Homeowner Meeting Notes

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Prudence Walsh
6 years ago
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1 Homeowner Meeting Notes November 14, Intro - Our Mission a. First off, thank you for being Seabrook homeowners as well as members of our Cottage Rentals program. Without you, nothing here would be possible. We are proud of the partnership we've forged to date and look forward to working together to make Seabrook and our vacation rental program even more successful. b. We originally entered the vacation rental business because we knew some of our owners wanted to purchase partly for investment. So, it was important that we manage to keep harmony between guests, full time and part time homeowners. Other similar developments lost control of the vacation rental company and it hurt the community with multiple companies of varying quality managing homes. The outside companies didn t prioritize the community at large and only worried about the client experience, degrading the experience for all. c. Ensuring the best possible owner and guest experience i. For sustained growth and optimized guest experience across the board, we continue to add amenities for our owners and guests to maintain the cohesion of the community. Our model is unique and has already been an example for other vacation rental companies. However, we are pioneers in this industry which makes working together with you incredibly important to our success and yours. 2. Cottage Rentals Growth a. With 168 homes in our program today, we are reaching a point of growth where we have to invest a lot of time and effort in optimizing the management of all rental homes. b. Over the last decade, despite our growth, we haven't increased prices for hot tubs, trash, hourly rate of housekeeping, or maintenance labor. The guest fees we have increased have been passed on towards wages for employees and laundry costs. 3. Communication a. We are going to do better. We will continue to post updates on LiveRez owner page. Unfortunately, you don't receive an notification whenever a new post is up on that page. We will also out that information as well as meeting notes from meetings with Advisory Board going forward. 4. Advisory Board a. We are looking for 3-5 Seabrook homeowners that have homes in the Cottage Rentals program who are interested in helping us make key decisions and communicate any questions, comments, ideas going forward. We hope to get several neighborhoods represented in the advisory board. Please note: for any urgent matters, please contact Emma (emma@seabrookwa.com) directly as this will not be the Advisory Board's responsibility. b. The advisory board will consist of the chosen homeowners plus Seabrook employees (Casey, Jeff, Cindy, Emma, Ivo). It will meet twice a year, once in the Spring and once in the Fall. If you're interested, please your resume to advisory@seabrookwa.com with a brief description of why you want to serve on the board and what experience you can add to the board. c. Important dates to remember: i. Jan 1, Deadline for Advisory Board Applications ii. Mar 5, First Advisory Board Meeting iii. Oct 22, Second Advisory Board Meeting

2 d. The goal of the Advisory Board is to take in all the feedback from the rental homeowners and work collaboratively with the Seabrook team to make key decisions and address issues going forward. If there is ever a need for a big meeting for all rental homeowners we are happy to arrange it, but the Advisory Board will help the Seabrook team be in continuous communication with the homeowners and use the owners feedback to improve the Cottage Rentals program. 5. Reinvestment in Cottage Rentals a. New Vehicle Fleet i. We are committed towards continuing the success of our Cottage Rentals program, for which there really is no blueprint. In the past year, we've purchased a brand new fleet of vehicles for our housekeeping and maintenance teams. This improved the look and feel of Seabrook and made our program even more professional. b. Facilities buildings i. We recently built a laundry facility and are close to starting the construction of a new maintenance building. c. Software / Website i. We are continuing to improve the software which helps us book reservations. One of our team members now sits on a brand new technical advisory board for LiveRez, working closely with their development team on new features that we would like to see implemented. We are also beginning work on a new, responsive web site for seabrookcottagerentals.com with a modern look and improved search engine optimization. Expect the new website to be live before the summer of d. Electronic Locks i. Our decision to install Point Central locks for all homes has proven to absolutely be the right one. We can now better track who goes in and out of your homes and can assign access for only a limited time for cleaning crews, guests, etc. e. Guest Amenities i. The new Rusty Anchor Fitness Center is opening at Seabrook in December and will be free of charge for all Cottage Rentals guests. We see this as a very important amenity for all Seabrook guests and are subsidizing the guest's cost at Rusty Anchor to ensure they have a seamless stay at Seabrook. The general advisory board for all Seabrook owners voted for owners to pay for their own memberships rather than have an increase to the common area maintenance fees. ii. Tennis courts and pickle ball court are already under construction, expected to be ready by Spring, They will be located in the new Farm District neighborhood. 6. Agenda Items of Discussion a. Internet standards i. We spent an enormous amount of time troubleshooting and resetting internet routers that get affected by the power outages in the homes. Going forward, we'd like to ensure that all homes are using Coast Communication for their internet services. b. Owner purchased items in homes i. Due to liability and safety when it comes to kids furniture, we are looking at the possibility of providing cribs for guests exclusively through Cottage Rentals. Also, things like movies, DVDs, and gaming consoles go missing quite often, so we are looking at a solution where guests could check out these items from Cottage Rentals during their stay. c. Garbage & Recycling i. While cities like Seattle and Tacoma have very progressive thrash and recycling systems in place, we are lagging behind in Grays Harbor with such options. However, we are working on an improved

