Four years ago Julie Lawson set up a business in Port Douglas, north Queensland, offering property owners who wanted to rent their house out on Airbnb a guest “meet-and-greet” service. She started with four properties and expected it to stay small-scale – a semi-retirement plan.
But after discovering a strong demand for her services, Bees Knees Holiday Rental and Property Services quickly expanded. Even throughout the closed-borders period of the pandemic, the number of places Lawson managed doubled. Partly because a “lot of properties were bought by southerners, which we’ve taken on for them”, she says.
