iTrip Annapolis Uses Coast to Improve Work Order Turnaround Times & Grow Its Portfolio

Property management is not something you should oversee via text message. Just ask Greg Hudson, head of maintenance, and Jason Junge, head of inspections, for iTrip Annapolis, a short-term rental property management company that oversees about 75 properties in Maryland’s Greater Annapolis area. It’s one of about 100 franchise locations under the iTrip umbrella.

When Hudson started with the company in late 2021, they only had 20 properties, and there was no property maintenance system in place besides a text message chain to report issues. But even managing less than a third of the properties they oversee now, they knew a text message thread wasn’t going to cut it. They needed something to help track their inspections and maintenance work and keep better records of it all.

Coast Quickly Organizes Property Information

Enter Coast. Hudson (pictured above, right) found Coast through a Google search and started with a free trial in late 2023. From the start, Junge (pictured above, left) says it was easy to get set up. After he and Greg got the hang of the software, they walked the rest of the staff through it, which was straightforward enough for everyone to start using.

And it wasn’t long before they realized how well it fit their needs. 

First, it helped organize all the properties into one property management system. This was crucial because, while all their properties are different, some have similar names that make it difficult to differentiate one from another. Uploading property images and writing detailed notes about each property’s mechanical systems within Coast solved this issue. 

It also means that this information is accessible for anyone on the iTrip Annapolis team. For example, their customer relations team might get a call at 11 p.m. at night and be able to tell a guest how to restore power because there’s information about where the breaker box is in Coast.

Storing Checklists in Coast Makes Inspections Easier

As head of inspections, Junge found the ability to store checklists invaluable. The different properties require different inspections for cleanliness and regulatory standards, so being able to create and upload checklists for each individual one meant that they are now able to perform inspections more consistently. 

The inventory management capabilities also help ensure that they never run out of supplies for guests upon check-in because they’re automatically alerted when they’re running low. They even have QR codes for the cleaners to scan and log what they’re using. As a result, Junge says they’ve received much fewer guest complaints since using Coast.

Automations Improve Work Order Turnaround Times

While the maintenance software certainly helps them stay more organized, they’re also completing work orders much faster, Hudson says. As soon as someone submits a maintenance request, they get a notification and send someone out for repairs, so their turnaround time is better. This is especially beneficial since they more than tripled the amount of properties they oversee in just a few years.

Since using Coast, they’ve completed about 900 maintenance work orders and too many inspections to count, Junge says. When all of their properties are booked, they’ll sometimes have at least 30 to 40 inspections a week.

Hudson points to the ability to customize Coast and to use it from your mobile device as major benefits for the team. Junge loves how everything on Coast is automated and that it keeps everything in one place. “Everything’s instant,” he says. “As soon as an inspection is done, I get notified so I can check if there’s an issue.”

In fact, the national iTrip company has its own software, but Hudson and Junge rarely use it for maintenance and inspections because it’s not as easy to use as Coast. And the best part is that they’re still in the infancy of using it, which means there’s so much more the software can help them do.

“I know it can do a lot more for us,” Hudson says. “We could even set it up for the guests to report an issue directly through the Coast app using a QR code, which is really cool, and hopefully, in the future, we’ll look into that aspect of it.”