The Challenge of Managing Properties from Thousands of Miles Away
Jungle Luxe is a luxury property management, real estate, and interior design company based in Tulum, Mexico. Founded by Rachel Hugenschmidt in December 2022, the company manages vacation rental properties for more than 110 owners, many of whom live thousands of miles away from their properties.
Vacation rental investors tend to be highly engaged — there’s constant activity with bookings, maintenance, and financials to track. “These owners live very far away from their properties,” Rachel explains. “They want to know what’s happening with their units.”
“It was really decentralized. People were sending documents through WhatsApp and it was just a huge mess.”
With a lean team of 16 on the property management side, Rachel knew she couldn’t scale by simply adding headcount. “In property management, it’s a lower margin business — we have to keep it lean.” What she needed was a way to centralize owner communications while creating what she calls “inner peace” for her team.
A Centralized Hub for Owner Transparency
After researching client portal solutions, Rachel chose Assembly for its customizability and comprehensive feature set. Instead of spending even more on custom software development, she opted for Assembly to create the Jungle Luxe owner portal.
Today, Jungle Luxe uses Assembly as the source of truth for every property owner relationship. Each owner has access to a dedicated portal containing organized folders with their contracts, rental licenses, insurance certificates, monthly statements, receipts, tax payments, and proof of any payment transfers.
Assembly’s Messages App has become critical to managing the daily flow of owner communications — at any given time, 10 to 15 owners may be actively communicating with the team, and multiple departments can view the history and stay aligned. The company also built a robust resource center using the Helpdesk App, giving owners self-service options that reduce repetitive questions.
Creating Calm Across Continents
“We’ve definitely reduced inquiries by owners by at least 50%. It probably saved the cost of a whole extra administrator from my company.”
The benefits extend beyond operational efficiency. For property owners who have invested in a foreign country — often their first such investment — the portal provides crucial peace of mind. “They have something tangible. They have records,” Rachel explains. “I think they feel more organized now.”
As Jungle Luxe continues to grow — with plans to integrate AI-powered responses and additional automation — Assembly remains at the center of their client experience strategy.
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