For a small startup in the Pinellas County visitor industry, serendipity is welcome right now.
GuestWings is a mobile guest room concept in the form of two 23-foot Airstream trailers. Now, the pandemic has halted what was a steadily growing fourth-year business in a break-even year.
Then Pinellas-based family medicine physician Eric Berryman stumbled upon its Facebook page.
“For us, it was a miracle,” GuestWings co-founder Terri Shapiro said.
Health care practitioners are being encouraged, if they can, not to stay under the same roof as their families. Berryman is working shifts in Ocala emergency rooms and commuting back to the bay area. Two years ago, his mother-in-law found GuestWings, booked it during a family visit here and loved it.
The connection is an example of how the disruption of the moment is forcing small business owners to quickly adapt to new opportunities. Shapiro is looking to help other first responders.
Shapiro and her partner started GuestWings in 2016 after moving to St. Petersburg from Minneapolis in 2014. They often rent to families looking for another guest room in their driveways. Seasonal rates usually run $249 a night.
“He’s getting it for $2,000 a month which won’t quite cover our costs,” Shapiro said.
Berryman was dressed in personal protection gear when they met, she said.
“What shocked me was when he told me about how many doctors are sleeping in their garages,” said the former senior marketing executive. Shapiro spent much of her career as a brand manager at Procter & Gamble, specifically working on Comet cleanser and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.
“Now, I am thinking about survival on a day-by-day basis,” she said. She’s gaining counsel and strategic feedback from her BNI Group for networking, trying to get the word out to first responders. She’s quickly picked up two referrals.
For Berryman, it’s one less thing to worry about.
“I can still interact with the kids and keep far enough apart and I would be home when I’m off,” he said. “And if I got really sick, my wife could help me in ways that I couldn’t get in a hotel.”
