Behind the Stays

In just a moment you’ll meet Antonio Bafia, a 23-year-old entrepreneur who dropped out of college to pursue his dream of building hospitality businesses.  Growing up, Antonio was a competitive hockey player — he dreamed of one day playing in the NHL. And while that dream never came to fruition, the discipline he learned playing hockey equipped him wonderfully for the exciting and taxing journey of...

Meet Bella Linchenko, a muralist, STR investor, and creative finance community builder. Growing up, Bella wanted to be a dog groomer…or an olympic gymnast…or both. And while neither of those dreams panned out, she does get to apply her love of art, form, and problem solving to the work she gets to do each day. In this conversation Bella and I discuss: How murals can elevate the value of your STR W...

Howdy friends!  In this episode Zach sits down with Ben Wolff, Co-Founder of Onera and Oasi — two of the most innovative brands in the experiential hospitality space.  Ben Wolff is an incredible entrepreneur who has built some of the world's most unique and social-media-famous Airbnbs — if you haven't checked at his work, it's time to change that.  In this episode, Ben announces his latest project...

One of the newest and hottest industry events, Level Up Your Listing , host by Natalie Palmer and Tatiana Taylor-Tait, just wrapped last week — and we wanted to know what people thought about the event! In this episode, Zach sits down with Sage Nathan (Head of Partnerships at Minoan and a sponsor of the event), Tyann Marcink , an industry veteran and one of the most respected voices in vacation re...

In this episode, Zach explores what Google Trends says about where to buy or build your next unique Airbnb. Zach shares fascinating insight into how search behavior for unique stays like treehouses, container homes, yurts, and A-frames has changed over time and where these searches for unique stays are most and least popular.  You're not going to want to miss this one folks! This episode is brough...

Meet Elam King — founder and CEO of Kingly Vacation Renta;s, a collection of short-term rentals and soon to be motels located across Pennsylvania and Maryland. Elam grew up in the Amish community and it was here that he learned the importance of discipline, hard work and craftsmanship. After leaving the Amish community as a young adult, Elam began to learn everything he could about real estate inv...

Meet Fred Boothby, Founder of Enjoy Unique Stays, a collection of 100 short-term rentals across Chattanooga, Michigan, North Carolina, and North Georgia. Fred was a banker — it seemed like a safe and stable way to build a nice life for his family. But there was something about the “safe way” that never felt quite right to Fred. One day he got a call from a friend who was looking for someone to hel...

Meet Landon Wilkinson, Co-Founder of Hostshare — a new platform that enables short-term rental hosts to trade unbooked nights in exchange for free travel. Growing up Landon wanted to be a spy — he went so far as to write a letter to the CIA asking them to recruit him …he even had a code name which you’ll hear about shortly! And while Landon never wound up pursuing a career in espionage, the boldne...

What’s up friends got a special episode for y’all today featuring my friend Hans Lorei one of the best if not THE BEST designer in the short-term rental space. While I am a real sucker for the traditional, interview syle pod, I also know that sometimes you need content that is short, sweet, and super practical. So, once or twice a month,  I’ll be dropping episodes on the pod that are slightly more...

Meet Matt Whitermore, a  hospitality entrepreneur who buys, builds, and manages RV parks.  In this engaging conversation, Matt shares how he got started buying RV parks and why he believes there’s huge opportunity to disrupt and reimagine this category of travel and real estate investment. Tune in to hear: - The lessons Matt learned after buying his first RV park - How he see experiential hospital...

Meet Kyle Tibbitts , Chief Marketing Officer at Wander , a network of smart, luxury vacation rentals that’s on a mission to verticalize the short-term rental experience.  If you were to have asked Kyle as a 10-year-old what he wanted to be when he grew up, he would have told you a lawyer, which, today, Kyle would tell you would have been a huge mistake. But if you were to have asked Kyle what he w...

In this episode of Behind the Stays, Zach shares five tangible and tactical ideas for how OpenAI's new Sora model will fundamentally change hospitality entrepreneurship.  Sora is an AI model that can create realistic and imaginative scenes from text instructions. Sora is able to generate complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and back...

Meet Stephanie Gutierrez, the creator of North Country Cabin Co. — a boutique collection of short-term rentals located just 90 minutes from Minnesota's twin cities in Comstock, Wisconsin. Growing up, Stephanie wanted to be an artist — her grandmother had an incredible eye for art and design and Stephanie dreamed of emulating her.  And while she didn’t become a professional artist, her knack for cr...

