Six friends, one cabin dream

In two thousand sixteen, six college friends decided to invest in real estate together. One cofounder already owned condos in downtown Quebec City and pitched the idea of building and managing their own cabin.

First cabin launched in 2019

They launched their first cabin together in two thousand nineteen, then their second in two thousand twenty, right in the middle of COVID. By two thousand twenty-two, they owned and managed four different units.

A neighbor's request changes everything

Their neighbor saw the cabins were rented almost the whole year and asked if they could manage his property.They said no at first, but he kept asking.

Ten properties by 2022

By two thousand twenty-two, they had ten properties under management. The six cofounders realized they had to decide: make this a serious, legitimate business or stop, because there was no in-between.

“Either we'll make this a serious, legitimate business, or we stop, because there's no in-between.”

Chaletô incorporated in 2022

In two thousand twenty-two, they incorporated Chaletô, a short-term rental property management company based in Quebec, Canada. They decided to go all-in and scale the business professionally.

Five hundred properties in four years

Chaletô grew from ten to five hundred-plus units in four years. Samuel Sévigny, thirty-two, is the cofounder and marketing director who led this expansion from a side project to a full-time operation.

Scale brings optimization gains

The biggest difference between an individual host and a property management company is optimization at scale. Professional management allows better negotiation with cleaners, unified tech stacks, and hiring specialized staff like revenue managers.

Sévigny lived the individual host struggle

Sévigny worked in advertising in Montreal while managing Airbnb hosting on the side. He handled guest messaging on nights and weekends for several years, understanding the dilemma of balancing a full-time job with hosting.

Staying focused beats chasing trends

When scaling, it is easy to get distracted by new opportunities. Sévigny says the company resists jumping into real estate investing or rushing to implement unproven AI tools, preferring to focus on service quality and…

“Our business works best when we're not distracted by the latest trends.”

AI maturity remains uncertain

Sévigny faces a constant challenge: deciding when AI tools are mature enough to implement versus when they are just shiny objects.

Hiring local keeps service strong

Chaletô prefers to hire people from Quebec who speak French first and English second. They understand the local market and region, allowing them to support any customer service issue with deep knowledge of the area…