Rather Be Properties is a family-run business. We manage 32 homes across the Outer Banks, Palm Springs, Indio, Desert Hot Springs, San Diego, Big Bear, Mission Viejo, Tucson, Chandler, Raleigh and High Point — and when you message us, you reach us.
Not a queue. Not a contractor reading a script about a house they have never walked through. Us: Al and Elissa, the two people whose names are on the business.
That is the entire premise of this page, and it is worth stating plainly before anything else.
Who are Al and Elissa?
We are the family that runs Rather Be Properties, and we would rather point you at things you can verify than write ourselves an origin myth.
The longer version of the story was told properly by San Diego Voyager, in a feature called Scaling With Intention: Inside the Rise of Rather Be Properties. If you want the background on how the portfolio grew and how we think about adding homes, read that. It says it better than a bio page would.
What matters for your trip is narrower: we have personally been in the homes we manage. We know which house has the elevator, which pool wants the heat turned on in February, which soundfront deck gets the sunset and which one gets the shade.
What does family run vacation rental management mean day to day?
It means the person answering your question in the evening has stood in that kitchen.
It means when something breaks mid-stay — and things break, in every home, everywhere — you are not filing a ticket. You are telling us, and we are calling the person who fixes it.
It also means we can say yes to things software cannot parse. A late checkout because your flight is late. An early arrival because you drove overnight. A question about whether the dog is genuinely welcome — the answer varies by home, and we will tell you straight.
The trade: you get the owners, not a call centre
Here is the honest part. We are a small team. We are not a 24-hour contact centre with a hundred agents and a follow-the-sun rota.
If you want the reassurance of a company so large that somebody is always awake, we are not that. What you get instead is the people who chose these houses, set them up and care what happens in them. That is the trade, and we think it is the better one — but you should know which one you are making.
Where are the 32 homes?
Two markets have full collection pages where you can browse everything at once:
- Outer Banks, North Carolina — Corolla, Duck, Avon and Frisco. Start at our OBX collection.
- Coachella Valley, California — Palm Springs, Indio and Desert Hot Springs. Start at our Coachella Valley rentals.
The rest are individual homes in San Diego, Big Bear, Mission Viejo, Tucson, Chandler, Raleigh and High Point. Those do not have collection pages yet, so the property page is the place to look — for example Sound-Front Retreat with Infinity Pool in Duck, or Salida Del Sol in Desert Hot Springs.
What do guests actually say about reaching us?
We could describe our own responsiveness, but guests do it more credibly. These are the reviews that keep mentioning it:
- A guest at Oasis Del Sol in Palm Springs wrote that her response time was five minutes or less — before they had even booked — and that she patiently answered all their questions with clear and accurate answers.
- A guest at Salida Del Sol in Desert Hot Springs called us the most responsive and most helpful host they have ever had.
- At Sound-Front Retreat in Duck, a guest hit a gas grill problem and a router problem in the same stay. Both were resolved quickly. That is the review we are proudest of, because it is not a review about nothing going wrong.
- A guest at Soundside Serenity at Cruz Bay in Corolla said communication was amazing from day one.
- At The Game Table Getaway in Indio, a guest noted clear self check-in instructions and a team that was extremely responsive.
Five different homes, three different states, the same theme. That is not luck. It is the one thing a small family operation can genuinely do better than scale.
Do you also manage homes for owners?
Yes. A good share of what we do is on the other side of the transaction — managing homes for owners who want their property looked after by people who will actually visit it.
If you own a home in one of our markets, our property management page explains how we work. Fair warning: we grow slowly, and we say no to homes we do not think we can run well.
Why book direct with a company you have never heard of?
Because you probably have not heard of us, and a platform feels safer at first. That is a reasonable instinct and we are not going to argue you out of it.
What we would say is this. The platform’s brand is a substitute for knowing who you are dealing with, and it costs about 10% on a like-for-like flexible booking, because booking direct carries no platform service fee. There is still a card processing fee on our side. It is a fraction of the platform’s, and the roughly 10% figure is calculated after it.
Direct also means our cancellation terms are on screen before you pay: 96% refunded if you cancel up to 14 days before arrival, 46% up to 7 days before. No policy tier to decode.
If you want the full comparison, we wrote it out in booking direct vs. Airbnb and VRBO.
Frequently asked questions
Is Rather Be Properties really family run, or is that marketing language?
Really family run. It is the two of us plus a small team. The San Diego Voyager feature linked above covers the longer version.
When I message through your site, who replies?
Us, or someone on our small team who can reach us immediately.
Have you personally stayed in the homes you manage?
We have personally been in them. That is how we answer layout and access questions without guessing.
How many properties do you manage, and where?
32 homes across the Outer Banks, Palm Springs, Indio, Desert Hot Springs, San Diego, Big Bear, Mission Viejo, Tucson, Chandler, Raleigh and High Point.
What is the actual benefit of booking direct with you?
About 10% versus a like-for-like flexible platform booking, cancellation terms visible before payment, and a human who can say yes to a late checkout. More in our FAQ page.
What is the downside of a small team?
We are not staffed around the clock. In exchange, you are talking to the owners.
Ready to talk to an actual person?
Browse the Outer Banks or the Coachella Valley, pick the house, and book direct on our site — cancellation terms shown before you pay, no platform service fee, and a message thread that reaches us.
Or just message us with the question you are actually stuck on. That is usually faster.
Because there’s no place you’d rather be.
