What Property Managers Can Learn From the Team Behind a 2026 Vrbo Vacation Rental of the Year

Located in Savannah's North Historic District, the General Lachlan McIntosh House is considered the oldest brick residence in Georgia. The home hosted the state's first constitutional session of the Georgia Legislature and welcomed George Washington as a guest. Following an extensive renovation, it was transformed into a luxury five-bedroom vacation rental with original fireplaces dating back to 1764, a staircase adorned with murals of Lachlan McIntosh and George Washington, and main living areas overlooking Oglethorpe Avenue.

Recognition like Vacation Rental of the Year doesn't happen because of architecture alone, though. It requires operational consistency, exceptional guest experiences, and a management team capable of delivering both year after year. 

That's where Lucky Savannah comes in.

Lucky Savannah's story began in 2009 when Corey Jones and his wife rented out their former home after being unable to sell it during the housing downturn. A few years later, they discovered their tenant had quietly listed the property on Vrbo — and a New York Times travel blogger had already featured it. They had no idea

The Joneses had a decision to make: return to long-term rentals, or lean into vacation rental management. They leaned in.

"We grew to about 12 properties fairly quickly once word got out," Corey recalls. "At that point we hired our first part-time employee, formally put a name to the company, and just continued to grow from there."

The early strategy was deliberate: say yes to most things, build operational reps, and lock in consistent service standards before getting selective. 

"Back then the inventory was varied enough. There was no professionalism around the industry, so you had to take what you could get. That allowed us to quickly get operational experience, develop those processes, and get that service level consistently."

Today, every new property has to raise the bar. Corey focuses on what he calls the "historic luxury" segment — homes that pair authentic 18th- and 19th-century architecture with modern amenities. Only 15 to 20 percent of Savannah's inventory qualifies. The McIntosh House is the clearest expression of that standard.

Rather than expanding aggressively into new markets, Lucky Savannah chose to go deeper in Savannah. After 15 years, the company understands the guest profile, local regulations, homeowner expectations, seasonality patterns, and competitive landscape better than almost anyone operating in the market.

"Don't be afraid to cast a narrow net," Corey says. "Specialize. It's much more difficult to execute consistently if you take the shotgun approach right out of the gate." 

For property managers, the takeaway is straightforward: growth doesn't always come from managing more property types in more places. Often it comes from becoming exceptionally good at one market.

"Knowing what you're good at and, more importantly, knowing what somebody else is much better at — that's sometimes the best thing you can do." 

Behind Lucky Savannah's portfolio is a system that keeps 400 properties, dozens of staff, hundreds of owners, and thousands of guests connected. Reservations, owner communication, housekeeping coordination, maintenance tracking, channel management — all of it flows through a single operational core.

That core is Escapia. And for Corey, recommending it to other operators barely requires thought.

"Those are kind of foregone conclusions. They're always just inherently in the back of my head, so I oftentimes forget to mention them."

When software earns that kind of trust, there's usually a specific reason it was chosen in the first place. For Lucky Savannah, it came down to accounting.

Trust accounting built specifically for professional property managers is one of Escapia's foundational strengths — robust owner statements, reconciliations, security deposits, fees, taxes, and financial reporting handled to the penny.

For an operator managing hundreds of owners and thousands of transactions, that reliability isn't a convenience. It's what lets the business function at scale without financial risk or owner disputes.

The downstream effect of getting accounting right is something Corey is equally direct about.

"Escapia allows us not to have to worry about that so that we can focus all of our energies and efforts on the value-add perspectives of the business."

That's the real return on a well-implemented PMS. When automated workflows, owner statements, and financial reporting are running cleanly in the background, the team isn't validating numbers or reconciling accounts manually — they're focused on owners, guests, revenue, and growth. Operational confidence compounds over time, and it starts with a system you can trust.

That trust extends to support. One of the realities of managing a portfolio at scale is that when something goes wrong, it needs to get fixed fast. Corey has a specific expectation for what good support looks like.

Escapia's U.S.-based support team answers 80% of calls in under 60 seconds, with a 9.2/10 average satisfaction score and long-tenured staff who know the platform deeply. For operators whose businesses run around the clock, that kind of access isn't a nice-to-have.

On the question of value, Corey is straightforward.

"The value it adds for us relative to the cost has always been the best that we've ever seen."

Escapia is backed by Expedia Group, includes direct Vrbo integration with no per-booking fees, and brings channel management, owner portal, communications tools, trust accounting, and reporting together in a single platform. For professional managers who would otherwise be paying for multiple disconnected systems, that consolidation alone changes the math.

"It's met all of our needs from managing 10 to 15 homes to 400. So I don't know what other validation one could look for."

That's the question every growing operator is really asking when they evaluate platforms: will this still work when we're twice the size? Three times?

Escapia's centralized operations, multi-channel distribution, owner management tools, and reporting infrastructure are built to scale alongside the business — so operators don't face a painful migration precisely when growth is accelerating.

For Lucky Savannah, the platform that made sense at 12 properties is the same one running 400. That continuity isn't accidental.

Savannah is a hotel-first city — more hotel rooms than vacation rental units downtown, and that's not changing. For Corey, building a rental business there meant competing directly on service quality from day one.

"Most people hadn't stayed in a vacation rental 15 years ago. They'd only stayed in hotels. So to get them comfortable staying in our product, we had to be oriented more toward the level of service you'd expect from a hotel."

That meant remote check-in, multi-channel guest communication, and consistent housekeeping across hundreds of distributed properties — every touchpoint handled the way a well-run hotel would.

"Those are processes we've had in place for years. Hotels are just now coming around to that."

As guest expectations rise across the industry, hotel-grade reliability is becoming less of a differentiator and more of a requirement. The operators who've invested in the systems to deliver it consistently are the ones building businesses that last.

Guest history is another capability most operators leave on the table. Corey points to a manager he knows who cross-referenced guest history against upcoming arrivals and caught something her team had missed: a repeat guest with a birthday coming up.

"Without this tool, they never would've realized it was Sue's birthday. She'd stayed four times. The husband usually booked, so they didn't recognize her. They got to do something fun for her birthday."

That kind of personalization doesn't take a large guest-services team. It takes a clean guest database and a habit of reviewing it before check-in. The infrastructure is already there for anyone using a platform like Escapia — using it consistently is what separates the experience.

The pandemic years were unusually strong for most markets. Savannah, a drive-to destination that reopened early, had longer tailwinds than most. The last 18 to 24 months have been more variable — and that variability has sorted operators fast.

"If you're a strong operator, variability is opportunity," Corey says.

The clearest proof is who's calling. Homeowners who switched managers during the boom in search of better terms are coming back.

"Homeowners that made a choice and made a switch two and three years ago — we're getting calls back."

That's what the market rewards over time: operators who run clean processes, communicate well with owners, and stay organized when conditions get harder.