Success story
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Chad Harker is the founder and manager of Eco Escapes, where he scales high-performing STR portfolios through property management, investor partnerships, and efficient operating systems.
Location: Edmonton, Canada
Number of listings: 19
Using Hostfully since: 2025
Favorite features: Unified inbox, custom fields, automations and triggers, onboarding support, open API
“At 4 listings, you can still keep a lot of things in your head. At 19, you need systems. Hostfully helped us organize the guest communication, property details, and workflows that let us keep growing without adding chaos.”
Before
After
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Chad Harker didn’t start Eco Escapes with the goal of running a small, static portfolio. He started with 4 short-term rentals and a clear plan to build the business into a scalable property management operation. From studying other STR operators, Chad knew early on that software, automation, and repeatable systems would be critical if Eco Escapes was going to grow without becoming dependent on founder memory and manual oversight.
Before Hostfully, Chad was using a legacy PMS to manage the business. It worked well enough in the earliest stage, but as Eco Escapes moved from 1 listing to 4, the system started to create friction. The interface was harder for non-technical team members to use, support was more limited, and getting the team comfortable inside the platform took more effort than it should’ve.
“Our previous system was harder for the team to use, especially for people who weren’t as technical,” Chad said. “Hostfully had a much cleaner interface to understand and navigate.” That mattered because Chad wasn’t the only person who needed to use the system. Eco Escapes had field operations managers and full-time team members in the Philippines helping with back-office work, accounting, bookkeeping, guest communication, vendor coordination, cleaner coordination, and phone calls with guests. The PMS needed to work for the whole team, not just for the most technical person in the business.
Chad knew he needed a more modern platform: one that was easier for the team to use, reliable enough to support more listings, and flexible enough to help standardize property launches, guest communication, reporting, and future automation.
After researching his options, Chad moved Eco Escapes to Hostfully. The decision came down to a mix of usability, integrations, onboarding, API flexibility, and confidence in the team behind the platform. “The onboarding, the integrations, the API, and the service were top notch,” Chad said. “I also liked that Hostfully didn’t pretend to be the best at everything like other PMSs. Hostfully excels at reliable channel management, strong integrations, and automations, and that made a lot of sense for how we wanted to operate.”
Onboarding became one of the first signs that Hostfully was different. Instead of simply handing Chad a login and leaving him to configure the system alone, Hostfully helped him understand how the platform should be set up for the way Eco Escapes operated. One of the biggest early unlocks was custom fields. Hostfully’s onboarding team helped Chad set up custom fields inside his templates and triggers, then made sure he understood how the system worked so he could maintain it as the business grew.
“Kana was fantastic,” Chad said. “She helped us get the custom fields set up and made sure we actually understood how everything worked, not just that it was configured for us.”
That setup gave Chad more than a replacement PMS. It gave Eco Escapes a cleaner operating foundation: one that could help the team standardize property setup, simplify guest messaging, reduce training friction, and prepare the business for its next stage of growth.
With Hostfully in place, Eco Escapes was able to grow with a more repeatable operating system underneath it. Chad was no longer trying to build every new process from scratch, retrain the team around clunky workflows, or rely on one-off property setup every time a new listing came online.
That operational foundation mattered because Chad’s goal wasn’t just to manage the 4 listings he already had. He wanted to keep acquiring new homeowners and growing the portfolio. Hostfully didn’t replace the work of business development, but it reduced the operational drag that often slows growing property managers down after they win new doors.
Hostfully made new-property onboarding repeatable
When Eco Escapes added a new property, Hostfully made the setup process easier to repeat. The property listing manager helped Chad and his team create a new listing, add the right amenities, load the description, and distribute the property to connected channels and OTAs with less manual setup than before.
Custom fields also became part of Eco Escapes’ new-property launch process. Instead of treating every property as a blank slate, Chad could rely on structured fields for property-specific details, then pull those details into the right templates and workflows.
“When we’re launching a new property, custom fields have become part of our SOP,” Chad said. “It’s a dependable tool we can rely on.”
For a growing portfolio, that repeatability matters. A new listing brings new check-in details, amenities, parking notes, house rules, owner preferences, guest expectations, and channel setup requirements. Hostfully helped Eco Escapes turn those details into a process the team could follow, rather than a set of manual tasks that had to be rebuilt each time.
Custom fields reduced template sprawl
Custom fields also changed how Eco Escapes managed guest messaging. Instead of creating separate versions of every message for every property, Chad could build reusable templates and let property-specific details populate where they needed to.