3 garbage and recycling plan that we are going to present after the first Advisory Board meeting next Spring. 7. Q&A a. How do you plan to approach the standardization of items in homes? i. We are proud of the diversity of homes at Seabrook and we absolutely love how much attention you all give your homes to make them unique and welcoming. We do not want to take any of that away. In fact, we encourage homeowners doing something a little more personal in their homes to welcome each guest. A nice welcoming message and perhaps a family photo goes a long way towards letting guests know they are staying at a home that means a lot to the family who owns it. This will also help your guests be more responsible around the home during their stay. Our goal with some minimal amount of standardization is to ensure all guests have the highest quality stay possible while at Seabrook. It is really difficult for us to replace many of the custom items you might have in your kitchens or troubleshoot/repair the gaming consoles in your media rooms, as examples. As we attempt to optimize this part of the guest experience across all homes at Seabrook, one idea was to hire a professional company that has an incredibly diverse inventory of items that will fit your homes very well. This way, we will always have anything that is missing on site, and guests will be able to rent/request different entertainment options from us for their stay. Guests also like familiarity. If they know to expect a high standard across the board in every house they rent, they will be more likely to return to Seabrook. Lastly, this is not a final decision we have made - it is just an approach that we think will solve a lot of outstanding issues our guests experience during their stays. As we move forward with the Advisory Board meetings, we will look for their feedback and collaboration in finalizing the approach and executing the best strategy for the future. b. What would owners get charged for? What do owners get charged for now? i. There are a lot of items that we replace in homes to ensure the best guest experience for which we don't charge homeowners. If we move to a more standardized set of items in homes, replacing those will be a lot easier and tracking the costs and charges will be a lot clearer. c. What about other Cottage Rentals maintenance charges? i. We will be putting together a document that summarizes most of the charges you would see from Cottage Rentals so you have an idea of what to expect. We hope to finalize this list with the Advisory Board early next year. ii. Also, we will be a lot more detailed in your owner statements as to what each charge was for specifically. d. Guest reviews on the website - difficulty of entering and content optimization i. In today's world, buyers depend heavily on guest reviews to make decisions on purchases. Seabrook recognized this very early on and several years ago, we boosted the quality of each home's guest reviews by digitizing the excellent reviews left in the guest books in every home. We have recently started transcribing the newer guest books as well, which will help with both SEO (search engine optimization) and home's ratings. You don't have to do anything - we will go through each home one at a time, collect the guest book, transcribe it, and return the book. We only take one guest book at a time and return it as soon as possible (within a day or two) so guests are almost never without a guest book during their stay. If you have any questions about this project, please Ivo Andov (our Marketing Director) at ivo@seabrookwa.com.

