EXPERIENCED STR OPERATIONS MANAGER

Own Daily Operations, SOPs & Team Cadence (Hostaway)

Full-time | Starting at $600 USD per month | Monday–Saturday, flexible schedule

I run eight furnished short-term rentals in the United States. The units are profitable and we are ready to grow. We are hiring one person to own how the business runs, so that I can step back and the portfolio can scale.

This is NOT an entry-level role and NOT a general virtual assistant role. Please apply only if you have at least three (3) years of hands-on short-term rental operations experience, including coordinating cleaners and maintenance across multiple units and leading or supervising other people.

If you cannot work Saturdays, or cannot be reached when something urgent happens, please do not apply.

WORKING HOURS AND OWNER MINDSET

• Full-time, Monday to Saturday. Saturday is a working day.
• Your regular working blocks are agreed with us in week one and built around our team's coverage, so they can fit your life.
• Our virtual assistants cover guest messaging on two shifts across the US day and evening. You own everything behind them: turnovers, vendors, escalations, logs and procedures.
• This role needs an owner's mindset, not a clock-in mindset. Most days are steady; some have bursts. When something needs an owner (a missed turnover, a guest emergency, a vendor no-show), you are reachable and you handle it, including outside your usual blocks.

THE ROLE
You own operations end to end: everything that happens after a guest books. You report directly to the owner, who wants a short daily summary, not daily involvement. You work alongside our General Manager, who leads growth and new units. Your team is our virtual assistants (guest messaging), cleaners and handymen, coordinated mostly on WhatsApp and in Hostaway.

We have no consistently followed procedures today. Building them, and making them stick, is your first job.

YOU WILL OWN
1. Standard procedures. Write, train, enforce and spot-check: turnover and cleaning standard with photo proof, guest journey, escalation ladder, early check-in and late check-out, damage claims and review disputes, supplies.
2. Team cadence and accountability. Daily hand-in from the VAs, a check of arrivals, departures and turnovers, and an end-of-day summary to the owner and General Manager (exceptions and decisions only); weekly team review. A simple scorecard for every role (VAs, cleaners, handymen) with clear standards and consequences. Recruit, onboard and, when needed, replace team members with owner approval.
3. Tools and channels. Hostaway as the system of record: tasks, automations, message templates. Move coordination off WhatsApp wherever a tool does it better. Work with PriceLabs and our pricing agency on occupancy and rate. Help us add channels beyond Airbnb.
4. Maintenance and supplies. Every repair tracked to closure; a preventive-maintenance calendar per unit; par levels and reordering so nothing is discovered by a guest.
5. Compliance and unit economics. Permit tracker and renewal calendar; cleaner and handyman invoices reconciled against the turnover log before every payout; a monthly cost report by unit; early warning on any unit drifting toward break-even.

You are also the escalation point for the VAs on guest issues.

HOW DECISIONS WORK
You handle routine issues on your own. Above the spend limit we agree, or for safety concerns and serious damage, you take immediate protective action and bring in the owner with a clear summary and your recommendation. Your authority grows as your judgment is proven.

HOW YOU WILL BE MEASURED
A written scorecard, agreed in week one: turnovers completed on time with photo proof; issues closed within the agreed time; procedures live and followed; invoices reconciled before payout; owner time on daily operations down to about five minutes a day.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE

• 3+ years hands-on STR operations (Airbnb required)
• Coordinating cleaners and maintenance vendors for several units at the same time
• Having led or supervised a team
• Having written, rolled out and enforced checklists, SOPs or trackers
• A property management system such as Hostaway, Guesty, Hospitable or OwnerRez
• Comfortable with numbers: logs, invoices, simple cost reports
• Excellent written English; comfortable coordinating on WhatsApp
• A plus: Airbnb damage claims and review disputes, PriceLabs, Breezeway or similar task tools, smart locks

WHAT WE ARE REALLY LOOKING FOR
We do not want someone who forwards messages or waits for a task list. If a cleaner has not sent photos by the deadline, you chase before the guest arrives. If the log and an invoice do not match, you catch it. If a procedure is not being followed, you say so, politely and clearly, to whoever it is. You build the procedure, you train it, and you check it is followed. You think in systems, not just tasks.

DO NOT APPLY IF

• You need a script for everything
• You escalate every decision instead of making it
• You want to clock in, answer messages and clock out
• You are not comfortable holding colleagues to a standard

PAY
Starting at $600 USD per month, full-time. Final pay is discussed with shortlisted candidates, based on experience and scope.

HIRING PROCESS
1. Online application (about 35 minutes): short questions, one thing you have built, and a short voice note (a link, or a voice message, as the form explains)
2. If shortlisted: 20-minute call, including a live WhatsApp exercise
3. Final conversation with the owner (30 minutes)
4. Paid 30-day start against the written scorecard, then confirmed

HOW TO APPLY
Apply only through this form: ----------
We cannot review applications sent any other way. The first question asks you to type the words PROOF, NOT PROMISES, to show you read this post.

We would rather hear your own thinking than a model's. Your voice note must be in your own words, unscripted. If you use AI for the written answers, you must be able to explain every line live; we will test this.