How Host & Home Saves 25+ Hours and $10k per Month with Topkey

When Steven Wood launched Host & Home in 2023, he brought a decade of industry experience and ambitious growth plans. His vision quickly became reality: "We went from zero to 77 doors in 12 months, and no sign of slowing down."  But with that rapid growth came significant financial challenges.

His new company's model involved significant upfront investments in properties to deliver premium guest experiences. Without proper expense tracking, those investments could quickly become losses.

With over a decade of experience in vacation rentals, including at a 400-door operation, Steven had seen firsthand how poor financial management could hurt a growing business. "It is startling how much money can get lost in this business," he recalls. 

Introducing Topkey: A Comprehensive Financial Solution 

Before Topkey, receipt and expense reconciliation was a mess, with maintenance teams racing between properties, housekeepers preparing for new guests, and a growing pile of receipts on Steven's desk. At month end, the team would spend days matching faded receipts to work orders, trying to piece together which expenses belonged to which properties.

"I had an envelope on my desk with everybody's receipts in it, dropped on me on the 30th," Steven recalls. "And then it's going through receipts, going through work orders to make sure they're even remotely close – and they weren't, of course, because it’s the middle of summer when everybody's flying and we're at 100% occupancy.."

The reality was clear: with teams focused on guest satisfaction, tracking expenses was the last thing on anyone's mind. "You're trying to take care of guests and owners. That's what you're doing," Steven explains.

The transformation with Topkey was immediate. Not only did the platform eliminate the dreaded envelope system, but it also received immediate team buy-in.

"Topkey is one of the only things I got immediate buy-in for, because they were like, this just makes our life that much easier," Steven notes.

Instead of stuffing receipts in an envelope and hoping for the best, team members can now instantly capture and categorize expenses right from their phones, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.

Simplified Corporate Card Management and Invoice Processing

For Host & Home, Topkey's corporate card features have been transformative. "The credit cards are awesome. They're really awesome," Steven emphasizes. The ability to issue and manage cards across their growing team has streamlined operations while maintaining control.

What makes the system particularly effective is how seamlessly it integrates with their work order system. "My guys being able to tag receipts to work orders without having to really do anything... it's a total game changer for us.” This ensures that every expense is properly tracked and allocated, eliminating the manual work that previously consumed so much time.

Eliminating Expense Leakage

“Thousands of dollars were slipping through the cracks” Steven says. 

Before Topkey, Host & Home estimates they were losing $5,000-10,000 monthly in unbilled owner expenses. With Topkey's mobile receipt capture and automated expense tracking, that leakage has been virtually eliminated.

"Now it's a text message," Steven explains, describing how easy it is for team members to capture and categorize expenses. The system has been particularly valuable for their maintenance team working in the field.

Streamlined Month-End Reconciliation 

One of the most dramatic improvements has been in monthly reconciliation time. What used to take 2-3 full days can now be completed in about 30 minutes.

"Previously, I used to make everyone sit at the conference room table with their envelope of receipts and a preliminary run of owner statements to make sure that everything was where it belonged," Steven recalls. "It sucked."

Now, with Topkey's automated workflows and integrations with Streamline and QuickBooks, reconciliation is fast and accurate. This efficiency extends to their CPA, a “veteran QuickBooks user,” who Steven notes finds Topkey to be "by far one of the best bill pay software's he's ever used." 

From a back-office perspective, Topkey's bill pay is another major benefit. The platform's ability to automatically scan invoices and tag individual line items has dramatically reduced manual data entry.

"Being able to scan the work, the invoices that come in and tag individual line items without him actually physically having to do that" has been a game-changer. The system also simplifies vendor management by automatically pulling in vendor information and streamlining the payment process," Steven says

"It's just easy. It's really easy."

Enhanced Banking and Support

Perhaps most valuable has been Topkey's exceptional customer support. "Customer support is phenomenal. I send an email, and they’ll either text me or call me or email me within five minutes. I don't think they sleep.” 

Steven recounts an incident when his banking connections went down, and Topkey's support team proactively fixed it on the back-end to ensure operations weren't impacted. 

"There's no customer service like Topkey. People don't do that," he emphasizes.

Time and Cost Benefits

For Steven, the return on investment is clear: "Topkey costs almost no money. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, it is incredibly inexpensive.” 

More importantly, it allows him to focus on growing the business: "My time is better spent selling that's what I do... my time is much better spent selling and if I can go sign two more houses instead of doing [manual work] and spend two hundred dollars a month with you or whatever the negligible cost is to make our lives that much easier" 

With millions in trust accounts, the interest earned through Topkey's high-yield accounts is also significant. 

“That’s a salary or two for my guys for the year," Steven notes.

Why Topkey: Purpose-Built for Vacation Rental Managers

For Host & Home, Topkey has become more than just a financial tool – it's a foundational platform enabling their rapid growth. "If I didn't have to have a PMS, I would run away to run everything with Topkey," Steven emphasizes.

The value proposition is clear: comprehensive financial automation purpose-built for vacation rental managers, backed by exceptional support. The platform eliminates costly leakage, automates tedious tasks, and generates revenue through high-yield banking – all while integrating seamlessly with existing systems.

From automated receipt capture to streamlined bill pay, every feature is designed to solve specific challenges faced by vacation rental managers.

Having grown from zero to 77 properties in just 12 months, Host & Home's experience demonstrates how the right financial foundation can support rapid scaling. 

Steven's advice to other property managers is straightforward:

"Don't think that you should or could do all of this manually when there is a very, very inexpensive option that will just solve a lot of the problems that you don't even know you're going to have yet."

Ready to see how Topkey can transform your vacation rental company's financial operations? Schedule a demo today.

*Topkey is a financial technology company and is not a bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank; Member FDIC.

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