One house, and one frustration
Esencia began with a single property in Tamarindo and a problem we kept watching happen: guests were paying platform prices for absentee service. Nobody was answering the phone. Nobody had actually been inside the house.
So we built the opposite. Every home inspected in person. Every guest given a WhatsApp thread with somebody who lives here. Every owner given a manager who drives past the property rather than one who logs into a dashboard from Miami.
That is still the entire business. We just have 38 more houses than we started with, spread across Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala — and a team that lives within twenty minutes of most of those front doors.
Four things we will not compromise on
We turn down more houses than we take
Every property is walked in person before it goes live, and re-checked between stays. If it is not a house we would put our own family in for a week, it does not make the collection. That is why the list is dozens of homes rather than hundreds.
A person, not a ticket number
Air conditioning out at nine on a Sunday. A lost rental car key. A restaurant that needs a local name to find you a table. One WhatsApp thread, answered by someone who lives here and can be at the door in twenty minutes.
The direct price is the honest price
Booking with us removes the guest service fee the platforms add — roughly 12 to 16 percent. Same house, same beds, same view, several hundred dollars less on a week. We would rather that money stayed with you than with a booking engine.
Owners see the same receipt we do
One flat commission, no setup fee, and zero markup on maintenance invoices. The monthly statement shows occupancy, ADR, RevPAR and every expense line. Nothing is buried.
Six regions, one team
We only operate where we can physically get to a house the same day. That is the limit on how fast we grow, and we are fine with it.
- Guanacaste — Our home base. Tamarindo, Langosta, Playa Grande, Potrero, Avellanas.
- Arenal — La Fortuna, El Castillo and the lake. Volcano views and hot springs.
- Monteverde — Cloud forest, cool nights, the green side of the country.
- Manuel Antonio — Rainforest meeting the Pacific. Our smallest, most exclusive group.
- Antigua, Guatemala — Colonial courtyards and three volcanoes on the skyline.
- Isla Ometepe — Nicaragua. Two volcanoes rising out of a freshwater lake.
Three businesses, one team
Vacation rentals
Hand-picked homes across six regions, bookable direct without a platform fee.
Property management
We run the whole thing — pricing, guests, cleaning, maintenance and the monthly statement.
Real estate
Buying and selling, with honest yield numbers from a company that also operates the market.
Come see for yourself
Tell us your dates and who is coming. We will point you at the right house — even if it turns out not to be one of ours.