MOORESVILLE, N.C. – The coronavirus has changed how people work, learn, live, and even vacation.

 

What You Need To Know


  • Southern Charm Vacations has 30 properties on Lake Norman

  • The company lost 80 to 90 percent of its rentals in March

  • The rentals are undergoing extensive cleaning between clients
 

 

 

One vacation rental company in Mooresville is seeing a change in the business model because of COVID-19.

Drew Miller started Southern Charm Vacations on Lake Norman. With 30 properties along the lake, he keeps busy with long-term bookings.

“Some people I’ve found are beach vacationers, mountain vacationers, but there’s also a lot of people that just love to come to the lake.”

“During the summer a lot of times it will be five to seven nights. The rest of the year it’s a lot of holidays, people are coming in to visit family,” Miller says.

What would normally be the start to his busy booking season was instead full of cancellations.

“We saw 80, 90 percent of our reservations at the end of March and April disappear within about a 10-day period.”

Miller says after a few weeks, he saw a change in the rentals with more people booking for just two to four days.

“We’ve really started seeing a lot of people who are just needing to do a little staycation or just get a change of scenery,” he says. “So people that are within like an hour or two range, again, only four or five people coming up. Really big houses, really small groups.”

Miller says they’ve invested in “fogging” equipment to clean the houses after each group leaves, and the company uses a professional cleaning crew to deep clean each house.