StayBham

Founded in Birmingham, Alabama in 2017, StayBham is a locally owned vacation rental company built around restoring overlooked historic homes and turning them into stylish, self-catering places to stay across the city. It began with two sisters, Emma and Lara Embry, and a single 1950s ranch house they renovated on a whim, and it has grown into a small collection of distinctive Birmingham properties without losing its independent, family-run character.

The company’s own account of its origin is disarmingly simple: the idea came to them on the deck of that first house, a property they named Avonwood, near the Avondale and Crestwood neighborhoods. Avonwood became StayBham’s top-ranked rental in Birmingham within its first year, and its success convinced the Embrys to keep going rather than stop at one property.

That expansion led them to Eden Brae, a Southern Gothic estate in the Highland Park neighborhood that had fallen into disrepair before the sisters took it on. Built in 1910 and renovated in 2018, Eden Brae was divided into five separate apartments, each with its own private exterior entrance, chef’s kitchen access, native gardens, and a wraparound front porch. It has since been featured in Birmingham Magazine and is used for everything from weekend stays to weddings and reunions, with room to sleep as many as 26 guests and host events for up to 100.

On Birmingham’s Southside, StayBham operates Charles on 11th, a historic home built in 1920 and renovated in 2020 into three separate apartments. The property is designed with an accessible first floor layout, a chef’s kitchen, and generous outdoor space, and it can comfortably sleep up to 20 guests, with capacity for events up to 60. Guests have used it for everything from a quiet weekend to a gathering of 16 people under one roof, a scale that sets it apart from a single Airbnb listing with no company behind it.

Avonwood itself remains part of the current lineup, a modern bungalow situated between the Avondale and Crestwood neighborhoods that sleeps up to five guests and can host events for up to 20. A fourth Birmingham property, Blue Door, is a three-bedroom home near Avondale rounding out the company’s current local portfolio. Each property is presented on StayBham’s own website with its own description, capacity, and photography, rather than through a single generic listing, which reflects the level of care the Embrys put into restoring these houses individually rather than treating them as interchangeable units.

What distinguishes StayBham from the wave of individual short-term rental listings scattered across Birmingham is that it is an actual company with a name, a founding story, and a consistent standard behind every property it manages. The brand describes its approach as helping guests stay like a local, with homes stocked with premium linens and locally made bath, body, and kitchen products rather than the generic basics found in a typical rental unit. Bookings run through the company’s own reservation system, and each property page links back to the same StayBham identity rather than standing alone. That direct relationship also means guests can ask the Embrys or their staff specific questions about a property before booking, something a marketplace listing with no company behind it usually cannot offer.

Since its Birmingham beginnings, StayBham has expanded into a few other markets, including Bellingham, Washington, but its roots and its largest concentration of properties remain in Birmingham, where Eden Brae, Charles on 11th, Avonwood, and Blue Door continue to operate as the company’s founding portfolio. For visitors who want a full house or a distinctive historic space rather than a standard hotel room, and who would rather book through a real local business than a single anonymous listing, StayBham offers a well-documented, independently owned alternative.