Thanks For Visiting

Lauren Noble is a Superhost from Austin, Texas whose short-term rental was featured on the CNBC show “Cash Pad” with the Bachelorette's JoJo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers in the fall of 2019. Hosting was supposed to be a fun part time project for her, but it has turned into a busy side gig that has jump started her desire to get more involved in real estate investing. She’s also an ICU nurse and fir...

Looking for a creative, fun, and accessible way to get into the short-term rental space? Look no further! Matt Mitchell is a digital nomad who turned his passion for campervan travel into a short-term rental business. Through each rental experience, he’s able to educate travelers about their investment in adventure and outdoor recreation. He spent a year traveling across the US & Canada in his...

Marketing and branding are how you take your short-term rental business to the next level, but how do you introduce your brand to all of your guests - especially those that book through online travel agencies? And how do you capture email addresses during their stay? Arthur Colker is the Founder and CEO of StayFi, the #1 provider of WiFi marketing services for vacation rental companies. Vacation r...

You’re all here because you want to learn more about the short term rental industry. Maybe you want to get involved, but don’t know how to get started. Turns out, it might be that the best way to get into the world of short-term rentals isn’t to own, but to invest. If you’re interested in getting a short-term rental started with an investment group, Tribevest makes it easy to get started. You can...

Solo travel is a rising trend, but it can be dangerous — especially for women. Yaa Birago is a tech entrepreneur, philanthropist, mentor, and the co-founder and CEO of FemmeBnb, the first social networking vacation and STR platform for women, by women. FemmeBnb allows women to rent their spaces to other women in the hopes of maximizing safety, peace-of-mind, and comfort. It also provides users wit...

If you had the opportunity to purchase a historic home, what would you do with it? James and Jacob created an Airbnb rental, a country retreat, and a hub for fine dining, photoshoots, weddings, and more. The two now own Farrand Hall, a historic estate built by Henry K. Farrand in the magic capital of the world: Colon, Michigan. Farrand Hall was added to Michigan State Preservation Office’s List of...

Safety is such an important component of the rental industry. You’re inviting people who aren’t familiar with the space and carry responsibility for their safety while they stay. We’re talking to our Safety Captain, Justin Ford, once again to discuss safety when it comes to pools and spas. With summer just around the corner and the world opening up after the pandemic, people are itching to get out...

Who wouldn’t want to vacation on a Caribbean island for free? That was the goal for Larry Nettles, a short term rental property owner in St. Croix. He bought one property as an investment with no experience but he is bringing the dream to life. His story is relatable for anyone looking to start their own STR journey and shows what’s possible in just a few years. Resources: Larry’s Airbnb: abnb.me/...

What if we told you that the actual reservation is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the true value your guests represent? We’ve been in a reflection mood lately. Part of looking back on our hosting journey is recognizing how much we’ve grown while looking closely at the mistakes that we’ve made along the way. There are three giant missteps that we’ve made that we can’t stop thinking ab...

Being a successful host requires more than being reactive to issues — you have to be proactive and preventative. Andrew Kaiser of MendBnb chats with us to cover the top five maintenance issues that all hosts can prevent to improve the guest experience. Resources: mendbnb.com Visit https://mendbnb.com/thanksforvisiting/mend/59/ for 50% off your first month Request MendBnb in your city: mendbnb.com/...

In Part One of this interview with Shannon Leyh, we heard how she wanted to get into the short-term rental game and purchased a rental in Snowshoe, West Virginia. Thanks to some recording magic, you don't have to wait months to hear how that story ends — we have the answers for you right now! Resources: Shannonleyh.com Instagram: @shannon_realestate_life | @happyshamrock68 Are you ready to master...

What if you could follow someone’s journey from hopeful host to burgeoning success and see what exactly it takes to make it in this business? Shannon Leyh reached out to us just as she decided to take part in this world and asked us to chronicle her experience — and we couldn’t say no! She’s vulnerable, honest, and shares all of the numbers behind what it takes. Don’t worry — you won’t have to wai...

