Rental company changes hands after 30 years

After 30 years of serving Bigfork visitors, Denise Grenier is finally getting a little vacation of her own. In February, she sold Eagle Bend Flathead Vacation Rentals, the company she started in 1990.

She has run the rental company almost single-handedly for the past three decades, often working seven days a week to greet visitors as soon as they arrived and make sure every property was cleaned in time for the next guests.

“I feel like the weight of the world is off my shoulders,” she said.

Bozeman-based Stay Montana Vacation Rentals will be taking over Grenier’s vacation rentals, but she will stay on as a business developer with the new company.

Grenier moved to the valley in 1987 after working for 14 years as an accounting manager with a venture capital company in San Francisco. At the time, she said, “few were really doing vacation rentals in the area.”

She started off working for a property management company and Eagle Bend Golf Course, but she gradually developed her own vacation rental company by acquiring similar area businesses and working tirelessly to get ahead of the trend.

“I was running around like crazy,” she recalled.

Grenier said she considered selling her one-woman business at various points over the years as her responsibilities became more and more demanding, but she never felt like she had found the right fit until the partners at Stay Montana made her an offer. Previously, she said most of the people who were interested in her company simply couldn’t keep up with her incredibly hectic business.

“Nothing ever clicked,” she remembered, but she said she’s excited for the direction the business is now going to take with Stay Montana.

Robyn Erlenbush, one of the Stay Montana partners, previously rented from Grenier and taught her real estate classes when she was earning her real estate license.

Grenier said the “full-service property management service” will be able to provide clients with “the service I always wanted to give.”

Stay Montana will bring state-of-the-art technology, like digital keypad entry systems and tablets with all the information guests need about each rental property. They also have services like a database that lists rentals on every available rental platform and adjustable rates based on community events.

And they offer personal touches as well, like home-baked cookies from the partners’ daughter and full concierge services.

As a property management company, Stay Montana can also take care of properties without renting them out.

Overall, Grenier insisted Stay Montana will offer very “thorough care.”

“Property owners will see a higher profit and have more services available,” she pointed out.

So even though she’s relinquishing a role she’s held for three decades, Grenier said she has no qualms at all about the transition. “Thirty years was enough,” she decided.

Plus, she promised, “I’m not going anywhere. I’m never going to leave the valley.”

She still plans on working full-time with Stay Montana in her new position, where she will endeavor to expand the company’s reach beyond the Bigfork area. They have plans to add properties “from Bigfork to Whitefish.” This year, she hopes to bring in 20 new properties.

It might not sound like she will be slowing down with these ambitious plans, but Grenier insisted this new chapter in her life is “the perfect position.”

She no longer plans on being in the office seven days a week, which will give her time to work on her own property, do some gardening and go cross-country skiing with her giant Goldendoodle, Scout.

She started to tear up as she mulled over her long career and the many opportunities she still has to look forward to. “It makes me want to cry,” she said, half-joking. “I love it here.” ■

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at bserbin@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.