Tidal Stays — vacation rental management

What we do

Four jobs, done properly, every week of the year.

Short-term rental management is not one service. It is four, and most owners discover the hard way that doing three of them well is the same as doing none.

Calendar & channels

Your home is listed in more than one place, so the calendar has to be one thing. We keep availability and rates in step across every platform you list on.

Guest communication

Enquiries, arrival details, the gate code, the question at eleven at night. Handled by us, in your home's voice, without waking you.

Turnovers & upkeep

Cleaning between stays, linens, restocking, and the small repairs that decide whether the next guest writes a good review or a bad one.

Owner statements

What came in, what went out, and why — written so you can read it once and know where you stand, rather than filing it to deal with later.

One calendarIn sync

Direct siteChannel ChannelOwner block

A booking anywhere closes it everywhere

Your home is listed in more than one place, so the calendar has to be one thing. Green is a week you kept for yourself — it blocks exactly like a booking.

How it works

Three steps, then it runs without you.

The point of handing a home over is that you stop thinking about it. That only works if the handover itself is thorough.

The first two weeks

Handover is the part that decides whether the rest runs itself. Four steps, and you are only needed for the first one.

OnboardingStep 2 of 4

1Walk the home

2Photograph and write it

3Connect the channels

4Open the calendar

Step one

We walk the home

Room by room, with a camera and a list. What needs replacing before a guest sees it, what makes this home worth choosing, and what the honest nightly rate is once the season is taken into account.

Step two

We list it and wire it up

Photography, the listing copy, and the calendar connected across every platform the home should appear on — so a booking on one closes the dates on all of them.

Deck chairs facing the water on a bright day

Step three

Then we run it

Guests are met, turnovers happen, and the statement arrives. You get the part of ownership you wanted — the income and the occasional weekend in it — without the part you didn't.

Who runs it

Run by Robbie and Rob Branham, in Myrtle Beach.

Robbie Branham and his son Rob have spent years managing vacation rentals on the Grand Strand with iTrip. Tidal Stays is them, working the same coast under their own name — and this is how they work.

RB

Robbie Branham

Myrtle Beach. Years managing short-term rentals on the Grand Strand with iTrip before starting Tidal Stays.

RB

Rob Branham

Robbie's son, and the second half of the operation. Same coast, same homes, same standard.

MW

Matthew Willey

Runs the marketing department in-house — listings, direct bookings, and the seasons that need filling.

How they work

01

We quote per home, not per brochure

A fee that fits a two-bedroom cottage does not fit a six-bedroom house on the water. We would rather price your home honestly than advertise a number we have to walk back.

02

You hear bad news from us first

A cancellation, a breakage, a bad review. You will hear it from us before you find it yourself, with what we have already done about it.

03

We say no when we are the wrong fit

Some homes are better self-managed, and some markets we do not know well enough yet. Telling you that costs us a client and saves you a year.

04

The statement is readable or it is rewritten

If you have to ring us to understand what a line item means, the statement failed. That is our problem to fix, not yours to decode.

Under management

Carolina Seas, Cherry Grove.

Carolina Seas from the air, oceanfront at Cherry Grove

A custom-built oceanfront house on the shores of Cherry Grove, North Myrtle Beach — eighteen beds, a private pool, and a games room that keeps the ocean in view.

Sleeps 18Oceanfront Private poolHot tubs

This one is real — the photography and the details are the owner's own. Everything else on the homes page is labelled as an example.

See the home All homes

What you'll see

The screens behind the service.

You get an owner login, not a monthly PDF. This is what is on the other side of it — one calendar, one inbox, the turnover run, and a statement written to be read.

Multi-calendar3 in sync

BookedOwner blockOpen

Direct siteListing channelListing channel

MTWTFSS

One calendar, every channel

A booking on any platform closes the dates on all of them. Your own weeks block the same way.

Guest inboxHandled

Arriving Friday

Gate code question

What time can we check in?

From 4pm — I'll send the code that morning.

Perfect, thank you.

Questions answered without you

Enquiries and arrival details handled in your home's voice. You see the thread; you don't have to be in it.

Turnover runOn schedule

TodayThis weekIssues

Guest checked out

Clean and linen change

Restock and check

Ready for arrival

Every turnover, tracked

Between one guest leaving and the next arriving there is a run of work. You can watch it happen or ignore it entirely.

Owner statementMonthly

Booking income

Cleaning

Maintenance

Management fee

Paid to you

Layout shown. Figures appear once your home is live — we do not publish sample numbers.

Money, in plain language

What came in, what went out, what reached you. If a line needs explaining, the statement gets rewritten.

