OurSharedPlace

About OurSharedPlace

OurSharedPlace is a comprehensive, purpose-built digital platform designed to transform the complex and often frustrating experience of co-owning a vacation property. It serves as the definitive central hub for families, friends, and investment groups who jointly own a second home, be it a beach house, mountain cabin, or ski chalet. The platform elegantly solves the perennial problems of disorganization by replacing a chaotic web of spreadsheets, group texts, and scattered emails with a single, clear, and shared workspace. Its core value proposition is to liberate co-owners from administrative burdens, enabling them to shift their focus from tedious coordination to truly enjoying their shared investment. By consolidating scheduling, communication, documentation, and financial tracking into one intuitive system, OurSharedPlace fosters transparency, prevents conflicts, and preserves the collective knowledge and traditions that make a property special. It is more than a tool; it is a foundational system that brings order, fairness, and ease to the multifaceted journey of shared ownership, ensuring that the joy of the getaway is never overshadowed by the logistics of managing it.

Features of OurSharedPlace

Intelligent Booking Calendar

The cornerstone of OurSharedPlace is its powerful, shared booking calendar designed to eliminate scheduling conflicts and promote fairness. It allows co-owners to coordinate stays visually, with clear visibility into who is booked and when. The system supports advanced rules, such as setting approval workflows for reservations and establishing usage quotas to ensure equitable access throughout the year. Furthermore, the calendar can be exported as an iCal feed to seamlessly sync with major booking platforms like Airbnb and VRBO, as well as personal calendars like Google Calendar and Apple Calendar, creating an automatic, unified barrier against double-bookings across all channels.

Centralized Document & Knowledge Hub

This feature acts as the digital brain of your property, securely storing every essential piece of information in one accessible location. Co-owners can upload and organize critical documents, including appliance manuals, warranty information, property deeds, and vendor contracts. Beyond formal documents, it serves as a living repository for shared knowledge—storing Wi-Fi passwords, local restaurant recommendations, check-in/check-out procedures, and cherished family traditions. This ensures that vital information is never lost in an email thread and is available at everyone's fingertips, simplifying every visit for both seasoned and new owners.

Integrated Financial Tracking

OurSharedPlace brings clarity and simplicity to the often-muddled finances of co-ownership. The platform provides dedicated tools to track shared expenses for maintenance, repairs, and upgrades, as well as any rental income generated. It automatically calculates who has paid and who owes money, offering settlement suggestions to minimize the number of transactions between members. This transparent system resolves the common confusion over contributions and debts, and includes a convenient one-click reset function for annual financial cleanups, making collective budgeting straightforward and accountable.

Collaborative Communication Tools

To streamline and centralize all property-related discussions, OurSharedPlace includes a suite of communication features. A dedicated discussion board allows for threaded conversations where co-owners can ask questions, share updates, and make decisions without the noise of personal messaging apps. Complementing this is an internal property blog for posting important announcements, maintenance updates, or how-to guides, complete with support for images and videos. These tools ensure that all conversations and knowledge are preserved within the platform, accessible to all members with appropriate role-based permissions.

Use Cases of OurSharedPlace

Multi-Family Vacation Home Coordination

For a cabin owned by several siblings and their families, OurSharedPlace is indispensable. The shared calendar prevents two families from accidentally booking the same holiday week, while usage quotas ensure fair access for all branches of the family throughout the year. The document hub stores the septic system manual and the contact for the local plumber, and the discussion board is where they vote on purchasing a new kayak or discuss updates to the house rules, keeping everyone informed and involved without chaotic group texts.

Investment Group Managing a Rental Property

When a group of friends invests in a beach condo as a rental business, OurSharedPlace provides professional-grade management tools. The calendar syncs automatically with Airbnb and VRBO listings to prevent double-bookings and maximize rental income. Financial tracking clearly delineates each member's share of rental profits and maintenance costs, while the contact directory keeps the property manager, cleaning service, and handyman information centrally located for all partners to access as needed.

Preserving Legacy and Knowledge for Future Generations

For a family lake house passed down through generations, the platform becomes a digital heirloom. Older generations can use the blog and document storage to record the home's history, family stories tied to the property, and specific maintenance quirks known only through experience. This curated knowledge base, from how to properly winterize the pipes to the location of the best blueberry patch, is preserved and easily passed on to new spouses, children, and future owners, maintaining the property's unique character and operational wisdom.

Streamlining HOA or Club-Style Shared Ownership

In models where numerous individuals own shares or weeks in a luxury property, OurSharedPlace scales to meet the need for clear structure. Member management with role-based permissions allows administrators to control access, while the centralized calendar and clear usage policies formalize the reservation process. All announcements, rule changes, and major renovation plans are communicated through the built-in blog and discussion board, ensuring every member receives the same information in a transparent and organized manner.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does OurSharedPlace prevent double-bookings?

OurSharedPlace prevents double-bookings through its intelligent, centralized booking calendar. When a co-owner reserves a date, it is immediately blocked for all other members on the platform. For added protection, especially if you also rent the property, you can export your OurSharedPlace calendar as an iCal feed and import it into external platforms like Airbnb, VRBO, and personal Google or Apple calendars. This creates a two-way sync that blocks booked dates everywhere, ensuring a reservation made in one place is reflected across all connected systems automatically.

Is my property's information secure and private?

Yes, security and privacy are fundamental to OurSharedPlace. Your property's data, including documents, discussions, and financial details, is private and accessible only to the members you explicitly invite to your digital space. The platform employs role-based security, allowing you to assign different permission levels (e.g., Admin, Member, Guest) to control what each person can view or edit. This ensures sensitive information is shared appropriately within your trusted group and is not accessible to the public or other users of the OurSharedPlace service.

Can we use OurSharedPlace if we also rent our property on Airbnb?

Absolutely. OurSharedPlace is designed to handle hybrid use cases perfectly. You can use the internal calendar for co-owner bookings while simultaneously using the optional iCal synchronization feature to connect your OurSharedPlace calendar to Airbnb, VRBO, and other booking platforms. This integration ensures that when a co-owner books a stay, those dates are automatically blocked on your rental listings, and vice-versa, preventing any conflict between private family use and public rental bookings.

What happens after the 14-day free trial?

After your 14-day free trial concludes, you can choose to subscribe to continue using all features of OurSharedPlace for your property. The service operates on an annual subscription model of $79 per property. This flat fee covers the entire co-ownership group, allowing you to invite all members at no additional cost. You only need one subscription per physical property, making it a cost-effective solution for simplifying shared ownership management.