For new Coral Compass owners

From signed to first guest, charted.

Coral Compass is an open-book short-term rental manager on the Grand Strand, licensed in South Carolina. We're new, founder-run, and building toward one thing: being the management company this coast measures the rest against, one door at a time.

You've just received our management agreement, and the natural next question is "okay, what actually happens now?" This page is the answer, and because open-book is how we work, the claims below cite the clause in your agreement that backs them.

See the course
The course

Five waypoints from signature to go-live

Tap any waypoint to see exactly what we handle and what we'll need from you. The small tags, like §8.4, point to the section of your agreement that backs each promise.

What we do

  • Countersign and open your property file.
  • Send your onboarding form within the first week, typically days 3 to 7 after signing. It comes after the agreement, not with it.
  • Service the reservations you already have wherever they're viable, and absorb the shortfall where one was booked with a lower cleaning fee than our published fee.§2.5

What you do

  • Sign and return the agreement. Electronic signature is fine.§16
  • Send us any bookings already on your calendar within five business days of signing. We'll give you a fillable form for it, same as every other step here. Anything we take over gets managed like a normal reservation. Anything you'd rather finish servicing yourself, we block, and it costs you nothing.§2.5
  • Complete the onboarding form when it arrives: access details, house quirks, HOA or condo rules, and any cameras or monitoring devices.§6.1

Nothing here is a memory test. The onboarding form walks you through every question, one at a time.

What we do

  • Walk the property before we set anything in stone.§8.4
  • Do it in person, every room. That part is just how we work.
  • Run the inventory audit against our Inventory Audit Checklist. You receive your own copy at onboarding.Exh. B
  • Confirm the home meets our standards before any guest stays.§6.4
  • Set the published turnover fee at or below the market cost of a comparable turnover, with a documented comparison you can request any time.§8.4

What you do

  • Hand over access: keys, codes, WiFi details, manuals.§6.1
  • Clear any items we flag before go-live.§6.4
  • Set your repair approval limit in the onboarding form. Leave it blank and it defaults to $500 per work order. Nothing above your limit gets approved without you.§7.1

What we do

  • Coordinate photography, then build and publish your listings across booking channels.§2.2
  • Write the listing copy and choose the photos, and stay responsible for the accuracy of what we write.§6.3
  • Run dynamic nightly pricing, tuned channel by channel. The pricing tools are ours and are never billed to you.§2.4, Exh. C
  • Tell you your published turnover fee before we accept a single reservation, and keep it visible on your listing.§8.4

What you do

  • Confirm the property details you gave us are accurate: amenities, views, access, occupancy, and community features.§6.3
  • Going forward, tell us within ten business days if anything about the home or its surroundings changes.§6.3

What we do

  • Configure your listings so the right lodging taxes are collected on rent and guest-paid fees.§10.1
  • File and remit those taxes for you only if you opt in and sign the Tax Compliance Services Addendum. Without it, filing stays yours. We'll tell you which it is before go-live rather than letting you assume.§10.1, Exh. B
  • Coordinate licenses and permits as a pass-through, at cost, with no markup.§10.2
  • Hold your funds in a South Carolina trust account, as the law requires.§9.1

What you do

  • Get a short-term rental policy in place before the first guest, at least $1M in liability, with Coral Compass named on it. Send us the certificate and we'll tell your agent exactly what wording we need. Already have bookings on the calendar? You have 90 days.§11.1
  • Sign the tax authorizations, but only if you opted into having us file.§10.1
  • Keep the property's required licenses and permits current. We'll coordinate, and the accounts stay yours.§10.2

What we do

  • Give the home its final standards check.§6.4
  • Open the calendar and start welcoming reservations.
  • Handle every turnover through our own crew, funded by the guest-paid turnover fee, never by you.§8.4
  • From here, handle all guest, cleaner, and vendor communication so you don't have to.§6.5

What you do

  • Watch the first booking land. That's genuinely it.
The open-book promise

You will never see a cleaning, restocking, or linen charge on a guest stay.

Guests fund turnovers. One guest-paid fee covers the crew, the supplies, restocking to par, and the linen program: sheets, towels, laundering, and replacement. Every charge you can see is listed in Exhibit C. The only turnover you ever fund is your own. §8.4, Exh. C

Two honest edges. Because we fund the linens, they stay ours: at the end of the term we give 30 days' notice before removing them, and you get first option to buy the set at book value. And mattresses, pillows, and their protectors are your furnishings rather than linen, replaced at cost with no markup when they wear out. §3.6, Exh. B

Priced like a local

Your year on the Grand Strand

We won't promise revenue numbers, and we'd side-eye anyone who does. What we can show you is the rhythm this coast actually earns on, and how we price into every peak. §5, §2.2

Relative guest demand by month on the Grand Strand JanFebMar AprMayJun JulAugSep OctNovDec
January to February

Snowbird winter

Monthly stays at winter rates beat empty nights. We'll build the strategy with you.

