What happens before you arrive

Property management sounds like administration. In Cape Coral, it means welcoming guests, keeping the pool warm, documenting scratches, finding clear words in the event of damage. Two women set the standard by which DARIA is measured. We spoke to them about what starts behind the front door.

It's evening in Cape Coral. A car rolls into the driveway in front of a DARIA villa. Anja Behrendt is already standing in the open doorway. She welcomes the guests, shows them around the house and explains everything they need to know. Where the WLAN password is. How to heat the pool. She is not the receptionist of a hotel. She is the person who knows this house because she has been preparing it since the last guests left: clean, checked, ready.

Anja has been working for DARIA since January 2025. Just like Simone. Together they run the property management of the villas in Cape Coral. Two women, one LLC, one clear mission: the houses remain as they were the day they were handed over.

 Two profiles, one task

Anja Behrendt is in her mid-forties and the mother of two children. She has lived in Florida for eight years. She has known Frank Rahlf and Patrick Lauber for three years. They were guests in the homes of her old company. „Frank kept trying to poach me,“ she says. „Last year it worked out.“

Simone is also the same age, has a ten-year-old son and has lived in the USA for almost twenty years. She came to DARIA in a similar way to Anja. Both have years of property management experience. Both have seen what makes the industry tick. And both decided that they didn't want that anymore.

What property management means at DARIA

When you book a house through DARIA, you see the pool, the kitchen and the jetty. They don't see what happens in front of it. Anja and Simone do. Their day starts at the desk: checking emails, booking requests, messages from the houses, preparing arrivals for the next few days. Then they head out.

„We check the houses,“ says Simone. „We check whether the landscaping company is doing the job properly or whether the pool service was there. We take care of everything right down to the extra requests that the guests tell us in advance.“

There is a checklist for every step. One before the guests arrive. One after they have left. One for empty houses. What sounds like bureaucracy is insurance. If there is a scratch on the worktop after the stay, Anja knows whether it was there before or not. She knows because she has documented it. And she is the one who talks to the guest when in doubt.

„One of the biggest challenges is when there has been damage. Keeping a record of the whole thing and maintaining constructive communication with customers,“ says Simone. „That's always a bit tricky, because obviously nobody did it. And of course it still has to be repaired and paid for.“ Anja adds: „You also have to be fair. Careful on the one hand, but firm on the other.“

Cut the corners

One word appears twice in the conversation: Cut the corners. Skip steps to make it faster. Leaving something out to make it cheaper. Anyone who has worked in property management will be familiar with this. „At other companies, things are often left under the table,“ says Anja. „Or money always plays a role. It's different here.“

Instead, she formulates what applies at DARIA in one sentence: „Everything has to be perfect. No matter what it costs, no matter how.“ Simone nods: „DARIA doesn't cut corners at all. This keeps the quality very high.“

That's not just window dressing. It's the answer to a question that every service business starts with: What is important enough to you not to skimp on? At DARIA, the answer is: the in-house standard. If a detail is not right, it is sorted out before the guest notices.

The secret behind the door

We asked Anja what it takes to make a guest feel really comfortable. Her answer came without pause. „Cleanliness. That's the be-all and end-all for all guests, the top priority. If the house isn't clean, the whole vacation is over.“ Then the Wi-Fi, she says, „unfortunately very necessary these days“. And the pool. Clean. Heatable. „I would say those are the top three.“

It sounds simple. From a German perspective, it's not. Anyone who has to ensure from 6,000 kilometers away that the cleaner arrives on Thursday morning, the pool tech on Wednesday and the air conditioning technician on Friday knows what lies behind the word simple stands.

Freedom as a working principle

Both talk about something that was missing in their previous jobs. They call it freedom. „If we have an idea or say we need this or that, then we can just do it,“ says Anja. „That wasn't possible before.“ At DARIA, creative solutions that add value are always welcome. 

Property management is organized as a separate LLC. The team behind this standard grows with each new house.

atWhat comes next

The next layer of service is already under construction. Concierge services, tickets for the arena, birthday organization, restaurant recommendations. Members can already request many of these services today, and many are currently being incorporated into a dedicated app. Anja: „The members who come to us can contact us in advance. They say: It's our birthday next week, we need something else. Then we organize everything for it.“

Brochures and flyers are available on site for guests as soon as they arrive. The app should make it possible to book things that would otherwise only be possible via email: tickets for the arena, birthday organization, special requests of all kinds. „DARIA is currently working intensively on this,“ says Anja.

USA and Europe, the difference in everyday life

Both have lived in the USA for long enough to be able to see the difference to Europe not in clichés, but in observations. „Europe is very rigid,“ says Anja. „It's not that we don't have a hierarchy here. But it's always on a friendly, communicative and personal level.“ Simone adds: „It's not harder, it's not easier, it's just different to work here.“

What is missing here are the fixed office hours from eight to five, the completely free weekend. „Apart from Thanksgiving and Christmas,“ says Simone, „you can actually always work here.“ You can also go home an hour earlier. „One thing leads to another,“ adds Anja. „It's not so clearly separated.“

That's why it's important that the work makes sense. Anja puts it like this: „If you have a job that you do because you have to, then it's very difficult.“

When the guests come in

At the end of the conversation, Anja returns to the moment that obviously means a lot to her. It is the moment when the guests open a door that she has previously checked. „It's always nice to see when the guests come into the houses. They open the door and are so happy and so excited. It's so nice to see.“

Anyone who knows the houses of Cape Coral will understand why. Natural stone, wood, glass, a pool that is open to the canal, a jetty on the water, behind which the sun slowly moves lower. But it's not the material that makes the guests beam. It's the impression that someone has taken care of it. The towel is in the right place. The pool is warm. The air conditioning is running. It fits.

Property management at DARIA is exactly that. Not a promise at reception, but a condition in the building. Anja and Simone keep it. Day after day.