Our Story
With inn-keepers and B&B hosts featuring prominently in their lineage, their families taught them the value of hospitality and gave them the skills to carry on this time-honored tradition.
BREE’S STORY
I come from a long line of ancestors, rooted in Tucson, who put hospitality first. My great grandfather John Mabarak migrated to Scranton, PA from Lebanon in 1913 searching for a better life. He met my great-grandmother Cecilia Coury, they got married, and she gave birth to my grandfather Shaffer. They moved to Tucson in 1917, lived downtown on Council Street, and opened a trading post on Congress called “The Busy Bee.”
They were no strangers to hard work, but after a short time, my great-grandfather saved up some money and was able to invest in income properties, sending part of the proceeds back to his family in the homeland. My great-grandparents let other Lebanese families know what was possible in this up-and-coming town, and as other families started moving here, they welcomed those who had newly migrated. They invited them to stay in their home, sometimes housing up to 20 people in a 3BD/2BA, and helped them settle and find employment.
My culture is based on this level of family and hospitality. In my tribe, we are all “cousins” and would give each other the shirt off our backs. I believe the world needs this kind of friendliness and generosity now more than ever. That is the foundation of Short Term Rentals Tucson and why we aim to bring authentic hospitality to guests. We go above and beyond to make sure that guests are not only happy with their stay but somehow more enriched and renewed by their entire experience.
I’m proud to carry on my family’s legacy and love the satisfaction of helping others create lasting vacation memories that bring joy for years to come.
BEAR’S STORY
Some of my fondest and most formative memories are as a child watching episodes of the iconic John Cleese television programme “Fawlty Towers” with my grandparents. The programme is a charmingly funny British sit com which follows the ups and downs of Basil and Fawlty and his wife, the erstwhile owners of a typical English country inn.
My grandparents Fritz and Doris had moved into our rambling Victorian seven bedroom 200 year old family home in Rexford, New York when my great grandmother died and decided to try their hand at running a bed and breakfast! Those experiences at the Cyrus Rexford House gave me a deep appreciation for hospitality that has only grown over time.
My grandfather taught me alot about being a host. He was an extremely social man and quickly took over the breakfast side of the operation, along with daily trips to the local grocery stores which he loved and which kept him lively and engaged until the day he died.
I was also extremely fortunate to have been able to travel and live in Switzerland, Italy, France, Germany and Austria throughout my teens as a student and tourist which gave me an appreciation for the finer points of true old world hospitality.
After graduating from the University of Utah in 1993 I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger, West Africa for two years and then ended up in Boston where I worked at a small family owned and operated business called Homebase Abroad. The core of the business was luxury short term vacation rentals in Europe. When I say luxury I mean actual castles and Renaissance villas in Tuscany, southern Spain, Austria and the south of France. It opened my eyes to the possibilities of vacation property management!
