In 2013, my husband Yong and I were hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee with some dear friends, one of whom had been hosting in his home for Airbnb. During the hike, he encouraged us to consider becoming hosts ourselves. Having recently returned from an amazing European vacation where we had stayed with some amazing Airbnb hosts, we were intrigued by the idea, and on the drive back to our home in Knoxville, we began discussing the possibility. Within a couple of weeks, we had turned one of our spare bedrooms into a guest room we could offer proudly, and soon after began hosting. From our first guests, we knew that we had stumbled on doing something we dearly loved. Before long, we converted our other spare bedroom and doubled our hosting at home. I think this was the time we first gave our house the playful nickname “Harlim Manor,” based on the combination of our two last names that we had also used playfully for many years. As much as we love our cozy home, it’s nothing close to the image that the word manor might conjure, but it still fits somehow.
After hosting at home for a few months, a new dream was born: to buy a cabin in the Smokies and rent it out to vacationers. It took almost a full year of looking, but we finally found our perfect mountain home in Wears Valley, a serene and picturesque area that we had previously known very little about. We finally had our home in the mountains that we loved sharing with our guests, and we named it Hidden Haven. For the next few years, we continued growing until we had three cabins in the Smokies and a classic Floridian cottage in Fort Lauderdale. During the course of our hosting business, we discovered that creating and providing recreational spaces for our guests was truly a passion for us. We love the process from start to finish!
By the early part of 2020, we had begun dreaming about our first small resort property, where we could create a space for multiple guests and their families all in once place. Although we have not abandoned that idea, the pandemic came along and seemed to put almost everything on hold. In the meantime, we had adapted to online meetings and social events and realized how grateful we were for technology and its ability to help people connect during trying times. As the election season heated up, we also became acutely aware of how chaotic and even toxic social media can be, although we still appreciate the positive aspects of it. (Many of our thoughts and feelings about social media have been exemplified in the beautifully done documentary The Social Dilemma. We highly recommend it!)
As the months of the pandemic started going by, we also became more and more aware of how important online shopping had become, and how much we appreciated finding quality products from online vendors we could trust. We started thinking about ways to offer high quality product that would enhance people’s lives and forge our own livelihood in a ways that bless everyone involved.
With all this in mind, we began imagining an online community where people could explore, shop, and visit, kind of like they would in Gatlinburg or Wilton Manors, two “villages” we have always loved spending time in. As we brainstormed ideas, we remembered places we had visited that felt peaceful and away from the noise of the outside world. We thought about the need to bring people together so that no one feels alone in this big, fast-paced world, even online. That’s how Harlim Manor Village was born as an inclusive and peaceful online destination with content, commerce, and community. We are excited to be here, and we thank you for coming to visit. Please stay awhile, and come back when you can! Feel free to drop us a line if you have ideas for products or content you’d like to see here. We are open to ideas! See you around the village!
All the Best,
Landon C. Harless & Yong Lim
Harlim Manor