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Hollingsworth envisioned her business as a solution for Northern Neck homeowners when it comes to all the chores they might not want, or be able to do. Photo by Corey Miller.
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Hollingsworth is happy to make referrals for cleaning, repair and maintenance, and can also be the one to meet the serviceperson at your house. Photos by Corey Miller.
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Need a helping hand? Country~River offers concierge services customized for each client's situation. Photos by Corey Miller.
Imagine walking into your river house for the weekend and the Amazon packages have been brought in, the refrigerator is already stocked and the thermostat is set to your ideal temperature. If you wanted, there’d even be fresh flowers on the table to greet you.
Or, as an off-site Airbnb or vacation rental owner, just think if you had someone to wait for a repairman, water the plants, take guests’ trash to the dump and close the house up once guests have departed. It certainly would make life easier from a distance.
Lancaster resident Gleason Hollingsworth envisioned her business, Country~River, as a solution for Northern Neck homeowners when it comes to all the chores they might not want—or be able—to do. She started the company while living in Charles City County and when she, her husband and young daughter moved to Lancaster in fall 2022, she transferred the concept here, where it’s particularly suitable given the abundance of second homes, vacation rentals and older residents who need assistance with errands and chores.
A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, Hollingsworth had used her degree in interior design and historic preservation in a myriad of ways: to stage model homes, as a realty and property manager, as an antique buyer and shop owner, as an accessory buyer and installer, and quite naturally, as an interior designer. “Everything I’ve done is house related,” she says with a laugh. “My eye picks up immediately when something is out of place. Organization and taking care of all the little details come naturally.”
Because the range of services she offers is so wide—everything from taking a client to the airport to being the contact person for rental properties to removing dead mice while stocking cabinets—Hollingsworth suggests potential clients contact her through her website about anything at all they might need help with. “I’ve put furniture together for clients, done property checks when clients are on vacation and set up Christmas trees and lights for the holidays,” she says. “I can customize for each person to accommodate whatever they need done, either on a contract basis or on an as-needed basis.”
One thing she doesn’t do is clean houses, although she’s happy to make referrals, not just for cleaning, but for maintenance and repair. She’s had clients call because of an upcoming cold snap and she’ll go into their homes and set the faucets dripping and adjust the thermostat to ensure that their pipes don’t freeze.
The alternative for some people is to learn the hard way. “A client had had the pipes turned off in the main house but forgotten about turning them off in the guest house,” she says. “When she finally sent me to check, the kitchen pipes had burst and been flooding the house for a month.”
A pro, she’s handled many an odd or unexpected situation. “A client wanted me to blow leaves off their patio before their arrival and as I was doing that, a limping raccoon started heading right toward me,” she recalls. “I didn’t want that, so I used my blower to encourage him to head off in another direction and finished clearing the patio. That’s been the weirdest so far.”
Providing concierge services, short-term rental staging and cohosting also means that if you’re headed home from the Northern Neck and remember you left the oven on, she’ll go turn it off for you. When a client driving down for the weekend realized they’d forgotten to bring diapers for their baby, Hollingsworth ensured that diapers were there when they reached their house, saving the young family a stop along the way.
Yet another service available is taking a client’s car to be serviced or detailed. “I can connect clients to other local resources, too,” she says. “I can recommend a handyman, a meal delivery service or someone to pressure wash your house. I can then be the one to meet the serviceperson at your house, so you don’t even have to be there.”
Hollingsworth says the goal of Country~River is to build relationships, with realtors who can connect their clients to her services and with service providers she can recommend to her clients. “Just ask and I can probably make it happen,” she says. “My motto is, just let me take care of that for you. And I will.”
Country~River I 804-875-0220 I countryriverllc.com