Anyone who’s worked in the industry long enough begins to identify some of the pain points. Still, it takes a true entrepreneur to turn the solution into a business — one that’s going to make the lives of all rental property hosts and managers easier. Jeffrey Iloulian has been in the vacation rental industry for over a decade, setting up, managing, or operating over 250 vacation rental properties....

Should you be focused on short-term or long-term rentals? Julie Gates is a real estate investor, and while she enjoys the complex world of short-term rentals, she specializes in stays of 30 days or more. She’s been in the long-term rental industry for a while now, renting out a guest home on her property, but making Airbnb a part of her business allowed her to grow tremendously — to over 30 proper...

We’ve talked about what the short-term rental industry can learn from the hotel industry… but what can Airbnb and other short-term rentals do even better than big chain hotels? Wil Slickers is the creator of hospitality podcasts Slick Talk and Good Morning Hospitality and co-founder of Recreation Rentals, a boutique rental management company. He always had a love for people but didn’t know where t...

Merilee Karr is the founder and CEO of UnderTheDoormat and chairperson of the UK Short Term Accommodation Association. She went all-in on the short-term rental world when she saw an opportunity to start her own business. She believed that, in order for the home rental market to blow up, it needed to be treated professionally. She made the decision to take that leap and enter that market, serving w...

What would you do if you could pick the brain of one of the people responsible for Airbnb’s success? Well, you just might have that chance! New York Times best-selling author Chip Conley is the boutique hotel entrepreneur who is largely responsible for Airbnb becoming the global hospitality brand that it is today while serving as their Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy, and today he acts as...

Amanda Williams is known as “The Traveling Realtor” because she runs all of her businesses remotely, including a 15-property Airbnb portfolio, and is currently living in Cabo. She helps other real estate agents create multiple streams of income, focusing on passive income streams that give you more time and freedom. She shares her background, how she came to be The Traveling Realtor, and what she’...

Julie George is a celebrity in the Airbnb world. She’s the author of “Million Dollar Host” and now a consultant in the STR industry. She listed her first property on Airbnb in 2016 and, less than three years later, she was managing 130 properties on Airbnb for property owners,  amassing an excess of $8 million in bookings. She sold her management business to a larger company, and now mentors...

Excuse us while we get on our soapbox: We are so anti heads-in-beds. We are not about getting as many people into a space as possible to make as much money as possible. We’ve consulted on properties before where it’s clear the owner’s goal is just to get people in, give them a place to sleep, and make some money—and we’ve had to get brutally honest about what they need to do to remain competitive....

Why are you interested in short-term rental hosting? Like everything in life, hosting is not always easy, and when the hard times inevitably come, you’ll want to be able to look back and remember the strong “why” that got you started. Amy Corbett is the founder and chief Airbnb-er of All Belong Collective, and her “why” lies in creating unique spaces where anyone can belong. She and her husband ta...

Do you have a great property with beautiful photos and a fair price that you just KNOW would get more bookings… if you could just get it in front of more eyes? Kelvin Mah is the founder of RankBreeze, a company that helps short-term rental managers get more bookings by optimizing their Airbnb listings for better search rankings and conversions—and that means more money! Resources: rankbreeze.com/t...

When people stay at a rental property, they have an expectation that the property is safe and secure. This is something that we, as hosts, need to make our top priority. But in 2020, there were several preventable incidents in short-term rentals that managed to make the news, and we’re going to go over each of them—and how to make sure you’re only making headlines for the right reasons. Of course,...

Michael and Debbie Campbell are known as The Senior Nomads. As they headed into retirement, they felt the call to adventure. They rented out their home, sold their sailboat, cars, and anything that wouldn’t fit into a small storage unit, and then set off to explore the world. After years of being seasoned Airbnb guests, they have a thing or two to share with the hosting community about what makes...

We’ve been fangirls of Zeona McIntyre for a while. She’s been an Airbnb host since 2012, and after eight years of being a property manager and consultant, she transitioned into selling real estate to investors looking to “house hack.” She owns seven homes and manages 15 on a short- to medium-term basis. She talks about hosting remotely, diving into real estate investing, how her career and goals h...