Ten years ago, Lifty Life co-founder Keiran Griffiths took a job managing a Domino's Pizza franchise in Whistler, B.C. Between all that pizza making and taking runs on the world-class ski resort down the street, he needed a place to rest his feet.
He bought a studio apartment with his brother and co-founder Connor, mere steps away from work and minutes from the ski hill. And when he spent holidays and weekends with his family in the Vancouver metro area, he listed his property on a new short-term rental sharing platform called Airbnb.
That studio apartment would become the very first property in Lifty Life’s portfolio, a portfolio that now includes 40 properties across B.C. and Alberta. This is their story.
Lifty Life Bio
Founded: 2014
Listings: 40
Locations: British Columbia and Alberta
Employees: 13 full-time team members
Started with Hostaway: December 2020
Lifty Life Before Hostaway
The Griffiths brothers added a second property in 2017, located in the picturesque resort town of Harrison Hot Springs. With the Harrison property, they now had two full-time Airbnb-listed properties managed completely remotely. Connor, drawing on his experience in the hospitality industry, took on the role of CEO, and Lifty Life started growing into the business it would become today.
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The team now manages 40 properties across several destinations from Whistler and Ucluelet in British Columbia to Canmore in Alberta — which would be nearly impossible to do effectively without some tech support. That’s why the brothers turned to Hostaway in 2020.
“Before adding Hostaway to our tech stack, we were using IGMS,” said Connor. “IGMS was a great introductory tool but it lacked the premium features and variety of integrations offered by Hostaway.”
Making the Switch to Hostaway
It was clear to Connor and Keiran that Lifty Life properties needed to expand their reach. Since their old PMS was limited to Airbnb, Hostaway’s ability to list on multiple platforms (Lifty Life now lists on Airbnb, Vrbo, Google Vacation Rentals, in addition to their direct booking site) was a big draw.
“We use Hostaway for a lot of different reasons. First and foremost is being able to market on multiple channels,” said Keiran. “We’re getting more eyeballs on our listings, which ultimately leads to more reservations. And using the unified inbox makes it so much easier for us to manage these other channels.”
Listing on multiple OTAs, automating their guest communications (automated messages represent more than half of Lifty Life’s guest communications), robust financial reporting, and timely cleaning notifications are just a few of the reasons why Lifty Life has grown 6x since 2020.
The Value of All-in-One Vacation Rental Software
Remotely managing a growing team would be impossible without technology. But when a company’s techstack begins to resemble a game of Jenga, you start running into a different kind of problem altogether. For Lifty Life, keeping a tidy techstack is the value of an all-in-one software.
“Hostaway, it’s the brains, it’s the body — it’s the most important system within our company. I would even rank it as more important than Airbnb,” says Connor.
This importance reveals itself most starkly when it comes to onboarding new employees. Lifty Life now counts 13 different full-time staff members. And since onboarding is the most crucial part of bringing on new staff, having an all-in-one platform makes it a whole lot easier.
“We don't have to onboard new staff and train them on ten systems. We don't have to pay for ten systems. It’s cheaper this way, it’s simpler.”
The Future for Lifty Life and Hostaway
The last four years with Hostaway have enabled Connor and Keiran to take their business to the next level.
Whether it’s listing on multiple OTAs, leveraging Hostaway’s suite of features and massive partner marketplace, streamlining onboarding and driving more revenue, Lifty Life continues to show impressive growth with Hostaway as their trusted partner.
“We’ve been using Hostaway for four years and plan on using it for the next four years and the four years after that.”
Lifty Life switched to Hostaway and never looked back. And there’s no telling how far they can go together.
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