Today we’d like to introduce you to Ames Brown.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
It started with a simple co-living model right after I graduated from Vanderbilt. I moved to Austin, partnered up, and founded Austin Housemates. We acquired and managed 4+ bedroom houses by the room, eventually building a portfolio of 11 properties. That experience laid the foundation for everything else. It pushed me to get my real estate and broker’s licenses and deeply understand the mechanics of property management.
When we dipped our toes into the Airbnb space, I knew we had found our niche. We spun those few initial short-term rentals into a brand new company, STR Management. From there, growth was about controlling the quality of the guest experience. When I realized third-party cleaning vendors couldn’t consistently meet our standards, I launched a cleaning company to handle it in-house.
Fast forward to today, and we manage over 200 properties. Our secret weapon is our hyper-local focus. We aren’t trying to be everywhere; we are trying to be the absolute best in Austin. By relying entirely on local staff and local expertise, we provide a level of service that allows us to outperform our competitors’ revenue by 10 to 30%. We’ve also taken control of our distribution by building a direct booking website, AustinVacay.com, ensuring our owners get the best returns possible.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t always been smooth. Just like the bottleneck that forced me to start our own cleaning company, rapid growth forces you to confront the limits of your own systems. Our most significant struggle happened during the jump from managing 40 properties to 70.
Our original business structure simply wasn’t built for that volume. We had individual managers handling 10 to 20 properties, and their daily responsibilities ranged from guest messaging and property inspections to managing owner relationships. It is incredibly challenging to find individuals who can execute across such varying disciplines at an elite level.
When we realized that structure wasn’t scalable, we stopped looking for people who could do it all and instead built specialized teams. We departmentalized the roles into Guest Services, Field Operations, and Owner Success. This shift from generalists to specialists didn’t just solve our growing pains; it dramatically improved our consistency and service quality across the board, finally giving us the framework required to scale the business.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about STR Management?
At our core, STR Management is Austin-focused, Austin-founded, and Austin-owned. We provide comprehensive, completely hassle-free vacation rental management for over 200 properties in Austin and surrounding areas like Lakeway.
If there is one thing we are really known for, it’s our exceptionally high-quality property care. We want our owners to know they literally don’t have to lift a finger. We handle everything from routine maintenance, pool and yard care, and neighbor communications, all the way to navigating STR licenses and remitting hotel taxes. Because we built our own dedicated in-house cleaning company and supply top-tier premium linens, we control the guest experience down to the last detail.
What sets us apart is the combination of our hyper-local expertise and our specialized infrastructure. By restructuring into dedicated Guest Services, Field Operations, and Owner Success departments, we provide a level of high-touch service that generalist companies simply can’t match. We also leverage advanced dynamic pricing technology tailored specifically to Austin’s unique market—optimizing for massive local events like SXSW and ACL.
Brand-wise, I am most proud of the fact that as we’ve scaled, we’ve never lost our local identity. We aren’t a massive, faceless national corporation; we are local experts who treat every asset like our own. Ultimately, I want readers to know that with our services—including our exclusive direct booking platform, AustinVacay.com—you get the operational power to outperform competitors by 10 to 30% in revenue, paired with the meticulous, dependable care of a true local partner.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
I always say that managing short-term rentals is one of the most operationally intensive businesses you can be in. You absolutely cannot do it alone. First, I have to give a nod to my original business partner back in the Austin Housemates days; taking that initial leap together was the launchpad for everything that followed.
But looking at where we are today, the credit entirely belongs to the STR Management team. This is a team business through and through. The level of high-quality property care we are known for is only possible because of the incredible people in our Guest Services, Field Operations, and Owner Success departments, along with our meticulous in-house cleaners. They are the ones executing the fine details day in and day out. We deliver those outsized revenue results and five-star guest experiences simply because my teammates are the best at what they do, and we tackle every single challenge together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.STRmanagement.com
- Other: https://www.AustinVacay.com
