About the job:
Operations Manager — Just Stay Limited (Full-Time, Fully Remote, Contractor — South Africa based)
We're Just Stay. We've grown from 0-30+ whole-home short-term rentals in the last 9 months across North West England we're Airbnb Superhosts, 4.9★ average, and recently won Property Startup of the Year, we are not looking to slow down.
We're scaling toward 100 units by the end of mid 2027, and we're hiring an Operations Manager based in South Africa to own the engine room with the team while we grow and build.
Why we're hiring in South Africa: your working day lines up almost perfectly with UK hours, and SA has some of the best short-term rental talent anywhere — we want someone who has genuinely done this job, not something like it.
The Role:
You'll be the person who keeps every property running with our team of virtual assistants: maintenance coordination, listing quality, and the systems that hold it all together and working closely with the co-founders each day.
You'll manage our VA team day to day, train them, spot problems before guests do, and build process and SOPs where processes are missing.
This is a hands-on operator role, not a supervisor role. If a cleaner cancels at 4pm on a Friday, you're the one solving it.
Your day-to-day:
- Owning day-to-day operations across a growing portfolio of whole-home rentals
- Building systems using AI that automate tasks and provide measurable feedback to the team
- Managing and developing our remote VA team, with clear standards and accountability
- Coordinating cleaning and turnovers, maintenance, and supplier relationships
- Keeping listings, calendars and pricing accurate across Airbnb, Booking.com and direct channels
- Handling escalated guest issues quickly, calmly and in a way that protects our review scores
- Building and improving SOPs so the business scales without breaking
- Reporting on operational performance to the founders
What we're looking for:
- Hands-on experience in Airbnb / short-term rental operations — essential. You'll be asked for the company, unit count and your exact role. Applications without this will not progress.
- Based in South Africa and working SAST — UK business hours are a normal working day for you
- Excellent written and verbal communication — you'll be guest-facing, client-facing and team-facing
- Genuinely strong organisation: you track everything, nothing slips
- Confident with software; comfortable learning new platforms fast. Guesty, Uplisting, PriceLabs, Turno or similar is a big plus
- Regular, practical use of AI tools in your workflow (strongly preferred)
- A reliable remote setup — backup power and internet that keep you online through load shedding
- Self-directed — remote means you manage your own day
The details:
- Contract: Independent contractor, full-time
- Hours: Minimum 40 hours per week, UK business hours (GMT/BST) — from SAST that's a standard local working day
- Pay: $1,400–$2,400 USD per month depending on experience — roughly R26,000–R45,000/month equivalent, paid in USD
- Location: Remote, South Africa
Why Just Stay
- Fast-growing business with real momentum and a clear path to 100 units
- Direct access to the founders — your ideas get implemented, not filed
- Genuine scope to grow with the company as we scale
To Apply
Applications are through our form only — please don't apply via LinkedIn messages or Easy Apply:
👉 https://forms.gle/z2nBQt3SXrRWSJuf7
You'll be asked for your CV, a short written answer on the biggest operational problem you've solved in a short-term rental business