Living Like Summer All Year Long

A Conversation with Southern Holiday Homes

Interview by Morgan Power

After a lifetime of visiting the beautiful Scenic Highway 30-A area in the Florida Panhandle for memorable vacations along the Gulf of Mexico, Ashley and Brandon Youngs decided to escape the frigid Chicago winters for good. The couple bought a house in the area and have been splitting time between Santa Rosa Beach and Knoxville, Tennessee, ever since, where they own and operate several hospitality management companies. Their primary business, Southern Holiday Homes, focuses on luxury homes by the beach along Scenic Highway 30-A.

The couple complement each other not only in their personal lives but also in their businesses. With Ashley’s master’s degree in accounting and background in real estate and Brandon’s experience in hospitality, finance, and marketing, the pair work together to create a family business full of love, fun, and customer satisfaction.

Southern Holiday Homes founders Ashley and Brandon Youngs with their children | Photo courtesy of the Youngs family

VIE: What is your favorite part of living the beach life with your family and owning a business that showcases your lifestyle?

Ashley Youngs: I think it’s the little things. It’s the simplicity of the beach that reminds you to slow down. Things like watching your kids run and catch crabs at the end of the day on the sand, watching the sunset, riding on the golf cart to get an ice cream cone, feeding the turtles at Stinky’s—those little things here will always be my favorite moments! A moment at the beach doesn’t have to be a big production to be special. The beach naturally lends itself to special moments, so having quality time together here is easy.

I think it’s the little things. I think it’s just the simplicity of it that reminds you to slow down… It’s the little things to me that will always be my favorite moments.

VIE: As a team offering maintenance, cleaning, property management, reservation specialists, guest experience associates, and more, how do you balance it all? What are some practices that keep the company thriving?

AY: I have a hard time sitting still, so it is fun for me to always have something going on, and we really love it! When you love what you do, it doesn’t feel so much like work. We’re very fortunate that we have really, really wonderful clients who own these homes, and we have become good friends with lots of them. Many have bought and experienced excellent returns, so they have reinvested in the market and bought multiple properties. It definitely takes a village, but Brandon and I are a great team. We complement each other, so it works!

Sea-ing Stars offers guests ten bedrooms, beautiful living spaces, and Gulf views from every level of the house. | Photo by Dave Warren

VIE: What can guests expect when vacationing with Southern Holiday Homes? What do guests love when staying with you?

AY:

We have a wonderful guest services team available 24-7 to answer the phone, and they will arrange concierge services. It is a very personalized approach. The experience can be hands-on in terms of meeting guests at the house and showing them around or as hands-off as giving them the door code and check-in instructions via email. It is very customizable regarding our involvement, and people really love our homes.

We take a lot of pride in the houses we manage and put so much into them that it has to make sense for our portfolio, our team, and our guests. There is a certain kind of product we want to deliver and a brand standard we maintain, so we can truly keep the experience where we want it to be.

VIE: Tell us about your top-grossing rental. What do you think sets this property apart from others in the area?

AY: It is called SEA-ing Stars! I believe it was the highest-grossing rental in the Florida Panhandle in 2023. The property did over a million dollars in rental revenue, and it is a favorite of celebrities, influencers, corporate retreats, multigenerational family gatherings, reunions, and more. It is an absolutely one-of-a-kind property that wasn’t initially built to be a rental, but when our client acquired it, renting it was always the plan. This house has next-level finishes, furnishings, views, and things you would not typically get in a rental. It has ten bedrooms, fifty yards of private beach, and is over eight thousand square feet. It is just exceptional.

VIE: What is your number one piece of advice for people looking to buy a home along 30-A?

Brandon and Ashley Youngs have loved moving their family to the beach to enjoy the laid-back lifestyle and build their business and friendships in the 30-A area. | Photos courtesy of the Youngs family

AY: I think you just have to jump in and do it. So many people think about it and dream about it but then get nervous and never pull the trigger. I think you have to jump in and be ready to ride that wave because it’s such a fun process, and there are so many benefits that come from owning these properties, outside of even the financial benefits. It’s having a place where your family can return to spend time that will be part of core memories.

Partnering with a good management company that aligns with your interests is also very important if you are going to rent out your home. It’s a matter of finding the right fit with a management company, especially one you can trust if you’ll be there only some of the time. You need a management team that will take care of it for you and make sure it’s maintained and loved, just like if you were there.

VIE: What do you look forward to regarding the future of Southern Holiday Homes?

AY: Southern Holiday Homes continues to grow very organically, which has been such a blessing. In the future, we have a lot of exciting things coming that I can’t necessarily talk about yet, but overall we want to expand our presence in the 30-A market. We want to have more involvement in the community and support more programs with bigger things to give back. As you grow, you can provide more, and now we’re able to offer full benefits for our employees, a brick-and-mortar office in Blue Mountain Beach, work vehicles, and all these other things you can’t do when you’re a small business in the beginning, so we are proud of that.

Coming down the pipeline, we have many great partnerships coming up with companies we’re super excited about that will bring more exposure and some really exciting things for our owners and guests, and we are grateful to be in that position.

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To learn more about Southern Holiday Homes, visit SouthernHolidayHomes.com or follow @southernholidayhomes on Instagram.