VakayMood started as a passion project — born from our love for travel and our dream of making it easier, better, and more affordable.
Origins & Early Adventures
We are Mariana and Errol, a couple from Southern California who’ve been working remotely since before it was cool (a.k.a. pre-COVID). We actually met at a ski meetup, and skiing (plus traveling) quickly became our shared obsession.
Errol’s the planner — the guy who finds epic deals a year ahead — while Mariana’s more of a “go with the flow and expect it to work out perfectly” type. Together, we make a great travel team.
As we skied more and traveled more, we kept running into the same problem: hotel rooms and private rentals just weren’t cutting it. Hotels were expensive, lacked kitchens (hello, high food bills), and forced us to book multiple rooms when traveling with a group. Private homes usually meant long drives to the slopes or crazy prices.
Discovery of Timeshare Rentals
Then we discovered a game-changer: timeshare rentals through Facebook groups. It wasn’t easy — the process was cumbersome and we almost got scammed a few times — but staying at brand-name resorts in amazing locations, with full kitchens and plenty of space, completely transformed our vacations.
We even started organizing group trips with friends — and one of those friends, Alex (who’s now part of our VakayMood founding team), even picked up snowboarding for the first time on one of our trips!
That’s when the idea for VakayMood was born — during one of those perfect ski getaways. We realized this “hidden secret” shouldn’t stay hidden. Everyone deserves resort vacations without breaking the bank.
Mission & Vision
Our mission at VakayMood is simple: To make resort vacations accessible and affordable for everyone by connecting travelers with exclusive, verified resort stays at unbeatable prices.
We’re excited to be part of your next adventure.
Welcome to VakayMood!
Meet the Founders
Errol Lawrence
Errol brings a business-savvy, growth-focused mindset to everything he does. With years of experience leading sales and building strong client relationships across industries, he’s passionate about creating better ways for people to travel. A natural strategist and forward-thinker, Errol loves planning unforgettable trips, finding hidden travel deals, and helping VakayMood guests make the most of every getaway.
Mariana Cedica
Mariana brings over 20 years of experience as a technical architect and developer to VakayMood. She’s spent most of her career engineering high-performing content management solutions for global enterprises, including building the core Nuxeo platform in France and leading major projects in the U.S. As co-founder of Maretha Solutions and an AWS Certified Architect, Mariana is passionate about designing scalable, reliable platforms — and making sure VakayMood delivers the best possible experience for every traveler.
Alex Protopopescu
Alex brings 20 years of hands-on experience in systems, cloud infrastructure, and software development. What started as a hobby when he was a teen turned into a lifelong passion and career. Over the years, he’s worked across roles like Linux system administrator, DevOps engineer, and software developer — always with a focus on security, performance, and scale. His deep technical background and commitment to building reliable systems help ensure VakayMood delivers a seamless experience for every traveler.