4 e. Can you simplify the online review entry process? i. Thank you for the feedback that guests are finding it complicated to enter their reviews. We will look at solutions to improve this experience. f. Some owners are seeing increases in occupancy, while others are seeing dips when compared to the previous year. What can we do to improve rental performance for those homes who need it? i. In some neighborhoods, construction has temporarily affected the marketability of your homes. We now have more neighborhoods, more homes, and more competition. In addition, Iron Springs has added 35 units in one year, competing with some of the smaller Seabrook homes. We are doing what we can to improve the visibility and marketability of each home. On our new website, we are working towards better filters for people to find homes if they receive too many search results after their initial date search. We also receive feedback from guests about particular homes and we share that with the homeowners. If you would like, we would be more than happy to provide any feedback from our team on what you can do to improve the look and feel of your rental home to perform better in the program. g. How are specials decided for throughout the year? Why are we offering mid-week specials during the high season (summer)? i. We are very vigilant in monitoring occupancy, booking pace, and call center/website traffic volume for all of the homes. Throughout the year, we identify dips in occupancy and offer specials to fill those periods with guests. For the summer, we don't offer any specials in advance. Most homes are booked throughout the whole summer, so the only discounted rates we offer are to fill gaps between reservations and really maximize the occupancy during the high season. h. When owners make changes in their homes and would like new pictures taken for the website listing, how often should they request this? i. We are constantly taking pictures of homes and improving the listings on our website. Feel free to Emma whenever you have made noticeable changes that need new pictures taken and we will add the request to our timeline. i. Owners have noticed that when guests arrive, the homes are dark and cold. Is there a way to prepare the homes for the guests before they arrive? i. This is a good idea. We will look into implementing it. j. Owners are noticing that homes are getting damaged by guests and our insurance solution needs to be improved. i. Yes, we do pass those costs to the guests whenever possible. We are working on an insurance plan that we hope to have finished by January 1 that will include damage waivers and higher accountability of guests. During the high seasons, it is becoming increasingly difficult to inspect each home after every stay and know exactly who caused the damage, but we are improving this process and look forward to implementing a new policy in k. Is Seabrook going to reach a saturation point with new homes being added every year? i. We are very confident that Seabrook is far from reaching a saturation point and we have the research to prove it. By simple comparison, lodging inventory on the Oregon Coast is ten times higher than on the Washington coast yet the population within a 3-hour drive of Seabrook is twice as large than that of Cannon Beach, for example. Plus, there are no high quality retail destinations like the one we are building. It's undeniable that we are becoming the preferred coastal destination for the fast growing greater Puget Sound. Seabrook is well positioned with no competing projects and large barriers for others to enter this market due to limitations on public infrastructure (sewer, water, etc). l. Are we looking at improving security and parking during the peak season?

5 i. Definitely. We are looking at several different options to educate our guests on parking regulations and enforcing them will be key during the peak season. This is especially important in the oceanfront neighborhoods and the town center. We are going to work on making sure everyone understands our parking policies and become more disciplined in these practices to minimize owner and guest frustration. ii. We are also looking at options for improving the security at Seabrook via video surveillance and more frequent patrols. m. The green home books are getting outdated. Is there a plan to update them? i. Yes, and we are very close to finishing that project. We will be swapping out the green home books with standard 8.5x11 binders which will be easier to update in the future. We are also including all updated information as well as info on the new merchants on Meriweather St. We are aiming for all the new home books to be in your homes by December 31. n. Owner bicycle maintenance - what is our plan going forward? i. We are actively phasing out owner-owned bikes due to liability concerns and consistency of maintenance. Owners no longer receive new bikes at closing. However, bicycles will continue to be one of Seabrook's trademark items. We are working with a local bike shop owner from Hoquiam to have a bike shop at Seabrook and to take over maintenance on all bikes going forward. This will ensure that our trademarked activity is always a safe and enjoyable experience any time of the year. o. Given the recent article in the New Yorker about a potential earthquake in our area, how prepared is Seabrook for such an event? i. Geologists have known about the Cascadia Subduction Zone for decades - none of that is news. There are many possible geological events that could happen along the whole West Coast that we have known about for decades. As such, all the homes at Seabrook have been designed to exceed the geological standards for construction in areas like the Washington Coast. Code requirements greatly increased in 1995 and we have exceeded those requirements since. We are in constant communication with our geotechs who perform studies at Seabrook regularly and assure us that we have taken all the necessary precaution and beyond in the case an earthquake and/or tsunami happens. In fact, one of our geotechs recently tested all the bank walls and soil along the oceanfront and confirmed the strength and health of both. ii. In addition, we are working on a more robust emergency plan so we all prepared for any kind of event. Our evacuation spot are the basketball courts back by the Farm District. We will share the final plan with homeowners and guests as well. It's all about being educated on what to do in those circumstances. While we cannot predict what will happen, it is our duty to be prepared in any event. That is what we are focused on.

? Here is everything you need to know about how we re reinventing vacation renting.

New to? Here is everything you need to know about how we re reinventing vacation renting. 1. What is Marquis Rentals? 2. I m familiar with vacation rental sites such as AirBnB and Homeaway Why should I