Covington is hoping to cement itself as a hotbed for young entrepreneurs eager to jump headfirst into the startup world. For 26-year old Jeremiah Hines, Covington’s unique historical architecture and his own knowledge of property management presented him with a golden opportunity to jump into the short-term rental management market.
Hines is a young, up-and-coming entrepreneur in the Northern Kentucky real estate market. He co-founded Flow Property Management, which manages a roster of around 200 apartments. At 26, Hines said he is grounded by his faith. He seeks to have a positive impact on his business partners, customers and employees.
“When people leave one of my companies, I want them to leave to leave a better person than when they started working for me,” Hines said.
Hines and his business partners newest startup, Neat Suites, is what they call a short-term property management company. On their website, Neat Suites describes itself as a “revolutionary property management company that is bridging the gap between property owners and travelers.” The company says it’s committed to providing guests with the most unique, clean and relaxing spaces in the Greater Cincinnati, and Northern Kentucky areas. The company even received a mention within an article in Forbes magazine.
Perhaps you may have noticed the rustic Pickle Factory Hotel, hidden along Covington’s historic Tobacco Alley while walking through the city. This short-term rental property is managed by Neat Suites.
Here’s how Neat Suites works. Property owners who are involved in renting their property for booking sites such as Airbnb and Vrbo can contact Neat Suites. Neat Suites schedules a meeting with the owners so they can evaluate the property and put together a custom management plan. Neat Suites then has the property professionally photographed to prepare it for listing. Lastly, the software Neat Suites utilizes launches the listing on all major booking sites. This includes Airbnb, Trivago, booking.com, Vrbo, etc.
Say you’re a couple that owns a property in Covington. You’re looking to list your property on Airbnb. You get in contact with Neat Suites, and they deal with all of the details.
Neat Suites automatically posts your listing on multiple popular booking websites. They manage all communications with a staff that responds 24/7. Guests will get an in-depth screening in order to protect the property owners from parties and damage. Laundry? Forget about it. Neat Suites offers commercial laundering of the property’s linens. They offer financial reporting, and an in-depth cleaning service.
But it’s the software behind Neat Suites that is the bread and butter of the company.
“I never saw myself as a technology kind of guy. I was doing construction and maintenance at the time,” Hines said. “As I started to research it, I realized that the tools existed for me to be able to create a system that automates a lot of the day-to-day operations of our short term rentals. I dove head first into that.”
Hines put together a tech stack of software that automates the operations of a short-term rental business. For example, the software allows Neat Suites to take pictures of a listing and then build the listing within a third party platform. The listing can then be published on major booking sites.
If Neat Suites gets a booking from Vrbo, the software immediately takes the listing off the calendar on other booking sites such as Airbnb. The software lets Neat Suites gather all messages from each booking website into a centralized inbox. This allows them to communicate from one inbox. Neat Suites has the ability to send out automated messages to their guests that say, “hello, thank you for booking x property.”
Neat Suites also integrated a software that’s linked with smart locks. Each time a listing gets a reservation, the software automatically notifies the smart lock to create a new, unique four digit code for that reservation. The software is set up so the smart lock will activate 30 minutes before the guest checks in, and then deactivate 30 minutes after the guest checks out.
Their software streamlines convenience. Hines describes the old way of managing short-term rentals as extremely tedious.
Eddi Feldmann, a managing partner at Neat Suites, knew from the beginning that Hines and himself would work well together.
“Prior to co-founding Neat Suites, we were both growing players in the short-term rental scene in and around Covington so the world naturally decided to cross our paths. His weaknesses were my strengths, and vice versa,” Feldmann said. “From our beginning conversations, we had many commonalities. We knew off the bat we were striving for the same goal. We decided it best that by working together, Neat Suites would thrive successfully. Based on our initial chemistry, it just felt right.”
Hines said he grew up watching his father work a 9-to-5 job he disliked. His father began to independently study in his free time by reading books. This accumulation of knowledge led to his father’s interest in real estate. While Hines was in college, he described his father occasionally working upwards of 80 hours a week. He would spend the day at his job, then work on his real estate properties.
Through his hard work, Hines’ father was able to coach him to go into real estate.
Hines studied entrepreneurship at Northern Kentucky University. While he was a student, he flipped a house. He then began working in Covington managing construction sites for small house flippers.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with him on some of the renovations in the beginning while we were still in college prior to graduation,” Will Redden, friend of Hines, said. “With him being an entrepreneurship major and myself being in construction management, the opportunity was great. It was amazing to see even in the beginning him knowing where he wanted to take this growing property management business. I’m excited to see his business grow into the future.”
Initially, Hines wanted to be a musician. But a trusted professor at NKU steered Hines toward a career in entrepreneurship. The professor thought Hines would gain more satisfaction in life by pursuing a career as an entrepreneur.
Feldmann, along with Hines, have high hopes for Neat Suites. They are both proud of what they’ve already been able to accomplish.
“My goal for Neat Suites is simply to have a positive impact on all of our stakeholders. Specifically for Covington, our employees, and our investors. We are making this year about growth. We want to continue growing to not only be the best player in the Greater Cincinnati area, but also the Midwest,” Feldmann said. “There’s a lot to see here. Being a University of Kentucky graduate, I’d personally like Neat Suites to have a presence in Lexington; the tourism and properties down there are just a great fit for our brand. We are hopeful of having a significant presence there in 2023.”
