Success story
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DoCo Vacation Rentals is a family-owned vacation rental company in Door County, Wisconsin, founded by Rob and Suzie Esposito and built on automation-driven growth.
Location: Door County, Wisconsin
Number of listings: 40
Using Hostfully since: 2021
Favorite features: Open API and deep integrations, Central calendar, automations, digital guidebooks
Hostfully and its integrations cut our manual work in half. That time savings is what lets us grow the business and actually enjoy the lifestyle we set out to build.
DoCo Vacation Rentals began like many successful short-term rental businesses. Rob and Suzie Esposito started by renting a single condo part-time while running a chain restaurant business in Chicago. One property became two, then three, and eventually a dedicated vacation rental operation in Door County, Wisconsin.
In the early days, everything was manual. Suzie managed reservations, guest communication, and cleaning coordination, while Rob focused on the bigger picture. When Rob left the restaurant industry to join the business full-time, he immediately recognized a familiar pattern. “In restaurants, automation and systems are what allowed us to scale,” Rob said. “If we wanted the lifestyle change we were aiming for, we had to apply the same thinking to vacation rentals.”
DoCo initially relied on a channel manager to handle bookings and messaging. While it worked at a basic level, it quickly became limiting as the portfolio grew and new needs emerged, such as turnover coordination and dynamic pricing. Rob then tried a traditional property management system, but high onboarding costs and poor reliability made it unsustainable. “The vision was automation,” Rob explained, “but the tools just weren’t there yet.”
Hostfully became the foundation that allowed DoCo to automate without sacrificing control. Rob chose the Hostfully Property Management Platform for its open API, integrations, clean interface, and strong reputation. “The integrations, the guidebooks, and how everything worked together made the decision easy,” Rob said.
The first major gain came from integrating Breezeway for cleaning and turnover. With Hostfully’s central calendar, Rob could see reservations and service holds in one place, while task assignments happened automatically. “No more texts, no more emails, no more guessing,” Rob said. “That alone saved hours every week.”
Next came dynamic pricing through PriceLabs. Daily rate calculations are handled automatically, and Hostfully pushes updated prices in real time across Airbnb, Vrbo, HomeToGo, and DoCo’s direct booking site. “I don’t think about seasonality anymore,” Rob said. “PriceLabs sets the rates, and Hostfully makes sure they are live everywhere.”
Guest check-in was automated next. Rob created Hostfully digital guidebooks for each property with house rules, local recommendations, and self-check-in instructions. Automated triggers now send the guidebook to guests at the moment of booking. “Once that was set up, one of our biggest daily time sinks disappeared,” Rob said.
By automating pricing, cleaning, and guest communication, Rob estimates that DoCo reduced manual work by roughly fifty percent. That reclaimed time is now spent on marketing, expansion, and enjoying a far more balanced lifestyle.
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Automation at DoCo is still evolving. Rob plans to integrate Stripe for payments and upsells, Key Data for market analytics to support expansion decisions, and smart lock systems through Lynx to enable contactless check-in and energy savings.
“The way I see it, growth has to be built on automation,” Rob said. “My goal is to have DoCo running with minimal human involvement, and Hostfully makes that possible because everything connects.”