Season shapeBy month

APRMAYJUNJULAUGSEP

Shoulder season, priced on purpose

The weeks either side of peak are where most homes lose money. They get their own pricing and their own push.

Where bookings come fromMix

Your own booking pageDirect

Listing channelPlatform

Returning guestDirect

Direct bookings you own

Every reservation through your own page is one that does not pay a platform commission. That mix is the marketing department's job.

Owner portalLive

Nights booked this season

Your own login, not a PDF

Bookings, statements and the calendar in one place, visible whenever you want them — including the weeks you have kept for yourself.

The kind of places we work

Coastal homes, and the walk to the water.

Guests choose a place before they choose a house. Part of marketing a home is marketing the reason someone wants to be there at all.

Placeholder photography, openly licensed and credited in img/MANIFEST.md. None of these is a Tidal Stays property — your homes replace them.

Marketing department

An empty week is a marketing problem.

Most managers stop at listing a home and waiting. We run marketing as its own department, in-house, because the difference between a good season and a quiet one is usually made before the enquiry ever arrives.

In-house New department Included in Managed

Photography & listing copy

The listing is the shop window. We shoot the home properly and write it so the right guest recognises themselves in it — rather than listing bedroom counts and hoping.

Channel placement

Which platforms a home belongs on, how it is positioned on each, and which ones are wasted effort for that property. Being on every channel is not a strategy.

Direct booking site

A booking page for the home that you own outright. Every direct reservation is one that does not pay a platform commission.

Past-guest email

The people most likely to book your home are the ones who already have. We keep in touch with them on your behalf, ahead of the seasons they came for.

Local & social presence

Guests choose a place before they choose a house. We market the location the home sits in, and the home as a way to have that place.

Seasonal campaigns

Shoulder season is where most homes lose money. Those weeks get their own push and their own pricing, rather than being left to fill themselves.

MW Marketing is run in-house by Matthew Willey.

Where guests come fromMix

Your own booking pageReturning guests Listing channelsReferrals and local

Shift the mix toward the bookings you own

Platform reservations are the easy ones and the expensive ones. The work of a marketing department is moving that ring, season by season, toward direct.

A note on the numbers we are not showing you

You will not find an occupancy percentage or a revenue uplift figure anywhere on this page. Whatever Robbie and Rob achieved elsewhere belongs to elsewhere. When Tidal Stays has its own results, they will appear here with the homes they came from.

Ways to work together

Keep the calendar, or hand over the whole thing.

Owners arrive with different appetites for involvement. These are the shapes that work — the right one depends on the home and how much of it you want to keep doing yourself.

Assisted You keep the calendar

Listing set up and written
Channels kept in sync
Rate guidance by season

Managed We run everything

Everything in Assisted
Turnovers and upkeep
Guest communication
Owner statements

Portfolio More than one home

Everything in Managed
Consolidated statements
One point of contact

What you get	Assisted	Managed	Portfolio
Listing written and photographed	✓	✓	✓
Channels kept in sync	✓	✓	✓
Rate guidance by season	✓	✓	✓
Guest communication	—	✓	✓
Turnovers and upkeep	—	✓	✓
Marketing department	—	✓	✓
Direct booking site	—	✓	✓
Owner statements	—	✓	✓
Consolidated multi-home reporting	—	—	✓
One named point of contact	—	—	✓

Inclusions are what each way of working covers. Fees are agreed per home — see the note above on why no rate is published here.

Fees and inclusions are agreed per home — the right number depends on the property, the market and the season, and we would rather quote honestly than advertise a rate we would have to walk back.

Before you hand over a key

The questions owners actually ask.

Do I lose control of my own home?

No. You set the ground rules — how many guests, whether pets come, which weeks you keep for yourself — and we work inside them. Blocking dates for your own use is normal and expected, not an exception we grudgingly allow.

What happens when something breaks at midnight?

The guest contacts us, not you. Small things get fixed without troubling you; anything that needs a real decision or real money comes to you with the options already priced.

Can I still use the house myself?

Yes. Owner stays are part of the calendar. The only thing we ask is enough notice to avoid turning away a booking we would then have to cancel — cancelling on a guest is what damages a listing.

Which platforms will my home be listed on?

The ones that suit the property and the market it sits in. That is a conversation about your specific home rather than a fixed list, and we will tell you which ones we think are wasted effort for it.

How do I know what I'm actually earning?

A statement showing what came in, what went out, and what each deduction was for. If a line item needs explaining, the statement has failed, and we would rather rewrite it than have you chase us about it.

Tell us about the home.

Where it is, how many it sleeps, and how much of it you want to keep doing yourself. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit — including when we are not.

You hand over the keys once.