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May 31, 2025 12 mins

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Stepping through the doorway of the Coconut Casita feels like entering another world – a tropical sanctuary where every object tells a story and the surrounding "jungle garden" whispers secrets of times past. In this heartfelt conversation with Linda Roberts, we uncover the remarkable journey of how a once "smoky, dingy, and sad" guesthouse transformed into one of Vero Beach's most beloved Airbnb destinations.

Linda shares her fascinating dual identity as both an internationally board certified lactation consultant and doula by day, and a passionate Airbnb host by night. The Coconut Casita wasn't born from a business plan but emerged organically following the passing of Linda's mother, with whom she had spent 15 years cultivating the lush garden from nothing but mud and a few trees. What started as a whim to perhaps host "three or four people" quickly blossomed into something much more meaningful.

What makes the Coconut Casita truly special is its authentic soul. From the Swiss-crafted family table that seated generations to her children's retired surfboards adorning the walls, every element has significance. Linda's approach to hospitality – offering garden tours, local culinary treats, and even occasional botanical cocktails while respecting guests' privacy – has created an environment where travelers from around the world feel instantly at home.

If Vero Beach is in your travel plans, the Coconut Casita might just become your new favorite getaway.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, Well, welcome back to the Vero Beach
podcast.
I'm Brian and I'm Shawna, andtoday we're so excited about our
guest that's joining us today.
Her name is Linda.
I didn't catch Linda's lastname, Linda.
What's your last name?
Roberts?
Linda Roberts from the CoconutCasita and man, this place is.
We're excited to be able tocome and interview you, Linda,

(00:21):
because we have our own littlestory.
When we first came here Becausethat was back in what?
2021.
2021.
Yeah, and actually we were justlooking at the dates it was May
10th and it's May 15th whenwe're recording this.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
So actually four years ago, this is the day we
were leaving.
Oh, that was a sad day.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Now it's a happy day and you're back.
Now it's a happy day and you'reback Now.
We're back, now, we're back,and we live in Bureau, so this
is great.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
And we get to know you more.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
So we're excited to be here and learn more about the
Coconut Casita.
Why don't we just go ahead andstart, Linda, and have you just
share a little bit about who youare?

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Who I am, I guess.
First of all I'm wife, motherof four.
I have been in the business andmoms for 32 years.
I'm an internationally boardcertified lactation consultant.
I'm a doula and a midwife'sassistant.
So I've had the pleasure andthe privilege of helping bring
little tiny people into theworld and helping moms and
babies, and I'm doing that on.

(01:14):
That's my day job.
So this is my night job.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Now.
We'll probably get into thislater, but you've probably had
some babies call you from theAirbnb at night too, complaining
about problems.
No, I'm just joking, I knowAirbnb life could be Different
kind of baby.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
It's probably good for you to kind of keep it on
the download that you're a doula, because if someone's here and
they're like my baby won't stopcrying, they'll call you out
here.
Figure out why this baby'scrying.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
I have.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
We've had pregnant moms come.
We've had pregnant moms come.
We've had moms with brand newbabies come Sometimes I'll leave
out a few of my favorite books,and I've actually done consults
for guests.
This was always kind of what mysecret goal was.
It never did come to fruition,but I wanted to turn this into
kind of a very quiet, beautiful,garden-like birth center.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Really.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah.
So, that's on the shelf and wehave had people rent it that
were planning on having a babyOne person.
They ended up going past theirdue date so they couldn't have
it here, but they were able tocome here and really relax and
enjoy those last two.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
They're always going to hold that over that baby too.
They're going to be like youcould have been born at the
Coconut Casita, you stubbornlittle thing.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
A little romper If nobody here, if anybody
listening not nobody here,nobody's here right now.
So let's kind of like we'reactually sitting in the Coconut
Casita right now and it's reallycool.
If you've never been here, youdefinitely need a book room.
Go to the Airbnb list.
You need to check out.
Go look at the photos.
Right now we're sitting at thetable right by the surf table
Well, I call it the surf table,but the surfboard is right above

