The challenge
This Orlando-area vacation-rental operator came to Silex with a single-page HTML website. To grow, they needed to stop being a tenant on someone else's software and instead own the platform that ran their business - listings, bookings, payments, owners, housekeeping, and every distribution channel - without paying a per-property tax to a SaaS vendor as they scaled.
Own, don't rent
Escape the per-door SaaS tax of Guesty or Hostaway and own the software that runs the business.
Scale headroom
Grow from a handful of listings to thousands of properties without hitting a vendor ceiling.
Every channel
Distribute and stay in sync across a dozen-plus OTA/PMS channels from one system.
What we built
A complete, custom vacation-rental management platform - one system running the entire operation, which the operator owns.
- ◆Full reservation lifecycleQuotes, bookings, payments, security deposits, and access-code management, from inquiry to post-stay.
- ◆12+ OTA/PMS channel integrationsAirbnb, Booking.com, VRBO/HomeAway, Expedia, Agoda, TripAdvisor, RentalUnited, Ciirus, Streamline and more, with two-way rate/availability sync.
- ◆Owner & operations toolingOwner statements, work orders, housekeeping, reviews, and 50+ operational reports across a 14-role, 360-page admin.
- ◆AI, layered inAn AI-powered guest portal that auto-replies to guests, plus AI-assisted listing content - modernizing a 15-year-old platform without replacing it.
Results
A platform they've grown on since 2011 - scaled to as many as 8,000 properties (currently ~800+ active) across 12+ channels: proven capacity, not a ceiling. And they own the whole platform outright - no per-property SaaS fees, no lock-in.
"We started with a single web page, and Silex grew it into a platform running eight thousand properties. We own it outright - and now the AI answers our guests around the clock."
- Founder & CEO, Orlando-area vacation-rental operator (illustrative - attribution pending client approval)
Why it matters
This is the vacation-rental ownership story in one client: instead of renting Guesty or Hostaway and paying per door forever, this operator owns a platform built to how they operate - one that scaled to 8,000 properties and is now getting smarter with AI. Own it, don't rent it.
