As Told To: Lauren Harano
Editors Note: Interview condensed and edited for clarity.
Rachel Alday co-founded Abode Luxury Rentals with her husband 18 years ago with a simple, radical idea at the time: vacation rentals could feel like five-star hospitality. Now managing 200 homes across Park City, Jackson Hole, and Sun Valley, she's codified what great hosting actually means.
Take us back to the beginning. Why start a vacation rental company in 2008?
Starting a vacation rental company 18 years ago was not an investment or a strategic move. Vacation rentals at that point were just so not such a big thing. There was no Airbnb. My husband wanted to start the company. He had been in real estate — building spec homes in Park City, very nice multi-million dollar properties — and he was renting them out. I was making a good salary with benefits, so I thought, I guess you can try.
Did you have a clear vision for what Abode would be from the start?
I said I think the trick will be that we only manage very high-end homes. The luxury that was being provided by the best, quote, property managers in Park City — it wasn't luxury. And authenticity is so important, especially in the mountains. People come to the mountains for an authentic mountain experience. So luxury is not necessarily the butler with the towel over his arm or something, but still — luxury is urgency. It can be all about really anticipating and understanding someone's needs. My contribution was: we would manage fewer total properties so we could be more boutique. That was somewhat unique way back then.
How do you differentiate Abode? Why pick a vacation rental over a luxury hotel?
There's a lot more people on our staff. There's so much movement towards AI, automations, all that kind of stuff. And while we're definitely not against processes and standards and SOPs, we're very cognizant — especially at the price point that we're at — that this is not about the money, right? People could be spending $8,000 for a week, they could be spending $80,000 or $150,000 for their lodging for the week, and when they're doing that, it's really not about the money. They could make that money back in an hour or a day. But really it's the time that cannot be made up. This is the only time that they have with their family. If that time is ruined in any way — friction, issues — that's the real problem. Because they're not getting the time back with their family, but they can get the money.
What are the actual details that make it feel different?
When people check into a house, we try to check them in in person — that's super unique. We try to meet them at the house to show them how everything works, because especially when you're looking at a home versus a hotel, there are a lot of little details. Like, you have to lift a handle on the door to lock it, or this is how the hot tub works so they don't push a button and send it into eco mode by accident. Gas fireplaces — they're always tricky, where you have to turn it left and then right and then left and then push it in and count to 3. So we walk them through all of it, which takes out a lot of friction and also allows for time with that connection. We also do a ton of concierge — more hotel-style. Full-time concierge people in addition to guest services. Itinerary creation, experience curation, all that stuff in the typical way that hotels do it.
You mentioned connection. What does that look like during the Abode experience?
Our model is more about our team taking any chance they get to connect in a two-way connection. Not only to be offering help, but to really show up as their true selves when they're with any of our customers — to really hold space for what does that person need. Not to be thinking, oh wait, they're going to complain, let me prepare a rebuttal in my head before they even say it. It's like, no. You have to be in that moment, clear your head, and create space to allow them, whatever they're going to tell you they need. What usually happens is these very high net worth individuals are telling my team, 'I wish I had your life.' Do you get to mountain bike every day? Are you fishing constantly? And our team is like — yeah.Our most successful clients are busy. So they look at our operation staff and they see the life they wish they had, which is crazy. A total paradox. And so when we can train our team to be really open to interact with them and not be in the mindset of, these people don't care who I am, they think I'm less than them — but to come at it differently — then there's amazing connection that's built. And that is a huge component of loyalty.
You have a framework for hospitality that eventually became a book. How did that come about?
Right before COVID, we realized we had this amazing team — I think we had 30 people — and we were kind of like, we have this amazing team of people that really cares about our customers. We didn't know how we got here. Neither of us have any HR experience. When I interview people, I'm sure you can just imagine how not typical it is. And so it was like, how did we end up with all these amazing humans when I feel like I am an agent of chaos? Someone in the industry asked if I'd come do training on hospitality, and I was so honored. I'm not sure how we're training hospitality. So we worked with some consultants and ended up coming up with a framework that outlined the way we train hospitality. And then we ended up writing a book. I have a book coming out in October called Please Do Disturb — it's about disturbing the way that we typically look at hospitality.
