The history of Casago could not be written without first understanding and exploring the life of their inspirational leader, Steve Schwab. Casago simply could not exist at as we know it today without Steve’s leadership, for his dream, drive, inspiration, and personality are woven into the very being of Casago.
Meet Steve Schwab
The first thing you will notice about Steve is his quiet demeanor and constant curiosity. He grew up in a small, remote town with strong family values. Steve is a former member of the US Army Special Operations and a graduate of New Mexico State University, where he honed his leadership and people skills. His core values and his unique understanding of people helped him develop goal-focused delivery systems that incorporate his values.
Why is that important? Caring for people is at the heart of what Steve brings to Casago and the companies he leads. Casago today is a direct reflection of who Steve is, his values, and his desire to develop a sustainable company with strong customer-oriented values and deliverables.
Where it all started…
Near the turn of the century, there was a small, fledgling company called Cyndi’s Beach Home Rentals in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico. Puerto Peñasco, also called Rocky Point, was a relatively small, laid-back coastal town in the northwest corner of Mexico. It is located on the Sea of Cortez, about 60 miles south of the US border. It was undeveloped and had not yet experienced the rapid development of high-rise condominiums, commercial food chains, or the booming tourism it now shares with the world.
At that time, Rocky Point was mostly dirt roads, a small fishing town with a nice beach. The community offered a few small hotels, motels, and resorts that attracted guests from nearby Arizona and parts of Mexico. Amenities included small shops, family-owned restaurants, small markets, grocery stores, and a medical clinic.
Cyndi’s Beach Home Rentals
Cyndi’s Beach Home Rentals offered tourists the opportunity to rent a beach home, on the beach, something completely different than a small motel away from the beach. She met the renters at her office on the paved highway coming into town from the US border. She managed the homes, the general maintenance, the business, and the rental agreements. At the time, the renter could purchase a postal money order from the US Post Office, take a picture of the money order, and then fax the picture to Cyndi’s office. She had a small website, but technology was lacking in her business at the time.
Cyndi’s husband, Bruce, did much of the maintenance as they were a small local company. Bruce was at a local bar telling a friend how he needed help fixing some A/C units in the homes they managed but was unable physically to get on the roof to do the work himself. A young man nearby who had a knack for handy work overheard the conversation and offered to help. That young man was Steve!
Steve had recently graduated from NMSU and visited Rocky Point. When he decided to stay, he didn’t have much, only $500 in his pocket, and did random jobs to pay for a place to sleep. He rented a small room on the backside of the Margarita Villa at the time.
Bruce and Steve began working together, building a close relationship and tackling various projects. One day, Steve stopped hearing from Bruce. It turned out that Bruce’s long battle with cancer, the reason why he needed Steve’s help in the first place, had come to an end. As a result of Bruce’s passing, Cyndi was no longer willing to stay in Rocky Point, much less manage the business on her own. Cyndi contacted Steve and told him what was going on. “You know, Steve,” she said, “Bruce thought you’d be pretty good at this.” And so, Steve stepped up, taking the reins of Cyndi’s Beach Home Rentals.
Steve’s introduction to the business was short – a one-hour “training” session with Cyndi. And though she promised to provide a more detailed training later, Steve never saw her again. He started in the vacation property rental business with a broken chair, a series of power outages, and a dream bigger than himself with the resolve to succeed.
But things were about to change!
In 2001, Cyndi’s Beach Home Rentals was rebranded to Seaside Beach Home Rentals, a name that reflected its location and purpose. He acquired a new “orange” office on the highway at the entrance to the town to make it convenient for arriving guests to pick up the key to their rental property. He turned this struggling company into the largest Vacation Rental Company in Mexico. How? Hard work, commitment to excellence, and building a business based on the needs of people.
Interesting fact:
The “orange” office is still the home of Casago in Puerto Peñasco.
Sea Side Reservations
Over the next several years, the sleepy little fishing village became a bustling tourist attraction thanks to the beach. Infrastructure, such as paved roads, high-rise condominiums, commercial enterprises, and restaurants, built a community people from Arizona and Mexico enjoyed visiting. Many people loved Puerto Peñasco so much that they purchased condominiums as vacation properties. Vacation properties need property managers. As you can imagine, Seaside Beach Home Rentals wasn’t the only property management company in town. There were others. Some were larger.
With growth comes change. Seaside Beach Home Rentals rebranded to Seaside Reservations to reflect the change occurring in the vacation property rental market in Puerto Peñasco. Change was also happening inside Seaside with the growing introduction of technology.
