Now that the peak tourist season of Summer has passed, many beachgoers look forward to Fall for quiet, leisurely, and more peaceful vacations at their favorite beach community. Come Winter, things will pick up as snowbirds seeking a respite from the frigid northern climates descend on beach towns. The migration from season to season is predictable, but it does change, and, kind of like the weather, especially as economic conditions fluctuate. 

If you are a small business, restaurant owner, or vacation real estate owner, you keep your finger in the air to gauge prevailing winds. I sat down with Ginger and Hunter Harrelson, founders and principals of Beachball Properties, to discuss what they expect in the near future for condo investing, property management, and the tourist industry. 

“One interesting aspect we are seeing is that the Snowbirds, who used to book one property for two or three months, are now moving around a bit,” says Hunter. “They may stay a month in one place, then move to another place for a month or so, and mix their time up in different locations. It has changed the market dynamics for the condo rental owners who have been used to longer-term rentals.”

This is just one of the areas Beachball Properties is monitoring. Since opening Beachball in 2016 with 14 properties under management, the business has grown substantially. One thing that has certainly changed is that these beach towns in the Scenic 98 Coastal area enjoy year-round visitors, and the communities now enjoy full-time residents. 

“Building communities is important,” says Ginger. ‘We have new school systems, sports and recreation venues, and businesses can stay open and operate without interruption, with tourism peaks and valleys, of course.” Ginger, who grew up in the South Baldwin County community of Barnwell, was recently elected to serve on the Orange Beach City Council.  She earned her law degree at the University of Mississippi after graduating from the University of Alabama.

“We met at a bar in Mobile. I was attending South Alabama on a Presidential Scholarship before I transferred to Alabama,” says Ginger. “It was Penny-Pitcher night,” she says with a laugh. Hunter had already graduated from college and was working with his dad at Rayco Industrial.

Hunter, who is from Selma, played football at Morgan Academy from 2000 to 2003,  and proudly tells me they won 11 State Championships between 1988 and 2005. I immediately pick up that he is a history buff and a storyteller. “I followed my love to Ole Miss, and we were engaged and married two years later,” he says. Coming out of the financial crisis of 2008, he worked briefly in business development before the newlyweds moved to Mobile. 

Ginger interned with Mobile’s District Attorney, Ashley Rich, in the summer between her 2nd and 3rd year of law school, while Hunter earned his Series 7 and 66 securities licenses and worked in the private wealth financial industry. Hoping to get a position as an Assistant District Attorney with the dream to become an Alabama District Attorney, a statewide hiring freeze altered Ginger’s plans, and she worked with an insurance defense firm for a bit.

Both working and living in mid-town Mobile, they were looking for an entrepreneurial career change. A family friend who owned a vacation rental business called Mountain 2 Beach, with 20 properties, told them they were ready to sell. “We both were looking to make a move and needed something to do, and our friends suggested that we buy their company, so we did. We sold our home, sold our boat, cashed in our retirement plans, and decided to go to the beach and make this happen,” says Hunter. 

They closed on the business on September 1, 2016, and decided to rebrand the company. “We created a vision board for reinventing the company that included any possible beach reference.” Hunter called one of his former business professors at the University of Alabama to run ideas for names by him. The professor told him, “I really like Beachball. Close your eyes. What’s the first thing you see? The beach!” So Beachball Properties was born in March 2017, and they went to work.

“We wanted to have skin in the game and become invested in the community,” says Ginger. She worked with the City Attorney in Orange Beach while they were getting the business off the ground. They joined the Chamber and attended every event and function they could to meet the residents and condo owners. 

Hunter tells me, “We bought the Beachball Properties domain name for $1.99 from GoDaddy. For that price, they sent us 3 versions of a logo to consider, and we created the tag line, Come Have A Ball At The Beach. “We didn’t have a marketing budget, so we had to be scrappy. We printed beach ball stickers with the primary colors red, white, and yellow, and handed them out to everybody.” 

They set up tents at events and began to build relationships with people who owned condos and beach homes. They did a Beachball Drop at The Wharf. In 2018, they helped sponsor the Uncorked Wine Festival. Then Ginger launched the Facebook Group, What’s Happening - Orange Beach, that now has 110,000 followers. “We more than doubled our revenue from year one to year two and had 30 properties under management,” says Hunter.

