In this episode of The Vacation Rental Show, host Lynell Gordon speaks with Shervin Jamshidpour, founder of RestNest, about building a luxury vacation rental business through creative property acquisition, authentic guest relationships, and intentionally capping growth to protect service quality that corporate competitors cannot replicate at scale.

What You'll Learn:

• How to leverage unmet guest demand to onboard properties by approaching owners with concrete booking opportunities rather than abstract revenue projections
• Why Shervin's $40,000 first booking validated that luxury travelers book differently than budget tourists and don't primarily discover properties through OTAs
• The foreclosure courthouse strategy where Shervin sat for four hours waiting to pitch property management to whoever won the auction
• Why luxury guests are actually easier to serve than mid-market travelers despite paying $4,000 average nightly rates
• How 99% direct bookings at $4,000 nightly beats OTA dependence that cut rates in half while taking 20% commissions
• The intentional growth cap philosophy - why Shervin plans to stop between 30-50 properties before service quality deteriorates
• Competing against established companies in markets like Whistler where incumbents actually do good work
• The honesty principle - why radical transparency about problems builds more trust than perfect operations ever could
• Building authentic friendships with guests who text for real estate advice year-round, not just vacation bookings
• Creative acquisition tactics that differentiate from competitors sending generic email outreach
  
  

Shervin Jamshidpour quit his compliance officer job during COVID after impulsively telling a friend he could manage vacation rentals better than the current company. With zero professional experience beyond managing two nightmare low-end Vancouver apartments that attracted homeless guests, he moved to Kelowna, set up proper systems from day one, and landed a $40,000 direct booking as his first reservation. He used guest inquiries he couldn't accommodate as leverage to onboard properties one at a time, growing RestNest to 26 luxury homes across Kelowna, Whistler, and Vancouver by being selective about which properties fit his ultra-high-end positioning rather than chasing volume growth.

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Previous guests include: Jim DeVos of Best Beach Getaways, Stacy Wesson of Cascara Vacation Rentals, Michael Friedman of The Simple Life Hospitality, Steve Caron of Inhabit, John An of TechTape, Jessica Gillingham of Abode Worldwide, Justin Ford of Breezeway, Mahwussh Alam of One Perfect Stay, Sofia Rossato of Inhabit, and many more.

Check out the three most downloaded episodes:

• Vacation Rental Stories: Episode 63 - Driving Innovation and Partnership
• Homeowners Become Family with Michael Godfrey, Owner of Michael’s Vacation Rentals
• Life in Maui as a Property Manager with Scott Jordan, Owner of Maui Life Realty

Got a question for The Vacation Rental Show?Our host, Lynell Gordon, is answering your vacation rental questions in our new segment: Ask Lynell.

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