Select Stays is a hybrid property management company operating in San Diego, managing both arbitrage and contract-based rentals. In one of the country’s most competitive short-term rental markets, staying ahead means working smarter and automation is key.
- 90% time savings: Reporting that took 8+ hours now takes just 10 minutes.
- From 15 to 45 properties: Growth fueled by Hostfully’s automations.
- Instant owner trust: Clean, detailed reports eliminate confusion and boost transparency.
Overview
Before
- Manual monthly reporting using Airbnb + Google Sheets
- 20–30 minutes per property, 8+ hours total each month
- Reports looked unstructured, leading to frequent owner questions
After
- Custom, automated financial reports generated in Hostfully
- 45 properties reported on in just 10 minutes
- Clean, professional CSV exports with full payout transparency
Impact
- 90% time savings: 1 day of work reduced to minutes
- Owners trust the numbers (fewer questions and more confidence)
- Scalable system that supports growth from 15 to 45 properties and beyond
"We run reports for 45 properties in 10 minutes. Our owners trust the numbers, and we’ve saved an entire day of work every month. Hostfully’s reporting is a massive upgrade."
Jay Ullrich, CEO of Select Stays
Before
Since launching in 2021, Select Stays has grown from managing a handful of arbitrage units to a thriving hybrid portfolio of 45 properties in San Diego. As they scaled, manual processes (especially reporting) started eating into valuable time. “We were already at 15 units and about to onboard seven more when we hit a wall,” said Jay Ullrich, CEO of Select Stays. “We needed better reporting and more flexibility through an open API. That’s when we found Hostfully.”
Before switching, their CFO Sam was spending hours each month pulling revenue from Airbnb, entering it into Google Sheets, manually adding expenses, and calculating owner payouts. “It took about 20 to 30 minutes per property,” Jay explained. “That’s an entire day every month for just 20 properties and it wasn’t scalable.”
The risk of errors was high, and the output wasn’t professional. “When you’re copying numbers into spreadsheets, it just doesn’t look that trustworthy,” Jay said. “It lacked structure, and owners had to rely on our word that everything added up. We’d get questions like ‘Where did this number come from?’ all the time.”
When Select Stays went searching for a better property management system, they evaluated several top contenders. “We looked at Guesty and Hostaway, but they were either too pricey or too clunky,” Jay said. Beyond usability, Select Stays was looking for two specific capabilities: detailed financial reporting and an open API that would allow them to build custom solutions as they grew. “Hostfully checked all our boxes,” said Jay. “We knew we were choosing a platform that would support us long term.”
After
Today, Select Stays uses Hostfully’s reporting tools to generate customized, professional reports across all 45 properties almost instantly. To do this, Select Stays’ CFO customized how each column is calculated using equations he set up. “It’s not much different than using Excel, and Hostfully made it really easy to customize how everything is calculated. We can now run reports for 45 properties in about 10 minutes,” Jay said. “That’s a huge win for our CFO, and it frees us up to focus on growing the business.”
Instead of spending hours in spreadsheets, Sam now pulls clean CSV exports directly from Hostfully, customized to reflect each owner’s payout terms. “The reports look sharp and are easy to read,” Jay explained. “Owners can see every dollar, from guest revenue, to cleaning fees, to expenses, etc without needing us to walk them through it.”
The structured reporting has eliminated many owner inquiries and improved transparency. “We don’t get questions like ‘What is this fee?’ or ‘Why is this missing?’ anymore. Everything’s there, broken down clearly,” said Jay. “That trust has been a big win.”
Bonus
Select Stays also uses the reporting system to stay compliant with San Diego’s local tax laws. “Not all OTAs remit occupancy tax, so we use Hostfully to track which platforms we owe for,” Jay noted. “Without it, we’d probably have to hire a bookkeeper. Hostfully saves us that cost.”
They’ve even resolved past issues with duplicate charges. “When we were tracking things manually, we’d sometimes log the same cleaning fee twice,” Jay said. “Now, with Hostfully, that’s just not an issue. The system keeps us accurate.”
As they continue to scale, Jay sees Hostfully as more than a PMS. “We’ve tripled in size since last year, and Hostfully has kept up with us every step of the way. That’s not something we had with our last platform.”
