
  

Cons: 

• Generally speaking, anything they are doing you can do as well with a little guidance, other then inheriting their preferred 'host' status across the booking platforms
• In all my years, I have never been convinced that being with them has elevated my search results status, however their ability to provide great photos and copy certainly helps.
• They have recently seemed to be more 'controlling'' of booking/revenue data which bothered me immensely.  They should be providing more data to owners, not less
• You are charged for any cancellations if they are not able to re-book to another Evolve site (which is probably fair)
• I think they have had a poor communication with owners throughout the COVID crisis (but they were also dealing with A LOT so I somewhat understand)
• You still need to review your listings and bookings to make sure policies are followed

I will leave it there for now, if you have specific questions shoot me a direct message. 

Cheers!