Behind the Stays

Want to save 30-40% off West Elm purchase for your Airbnb?  Or hundreds off of instagram famous mattresses from Bear or Purple? Then you'll want to create your free account with our partner Minoan. Minoan provides hosts with a one-stop-shop to get hundreds of discounts on the world’s leading brands, and a system where you can manage all of the ordering, tracking, returns, etc. in one place. Saving...

Want to save 30-40% off West Elm purchase for your Airbnb?  Or hundreds off of instagram famous mattresses from Bear or Purple? Then you'll want to create your free account with our partner Minoan. Minoan provides hosts with a one-stop-shop to get hundreds of discounts on the world’s leading brands, and a system where you can manage all of the ordering, tracking, returns, etc. in one place. Saving...

Want to save 30-40% off West Elm purchase for your Airbnb?  Or hundreds off of instagram famous mattresses from Bear or Purple? Then you'll want to create your free account with our partner Minoan. Minoan provides hosts with a one-stop-shop to get hundreds of discounts on the world’s leading brands, and a system where you can manage all of the ordering, tracking, returns, etc. in one place. Saving...

Meet Jacob Mueller, Co-Founder and CEO of Renjoy — a next generation short-term rental management firm based in Colorado Springs. Growing up, Jacob never would’ve guessed he’d be an entrepreneur, he studied economics in college and thought he’d go into policy.  But during his senior year, Jacob had the opportunity to work on a school project as a part of his thesis that revolved around launching a...

Meet Stephen Pellicano — a hospitality entrepreneur in the Catskills focused on building simple glamping structures with everything you need and nothing that you don’t! Stephen is a graphic designer by trade and fell in love with travel and hospitality after winning not one, but two free, round-trip tickets to Europe on British Airways as a part of a giveaway they were running back in the late 90s...

Meet Eric Carrico — founder of the The Woodford Hotel , a boutique invisible service hotel in Versailles, Kentucky. Eric is a civil and environmental engineer by trade and has spent his career solving complex civil engineering problems for some of the largest heavy industrial earthwork construction projects in the country. After the housing crisis in 2008, Eric had the opportunity to buy a couple...

Meet Dennis Goedheid, founder and CEO of Casiola — one of the hottest vacation rental management companies in the short-term rental space. Dennis is no stranger to entrepreneurship — he started and sold two companies in his native Belgium before moving to Silicon Valley to find inspiration for his next big thing. And while he couldn’t have known it at the time, that next big thing would be a vacat...

Meet Justin Hauge , Co-Founder and CEO of Storied Collection — a collection of castles and historical stays across the UK and Ireland.  While Storied Collection is Justin’s first rodeo as a founder, it’s not his first rodeo working in startups. Back in 2009, Justin was hired as the 13th team employee at a little start up that had just graduated from the most prestigious of startup accelerators, Y...

In this special podcast episode, Zach Busekrus, host of the Behind the Stays podcast and co-founder of Sponstayneous shares the stories behind the inception of both brands. - Uncover the story of how Zach and his wife broke their lease in Washington D.C. in the fall of 2020 to live full-time on Airbnb - Discover how Sam Parr, Founder of The Hustle and host of the My First Million podcast, played a...

Meet Daniel Johnson, founder of Deacon Stays — a collection of curated stays near Wake Forest University.  Daniel has always been interested in real estate and investing and started his hosting as many do in the Airbnb arbitrage arena back in 2018. He thoroughly enjoyed the experience of hosting and was impressed by the returns STRs could generate compared to other real estate investments (Daniel...

Meet Sébastien Long, founder of Lodgeur — a furnished living, on-demand product that gives traveling professionals and digital nomads the service and consistency of a hotel with the spaciousness and function of a stylish home. While Sébastien has spent the better part of his professional career working big corporate jobs he actually grew up immersed in hospitality entrepreneurship — his parents ow...

Meet Taylor Jones, Head of Acquisition at Techvestor , one of my favorite STR thought leaders to follow on social media, and a good friend of the Behind the Stays podcast.  After losing his sales job during COVID, Taylor spent hundreds of hours watching YouTube videos to learn all that he could about short-term rental real estate investing and the growing trend of experiential hospitality.  Today,...

