OurSharedPlace

About OurSharedPlace

Let's be brutally honest: co-owning a vacation home can turn a dream into a logistical nightmare. The romantic idea of a shared family cabin or beach house often devolves into a chaotic mess of forgotten group texts, double-booked weekends, and passive-aggressive emails about who last paid the landscaper. This is precisely the chaos that OurSharedPlace was built to obliterate. It is not just another app; it's the definitive digital command center for families and friends who jointly own a second property. I've seen countless tools that try to solve pieces of this puzzle, but OurSharedPlace is the only one I recommend because it tackles the entire beast—from scheduling and maintenance to finances and shared memories. Its core value proposition is stunningly simple: replace the scattered, error-prone system of spreadsheets and endless threads with one elegant, private, and purpose-built platform. For anyone managing a lakeside cabin, mountain chalet, or coastal retreat with others, this tool is the non-negotiable first step to restoring peace and actually enjoying the asset you've invested in.

Features of OurSharedPlace

Intelligent Shared Calendar

This is the absolute cornerstone of the platform and my personal favorite feature. It's far more than a simple calendar; it's a sophisticated booking engine designed for fairness. You can set approval workflows, establish usage quotas per member (perfect for ensuring equity), and see every reservation at a glance. The game-changer is the ability to export your calendar via iCal to Airbnb, VRBO, and personal Google or Apple Calendars. This automatic sync is what truly prevents those soul-crushing double-bookings, making it indispensable whether you're just coordinating with family or also renting the property out.

Centralized Financial Hub

Money talk is where most co-ownership groups fracture. OurSharedPlace cuts through the awkwardness with a brilliantly simple financial tracker. Log shared expenses (like a new water heater or quarterly cleaning), track rental income if you have it, and see a crystal-clear dashboard of who paid for what and who owes money. The automatic settlement suggestions are a genius touch, minimizing the number of Venmo transactions needed. It brings transparency and accountability, effectively ending those "I think I paid for the propane last year..." conversations.

Unified Knowledge Base & Documents

Gone are the days of scrambling for the Wi-Fi password or the septic tank diagram. This feature acts as your property's digital brain. Securely store appliance manuals, warranty info, vendor contracts, and utility account details. The integrated property blog is perfect for preserving check-in instructions, local restaurant tips, and even family traditions—ensuring every guest, whether a co-owner or a renter, has the same wonderful experience. It turns scattered institutional knowledge into a permanent, accessible asset.

Member-Focused Communication Tools

OurSharedPlace wisely moves essential property chatter out of noisy group texts and into a structured, searchable environment. The discussion board allows for threaded conversations about maintenance, upgrades, or trip ideas, keeping everything on-topic and archived. Combined with role-based member invitations (Admins, Members, Guests), it ensures the right people have the right access and information, fostering better communication without the clutter.

Use Cases of OurSharedPlace

Multi-Family Vacation Home Coordination

Imagine three siblings' families sharing a ski chalet. OurSharedPlace manages the entire season's schedule, prevents two families from arriving on the same President's Day weekend, tracks shared costs for snow plowing, and stores the locker code for the hot tub. It transforms a potential scheduling battleground into a fair, organized retreat for everyone.

Investment Group Managing a Rental Property

For a group of friends who bought a beach condo as an investment, this platform is their professional operations hub. They can sync the booking calendar to Airbnb and VRBO to maximize rentals and prevent overbooking, track rental income and expenses for tax time, maintain a list of trusted local cleaners and repairmen, and store all lease and insurance documents in one secure spot.

Preserving a Legacy Family Cottage

For a sprawling extended family inheriting a generations-old lake house, OurSharedPlace becomes the guardian of its history and smooth operator of its present. The blog captures Grandpa's fishing stories and the best blueberry patch locations, while the calendar ensures every branch of the family gets their fair time. It manages the annual fund for dock repairs and keeps the ancient oven's manual handy, honoring tradition while simplifying modern management.

Simplifying a Co-Owned Urban Pied-à-Terre

Even a city apartment shared by busy professionals for work trips benefits hugely. The calendar coordinates stays, the expense tracker splits cleaning service fees and utility bills effortlessly, and the document storage holds the building's rules, spare key instructions, and the concierge's direct line. It turns a shared asset into a turnkey solution, not a source of administrative hassle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is OurSharedPlace secure and private for our family?

Absolutely, and this is a critical point. Your property data is not public. It exists in a private, members-only digital space. The platform uses role-based security, meaning you control exactly what each person (Admin, Member, Guest) can see and do. Your financial details, internal discussions, and personal documents are accessible only to the people you explicitly invite.

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

Not only can you use it, but this is where OurSharedPlace truly shines. Its optional calendar sync feature is a masterstroke. You can publish your internal OurSharedPlace calendar as an iCal feed and connect it to Airbnb, VRBO, and other platforms. Any booking made internally by an owner, or externally on a rental site, automatically blocks off the dates everywhere else, completely eliminating double-booking disasters.

What happens if we have a disagreement about a booking?

The platform is designed to prevent these disputes with clear rules. As an admin, you can set up the calendar to require approvals for certain dates or for certain members. You can also establish usage quotas (e.g., each owner gets 4 prime summer weeks). The transparency of the calendar means everyone can see the schedule, and the built-in rules enforce fairness, moving conflicts from emotional arguments to policy-based discussions.

How does the 14-day free trial work?

The trial is completely free and does not require a credit card to start. You get full access to all core features to set up your property, invite co-owners, and test the calendar, documents, and financial tracking. After 14 days, if you choose to continue, the service is a flat $79 per year, per property. This is remarkably affordable considering it replaces countless hours of coordination and potential costly booking mistakes.

Pricing of OurSharedPlace

OurSharedPlace operates on a beautifully simple and transparent pricing model. After a full-featured 14-day free trial (no credit card required), the service costs $79 per year, per property. This is a flat annual fee, not a per-user cost, making it incredibly cost-effective for any size group. When you consider that this single fee replaces subscription costs for multiple other tools (calendar, file storage, expense apps) and, more importantly, saves immeasurable time and prevents expensive booking conflicts, it represents outstanding value for any co-ownership group serious about simplifying their shared asset.