About Us

Our Story

A group of people sitting around a table

Our foundation

Need + Innovation = Hospitality

In 2017 Karl Scarlett searched for an exceptional property manager for his new Washington, DC Airbnb investments but found none.  As entrepreneurs do, Karl built one. A tech expert with a celebrated talent, Karl launched Great Dwellings with exceptional graphic and digital assets. He brought in a crack, early team; now part of the company's very fabric.

Great Dwellings was born with a motto we called DEWL; "Do Everything With Love', and that permeates property-curation and customer service. The company rapidly grew US/DC inventory, and even opened their first studio "hotel" in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Jon Rosen and Karl Scarlett had been associates, sharing business strategies and ideas for 20 years. Jon had been on several short term rental boards and had just taken his company public on NASDAQ when the two decided Great Dwellings could be even bigger.  They joined forces.

Since then? Great Dwellings developed a unique, scalable property management model and builds exceptional rental Industry software tools. These innovations carry the company into fast, healthy growth as the market for Short Term Rental property management explodes for homeowners and developers.  The company has doubled each year, adding exceptional teammates ...and its Mexico properties have grown tenfold.

Our passion

Performance and Service

As we grew and expanded, we learned that great property management is a foundation built on 3-pillars, and we had to excel at each:

  • Property Marketing
  • Customer Service
  • Maintenance

Property Marketing, the ability to generate the most revenue for a property is key to what we do; often outperforming the other property managers by 30 to 75%.

Customer Service?  We're there for guests and owners 24/7, and we screen guests expertly so our clients have peace of mind.  Our hard-earned 5-star reviews add up to more income and more property value for our owners.

We offer turnkey single and multi-family property maintenance and repair; most of our owners are offsite, even abroad. And they trust us with their investments.

Two people shaking hands
A group of people working on laptops

It should be easy

Property Owners and Great Dwellings

With Great Dwellings, Individual property owners enjoy the freedom of outsourcing property management and the increased revenue that comes from furnishing curation, pricing and guest marketing.  Investors and developers enjoy the same; hands-free ownership with higher revenue and NOI vs. long term rentals. We help with it all; including acquisition planning, compliance; even investment pro formas and accounting.

The industry

Airbnb Needs Great Dwellings

The most recent Airbnb statistics available from 2022 show  that 14,000 new hosts joined the platform each month and there are over 7 million listings worldwide.  And yet Airbnb only represents 29% of the market.

Property managers represent only 1% of all hosts but they manage 23% of available listings. Property Management continues to gain market share as single and multifamily owners add inventory, awareness grows for the benefits of professional management and larger companies enter the market. We work closely with Airbnb as well as VRBO and numerous other online services.

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