Evolve: Building Hospitality one home at a time

https://www.rentresponsibly.org/enhance-guest-experience-at-your-short-term-rental-support-local-business/Over the past 10 years, the employees at Evolve, a vacation rental management company headquartered in Denver, Colorado, cultivated a company culture and values that focused on extending hospitality to customers as well as the community at large.

In July 2021, Evolve started a corporate philanthropy program called Building Hospitality that brought those values to life across the United States by helping people in need feel comfortable, safe, and welcome within their communities.

A partnership between Evolve and Rebuilding Together

Evolve’s first Building Hospitality partnership is with Rebuilding Together, a national nonprofit organization with 120 affiliates in different parts of the country.

Through the partnership, Evolve supports projects that make essential repairs to the homes of older adults, people with disabilities, veterans, and low-income homeowners who cannot afford or are physically unable to maintain their homes. The support comes in the form of both financial contributions and volunteer hours by Evolve employees.

Evolve gives 1 percent of the proceeds of each vacation rental booking to the Building Hospitality program. So far, the company has donated $650,000 to improve the safety and health of homes through essential home repairs and modifications in underserved communities.

“Housing ties deeply to Evolve’s vision, as we were founded under the belief that people deserve safe and comfortable accommodations – whether that be on vacation or at home,” said Maureen Hergenroether, Evolve’s director of social responsibility. “This program is also a natural expansion of our everyday focus on hospitality – for more than a decade, we’ve helped our guests have memorable experiences in homes they love. Now we’re able to extend our spirit of hospitality to the people who need it most.”

She said that improving the safety of homes by providing essential repairs and modifications in underserved communities also helps preserve the existing affordable housing landscape across the country.

Making a difference in the lives of underserved homeowners

Evolve employees have donated about 420 hours of their time to essential home repair, modification, and maintenance projects for their neighbors in need.

Alfreida, who did not give her last name in a testimonial video about Building Hospitality, was one of the neighbors who benefitted from the program. She struggles with mobility and vision problems. Rebuilding Together and Evolve built a ramp with handrails to her front door, enabling her to safely leave her home.

Before the ramp was installed, Afreida said she was unable to go anywhere because she was afraid of falling.

“Rebuilding Together and Evolve put the ramp in. It’s wide so we can get up and down it a lot easier, and it has traction which is really good, and it has rails which is helpful if I fall because if I fall down, I’m down. I can’t get back up unless I have something to grip onto,” she said.

“All of these people I don’t know are coming to help, and I appreciate it. I really do.”

Alison Meadows, Evolve’s chief people officer, said one thing she’s noticed since employees started volunteering for Building Hospitality is how the program has helped to reinforce the company’s culture.

“One thing that has shown up in their participation are some of our values,” she said. “The most front and center one for me is care, and we hear from our teammates that it’s part of giving back outside of Evolve that also makes them connect within Evolve, and that’s what really strengthens the culture over time.”

Guests who book a home with Evolve also can feel good that they are helping someone less fortunate stay in their home thanks to these vital repairs and maintenance projects, Hergenroether said.

How Building Hospitality projects are selected

Rebuilding Together connects Evolve with homeowners in need by conducting local outreach and communicating with community groups. Together they select specific homeowners who meet Rebuilding Together’s criteria, including individuals who can’t afford home repairs or aren’t physically able to complete the repairs themselves.

Evolve typically chooses projects that are located in areas where there is a high concentration of teammates who are interested in volunteering, where there has been a recent natural disaster leaving more homeowners in need, or where the national Rebuilding Together has identified as an area where Evolve’s donations could make an especially large impact.

Delores Miller, a single mother in Charlotte, North Carolina, said her home was in such a state of disrepair that she never believed all the projects would ever get done. Rebuilding Together and Evolve came in and made significant repairs and improvements that made her home safer and more comfortable.

“I try to hold back the tears,” she said. “It just felt like somebody who cared all of a sudden just dropped from the sky. Somebody actually cared about the issues that were going on in this house. They just came in, saw everything that needed to be done, and they did it.

“When I walk in, I am just so excited. I cannot believe the work that they’ve done.”

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