One of the newest and hottest industry events, STR Wealth Con , just wrapped last week — and we wanted to know what people thought about the event! In this episode, Zach sits down with Wil Slickers (emcee of the event), Sean Wilkinson (Co-Founder of Hostshare and first-time conferences attendee), and Heidie Henriksen ( a vacation rental industry veteran, to get their thoughts on the content, the c...

Meet Jeremy Gall, Founder & CEO of Breezeway  — the leading property care, operations and messaging platform for hospitality entrepreneurs. Growing up, Jermey wanted to be a professional basketball player. And while he never made it into the NBA, he did make it into Law School. But Jeremy’s professional career as an attorney wouldn’t last long because he was bit by that sneaky, but ever so ent...

Meet Meaghan Moylan , Executive Director of Outpost — a Vacation Rental and Property Management company located in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  If you were to have asked Meaghan what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would have told you a cat, a veterinarian, a nurse, or a lawyer — depending on whether she was 3, 10, 15, or 18.  As fate would have it, Meaghan did not become any of the aforemention...

Meet Chris Stephenson, Vice President of Global Development at Marriott Homes & Villas. Chris has spent his career building new, innovative products and services across travel and hospitality.  In February of 2019, Chris was a part of the founding team of Marriott Homes & Villas and in charge of thinking through how best to bring Marriott’s vacation rental home product to life.  In this ep...

Meet Taylor Bates, the creator of The Afton House — a stunning, luxury home made for gathering and nestled in the heart of Virginia wine country. Growing up, Taylor wanted to be an architect or a Fortune 500 CEO — she’s always loved the intersection of marketing, design, and business. After working in a few marketing management and nonprofit leadership roles, Taylor wound up starting her own bouti...

Meet Scott McIntosh, Co-Founder of Back Forty Glamping, a luxurious glamping oasis on 26 acres of land in Meaford, Ontario.  Growing up, Scott wanted to be a farmer — he loved being outdoors and the notion that you could make a life from tilling fields and harvesting crops was incredibly attractive to him. And while Scott wound up pursuing a career as an educator instead, a few years ago he and hi...

Meet Dylan Barahona, General Manager at Canyon of the Eagles, a nature resort and preserve on 940 acres of land, located just 1.5 Hours from Austin, Texas. If you were to have asked Dylan at ten-years-old what he wanted to be when he grew up, he’d tell you either a professional baseball player or a chef.  And while neither of those dreams quite panned out, the latter, dream set him on path to purs...

Meet Antonio Gonzalez, President of ÖÖD House — the company behind the instagram famous mirror houses. Antonio is an engineer by trade, but always had a heart for entrepreneurship… So, when the opportunity to co-found Jupe along with past-podcast guest Jeff Wilson and take it through Y Combinator, the world’s most prestigious of startup accelerators, came about, he took it. Antonio learned SO much...

Meet Garett Brown, the visionary and creator behind Cameron Ranch Glamping, a collection of luxury glamping units on 11 acres just an hour outside of Houston, Texas.  Garrett is a professional music producer and traveling DJ who has always loved dabbling in real estate investing. When he wasn’t performing on stage or out on a tour, he’d find himself scrolling through listings dreaming of what it’d...

Meet Brett Deas, a 19-year-old entrepreneur who owns and operates unique stay vacation rentals across the U.S. While his high school buddies were scrolling through TikTok before school and playing video games afterwards, Brett was binging Bigger Pockets podcasts to understand the world of real estate investing. After graduating from high school, Brett decided to try his hand at real estate investi...

Meet Mollie Reese, the host of the popular Stay in Good Company podcast and an experienced community builder who has spent her career working with leading brands across the the food & beverage and events & hospitality industries. Having recently left the world of corporate burnout and the hustle and bustle of city-living behind for a slower way of life, Mollie set out to pursue personal pa...

Meet Assaf Karmon, Co-founder & CEO of Turno — a marketplace that helps vacation rental hosts and property management companies simplify and automate cleaning. Assaf was born and raised in Israel and as a kid his dream was to be a professional soccer player. And while that dream never came to fruition, in part because Assaf spent most of his early sports career sitting on the bench, the determ...