By 2022, Beachball Properties had 250 properties under management and was named Management Company of the Year by the Vacation Rental Management Association. Hunter says, “That’s like winning the National Championship!” The evolution of the brand continued, and clients became “Beachballers.” They trademarked the name Beachballers, created lots of swag, and built a culture for the beach vacation rental market.

Culture is important to Hunter and Ginger. They’ve built their management team based on people’s strengths and complementary character traits. They use a culture index to evaluate new hires. Hunter referenced a book, Zero to 500, about proven strategies and concepts to build a business on a solid foundation. “The three most successful characteristics are Rainmakers, Trailblazers, and Persuaders. 

It turns out, Ginger is in the top ten percent of Trailblazers, and Hunter is in the top ten percent of Persuaders. “We have an industrial psychologist consultant in Dallas who does our evaluations, and he is uncannily accurate. He tells us that it’s highly unusual to have two people with our traits married and working together. Ginger sees the vision, and I sell it.”

We talk about tackling vacation rental issues and the programs Beachball Properties has implemented along the way. “It’s all about the customer experience,” says Hunter. “It begins with the properties we consider. Do the elevators work? Are the properties well-kept? Is there a pool and good beach access?” 

He tells me they inspect every property between rentals and take photos of the stove, microwave, the toilets for cleanliness, towels, sheets, and amenities. They require each property to have digital locks, and the codes are changed after every rental. With up to 450 check-ins during a peak week, they have maintained a 4.8 overall Google Rating. “We had over 11,000 reservations last year, and less than 1 percent of our customers experienced an issue that required a refund.”

The key to Beachball Properties’ success was to take control of every aspect of the rental experience, including marketing, booking, cleaning, and laundering. During the pandemic, they realized that customers wanted to be certain that rentals were sanitized, so they implemented an in-house required linen program, built a 4,000 sf laundry facility, and installed a digital lock system for each rental unit.

”We are like family,” says Hunter. “We have 15 or so front-of-house people on staff, 25 to 50 housekeepers, depending on the season, and 10 to 12 property inspectors. Ginger and I are more like advisors these days. We try to see the bigger picture. We try to deliver an excellent, worry-free beach experience. Vacations are such an important part of people's lives, and we want them to be a great memory for the rest of our vacationers’ lives.”

Being invested in the community is a hallmark of Beachball Properties. They sponsor non-profit organizations throughout the area and serve on several boards, including the Pleasure Island Junior Women’s Club, which clothe local children in need. They have consistently been “Chamber Champions,” the top 1% of donors for Chamber programs. Hunter has served on the Chamber Board for several years, as well as the Art for Heart charity.

“Being invested is important. We live here. Our kids go to school here. We love this area and want to be a part of its future.” Beachball Properties has grown to become the 63rd largest vacation rental management company in the U.S. “We’ve bootstrapped this company and have grown organically. Most of our growth is word-of-mouth, and we are proud of that.” 

The Scenic 98 Coastal beach vacation market is one of the United States' Top 5 markets, along with places like Myrtle Beach, SC, and 30-A in the Florida panhandle. Local tourism generates $1 billion in tax revenue for the State of Alabama, or one twelfth of the State’s total revenue budget. That’s remarkable! Of the 75 or so local vacation property companies, Beachball Properties is considered to be among the top-tier, with one of the most recognizable names in the industry.

Hunter tells me the peak tourism season is from the Hangout Festival through Labor Day. The Shoulder Season runs from Fall through the Holidays, then picks up again from Spring Break through Memorial Day weekend. 

“The younger generation of Gen X has become more nomadic. We want to continue to build on a strong foundation of a company that is innovative and responsive. We currently have 370 properties under management. It’s an incredible responsibility. Vacations can be either the best things or the worst things to happen to people in their lives. We provide beach vacations for families. We are selling memories of a lifetime.”

Thanks, Hunter and Ginger. What a great story of building a company the right way. We wish you much success and are glad that Beachball Properties is such an important aspect of what the Scenic 98 Coastal lifestyle is all about!