After owning the Achieve Fitness gym for 10 years, Gabrielle and Justin Talley decided in June 2025 that it was time to become entrepreneurs of a vacation rental.

The Montgomery City residents bought the St. Jude’s Night Away vacation rental home on Second Street in town and renamed it Second Street Stay. They bought the property from Julie Worsham, who was the owner for two years.

“I was always very intrigued by what she had done,” Gabrielle Talley said. “So whenever it became available for sale, that was something that I was very interested in taking over and running.”

The vacation rental is located at 106 W. Second Street. Gabrielle said the explanation for the name change wasn’t hard.

“It’s on Second Street and it’s an overnight stay,” she said. “We like to keep it simple.”

Second Street Stay has two units, one on each floor. Each unit has two bedrooms, a kitchen, a refrigerator and a washer and dryer. Reservations can be ordered by going on the Airbnb app.

During the fall of 2022, Worsham bought the Second Street building and turned it into an overnight rental months later. It was vacant for almost a year. The building housed the Hair-I-Am salon for several years before it closed on Dec. 31, 2021.

Gabrielle said she and her husband were contacted by Worsham about her selling it and got a tour of it.

“I wanted to do it,” she said. “It felt right in my gut. It was an opportunity I wanted to seize. It was such a cool thing to be able to hear what brings people to Montgomery, whether it’s bringing them back to Montgomery or bringing them to Montgomery for the first time. So I enjoyed the hosting experience that Airbnb has brought.”

The Talleys have been owners of Achieve Fitness since 2015. It is located at 1245 Aguilar Drive in Montgomery City.

Gabrielle said she found out it is much different to own a vacation rental than a gym.

“I had to learn the app and I had to learn bookkeeping for rental incomes,” she said. ‘It’s an experience in itself because there are rating systems with Airbnb and you show up on their algorithm based on how quickly you respond to people. So it’s a learning experience, but it’s been a lot of fun learning about hosting and providing a space for people to come home to or to visit.”
Gabrielle said one of the future projects is fixing up the stairwell at the upstairs unit.

“I love to be able to put some historic pictures of the town at the 4-way in there and just have a little history of Montgomery City,” she said. “I need to get in touch with the (Montgomery County) Historical Society to see if they would be able to help me with that. I just think it would be so cool to use that area.”

Gabrielle said she and her family have been active in helping Second Street Stay a great place for visitors.

“My kids get in on it,” she said. “My daughter helped me decorate it for Easter. The whole family decorated it for Christmas. We had a family come rent the upstairs and downstairs units to celebrate their family Christmas. We left the little Christmas basket. It’s just been fun to take the opportunity to make people feel at home.”