POSITION SUMMARY:The General Manager - Homes by Villatel is the senior operational leader for Villatel's Davenport-based portfolio of 110 luxury vacation rental homes, with full ownership of daily operations, site performance, and team leadership. This role directs all back-of-house functions - Maintenance, Housekeeping, Guest Experience, and Dispatch - while coordinating with shared services including Purchasing, Human Resources, and Accounting. The General Manager is accountable for financial performance, operational standards, and the guest-ready condition of every home in the portfolio, and serves as a polished, owner-facing representative of the Homes by Villatel brand. The General Manager leads through an established on-site leadership team - including operations, maintenance, guest experience, and dispatch leadership - and is responsible for developing that team. This is a growth-mandate position: under the direction of the Head of Operations, the General Manager will lead the operational scaling required to support significant growth to the portfolio within the first year - ensuring every newly signed home is staffed, provisioned, and guest-ready at activation. This is a high-accountability role requiring exceptional financial acumen, time management, prioritization, and the executive maturity to represent the company credibly to homeowners.
JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:Site Leadership & Daily Operations - Site Ownership: Own the daily operation of the Davenport portfolio end to end, leading through the site's operations, maintenance, guest experience, and dispatch leadership. Every operational decision, outcome, and standard at the site is ultimately the General Manager's responsibility.
- Operational Standards: Ensure every home meets Homes by Villatel's guest-ready standards at all times, holding department leaders accountable for inspection quality, turn execution, and ticket resolution timelines.
- Reputation & Review Performance: Take an active role in guest review scores, review response management, and service recovery, owning the site's outward-facing service performance.
- Preventative Maintenance & Asset Preservation: Work side by side with the Maintenance Manager to build and mature the preventative maintenance program, protecting the long-term condition of every home and coordinating capital and refresh needs with Asset Management.
- Policy & Process Development: Own the development, enforcement, and continuous improvement of site-level policies and SOPs; new policies and material policy changes are presented to the Head of Operations for review prior to implementation.
- Reporting & Systems Discipline: Own the accuracy and completeness of daily operational reporting, and ensure the site runs fully on its systems - accurate work order management, clean data, and complete technology adoption across all departments.
Team Leadership & Development - Departmental Oversight: Directly lead the Maintenance, Housekeeping, Guest Experience, and Dispatch functions, setting priorities, removing obstacles, and driving accountability at the manager and lead level.
- Performance Management: Coach, develop, and formally manage the performance of department leaders; identify capability gaps early and address them through structured feedback and documentation in partnership with Human Resources.
- Culture & Standards: Model ownership, urgency, and hands on problem-solving; build a leadership team that operates proactively rather than reactively. This role is not a desk job.
- Engagement & Talent Pipeline: Drive team engagement, recognition, and retention across the site
Financial Management & Accountability - P&L Accountability: Own the site's operating financial performance, including labor, overtime, supplies, and vendor spend; interpret monthly financials, explain variances, and present corrective action plans to executive leadership.
- Labor Management: Manage scheduling and overtime within established guardrails; analyze labor efficiency and adjust deployment as occupancy and portfolio size change.
- Purchasing Discipline: Coordinate with the Purchasing function to ensure accurate, timely, and cost-controlled procurement across all departments.
Owner Relations - Owner-Facing Representation: Serve as the senior on-site point of contact for homeowners, communicating with the professionalism, financial fluency, and business maturity expected of an executive-level operator.
- Portfolio Performance Conversations: Speak credibly to home condition, maintenance investment, operational activity, and service standards in owner interactions; resolve owner concerns promptly and completely.
- Community & HOA Relations: Own local relationships with HOAs and community management within the portfolio's communities, representing Homes by Villatel's interests and resolving community-level matters directly.
Portfolio Growth & Unit Onboarding - Operational Readiness: Under the direction of the Head of Operations, own the operational activation of newly signed homes - ensuring each unit is staffed, provisioned, inspected, and guest-ready on schedule.
- Scalable Infrastructure: Build staffing plans, vendor capacity, and operating processes that scale ahead of growth, supporting the doubling of the portfolio within the first year without degradation of standards.
- Onboarding Execution: Coordinate cross-functionally with Purchasing, IT, and shared services to bring new homes online, including systems setup, preventative maintenance baselines, and housekeeping program integration.
Vendor & Shared Services Coordination - Vendor Accountability: Hold third-party partners - including housekeeping and specialty trade vendors - accountable to contracted scope, quality, and cost; escalate and resolve performance issues directly.
- Market & Benchmark Intelligence: Maintain a working understanding of the local vendor market and benchmark costing across contracted services, and use that intelligence to drive renegotiation and replacement decisions.
- Shared Services Partnership: Operate as an effective partner to Purchasing, Human Resources, and Accounting, ensuring site needs are communicated early, accurately, and with complete supporting detail.
QUALIFICATIONS: - A minimum of 10 years of progressive hospitality operations leadership, including at least 5 years at the Assistant General Manager, General Manager, or multi-department leadership level.
- Background in luxury short-term rental / vacation rental operations, or independent or branded hotels and resorts, is required. Candidates must demonstrate a guest-experience orientation consistent with high-end hospitality.
- Demonstrated financial acumen, including P&L ownership, labor cost management, budgeting, and variance analysis.
- Proven executive presence and communication skills appropriate for direct, owner-facing interaction with high-net-worth homeowners.
- Exceptional time management and prioritization across competing operational demands in a fast-paced, growth-stage environment.
- Proficiency with property management and work order systems (Breezeway, TrackHS, or comparable); experience with NetSuite and Power BI is a plus.
- Bilingual (English/Spanish) is a plus.
- Bachelor's degree in Hospitality Management, Business, or a related field preferred; equivalent experience considered.
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: - This role is expected to perform the functions of the position with or without accommodation.
- This is an active, on-site leadership role requiring regular presence in the field, including walking residential communities, climbing stairs, and inspecting homes in varying conditions.
- Ability to work in varying environments including offices, back-of-house areas, and active residential sites.
- Must have a valid driver's license and the ability to travel between local sites as needed.
