Ember Stays has secured an exclusive vacation rental management contract with Zion Shores, a private resort community under development in Washington, Utah, built around what developers describe as the largest PerfectSwell® surf pool in the world. The deal positions Ember Stays as the operational backbone for participating vacation homes from the moment owners close escrow.
The Dual-Platform Play
The agreement bundles two distinct services under the same corporate umbrella. Ember — the parent co-ownership platform — will offer fractional, deeded shares in select Zion Shores residences, giving the developer a secondary sales channel for moving residential inventory. Once a home sells and enters the rental program, Ember Stays steps in to handle marketing, listing distribution across major booking platforms, revenue management, reservations, guest communication, housekeeping, inspections, maintenance coordination, and owner reporting.
"Resort developers are looking for partners who can support more than one part of the homeowner journey," said Kurt Avarell, CEO of Ember. "By combining Ember's co-ownership platform with Ember Stays' property management capabilities, we can help resorts create another path for selling select inventory and then professionally support those homes after closing."
Cody Larkin, CEO of Zion Shores, framed the selection around the hospitality standards the amenity-heavy community will require. "Ember Stays brings the local expertise, technology and operational capabilities needed to support homeowners and create a better guest experience," Larkin said.
Why It Matters for Operators
For hospitality and resort development professionals, the structure of this deal reflects a growing trend: amenity-driven communities increasingly want a single partner capable of spanning both the real estate transaction and the ongoing guest-experience operation. Fractional ownership adds a layer of complexity — scheduling, usage coordination, owner communication — that a traditional property management company may not be equipped to handle on its own.
Ember Stays already manages a vacation home portfolio across Southern Utah, ranging from resort condominiums to large group-oriented properties. The company was recently ranked the No. 1 vacation rental manager in St. George by Manager-Review.com, with a 4.96 average Airbnb guest rating across ranked properties — a metric that carries real weight with resort developers assessing operational partners.
Zion Shores itself is planned around twelve acres of water surface area split across two lagoons, anchored by the PerfectSwell® surf pool and two UNIT® surf systems, including a first-of-its-kind dynamic wave installation. Luxury townhomes and larger vacation residences ring the water amenities. That scale of resort infrastructure puts significant pressure on the property management layer: guest expectations at a destination built around world-class surf technology will be high, and operational inconsistency would undercut the brand quickly.
What's Next
Ember Stays says it is actively expanding its resort-developer pipeline, offering vacation rental management as a standalone service or bundled with Ember's co-ownership platform depending on the project. For operators tracking the vacation rental and short-term rental management space, the Zion Shores partnership signals that vertically integrated platforms — ones that bridge sales, fractional ownership, and day-to-day operations — are gaining traction with master-planned resort developers as a way to de-risk both the sell-out phase and the long-term guest experience.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