Check-in instructions, amenities, parking notes, house rules, and other property details could live in the right fields and flow into the right messages automatically. That made it easier to standardize the guest experience while still keeping each message accurate to the specific property.
It also reduced the risk of outdated, incomplete, or inconsistent guest information. As Eco Escapes added more listings, Chad’s team and VAs didn’t need to memorize every property detail or manually customize every message from scratch. They could rely on a system that kept the right information in the right place.
Hostfully centralized guest communication as message volume grew
As Eco Escapes grew, Hostfully’s unified inbox became the central hub for guest communication. Across the portfolio, more than 16,000 guest messages have moved through Hostfully. For Chad and his team, the inbox became one place to manage guest conversations as message volume increased across more properties and more channels.
That communication foundation also supported more advanced workflows. Chad connected Hostfully to Slack, so certain inquiries and messages could be flagged for the team right away. That helped Eco Escapes stay responsive while also building better visibility into response times, guest questions, and operational patterns.
“One of the biggest things is having inquiries flagged and pushed into Slack so the team is notified right away,” Chad said. “It helps us identify patterns, response times, and operational issues that we might’ve otherwise missed.”
That visibility mattered as the portfolio expanded. Instead of jumping between platforms or relying on team members to manually surface every issue, Eco Escapes had a more centralized way to see what guests were asking, where response delays were happening, and which properties or situations needed attention.
80% of routine guest messaging became automated
From there, Chad built a repeatable communication sequence around the guest journey. The workflow includes booking inquiries, booking welcome messages, expectation-setting messages, pre-arrival reminders, check-in details with door codes, post-first-night follow-ups, checkout messages, and review-oriented follow-ups.
The goal wasn’t to remove humans from hospitality. It was to automate the routine communication that should happen consistently every time, then let the team step in for exceptions, phone calls, vendor coordination, cleaner coordination, and anything that needs judgment.
“I’d probably say 80% of guest messaging is automated,” Chad said. “We still review templates and triggers when we see patterns, but most of the routine communication is handled by the system.”
Chad and his team still review the system when patterns emerge. If guests repeatedly ask the same question, Eco Escapes can update a message, house rule, or template so the issue is addressed before the next guest has to ask. In that sense, automation isn’t static. It becomes a feedback loop that improves the guest experience over time.
A scalable foundation for 5x growth
The result isn’t just that Eco Escapes grew from 4 to 19 listings in about 12 months. It’s that the business grew with systems underneath it. Hostfully helped Chad make property onboarding more repeatable, guest communication more consistent, and team workflows easier to manage as the portfolio expanded.
“We were at about 4 listings before Hostfully, and now we’re at 19,” Chad said. “I’m glad we got on it earlier, because trying to build all those integrations after getting to 19 would’ve been a lot more challenging.”
For Chad, getting the system in place early made the growth easier to absorb. Instead of scaling first and trying to clean up the operation later, Eco Escapes built the operational foundation before the portfolio became too complex.
Looking to grow your business quickly like Chad? Let’s talk.
Bonus: Extending Hostfully with custom API workflows
As Eco Escapes scaled, Chad also started using Hostfully as the foundation for more advanced custom workflows. Because Hostfully’s API gave him access to the operational data behind the business, he could connect the PMS to the rest of his tech stack and build lightweight tools around the way his team actually worked.
Chad connected Hostfully with tools like Claude Code, Slack, Google Drive, AWS, OpenPhone, QuickBooks, Monday.com, and Turno. The goal wasn’t to replace Hostfully. Hostfully remained the source of truth for reservations, guest communication, and property data. The custom workflows helped Eco Escapes move that information into the right places, identify patterns faster, and turn operational data into action.
“Hostfully gives us the core system, and then we can connect it with tools like Claude Code, Slack, Google Drive, and our SOPs to build workflows around how the business actually runs,” Chad said.
Use case 1: Real-time guest message alerts
One of Chad’s most useful workflows connects Hostfully guest communication with Slack. When certain inquiries or guest messages need attention, they can be flagged and pushed into the right Slack channel so the team is notified quickly. That helps Eco Escapes stay responsive without manually monitoring every thread. It also gives the team better visibility into response times, recurring guest questions, and communication patterns across properties. “One of the biggest things is having inquiries flagged and pushed into Slack so the team is notified right away,” Chad said. “It helps us identify patterns, response times, and operational issues that we might’ve otherwise missed.”
