After several years of successful rentals with another company, we decided to explore other options…read moreto boost our rental numbers. In early 2024 we contacted Eve, "the cabin fairy" to investigate other options. She visited our home, said it was great and convinced us to sign a contract with her firm. She indicated she had many customers in the southeast that she would contact directly to secure rentals. She also offered us a management fee of 20% of rental income.
Unfortunately, that was the end of the positive relationship. After only a handful of rentals during the summer months, she suggested we try a 6 or 12 month long term rental. We agreed and after reviewing the contract she offered for such rental, we reached out with a couple of questions. Her response was rude and very negative. She stated that she was too busy to deal with such questions and if we could not accept the contract as is, we would have to stick with short term rentals.
While she offered a 20% fee for rental management, each month the costs were more like 30% or 40% after numerous deductions for visits to our home, from "handyman services" and an assortment of other charges. Whenever we questioned what the charges represented, our questions were either not answered or represented as "the cost of doing business."
On one occasion, I received a call from our security system indicating that someone had entered the property and failed to shut off the alarm. When I tried and failed to reach Eve, the security people sent the police to our home. When I finally reached Eve, rather than shutting off the alarm system, she demanded that I disengage the alarm remotely.
When we experienced some plumbing issues in one off our toilets, rather than sending her own handyman to address the problem, she told me to send my own person to fix it.
Finally in August I received an email from her indicating that she would no longer manage our property due to its "many needs," with only two weeks notice. Rather than removing our listing on rental sites such as AirBnb,, she told me that her listings were in my name and that I needed to remove them. Unfortunately, before I figured out how to change the listing, several people rented my property on my new management company and the Cabin Fairy sites, resulting in four double bookings for the same dates. Had she passed on the emails for bookings that she received, I could have avoided a very embarrassing transition experience. Her partner was very helpful in passing on contact information for the bookings the Cabin Fairy received, but I had to spend hours trying to secure bookings for the people we could.
In conclusion, we found the "cabin fairy" to be difficult to work with and not very customer friendly or professional in her dealings with us. More importantly, she did not deliver on her promise to increase our rentals. Our new management team has secured more rentals in a month than the "fairy" did in almost a year. So disappointing.