A veteran-owned short-term-rental company with big (HUGE) expansion plans. A geographically diverse portfolio that’s seeking out new properties in new markets every day. An urgent need to reassure neighbors and resolve nuisances, quickly, from anywhere, before complaints or catastrophes halt the train of growth. That’s the Patriot Family Homes story. And this is how we’re helping make the company’s goals a reality.
The Challenge:
Army Ranger Joe Reilly started renting out his home for short-term stays during deployments, back in 2018. By 2020, Patriot Family Homes had grown into a thriving short-term-rental company, with 70 listings spread across the Southeastern U.S.
As of January 2022, that number had swelled to 300—and the company, which primarily owns and operates its properties, rather than managing for homeowners, wasn’t nearly done growing. It also was looking far past its original Southeastern footprint, acquiring properties in more than 25 geographical markets, many of them charming historic townships and picturesque rustic hamlets.
But to continue scaling at such a rapid pace, Patriot Family had to solve the problem of reassuring skeptical neighbors their communities weren’t being threatened by short-term visitors and the potential noise, crowds, parking and nuisances often associated with them. At the same time, Patriot Family Homes, many of whose properties sleep 14, 16 or 18 guests, had to be able to resolve nuisance issues wherever and whenever they occurred, whether in Pensacola or the Poconos.
That’s because, as Patriot Family Homes communication director Beth Greene notes, “It wasn’t just one event, it was becoming this pattern, where we would have what we called ‘the party houses.’ There was a lack of support from Airbnb covering those types of events, because we didn’t have the evidence to show that there really had been a party.”
Patriot Family Homes OWNS NEARLY
85%
of the properties in its portfolio
During the pandemic, for a lot of people, the first thing they were going to get rid of was their second home. So, we actually doubled in growth during covid when people weren’t traveling.
“We could send a million pictures of trash, and pizzas and cigarette butts and beer bottles in the house, and they’d say, ‘Well, do you have proof there was a party?’”
–Beth Greene, Patriot Family Homes
The Solution:
Greene says she first heard of NoiseAware from an Airbnb support tech, while pursuing reimbursement for a booking that went bad. “They said, ‘Do you have any video footage from the neighbors, or perhaps a noise measuring device and screenshots from your noise measurement software?’ And I was like…’What’s that?'”
Then Joe, our founder and CEO, went to the VRMA conference, and met with the NoiseAware team.” When he brought information about NoiseAware’s privacy-safe noise resolution technology back to the office, “I was really excited about it,” Greene says.
The company started installing both indoor and weatherproof outdoor NoiseAware sensors in its most problematic properties. And the results were definitive. Greene notes that NoiseAware has prevented multiple large parties in its homes, by notifying management when sustained elevated volume is happening. Not just that, but Patriot Family Homes has been able to print out NoiseAware dashboard data and submit it to Airbnb mid-guest-stay, prompting the OTA to cancel the reservation and send guests packing.
“With one party, I have no doubt that it would have been allowed to continue all night—we talked to neighbors the next day and they told us, ‘Yeah, there were 15 cars over here.’ But because we were able to show that we knew there was a party happening, and that we’d sent them multiple messages, with no response, we got that reservation canceled.”
“We had another reservation that was an $850 booking, which we canceled prior because the guest was a party risk, and refunded the guest. But they entered the home anyway. And because we had the NoiseAware device, we were able to ‘see’ that they were in fact in the home. We called the police, and we were able to have them removed from the home. There was some damage to the door, and to a light, because they forced their way into the door. But again, because we had NoiseAware, we were able to show Airbnb, it was these guests, they were in the home. They ended up reimbursing us for that entire reservation and also for the damage to the door. We were like, ‘This is AWESOME. We love NoiseAware.’”
-Beth Greene, Patriot Family Homes,
The Benefits:
The best thing about NoiseAware, Greene says, is that it balances guest expectations with neighbor needs—all while solving previously unsolvable and potentially devastating problems. And it’s this balance of solutions that’s helping enable Patriot Family Homes to reach its goal of 1,000 properties by the end of 2022.
Greene explains that guest response to outdoor cameras, even doorbell security cameras, was almost universally negative. However, “With NoiseAware, we haven’t had any guest complaints about it. We haven’t had any pushback from guests with a NoiseAware device in the home. Whereas even with Ring cameras that faced out toward a public area or toward the yard, there was that feeling of a kind of invasion of privacy for some people.”
Patriot Family Homes is on track to have
1,000
active listings by the end of 2022
While up to now, Patriot Family Homes has primarily installed NoiseAware in properties that were most at risk for parties, the company is now rolling out the privacy-safe noise resolution to its larger portfolio. And letting neighbors know: “Anytime we have a neighbor that we know is possibly going to be upset about there being an Airbnb in their neighborhood, we’re going to be putting a NoiseAware device in those homes. We’re walking over and introducing ourselves and letting the neighbor know, ‘Here’s how we are going to prevent parties. We’re going to maintain the feel of the neighborhood.’ We want to show them that having great neighborly relationships is a priority for us, and for the whole short-term-rental community. That’s a way we can extend the act of good faith, in that we take them and their concerns seriously.”
