From Luxury Retreats to Building the Future of Vacation Rental Management at Gather with Andreea Grigore

·42 min·4 clips

In 2008, a finance grad named Andrea Grigore faced a recession and stumbled into a job that became a nine-year masterclass in luxury travel.

The episode begins with host Zach Buzicruz introducing Andrea Grigore, recorded live at Skiff's Global Forum in New York. Andrea recounts how she graduated with degrees in chemical engineering and finance in 2008, lost her job at TD Asset Management due to the recession, and met the founder of Luxury Retreats at a birthday party in Montreal. She joined Luxury Retreats as an early employee, staying for nine years and moving to Hawaii to manage their largest market. Luxury Retreats was acquired by Airbnb in 2017 to form its Lux collection. Andrea then joined Elite Pacific Properties in 2016, helping grow their vacation rental division, which spun off as Gather Vacations in 2022. Gather's business model provides property managers with central services like accounting, marketing, reservations, revenue management, and tech support, enabling them to focus on local operations. The model differs from traditional franchises by offering deeper partnership and shared incentives. Andrea explains that Gather has a first right of refusal to buy property managers' portfolios, facilitating smooth exits. She discusses standards for properties, emphasizing best practices and alignment of incentives with managers. The conversation covers guest data ownership, with Gather handling bookings and sharing OTA fees, while property managers manage on-site experiences. Gather aims for direct bookings to control the guest experience and invests in content strategy. Expansion plans focus on the West Coast, targeting luxury properties above $500 per night. Andrea invites property managers to contact her for onboarding, which includes tech stack integration and training. The episode concludes with Zach reflecting on Gather's potential for branded collections and thanking Andrea.

As heard by us

A grounded look at growing a vacation-rental brand while preserving its identity and leaving room for a future sale.

Gather proposes a middle path for vacation-rental managers who want support without giving up the brands they built. It would maintain the operator's website, booking engine and direct-booking capability, then receive first right of refusal if the manager later chooses to sell…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play if managing a growing property portfolio is crowding out the life you built it to support.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Behind the Stays