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Sextant Stays Grows 800% In One Year, With NoiseAware To Protect Its Portfolio

The hybrid hospitality company dreamed of giving guests a hotel experience with a vacation-rental feel. But to scale that model to multiple markets, it needed not just grit, drive and creativity. It needed to protect its investors’ properties, and protect its guests from noise and nuisances, consistently, unit after unit after unit. 

NoiseAware Case Study - La Quinta pilot program

The Challenge:

Sextant Stays started in Miami in 2014 with one single-family home and an idea: blending the professionalism and consistency of hotels with the flexibility, affordability and fun of vacation rentals.

And the company did just that, slowly at first, growing to 10 properties in the first couple of years. Then much, much faster, as, in 2018, Sextant took a chance on a shift from standalone homes to entire buildings of 10-15 units, all of them short-term rentals. “We quickly realized that was the way forward,” says Chief Operating Officer Brandreth Canaley,  just named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Consumer Technology for 2022.

But in order to take the full-building-management model and scale it to other markets, Sextant needed to keep labor costs lean, and leverage automation in a big way. And that included automating its security and in-stay coverage, to ensure its properties were protected against damage, and its guests able to enjoy their stay in peace. 

Sextant Stays Went from

10 to 60

rental units in 4 years

But the company had much bigger plans, despite the encroaching threat of a global pandemic, and unprecedented lockdowns and travel restrictions.

Solution NoiseAware Case Study - La Quinta pilot program

The Solution:

Sextant installed its first NoiseAware sensor in 2018, just as the company was making its foray into full-building management. Canaley says Sextant discovered the innovative noise solution through “the conference circuit,” where both bootstrapped startups were finding their footing in the exploding STR industry. Having privacy-safe noise sensors in their units allowed the Sextant team to redirect labor and budget away from nuisance resolution and toward acquisition and guest experience.

In March 2020, just as an unpredictable virus was clamping down on life as we know it, Sextant was seeing demand for vacation rentals buck larger hospitality trends and…grow. A lot. By May of 2020, the company was in accelerated growth mode, too. That’s when Sextant took over three buildings in the heart of New Orleans, along with the centrally located Habitat Brickell building in Miami, and a 27-unit building on Miami Beach, to name just a few.

Between May 2020 and the end of 2021, in the midst of a global pandemic, Sextant Stays grew an astonishing 800%. And where Sextant went, allowing digital nomads, work-from-home couples, and flexible-living enthusiasts to continue traveling safely and securely, NoiseAware went, too, protecting properties from harm.

“As a product, it works incredibly well. NoiseAware just does it better. Having the option to get full installation and implementation is really helpful, especially when you’re installing in full buildings.”

-Brandreth Canaley, COO, Sextant Stays

Results NoiseAware Case Study - La Quinta pilot program

The Results:

Now, with $45 million in investment capital to further fuel its expansion, Sextant Stays is able to proactively protect its entire portfolio…which just happens to be based in two of the country’s prime party hotpots. That distinction makes noise mitigation even more important–after all, the company’s business model relies on guests being drawn by the fun and festivity of NOLA and Miami, but requires them to leave the celebration (at least the loud, rowdy, raucous part) at the door.

In most of our buildings, we have some kind of overnight security or guest services, but in some buildings that security or services person roams around,” Canaley says. Having NoiseAware, and the product’s AutoResolve function, which automatically messages guests when a noise problem is detected rather than requiring staff intervention, “tamps down on noise issues before they get out of hand.”

sextant stays has grown by 800% and has noiseaware in

100%

of its properties

Not just that, she adds, but, “It makes someone else the bad guy, which is great. As a property manager, you don’t always want to come in from that angle. We can say, ‘Our third-party security team let us know there was a noise issue,’” making guests feel cared for with hotel-like professionalism, while enforcing rental rules. 

There’s also NoiseAware’s protection against property damage—a major benefit, considering the STR industry’s $13,000 claim average for damage caused by guests. And it’s an even more significant benefit for Sextant, which routinely pays out of pocket to replace or repair damaged property, rather than handing the cost off to guests, or taking the time to process an insurance claim. “Because, what? You’re gonna charge the guest, and they’re gonna deny it, and they’re gonna leave you a bad Airbnb review?” Canaley says. “At this point, with the volume we do, we just pay for it.”

And when Sextant Stays does need to take action with a guest for a noise violation or property damage, NoiseAware provides the company with evidence to back up their claim. “You want to be able to take a pulse on what is going on, which NoiseAware helps us do. But you also want to have some sort of teeth. If you need to fine a guest for something, or kick them out if it comes to that, you want to have data to prove, ‘Hey, you went above this decibel level.’ NoiseAware also helps catch parties before or while they’re happening. As we’ve gotten bigger, it just became the obvious way to take care of our properties.” 

“Our goal is to add 1,200 to 1,800 units in next year, adding more in our current markets of South Florida and New Orleans, and expanding into two other markets, maybe three. Every single unit that we have has NoiseAware. Every single unit that we go into will have NoiseAware. It’s our first line of defense.”

-Brandreth Canaley, COO, Sextant Stays