Success story
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Nick Halverson is the founder and manager at Osa Property Management, a Costa Rica–based vacation rental management company specializing in jungle and coastal villas with transparent owner reporting.
Location: Costa Rica
Number of listings: 63
Using Hostfully since: 2020
Favorite features: Centralized calendar and channel sync, dashboard for global visibility and service coordination
Once we moved to Hostfully, double bookings stopped entirely. With one reliable calendar, we were finally able to scale the business with confidence.
Osa Property Management (OPM) operates in Ojochal, Costa Rica, managing more than 15 homes and villas set between the jungle and the Pacific coast. The portfolio ranges from one-room jungle retreats to five-bedroom luxury ocean-view homes, attracting both international travelers and locals looking to disconnect. Beyond operations, OPM places a strong emphasis on transparent owner reporting and helping foreign investors navigate Costa Rica’s complex regulatory environment.
From the beginning, Nick Halverson and his team understood that multi-channel distribution was critical to maximizing revenue and reducing vacancy. Vrbo was the primary channel, but select properties were also listed on Airbnb and Booking.com. On top of that, OPM handled direct bookings through its website, phone reservations from locals, and owner stays.
Managing all of that inventory relied on spreadsheets. Every new reservation required manual updates, and if a property appeared on more than one channel, someone had to log in and block dates everywhere else. “The spreadsheets worked most of the time,” Nick said, “but they were a mess and a huge drain on time.”
The system was fragile. A missed update could result in a double booking, and while OPM often solved those situations by relocating guests, the risk increased as the portfolio grew. The same spreadsheets were also used to coordinate cleaning, maintenance, and landscaping. In a rural jungle environment, missed service visits quickly translated into poor guest experiences. “When operations depend on everyone remembering to check a spreadsheet, things eventually break,” Nick said.
The breaking point came on Christmas Eve. A family arrived late in the afternoon to discover their rental had been double booked, and all other OPM properties were full. “That was the moment our luck ran out,” Nick said. “There was no fixing it, and the embarrassment was brutal. I knew we couldn’t keep operating this way.”
Nick made switching to a property management software (PMS) a priority and chose Hostfully. Within a week, OPM migrated its entire portfolio into the Hostfully PMS. From that point on, reservations from Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and direct bookings flowed into a single central calendar.
“Once everything was synced in one place, double bookings simply stopped happening,” Nick said.
With Hostfully automatically managing availability, OPM was finally able to list its full portfolio across all major channels. Previously, only a subset of properties appeared on Airbnb and Booking.com because the manual workload was too risky. Now, every property could be distributed confidently without fear of conflicts.
The shift also improved internal coordination. Cleaners, landscapers, and maintenance staff could rely on accurate check-in and check-out data from one system. Operations became more predictable than reactive, even as the team grew.
Does Nick’s double booking story sound familiar? Let’s talk.
Expanded distribution led to immediate gains. Airbnb emerged as a consistent new source of bookings, complementing Vrbo and Booking.com rather than cannibalizing them. Midweek gaps and short vacancies became easier to fill, and OPM reduced reliance on any single channel.
“Multi-channel distribution only works if it’s automated,” Nick said. “Hostfully gave us that automation, and the business is stronger because of it.”
With reliable channel sync and a central calendar, OPM added resilience to its operations and positioned itself to scale to 63 properties with the goal of reaching 100+.