Meet Cathie Harrison, owner of My Galveston Getaway. What started as a personal investment in 2004 has grown into a thriving vacation rental business with 80 properties across Galveston Island. With a background in logistics and a love for the island she now calls home, Cathie has built a company focused on strong partnerships, exceptional service, and creating memorable guest experiences.
Can you tell us a little bit about your history?
Born in Corpus Christi, Texas, my family was a bunch of vagabonds. To know I moved from Texas (two houses) to Puerto Rico (when I was 3, where I lived in two houses) to Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Pittsburgh, PA, then Chicago, then Pittsburgh, then Chicago, then Houston and finally Galveston, one would think we were military, but alas not the case. My father was a forensic accountant whose employer would relocate the family when new facilities were built to train others in their accounting practices.
My educational background is in Logistics Management. I worked in that field for a while in household goods transportation, mainly in the corporate realm. In 2004, I purchased my first Galveston property. My dream was to be there every weekend, but being the mom of athletes who competed every weekend, it became an investment property, and the bug had bitten and infected me. When my kids were in high school, I became a stay-at-home mom by choice. I purchased property number two a couple of weeks before a significant hurricane hit Galveston, Texas (Ike), and due to its location, it had power restored quickly, and though the paperwork had not hit the county records yet, I was getting multiple phone calls daily from contractors wanting to rent it long-term during the restoration process. I have never spent a single night in that second condo.In 2010, when my youngest was a college senior, I started managing my properties after trying several property managers in Galveston who I didn’t think were treating me, my property, or my guests as they should. A few other owners asked me to manage theirs as well. I learned, however, that in Texas, managing a property owned by someone else for 30 days or longer requires a real estate license. I also learned that beginning January 1, 2011, the regulations for obtaining a real estate license were changing, and your 4-year college degree would not count for some of the credits. I apologized to the owners I was working with, and instead of saying ok, we’ll find someone else they said, "Well, what will it take to get your license?"
So, in October, I enrolled in the real estate courses, studied, and in December, I earned my real estate license. My Galveston Getaway was born with a $3,000 personal investment and eight properties. It has grown 100% organically to 80 properties, a fantastic team in the office, and amazing partner/vendors in housekeeping, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and handymen. One of the bedrocks of the company is that if we have an invoice on a Thursday, you get paid on Friday. That and true partnerships have earned us the “most favored customer” status to the point that if we have a need at 10:00 pm on a holiday weekend, our partners will take our phone calls.
Initially, we had individual calendars for each property that would toggle back and forth between Airbnb and Vrbo. We just hoped that we didn’t get double bookings. After about 20 properties, we realized that a PMS was needed. We worked with one that worked well for that initial number of properties, but customer service was not their strong suit, and technology was not mine. We then went on a seemingly exhaustive search for a new provider and found OwnerRez to be the most user-friendly and understanding of my personal technological challenges.
Not only is OwnerRez our PMS, but they also designed our new website and made tremendous recommendations for verbiage, photography, and so much more. We continue to be solicited by PMS companies, and while we are thrilled with OwnerRez (and still tired from the transition), not a single one has offered the personal attention we continue to receive from OwnerRez. Jen specifically is absolutely amazing. She seemingly never tires of me asking the same questions over and over, though I wouldn’t blame her for rolling her eyes when she is not on screen in a video call, walking me through something for the umpteenth time.
Are you from the geographical area where your properties are located, or did you move there later?
While I’m not “originally” from Galveston, I have said my whole life it is where my heart sings. My mom was raised here, my maternal grandmother lived here, and I spent a lot of summers on the island. One of my happy places is the free ferry from Galveston to Port Bolivar, where I can see dolphins and feed seagulls from the rear of the boat that moves people and cars from the island to the peninsula. I love it so much that my Lamaze tapes (and yes, I’m old enough that they were tapes) were called “seagulls over the ferry”. I moved to Galveston permanently in 2011 and haven’t looked back; working my tailfeathers off and loving the fact that I get to help others with their travel plans and make them happy on “my island” as well as assisting property owners with their investment goals, some of whom are great friends now.
What do you like and dislike about the vacation rental business?
Ironically, what I love most about the industry is sometimes what I dislike as well. Learning that you cannot make everyone happy no matter how hard you try, that the customer is not always right, and that there is such a thing as “bad business” has been learned from the school of hard knocks in this business. I have found it tremendously freeing to be able to pick and choose who my property owner clients are and to terminate such relationships when they are no longer fitting with the company philosophy.
When I started, all properties were "good properties." Have we been fired by clients? Absolutely, we have. Perhaps one of our most significant accomplishments is that 80% of those who once thought the grass was greener on the other side of the fence have returned to be our clients again. I remember a call one afternoon from one such owner, “Would you take us back?” I’ve not always said yes, whether it had been a personality issue or it was a property that didn’t fit quite right in our portfolio, but just being asked is a tremendous accomplishment.
The other thing I don’t always find to be the most fun is governmental involvement. I fully recognize that this is an island where many people call home, and many of those don’t want to see it as the tourism industry that it is, regardless of how the impacts of that tourism industry help keep their tax bills lower or assist with obtaining things like governmental grants for island improvements. Tourism is either the #1 or #2 industry on the island; it changes occasionally. Without it, I cannot imagine where the City of Galveston would be financially. But the ever-changing landscape of who is responsible for the hotel occupancy taxes and how those funds are spent, community involvement from folks who don’t see themselves as impacted by the industry, and things of that nature can be frustrating.
Dealing with the Federal Government when it comes to insurance regulations and windstorm requirements from a construction standpoint are struggles as well. If I could just make people happy 24/7 through our business without having to deal with beurocracy and paperwork it would be nirvana.
How do you use OwnerRez to manage your business?
OwnerRez has been a godsend to us. They are a wealth of knowledge and information about not just what they do, but the industry as a whole, and have made recommendations that have nothing to do with them, from dynamic pricing solutions to vendors who are available to all OwnerRez customers. I am convinced that we made the right decision when we selected them as our PMS and look forward to a longstanding relationship with them.
Rooted in strong partnerships, exceptional service, and a love for Galveston, Cathie has built My Galveston Getaway into a thriving vacation rental business. With OwnerRez supporting her operations, we can’t wait to watch her company continue to grow while making a positive impact on both guests and the local community.