March

Can-Am Days

Canadian snowbirds return every spring. Weekly stays, booked early, priced steady.

March to May

Spring golf

Golf groups fill the midweek nights beach crowds skip. We price Sunday to Thursday like locals do.

April

SOS Spring Safari

Shag dancers take over North Myrtle for ten days, and north end calendars feel it first.

Mid May

Spring Bike Rally

Rates climb, minimum stays tighten, and we screen harder that week.

June

CCMF

Four days downtown that price like New Year's Eve. Close-in homes can triple.

June to August

Summer peak

The main event: family weeks, Saturday turns, and the rates that carry your year.

Late September

Fall Bike Rally

The second rally of the year. Same playbook as May.

September to November

Fall golf

The quiet money season. Golfers keep shoulder nights earning long after the beach empties.

Swipe for the full year

Before the first guest

What onboarding actually costs

Exact amounts vary by property and jurisdiction, and we confirm every one of them with you before it's incurred.

Most of what you'll spend on this property happens before a single guest arrives, almost none of it is paid to us, and nearly all of it is one-time or annual rather than monthly.

Paid to us

One fee, and we price it under cost

$300, once, due at signing. Same number as Exhibit B, and the only thing you pay us during onboarding.

It buys the full build: listings on every channel, dynamic pricing tuned to your street, lock and access automation, guest messaging end to end, your custom digital guestbook, turnover workflows, and the compliance wiring that lets a guest legally book. §8.2, Exh. C

That fee doesn't cover what the work costs us, and it isn't meant to. A home set up right earns for years, so we'd rather carry the setup than rush it.

Waivers exist for one situation: absorbing an existing portfolio, where a per-property fee becomes friction on a bulk transition. Outside that, the fee stands. §8.2, Exh. C

Paid to others, at cost

Passed through with no markup

These go to the city, the county, your insurer, or a vendor. We coordinate them; we don't profit from them.

  • STR permit and business licenseSet by your jurisdiction. We confirm exactly what applies during onboarding. §10.2, Exh. C
  • InsuranceYour own short-term rental liability policy. We'll help your agent get the wording right. §11.1
  • Professional photographyWe coordinate it, the photographer bills their rate. Exh. C
  • Smart lock and safety itemsDetectors, extinguisher, lock hardware. Yours to own, flagged in the inventory audit. Exh. C
  • Bedding hardware, only if flaggedMattresses, pillows, and their protectors, replaced at cost when worn. Exh. B, Exh. C
Only if you opt in

Two optional extras, if you want them

Neither is included, neither is automatic, and we make nothing on either one. You pay the provider, we just set it up. Plenty of owners skip both.

  • Tax compliance serviceIf you'd rather not handle lodging tax filings yourself, we'll collect and remit on your behalf. You pay the filing software directly at its published rate, we add nothing, and the registrations stay in your name. Skip it and the filings simply stay yours. §10.1, §10.2, Exh. C
  • Supplemental guest liabilityOptional injury protection on covered stays, priced by the provider per booked night and quoted to you before you enroll, passed through at their rate with no Coral Compass margin. Most owners already carry this through their own policy and skip it. It never replaces the insurance your agreement requires. §8.8, §11.1, Exh. C

Two things sound alike and aren't.

If a guest damages your home: that's Guest Damage Protection. It runs on every property we manage, it's funded by the guest, and you are never billed for it or asked to enroll. It's already on. §8.9

If someone is injured during a stay: that's supplemental guest liability, the optional one above. Different risk, different product, and the only one of the two you'd ever pay for. §8.8

Never billed to you

Ours to carry, permanently

Not discounted, not introductory. These never appear on a statement.

  • Cleaning, restocking, linensFunded by the guest-paid turnover fee. §8.4, Exh. C
  • Guest Damage Protection, on every propertyCoverage against guest-caused damage to your home and its contents on eligible stays, funded by the guest, first in line when something breaks. Nothing to enroll in, ever. §8.9, §11.4
  • Card and ACH fees on anything we invoice youIf we ever invoice you directly, pay by card or bank and we absorb the processing fee. §7.5
  • The entire software stackManagement platform, pricing, accounting, payouts, smart lock management, digital guestbooks, guest messaging, turnover scheduling. Exh. C
Steady on

Life after go-live

By month three, this is boring in the way you want your largest investment to be boring. Money lands on the 10th, the portal is there whenever you're curious, and your phone stays quiet.

