--- title: "From 2 in Spain to 10 in the Philippines." description: "Working with Teamed since 2022, City Relay built a 10-person Philippines support team within 18 months of their first 2-person Spain pilot, an 80% increase in global workforce. They run all hires under Teamed EOR with no local entities. Same-day onboarding is now their operational baseline. 25% of total headcount is remote-international today; their internal target is 30%." canonical: https://www.teamed.global/case-study/city-relay-scales-with-trust-flexibility-and-global-support datePublished: 2026-05-14 dateModified: 2026-05-14 --- # From 2 in Spain to 10 in the Philippines. **City Relay · London property management · award-winning short-term-rental specialist** > Working with Teamed since 2022, City Relay built a 10-person Philippines support team within 18 months of their first 2-person Spain pilot, an 80% increase in global workforce. They run all hires under Teamed EOR with no local entities. Same-day onboarding is now their operational baseline. 25% of total headcount is remote-international today; their internal target is 30%. ## A London property-management company has been entirely UK-based. Post-pandemic, they want a real remote support team: first in Spain, then in the Philippines. How fast can they actually staff a foreign market they have never operated in, and how do they not turn into an entity-management business while doing it? Working with Teamed since 2022, City Relay built a 10-person Philippines support team within 18 months of their first 2-person Spain pilot, an 80% increase in global workforce. They run all hires under Teamed EOR with no local entities. Same-day onboarding is now their operational baseline. 25% of total headcount is remote-international today; their internal target is 30%. ## Outcomes - **Global workforce growth via Teamed:** +80%. - **Philippines team size (from 2-person Spain pilot):** 10 employees in 18 months. - **Fastest reported onboarding:** < 24 hours. - **Stated local-compliance outcome:** 100% (Philippine labour law). - **Compliance queries answered in real-time:** 60–80%. - **Remote share of total headcount:** 25% today, 30% target. - **Teamed partnership tenure:** Since 2022. ## The story **Challenge.** City Relay, an award-winning London short-term-rental specialist, was entirely UK-based pre-pandemic. Post-pandemic shifts in the property-management market reshaped where the work could happen: customer service and administrative roles no longer needed to be in London. Amy Pantlin, the firm's Head of People, wanted to build a remote support team but had no in-house capacity to learn either Spanish or Philippine employment law, no appetite to set up legal entities in either country, and no patience for the typical multi-month international-hire onboarding cycle that the rental market's seasonality made unworkable. **Approach.** City Relay engaged Teamed in 2022 starting with two hires in Spain. The structural decision was EOR-only: Teamed's local entities are the legal employer; City Relay is the operational employer running customer support, training, and culture. As the model proved out, the firm shifted the next round of hiring to the Philippines on the same structure. A dedicated Philippines specialist runs the day-to-day local labour-law specifics, including the night-differential rules that apply to a 24/7 support operation, which would be a learning curve for any UK people-ops team. **Result.** In 18 months, City Relay grew the Philippines team from zero to 10 people while keeping the Spain hires in place. Total global workforce grew 80%. Onboarding cycles compressed to under 24 hours when needed. 25% of total City Relay headcount is now remote-international, with an internal target of 30%. The model has held: a London property-management business running multi-country support operations without becoming an entity-management business in the process. The firm now actively recommends the model to peer property-management operators. ## Verified claims - **Country expansion path:** Spain → Philippines, both under EOR, no local entity established - **Onboarding speed:** Same-day onboarding (< 24 hours) is the operational baseline, not an exception - **In-country specialist model:** A dedicated Philippines specialist handles local labour-law specifics including night-differential rules - **Compliance response time:** 60–80% of compliance queries answered in real-time by Teamed in-country team ## What this means for your team - Pilot the first country with the smallest credible team (City Relay started with 2 in Spain) so the EOR structure proves itself before scale commits. - Pick the second country deliberately (different time zone, different cost structure, different talent depth) to test the model's portability before committing further. - Insist on a dedicated in-country specialist before signing. "Help desk" is not the same as a real specialist in the Philippines. - Build engagement rituals (social events, team shout-outs, cross-country collaboration moments) as soon as the second hire lands. EOR removes the legal friction; it does not solve culture by itself. - Review headcount-by-country every 6 months. Most City-Relay-scale operations stay on EOR indefinitely; entity setup is rarely the right move below 10–15 per country. ## FAQ ### Why two different countries (Spain and the Philippines) instead of doubling down on one? Spain solves Europe-time-zone support and multilingual European talent. The Philippines solves 24/7 coverage (UK overnight = Philippines business hours) at a lower cost. The portfolio is more resilient than concentrating in one market. ### What are the Philippine night-differential rules and why do they matter for a 24/7 support operation? Article 86 of the Philippine Labor Code: 10% minimum night-shift differential for 10 PM–6 AM work, plus Sunday/holiday premiums under Articles 93–94. Effective wage cost is higher than headline salary by a country-specific factor that needs modeling. ### How does 24-hour onboarding actually work in practice? Three preconditions: country-correct contract template already approved, customer has supplied role terms, candidate has supplied local ID + tax docs. Contract issues, employee accepts, payroll opens same day. The speed comes from removing weeks of country-research and legal-review. ### When would City Relay outgrow EOR in the Philippines? For Philippine professional-services salaries, the EOR-to-entity crossover is roughly 12–15 employees. City Relay at 10 remains in the EOR window. The Crossover Calculator generates the country-and-salary-specific number. ## Sources - [City Relay](https://cityrelay.com/) — City Relay - [Philippine Labor Code (Presidential Decree No. 442, as amended), Article 86 (Night Shift Differential)](https://www.dole.gov.ph/labor-code/) — Department of Labor and Employment, Republic of the Philippines - [Crossover Calculator methodology](/tools/crossover-calculator) — Teamed - [Teamed EOR pricing](/pricing) — Teamed --- Last reviewed: 2026-05-14. Source: https://www.teamed.global/case-study/city-relay-scales-with-trust-flexibility-and-global-support