(02:46):
the table.
I have really good memories ofthis table too, and you're so
nice.
You brought us some wine to beable to sit down and just enjoy,
and just sit down and have thisconversation.
Like a family it's just like alittle family.
It's very cool.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
It's one of my favorite places in the whole
world because you just walk inand you know you're someplace
special.
First of all, your decoratingstyle.
I've never seen anything likeit.
It is so beautiful and calmingand eclectic and big, huge
tropical leaves and vaseseverywhere, such interesting
little Things like I'm lookingaround right now and your eyes

(03:20):
just drawn all over the placebecause there's so many
beautiful things.
And that's what I was drawn tothe first time we came here.
We walked in and all three ofus were like wow, it's just
special.
I love hearing that.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
I love hearing that, and then that's the feeling I
want to evoke, and everythingaround here is from the family.
This table my parents actuallyhad made in Switzerland by
craftsmen and they had to decidewith us three kids when we were
all little how many grandkidsare they going to have?

Speaker 1 (03:48):
This is just a family gem and a lot of the pieces in
here there is.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
There is a soul to them and some love to them, and
you're not going to find manythat just came from big box
stores and some of them arechipped and, you know, retired
surfboards from the kids.
That is so cool.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
You know, I remember when we came here, I had
launched my business full timeand it had been about a year
since we've been full time doingthe business and I knew I
needed to take a break.
And Shauna was telling me youneed to take a break.
And so I had a team then whichmade it possible for me to take
that break.
And this is where we came, as Iwanted to go to a place that

(04:30):
could really just unplug, relax.
I surprised them with thecharcuterie board, which I had
no idea it was going to be whatit was.
I mean, it was beautiful, Ithink it was like on a big
wooden.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
We still talk about that.
It was on a wooden board with abanana leaf under it.
And we were just so thrilled bythat.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
And just straight from the yard, and all of
everything you put on thatcharcuterie board was so
delicious and well balanced.
Yeah, do you still offer that?
I do.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
I don't really mention it, but a lot of people
that have been here before Iwill always, happily.
I love hosting and I lovecreating an experience and using
things from the yard.
Sometimes we'll even do abotanical cocktail setup.
Oh, how fun.
We'll use our mulberries and Ilove to use local products.
So there's a little cottagebakery called Milk and Honey
Bell.
That is phenomenal.

(05:25):
And so I'll use their bread, orthey'll make even little
coconut rolls for me.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Oh, that is cool.
So, Linda, tell me, how did youget led to starting this Airbnb
?

Speaker 3 (05:39):
It's a kismet story really.
So we bought this house I callit the hacienda from an open
house because my mother wasthinking of moving down.
We lived in a little old 1920shouse in a gorgeous little
neighborhood deep in Vero and itwas a little small.
And we came to an open houseand I remember walking in the

(06:00):
driveway and it lookedsignificantly different than it
does now and we had two bigGreat Danes at the time.
I thought, oh, if there's a f.
And I remember walking in thedriveway and it looked
significantly different than itdoes now and we had two big
Great Danes at the time.
I thought, oh, if there's afenced yard, we're good to go,
this is our place.
And we walked through it.
We looked and it was this, thisguest house.
That kind of sealed the deal forus and everything was black

(06:24):
that you can see, white and shagcarpeting and no kitchen.
So we got my mom down here.
She came and looked at it.
She sat down on a couch and theprevious owner was like a
smoker I think the son livedhere.
So it was not only smoky anddingy but it was just a little
sad and my mom sat on the couch.
She said I can't do this.
I can't do this at all, but weended up getting it and she was

(06:50):
with us for 15 years, so it wasfabulous, and her and I actually
did the whole garden.
There was just mud and some pinetrees and some old oaks there
was no garden out there before.
Oh my goodness, so that's what20 years can do.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
And listener.
Once you see this garden,you're going to be properly
shocked.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
I absolutely.
Sometimes I just relax and Ifeel my mom, I feel her presence
.
So to me doing this as anAirbnb, we literally didn't know
what we were going to do.
After she passed and she was mybest friend and we were the
closest.
Yeah, on a whim I just said oh,there's this new thing called
Airbnb.
I'll try it out there.
Maybe we'll get three or fourpeople and it just took off.