Use case 2: Weekly operational reviews
Chad also uses Hostfully data as part of Eco Escapes’ weekly team meetings. Guest communications, reviews, reservation details, channel information, and property-level context are stored and reviewed so the team can identify patterns that might’ve otherwise been missed. If a question keeps coming up at one property, the team can update the listing, the house rules, the guest message sequence, or the SOP. If response times are slipping during a certain shift, Chad can coach the team member responsible. If a recurring issue appears in guest feedback, the team can decide whether it’s a messaging problem, an operations problem, or a property-level fix.
For Chad, the value isn’t in creating more reports. It’s in making sure the reports lead to action. “Every metric should connect to a behavior or decision,” Chad said. “It’s not just about building a pretty dashboard. If we’re tracking something, it should help us save time, improve revenue, or improve the guest experience.”
Use case 3: Review analysis and guest experience improvement
Reviews are one of the clearest examples of Chad’s action-oriented approach to data. If Eco Escapes receives anything less than a five-star review, the team reviews what happened, whether a public response is needed, whether the review should be disputed, what private feedback was left, and what operational change could prevent the same issue from happening again. That review process helps turn guest feedback into a system improvement. A repeated question might lead to a clearer pre-arrival message. A complaint about check-in might trigger a change to door-code instructions. A private comment about a property issue might become a maintenance task. Instead of treating reviews as a scorecard only, Chad uses them as a diagnostic tool for the business.
Use case 4: Maintenance tracking and team accountability
Maintenance accountability became another important use case. If a guest says a towel rack was broken, Chad’s system can help cross-reference that issue against tools like Monday.com or Turno to see whether the cleaner or field team already reported it. If the issue was already reported, the team can check whether the right follow-up happened. If it was missed, Chad can create a task, contact the contractor, or coach the team member responsible for that part of the workflow. That visibility matters because Chad can’t personally check every detail across 19 listings. The system helps him see whether protocols are being followed, whether response times are acceptable, and whether issues are being resolved before they affect the next guest.
Use case 5: Owner reporting and financial reconciliation
Financial reporting is another area where Hostfully’s API opened the door to better workflows. Chad pulls booking data, revenue, occupancy, reservation amounts, channel information, and payout details into custom reporting and reconciliation workflows. That helps Eco Escapes reconcile books more efficiently and prepare owner reporting in the format each owner prefers. Some owners want a high-level snapshot of occupancy, revenue, expenses, and ADR. Others want a more detailed report. With Hostfully as the data foundation, Chad can use owner information, property data, and reporting preferences to generate more customized owner statements without rebuilding the process from scratch each month.
That flexibility matters because owner communication isn’t one-size-fits-all. Hostfully provides the underlying data, and Chad’s custom workflow shapes it into the format each owner needs.
Use case 6: OpenPhone follow-up when guests miss messages
Chad also built workflows around OpenPhone for situations where guests aren’t responding through the booking channel. Not every guest checks their Airbnb or OTA inbox regularly, especially before arrival. If a guest hasn’t responded to an important message, Eco Escapes can follow up through another channel before it becomes a check-in problem. “Not everyone is checking their Airbnb inbox every day like iMessage,” Chad said. “Because of the way we have Hostfully connected into our workflows, we can see when someone hasn’t responded and follow up before it becomes a problem.”
That workflow is especially useful for pre-arrival requirements, door-code instructions, and other time-sensitive communication. It gives the team another way to reach guests before they arrive at the property confused, blocked, or missing key information.
Use case 7: Call transcripts and relationship memory
Chad’s custom setup also extends beyond guest messaging. Business calls through OpenPhone can be transcribed, processed, and stored so important context doesn’t disappear after the call ends. That helps with owner leads, investor conversations, team follow-up, and recurring meetings. Instead of relying on memory, Chad can review what was discussed, what needs to be carried forward, and which action items need follow-up.
For a growing STR business, that kind of relationship memory matters. Every homeowner, investor, guest, vendor, and team member creates context. Chad’s goal is to keep that context accessible so the business gets smarter over time.
The bigger picture: flexibility without outgrowing the PMS
For Chad, this is where Hostfully’s flexibility matters most. The platform handles the core PMS work, while the API gives him the flexibility to continue improving the operation as Eco Escapes grows. Hostfully remains the system of record for the property management business. Chad’s custom workflows extend that foundation into Slack alerts, weekly team reviews, guest experience analysis, maintenance tracking, owner reporting, financial reconciliation, and phone follow-up.
“With the API, we’re able to connect Hostfully with the other tools we use and configure workflows that would be hard to manage manually,” Chad said. “It saves time, gives us better visibility, and helps the team focus on work that actually moves the business forward.”