Meet the Founder

I have spent twenty years in hospitality and property management, and somewhere along the way I stopped thinking of it as a job and started thinking of it as a craft.

It began in dining rooms. I learned service at Luca in Newport Beach and at Morton's, where the standard was simple: every detail matters, every guest matters, every single time. Later I led the tasting room at Archer Vineyards, where hospitality meant slowing down and telling a story well. Eventually that same instinct carried me into property management, overseeing full portfolios of short term, mid term, and long term rentals across Portland and beyond.

What I learned across all of it is that great hospitality is never really about the space. It is about the feeling a person has the moment they walk through the door. Cared for. Welcomed. Never an afterthought.

Declare Stays grew out of that belief.

I started this company because I saw a gap between what property owners were promised and what they actually received, and between what guests expected and what they actually experienced. I wanted to build something different. Boutique by design, not by accident. A company where every property is treated the way I would want my own home treated, and every guest is welcomed the way I would want to be welcomed.

I live in downtown Portland with my son Jude and my longtime companion Blazer, a thirteen pound bundle of spirited energy who has been by my side through nearly every chapter of this story. My aesthetic sensibility leans classic and considered, somewhere between Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy, and that same sensibility shapes the way I think about every property Declare Stays manages. Timeless. Elevated. Never trendy for the sake of trend.

I believe in declaring yourself. In building the life and the work you actually want, on purpose, rather than settling for what happened to you. That belief is the whole reason this company carries the name it does.

If you are an owner looking for a partner who treats your property like it matters, or a guest looking for a stay that feels like more than a transaction, I would love to welcome you to the collection.

Founder, Declare Stays