(07:32):
But what I found is that Iloved hosting.
And I loved meeting people fromall over the world and creating
an experience and it felt likesharing sharing her, sharing her
legacy and what we did together.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Oh, that's beautiful did together.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Oh, that's beautiful, I will say.
You do such a beautiful hybridform of hosting where you know
it's not like a Airbnb whereyou're there in the house with
the guest, but, as opposed toother Airbnbs that we've been to
, where you never even meet thehost, you make yourself
available, which I love, becauseI realized that not everyone
who comes to visit might want tointeract, but some people like
myself, you know, when I sawthat you were offering a garden

(08:14):
tour, that was so up my alleyand so exciting and I got to
actually meet you and talk toyou, and I love that you do that
, because there's so many timeswhere we stay in an Airbnb and
we think I wish I knew theperson that's behind this, you
know, because it's sointeresting to learn about
someone's story and now we getto learn even more about it and
I love that.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
I really appreciate you saying that, because that's
how I feel too.
Not everybody wants to meet, sowe just make ourselves
available if you want to.
You know you might see us outwatering something, but we
actually try and stay very quietinside.
I feel the same way when I goto different short-term rentals
or if I go to another place.
I want to meet the locals Ilove it.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
I didn't get to meet you when we first came but,
there was some interestingthings that happened that I'll
be able to maybe rekindle somememories or thoughts.
Or you might already know andyou might be like all right, I'm
already checking everything butwe're going to find out.
But what's one of your favoritememories from the early days?

Speaker 3 (09:09):
I remember one of the first guests we had was a
90-year-old woman fromSwitzerland and I think he was
93.
And they were the most spritelittle elves and they came here
and they loved the garden andthey would walk through the
garden every day, every day.
And you know, I got to.

(09:30):
I think they stayed for a weekand, um, sadly, he, he passed
out and so she came running overto our house, so I came running
over here, we got him to thehospital, I took him to the
pharmacy, I you know, and he wasfine, he was good.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
He was good.
I was like wow, this is goingreally dark the other way.
This is your favorite memory.
The elf guy died here.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
No, but my favorite memory is that they ended up
coming back.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
And they wanted us to come visit them.
And I just remember their sweetfaces and just walking the
garden and just telling us howmuch they just loved being here.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Oh wow, that is awesome that is so beautiful.
Well, I think it would be crazy.
I don't know how anybody couldleave here and not enjoy being
here, because it is just anamazing place.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Maybe if you hate nature.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Maybe if you hate nature.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Then maybe.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
Or Florida critters, Florida critters yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Because we do.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
That's a good point we have birds and there's all
sorts of things out there thatare.
But I think most people thatcome, they do come because
they're looking for this.
We've hosted weddings.
We've hosted birthday partiesand wedding receptions.
And that's beautiful Small ones, tiny, tiny, tiny ones.
But my son even.

(10:49):
We had his wedding receptionhere.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Oh that is so cool.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
There's a lot of love in the garden A lot of love.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
I call it the jungle garden.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
That's what I call it too.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Every time I describe it, I say it's a jungle garden.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
You didn't get that from Linda.
You came up with that on yourown, I don't know for sure.
I just didn't realize.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
I mean, that's what I've always said, so I must have
gotten it from you at somepoint.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Maybe, but it kind of is what it looks like.
That's what it is, yeah,exactly.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
So that's how it all got started for you.
So I'm excited to get to thenext episode and I definitely
encourage everybody to staytuned in.
You make sure you click thenext episode.
You're going to want to share alittle bit of how I guess I
didn't meet you, but Shauna metyou because of something I did.

(11:33):
We'll share that a little bitlater as well.
So with that, well, we're goingto go ahead and wrap this
episode up and we will See youlater, neighbor.
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