Meet Michael Goldin, Co-Founder of the Storied Collection — an exclusive collection of historic estates, castles and other unique residences-turned-accommodations, situated across the United Kingdom and Ireland. Michael and his wife were searching for a much needed vacation as covid rules across the world began to subside. They dreamed of staying in a beautiful castle, but the search was rather di...

Meet Annette Grant and Sarah Karakain from Thanks for Visiting — one of the most popular, if not THE most popular short-term rental podcasts out there.  Sarah is an actress by trade and was hustling on Broadway when Airbnb first became available in NYC.  She somehow convinced her husband to let her list their basement on Airbnb and, well, it wasn’t long before Sarah traded securing auditions for h...

Today you'll re-meet Emily Padan, Ben Wolff, and Isaac French, founders of Hinter , Onera , and Live Oak Lake respectively — all three of these fine people were gracious enough to come BACK onto Behind the Stays.  In this first-of-its-kind panel podcast, this dynamic trio shares their experiences of working with hundreds of influencers and creators to promote their hospitality brands. You’ll learn...

This episode is brought to you by our friends at  Minoan .  Minoan provides hosts with a one-stop-shop to get hundreds of discounts on the world’s leading brands, and a system where you can manage all of the ordering, tracking, returns, etc. in one place. Saving you time and money!  Create your free account here  and be sure to tell the team that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you there way! Meet...

Please give a quick thank you to our sponsor for today’s episode, OwnerRez — the most loved and trusted property management software by professional vacation rental managers on the market.  Some of my best friends in the industry swear by OwnerRez so I’d highly encourage you to check them out and be sure to tell them that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you their way and they’ll give you an exclus...

Meet Adam Norko , a former marine turned hospitality marketer extraordinaire. Adam has spent the last two decades working in sales and marketing for a number of hospitality brands — everything from the PropTech side of the house to leading growth at vacation rental and STR management companies. In this conversation, Adam and I talk about how marketing has evolved in the vacation rental industry, w...

This episode is brought to you by our friends at  Minoan .  Minoan provides hosts with a one-stop-shop to get hundreds of discounts on the world’s leading brands, and a system where you can manage all of the ordering, tracking, returns, etc. in one place. Saving you time and money!  Create your free account here  and be sure to tell the team that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you there way! Meet...

Meet Matt Landau, the founder of VRMB — a vacation rental marketing blog and community for the world’s most innovative vacation rental professionals.  When Matt was a senior at the University of Richmond, he stumbled upon an alumni magazine that wound up changing his life. On the cover of this magazine was an alum sitting in a hammock while on a beach in Costa Rica. While Matt had no idea what thi...

Meet Bunim Laskin, Founder and CEO of Swimpl y — the Airbnb for Pools. Bunim grew up in Israel and moved to the states with his family when he was 15 years old.  He is oldest of 12 children and the idea for Swimply came to him when he was looking for a way to entertain his younger siblings in the heat of a New Jersey summer.  His next door neighbor had a pool that she didn’t use much and Bunim ask...

This episode is brought to you by our friends at  Minoan .  Minoan provides hosts with a one-stop-shop to get hundreds of discounts on the world’s leading brands, and a system where you can manage all of the ordering, tracking, returns, etc. in one place. Saving you time and money!  Create your free account here  and be sure to tell the team that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you there way! Issa...

This episode is brought to you by our friends at  Minoan .  Minoan provides hosts with a one-stop-shop to get hundreds of discounts on the world’s leading brands, and a system where you can manage all of the ordering, tracking, returns, etc. in one place. Saving you time and money!  Create your free account here  and be sure to tell the team that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you there way! Meet...

In this episode Zach shares some exciting new updates on what we're building at Sponstayneous and asks for feedback from listeners on how to improve Behind the Stays.  Got ideas for Zach?  Reach out to him direct at zach@sponstayneous.com or find him on Twitter @zboozee or on LinkedIn at @zacharybusekrus.  About the Show Behind the Stays is brought to you twice a week by Sponstayneous — a free, bi...

Meet Paul Waldschmidt, Co-Founder and CEO of OwnerRez — one of the industry’s most beloved property management platforms.  Paul is a software developer through and through.  He has always loved leveraging technology to solve problems.  So, when he and his business partner Chris began experiencing problems with their property manager on their recently purchased vacation rental in the Blue Ridge mou...