Every month

Statement and payout by the 10th

Your statement and payout land by the 10th, or the next business day, covering the prior month's completed stays once platform funds arrive. §5, Exh. B

Any time

Your owner portal

A live view of your property's income, expenses, and current turnover fee. Monthly statements remain the formal record. §5

Every stay

Your guests, handled

Every inquiry, review, and 2am lockout comes to us, never you. Your custom digital guestbook hands guests the door code, the WiFi, and our local picks before they think to ask. §6.5, Exh. C

Between stays

Quality checks

We check the home's condition on a rhythm, not just when something's reported. Standards don't hold themselves. §5

Twice a year, capped

Turnover fee, kept honest

The guest-paid turnover fee is reviewed against market cost at most twice a year, on 30 days' notice, and confirmed reservations keep the fee they booked at. If we revise it and you object, you can walk with no termination fee. §8.5

It's still your home

Your own stays

Block up to 28 nights a year with 7 days' notice around confirmed bookings, and ask us for more, we can't unreasonably say no to open dates. After your stay, the same published turnover fee a guest pays shows on your statement. Same crew, same standard. §12, Exh. C

One coast, on purpose

The chart of the Strand

We manage Myrtle Beach and nothing else. No national playbook, no other markets, no split attention. Tap a marker to see how we position homes on each stretch.

The Grand Strand, charted ATLANTIC OCEAN N Cherry Grove North Myrtle Beach Shore Drive Myrtle Beach Surfside Beach Murrells Inlet 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 · Cherry Grove

Family repeaters and channel front canals. These guests rebook the same week six months out, so we price early and guard the calendar.

2 · North Myrtle Beach

Main Street shag culture, SOS twice a year, golf groups midweek. Walkability sells here, and our listings lead with it.

3 · Shore Drive and Arcadian

Quiet beach, condo towers, loyal returners. Reviews compound fast on this stretch, and we work every one.

4 · Myrtle Beach

The SkyWheel, the Boardwalk, CCMF ground zero. The biggest event upside on the Strand, priced night by night.

5 · Surfside and Market Common

The family beach. Longer stays, dinner and playground guests, and the steadiest shoulder seasons on the coast.

6 · Garden City and Murrells Inlet

MarshWalk dinners, creek fishing, inlet sunsets. Guests come for the water, so that's what we sell.

Small by design

Who you're working with

Coral Compass is new, founder-run, and hungry to be the management company this coast measures the rest against. Right now, every door gets the three of us.

EM

Ethan Martinsen

Founder · Property Manager in Charge

Builds every system, playbook, and automation in the operation, and owns the owner relationship personally. When you call, you get the person who built the thing.

S

Sara

Bookkeeping and property systems

Runs the books and the property management system behind your daily operations: reservations, calendars, guest messaging, statements.

R

Roca

Field operations

Leads the crew on the ground: turnovers, vendor coordination, inventory, and the linen program, held to the standard your reviews depend on.

In writing, not in spirit

How we keep ourselves honest

These aren't policies we could quietly soften. They're clauses in the agreement you're holding.

§3.3

60-day no-fee exit

Either of us can end the agreement in the first 60 days by written notice, no termination fee. If it's not working, you're not trapped.

§9.5

Annual audit right

Once a year, inspect the books for your property: reservations, payouts, turnovers, expenses. If the numbers are off, the inspection flips to our cost and we pay the difference fast. Open-book means checkable.

§8.7

Our fee follows your money

If a guest is refunded or a charge is reversed, even after you've been paid, we credit our fee back on that amount. We don't keep a fee on money you didn't.

§3.6

Your data leaves with you

If we ever part ways, your calendar, reservations, and guest history arrive in a usable format within 30 days, and the photos you paid for stay yours. §13.2

What your guests get

Your home, in their pocket

Every home gets a custom digital guestbook, built during onboarding and included in your setup fee. Swipe the sample. Exh. C

Managed by Coral Compass
Welcome home

Sea Glass Cottage

North Myrtle Beach · 3 Bedrooms · Oceanfront
WiFi Rules Contact Checkout

Door codes, WiFi, and house answers, one tap from the confirmation text. Nothing to download.

Your guide
Everything you need
House rulesA few kind requests
Getting around the houseTV, thermostat, breakers
Beach infoFlags, chairs, access
Emergency infoHere if you need us
Checkout stepsSix easy things before 10am
Curated by your Coral Compass team
Local Picks
0.6 miCherry Grove PierSunrise walks, pier fishing, the best view in town.
2.4 miSea Captain's HouseOceanfront dining, a Grand Strand classic since 1962.
Every pick is written fresh for your home's guide

Answers before questions is how a review score stays boring, and boring reviews are five stars.

Roadmap, not contract

On the horizon

What we're building next. None of it is promised in your agreement, all of it is where this is headed.

Coming

Quarterly Strand report

Occupancy, rates, and the event outlook for this coast, written for owners, landing in your inbox.

