Mack did not set out to become one of Seattle's most experienced short-term rental operators. He started in 2014 with one apartment, a plan to travel, and a simple realization: you could make money on your property while you were gone.

What followed was twelve years of building, surviving, and rebuilding. Today, Mack runs Stay Sophari, a short-term rental and corporate housing company in the Bellevue and greater Seattle area, managing around 50 properties - predominantly apartments in A-class high-rises and mid-rises, with some houses spread throughout the market. He has had close to 100 properties cycle through the platform over five years on Jurny.

He is one of the oldest operators in his market. And his story is one of the most honest accounts of what it actually takes to survive, adapt, and build a durable STR operation.

 

From One Apartment to 113 Units - and Back Again

Mack's entry into short-term rentals was accidental. He was planning a three-month trip and learned he could rent his apartment while he was away. That discovery turned into a business when he lost his job shortly after and decided to go all in.

"It was pretty new. There was a lot to figure out. Not a lot of people to ask questions. But that is where I like to be."

He brought his mother in to help manage cleaning. He knocked on doors and asked landlords for permission to list their units. He went from one property to 113, and eventually started housing Facebook interns through corporate housing partnerships.

Then came 2019. Seattle's short-term rental regulations forced him to shut down roughly 60 properties. A year later, COVID hit. The market collapsed. Mack's Seattle portfolio went to zero - but he held onto his furniture, his experience, and his knowledge of the platform he trusted.

"Seattle lost a lot of operators and properties. It took about two years to jump back in and rebuild."

He started over in 2022, this time in Bellevue - about twenty minutes from Seattle - with a smaller, more focused operation, a clearer model, and a platform he already knew and trusted.

The Problem That Almost Stopped Him From Growing

Before Jurny, running a portfolio of apartments in A-class buildings came with a specific and serious operational challenge: guest screening.

High-rises have building standards to protect. Other residents are affected by problem guests. And in a portfolio that mixes business travel with rate-drop gap fillers during slow periods, vetting every reservation manually was not sustainable.

"I had to check every reservation manually and make sure using my gut that the guests did not look like they could be a problem. There was no real process. It was just scattered."

Without a reliable screening system, Mack knew he could not grow responsibly. He could not train his team on something that did not exist. He could not sleep well. And he could not take on more properties in good conscience.

"I thought at that point: I am not going to be able to get more properties unless I can manage this better, because I also have to train my team and get them aware of it so I can sleep better at night."

He found Jurny at VRMA in 2021. What caught his attention was not a feature list. It was the integrations - specifically Jurny's native connection with Autohost for guest screening and Wheelhouse for dynamic pricing, all within a single platform.

"Jurny had it all figured out for us at that point. Everything integrated."

What Jurny Replaced

Before Jurny, Mack was on a legacy PMS that lacked the channel connections his market required. Expedia drives significant booking volume in the Seattle market, and his previous system did not connect to it. Autohost and Wheelhouse integrations were either missing or unreliable.

Switching to Jurny meant one platform where his channel management, guest screening, dynamic pricing, and guest communications all lived together. Setting up a new property meant it was already connected to everything from day one.

"Jurny is pretty intuitive. It has a really good dashboard and everything is connected. When you set up a new property, it is already connected to all the other tools."

He also built Zapier automations to bridge specific internal workflows, and has since experimented with Airtable connections - a reflection of how Jurny's open architecture fits operators who like to build and customize.

Running 50 Properties Virtually, With the Same Small Team

After rebuilding in 2022, Mack found his rhythm. Around 50 properties. A small virtual team. No operations manager. No maintenance manager on staff. Everything run remotely, coordinated through Jurny, with cleaners handling the on-the-ground work.

He has two young children. He takes vacations regularly. The operation runs without him needing to be present.

"It is kind of like an ideal place. Jurny is more on autopilot. I can depend on it to do its thing while we are figuring out what properties to bring on next."

The Seattle market averages seven nights per stay. That length of stay is central to how he keeps his team lean. Fewer turnovers means less coordination pressure. And with Jurny managing the communications, screening, and channel sync automatically, his team's attention goes where it actually needs to go.

"We have not had to add a big team or new team members. It has been really manageable at our size. I have not heard a complaint about the system in a long time."

The Feature That Changed Day-to-Day Operations

Ask Mack what his favorite Jurny feature is and he lands on the inbox -- specifically what it has become with NIA (Network of Intelligent Agents) integrated into it.

"The inbox is getting really good with NIA and all the suggestions. I do not have to go to ChatGPT or Claude to do that work anymore. We can do it all within Jurny."

The sentiment analysis component is what he watches most closely. For an operator whose reputation in A-class buildings depends on guest quality, knowing how a guest is feeling before a review posts matters.

"The sentiment analysis is really something we pay a lot of attention to as it relates to getting good reviews. There was nothing before that allowed us to do that."

About 50% of Sophari's bookings come from non-Airbnb channels - Expedia, direct bookings, corporate accounts. Having all guest communications centralized in one inbox, regardless of where the booking originated, is something Mack points to as genuinely valuable at that channel mix.

A Team That Stays in the Game With You

One of the consistent themes across Mack's experience is the relationship with Jurny's team. He has known the sales team from the beginning, has had Luca (Jurny's CEO) on calls, and communicates directly with the support team on Slack when he has questions about specific configurations like lock setups.

"The team knows how I am set up. It is very easy to just ask a question and they have a good pulse. They seem to retain everything I ask, which comes in handy later when I am considering trying something new."

When new features roll out, Mack's team is usually testing them within a week. When something is unclear, he asks and gets a direct answer. When he has an idea or has built something with Zapier or Airtable that might be useful, he shares it back.

"Our revenue has definitely increased from being able to count on them to help us."

What He Would Tell Another Operator

Mack has been in this industry longer than most operators in his market. He has seen regulations, COVID, market collapses, and rebuilds. His advice to operators who are on the fence is grounded in that experience.

"The team at Jurny has their pulse on what is going on in short-term rentals. They know what you may be going through. It is already built, but they will still give you ideas and help you set it up. You can count on it getting better and better as you grow."

"The tools are there for you. They will be a good support as it relates to getting questions addressed really quickly."

For an operator who started with one apartment, built to 113 units, navigated one of the most challenging regulatory and market environments in the industry, and came out the other side running a lean, virtually-operated portfolio - that kind of confidence in a platform is earned over years, not months."

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