About
The people behind the standard
The Guest Before The Rest is written by Valerie Balderson and Greg Hoover, Canadian hosts based in Ontario who manage short-term rentals and built the hospitality standard the book teaches out of the turnovers, arrivals and guest conversations of their own properties. The standard travels: it applies to short-term rentals in any market.
Built in real rentals, not theory
The properties behind the standard
This is not a course built from theory. These are the properties where the 100-point turnover sequence was developed and tested over seventeen years.
Mesa
The two-bedroom near Westboro where the arrival rhythm was first refined.
Holland
The Wellington Village two-bedroom that shaped the bedroom and bathroom standard.
Parkdale One
The renovated wartime home that tested the fit-up and supply system.
Parkdale Two
The one-bedroom where the turnover sequence was tightened for speed without shortcuts.
Co-Habit
Four guest rooms under one roof, the stay that proved the standard works at any scale.
Valerie Balderson
Valerie's work centres on the guest's experience of a home: the first ten minutes at the door, the quality of a bed, the details that make a stay feel considered rather than merely clean. She writes the standards in the book from the guest's side of the threshold.
Greg Hoover
Greg's focus is the operation that keeps those standards repeatable: turnover routines, restocking systems, maintenance rhythm and the communication that keeps guests confident from booking through checkout.
Why we wrote the book
After 17 years of running short and mid term rentals, we had accumulated a great deal of knowledge about what makes a stay work well. Much of it had become second nature to us, from how we prepare a property to the details we consider before every guest arrives.
The Guest Before the Rest is our way of putting that experience in one place and sharing what we have learned with other hosts and property owners.
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