Coming

Direct booking perks

Guests who book direct skip platform commissions, and your calendar keeps more of the night. We're building the perks that pull them there.

Coming

Owner referral rewards

Know another owner on the Strand? There'll be something in it for both of you.

Asked before signing

The questions owners ask us

Straight answers, pulled from the agreement rather than a sales script.

Rent comes in, and three kinds of lines come out: our management fee, pass-through expenses like vendor invoices and platform commissions at actual cost, and reserve funding. Every possible line lives in Exhibit C, the single controlling list of every fee: who is charged, who keeps it, in what share. If a charge isn't in Exhibit C, it cannot appear on your statement.Exh. C

And we're contractually barred from publishing any fee summary or marketing material that differs from it. This page included.§4.3

Whatever Exhibit C says, row by row. Some are shared with you, like the pet fee, which offsets wear on your furnishings. Some are ours because they fund work we perform, like the turnover fee, which pays every cost of the clean.§8.3, Exh. C

Platform commissions pass through with nothing retained by us. One heads-up most managers skip: platforms calculate commission on the whole reservation, guest fees included, and it shows as one line on your statement. We don't set it and we keep none of it.§8.6, Exh. C

No. Vendor invoices pass through at actual cost, and where we coordinate the job, the coordination fee is its own labeled line, never buried in the invoice.§7.4, Exh. C

You set your approval limit, $500 per work order if you leave it blank, and nothing above it moves without you. True emergencies work the way you'd hope: life safety and active water get handled immediately, everything else gets a call and a text to you first.§7.1, §7.2

Want a second opinion on any in-house work? Ask for a third-party quote, any time.§7.6

Dynamically, nightly, channel by channel, tuned to this coast's calendar: golf weeks, bike rallies, CCMF, snowbird winters. You set a floor rate you're comfortable with and we never price beneath it.§2.2, Exh. B

What we won't do is promise a number, and we'd encourage caution with anyone who does. The agreement says it plainly: no minimum revenue or occupancy is promised. What you get is checkable performance, on a live portal and a monthly statement, with the right to inspect the books behind them.§5, §9.5

Our own crew, led by our field operations partner, engaged and paid by us. Because we perform the turnover instead of dispatching it, we're contractually responsible for the work and for our crew's conduct at your property.§7.3, §8.4

Every turnover is documented with dated photos kept at least twelve months, we run quality checks between stays, and we carry our own commercial liability, professional liability, and crime coverage, certificate on request.§11.4, §5, §11.2

Recovery runs in a fixed order, and you're last, not first: Guest Damage Protection, then the guest or platform, then your insurance, and only then you, for whatever's left. Every step is documented on your statement.§11.4

Step one is already on. Guest Damage Protection runs on every property we manage, funded by the guest, never billed to you, up to a per-reservation limit we'll confirm any time you ask.§8.9

And you're never pushed to file on your own policy over small stuff: if the leftover loss is under your deductible plus $2,500, you don't have to tender a claim at all.§11.4

Yes, and we'd rather you read it here than meet it on your first statement. A rolling reserve comes out of payouts to cover what lands late: refunds, chargebacks, guest claims, emergency repairs.§9.3

It's capped in your agreement, up to 10% of payouts and never more than the greater of $1,500 or 15% of your trailing three-month average. It rebuilds as it's used, applies only to your property, and the balance comes back when we part ways.§9.3, §3.6

Ask us in writing and we'll board up, secure, and prep the property, coordinated like any other maintenance job. We'll tell you within 48 hours if there's a mandatory evacuation order, and again within 48 hours of getting back in, with anything we find.§7.7

Worth knowing up front: storm prep isn't automatic, so tell us what you want done rather than assuming. And we won't send our people into an evacuation zone, which we hope goes without saying.§7.7

On bookings, we try to move guests to new dates before letting them cancel wherever the platform allows it, and our management fee credits back on anything refunded.§8.10, §8.7

Simply. Either of us can walk in the first sixty days with no fee, and any twelve-month term ends clean with thirty days' notice before renewal.§3.3, §3.2

Leave mid-term after day sixty and a $750 fee applies, waived if you're going because of something on our end, a rule change, a turnover fee revision you objected to, or a sale. It never applies when we're the ones ending things.§3.4, Exh. B

Bookings we earned but hand off unserviced are invoiced at the management fee they'd have carried, credited back on anything fully refunded.§3.4

Either way, your calendar, reservation history, and the photos you paid for leave with you inside thirty days.§3.6, §13.2

Before you sign

Questions? That's what we're here for.

Read the agreement at your own pace. If any clause deserves a plainer explanation, or you just want to talk it through, write to us and a real person will answer.

Email support@coral-compass.com
Talk to a human