Today we’d like to introduce you to Nikita and Jade Ramsey.
Nikita and Jade, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We are British twins who moved to LA back when we were 19! We came here to pursue our acting careers and have lived here ever since!!! Our love for travel and exploring the world has seen us visit many places across the globe and Airbnb quickly became our number #1 go to when booking accommodation! We got to experience all types of homes in many different surroundings which was the start of the inspiration behind our own Airbnb home. Mixed with our creative sides and desire for our own business we decided ‘Let’s do this!!’. We had very little experience (meaning none) in home renovation but trusted we could somehow pull this off. After months online searching homes in our favorite California getaway town ‘Lake Arrowhead’ we took our first trip up the mountain to view a home we knew was just perfect. Run down, outdated and dark, offering very little that would appeal to a tourist market our real estate agent probably thought we were crazy when we put an offer on it immediately!! But six months later our vision has come to life. Through hard work, endless hours researching, debating decisions, deliberating, building furniture, learning all things house and watching our savior of a handyman we found on Yelp bring our dream home to life we couldn’t be more proud. ‘Sprocket Hollow’ (named after our dog) has been on Airbnb since January 2019 – we have already hosted 22 different groups, have an 80% occupancy rating and have received all 5* reviews!!!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
This was a whole new experience for us. Just applying for a mortgage and gathering all the necessary documents was a journey in itself. Being people who don’t have your typical salaried job it definitely felt like home ownership was something out of our reach. So each little milestone was a celebration to us! To getting the mortgage approval, to becoming the owners of the house… There were definitely many moments of doubt, finding someone we trusted to help bring our project to life (And do all the hard work like painting and fitting floors, plumbing, and electrical work) was our first struggle. Now we had this house but couldn’t seem to find anyone who was on the same page as us to complete the real hard work!! Luckily after meeting probably every company up in the mountains, we found a great handyman/ construction god named Stefan! As we spent every waking moment researching design, reading blogs, focusing in on the exact style we wanted to exude he was getting the bones of the house ready!!
It was so incredible to watch the transformation come to life, and getting to design and furnish our home exactly how we wanted was such an fascinating, enjoyable time. Having traveled so often, we knew exactly what we loved in an Airbnb home … we wanted to create experiences for the guests so build a wood burning fireplace, installed a shuffleboard table, fire pit, vintage comics, an old typewriter, cheese boards and fondue sets – we didn’t just want our home to be a place for travelers to sleep but to make real memories with their friends and family!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Sprocket Hollow is an Airbnb home designed for the modern traveler in mind. After a lot of research we saw that especially in the mountain areas the homes are older, many of the hosts have a second home and decide to put it on Airbnb to make some extra $$$ … what we decided to do was buy our home specifically to renovate it to be the perfect home for vacation guests, with only that in mind. We target everyone from the young families (by including foldaway cribs, toddler beds, highchairs) to groups of friends (we have a blue tooth karaoke machine, Smart TV, shuffleboard), to romantic couples retreat (with a working 1948 vintage typewriter in the master bedroom so guests can type love letters to their significant other). All whilst the setting of the home is bright, modern, open and welcoming, with a rustic charm.
What has made us so proud of our company is the overwhelmingly positive reviews from guests, from families getting to see snow for the first time, family reunions, anniversaries – the little notes back from people who have stayed at our home thanking us for helping them make such special memories! Our first two months on Airbnb have been incredible – with an 80% occupancy rate! Hopefully, this will continue for the rest of the year!
What were you like growing up?
Growing up we were both very creative, ambitious and full of ideas – from drama, to art, to making our own little home movies. We both loved to travel even from an early age and for many years of our childhood visited the same holiday resort in the south of France. We absolutely loved it! I remember we would sit and design our own holiday resorts, drawing out all the amenities and talk of how we when we were older we would own our own one – and I guess in a way we can say we do now!!!
Contact Info:
- Address: Sprocket Hollow
Lake Arrowhead - Website: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/29944862?s=51
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: sprocket_hollow
Image Credit:
The photo of Nikita and Jade please credit: Elsie Rose Photography.
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