A growing company needs people – good people – and not just people, but people with varying and complementary skills. Steve attracted the right people with the strengths he needed to compete.
Christmas 2003 – the Rocky Point Management Crisis!
On a trip back from Arizona, Steve was passed at high speed by a couple of vans from Rocky Point Management Company (RPM), the largest management company in the region. Though he thought the sight of the vans traveling at high speed odd, it became painfully clear when Steve learned that RPM declared bankruptcy and left town – quickly!
RPM took the property owner’s funds that should have been in escrow to pay bills and left town. Not only were bills left unpaid, but RPM employees were now suddenly without a job or a paycheck right at Christmas.
Steve took action!
If there was ever a time to be left without a job, it’s certainly not a few weeks before Christmas, especially considering many locals in Puerto Peñasco live paycheck to paycheck. Steve and his small team of 5 office employees put together food baskets to deliver to the families of the RPM staff who were now without jobs or paychecks. Although Steve didn’t have much, he and his team shared what they had.
These people needed jobs and Steve hired as many of them as he could. He also took over the RPM accounts, which he found to be a total mess. With hundreds of dollars in unpaid bills and unable to contact many of the property owners managed by RPM, Steve took his own money and paid every one of those bills.
Like any small town, word traveled fast in Rocky Point, and Seaside’s reputation grew!
This experience, as negative as it was, produced something so remarkable it changed the vacation rental property management system for the better with Seaside. Steve developed a model he still follows today of transparency with the homeowners, thus eliminating any question as to what or why Seaside is doing in managing their property.
In order to meet the standard set by Steve and Seaside, two things had to happen: a more interactive technology platform and having employees who embrace the Seaside commitment to the homeowner.
Interesting fact:
This event was the birth of the Casago “Owner-Centric” model still in use today!
Systems and Software
In order to drive the transparency of “Owner-Centric” communications, recording and measuring parameters critical to the vacation property rental and management, there had to be a software solution to support the complexity of the operations. Unfortunately, software of this nature can’t be purchased “off the shelf” like a Microsoft program.
In 2000, Steve met Carlos, a software developer engaged in SEO activities that marketed Rocky Point vacation rental properties. He would provide leads of potential renters to vacation property management companies in the area and be paid a commission for each lead. The SEO activity and the selling of leads grew to the point that Carlos and his partner had to form a Travel Agency business. The relationship grew.
Carlos and his software developer partner saw the success in owning vacation rental property in Rocky Point, so they decided to purchase a vacation condominium as well. He began experiencing similar challenges as Seaside Reservations with creating reservations, managing the rentals, invoicing, communications with renters, etc. It was at this point Carlos decided to develop his own software to manage his rental. This was the beginning of ResortPro software.
Eventually, Steve and Carlos began working together to develop and hone the features of ResortPro software. Although the relationship and the software product development weren’t always smooth, the eventual outcome of the software became exactly what Steve and Seaside Reservations – and therefore Casago – required to help manage their business.
ResortPro to Streamline
In 2010, Seaside Reservations implemented the Resort Pro software. A key focus of ResortPro is the ability to manage the types of communications Steve required for his organization with owners, renters, and no-surprise statements. Carlos noticed the Casago approach to vacation property rental management lies in their guarantee of a specific level of service and hospitality. This culture is a ‘stamp of excellence’ that differentiates Casago from any other property management firm.
About this same time Carlos attended VMRA to showcase his software. What he learned was vacation home property managers needed a software similar to his ResortPro but they weren’t interested in a ‘resort-based’ software. He decided to expand his product offering to a more complete product to include resort property management and home property management. This product became known as StreamlineVRS.
Working with Casago to develop and fine-tune the new product that would eventually benefit them tremendously took time. The needs of Casago also met or exceeded the needs of others in the industry – and StreamlineVRS became a software leader in the vacation resort and vacation home property management market.
Carlos, the developer of StreamlineVRS software, sums up his interaction with Steve and Casago this way, “Whether it is meticulous training, unwavering dedication to process improvement, or a relentless focus on the guest experience, Steve’s influence helps shape a more reliable, rewarding, and trustworthy vacation rental industry. In doing so, he catalyzes a positive ripple effect—empowering staff members to build their own legacies, instilling confidence in property owners, and ensuring that guests have stress-free, memorable stays.”
Steve, Founder and CEO of Casago, commented he sees Carlos as a hero of Casago because of the depth of development in first ResortPro and now Streamline that allows Casago to deliver on their vision and mission.
Interesting fact:
Casago is still using StreamlineVRS software today, years after implementing the first version of ResortPro.
Keep reading: History of Casago Part II: Growth
