Behind the Stays

Welcome to Episode 3 of Mastering Vacation Rental Marketing — a special Behind the Stays podcast series brought to you in collaboration with my friend, Conrad O’Connell, Founder and CEO of BuildUp Bookings, one of the most respected marketing agencies for vacation rental managers and hospitality entrepreneurs. Conrad just published an incredible book “Mastering Vacation Rental Marketing” which ser...

Meet Paul Kromidas , an industry trailblazer who transitioned from a strategic role at Airbnb to founding Summer, a company revolutionizing the vacation rental space.  This episode delves into Paul's insights on the shifting dynamics of property management and his innovative approach to vacation home ownership. Tune in as we explore: Paul's key learnings from his tenure at Airbnb and their influen...

Welcome to Episode 2 of Mastering Vacation Rental Marketing — a special Behind the Stays podcast series brought to you in collaboration with my friend, Conrad O’Connell, Founder and CEO of BuildUp Bookings, one of the most respected marketing agencies for vacation rental managers and hospitality entrepreneurs. Conrad just published an incredible book "Mastering Vacation Rental Marketing" which ser...

Meet Tim Harper, an innovator who left the digital marketing world to create Bubble Retreats , a unique hospitality experience in Victoria, Australia.  This episode takes you through Tim's inspiring journey from a memorable stargazing night in France to becoming a winner in Airbnb's OMG campaign. In this conversation, Tim and I explore: Tim's transition from online marketing to hands-on entreprene...

Meet Jeremy Hill, Co-Founder and CEO of Arcana — a next generation nature resort complete with seasonally immersive science-based experiences that help guests feel nature’s true restorative powers. Jeremy was working in banking and had climbed the proverbial and prestigious corporate ladder for years.  But one day, as he was staring out the window of his beautiful corner office, the question “what...

Welcome to Mastering Vacation Rental Marketing — a special Behind the Stays podcast series brought to you in collaboration with my friend, Conrad O’Connell, Founder and CEO of BuildUp Bookings, one of the most respected marketing agencies for vacation rental managers and hospitality entrepreneurs. Conrad just published an incredible book "Mastering Vacation Rental Marketing" which serves as a stra...

Meet Bill Faeth — one of the most popular and well-respected voices in the short-term rental industry. Bill Faeth has been involved in real estate for almost 25 years with both commercial and residential investing. In 2015, he switched the majority of his residential portfolio to short term rentals from long term after seeing an opportunity to increase profit and reduce risk. Bill currently has a...

Meet Max Gagliardi — founder of Mountain Fork Resort, a 140-acre waterfront development in Broken Bow, Oklahoma.  Max is an entrepreneur who builds businesses across energy, real estate, & technology — he has a knack for finding opportunities in places others are convinced no opportunity exists. After stumbling upon an incredible piece of land in Broken Bow, one of the hottest up and coming va...

Meet Brooke Pfautz, founder and CEO of Vintory, the only sales and marketing platform on the planet exclusively dedicated to helping professional vacation rental managers grow their inventory.   Brooke is one of the industry's most respected experts, so it was an honor to get him back on the podcast to discuss his new book, Vacation Rental Secrets, which is a collection of the short-term rental in...

Meet David and Andy Heyman — the two brothers who brought one of the newest and most unique glamping sites in the Blue Ridge Mountains to life, which they call Glamp Blue Ridge. David has a background in finance and Andy is a graphic designer by trade. The guys had long dreamed of being able to work on a business venture of some kind together but the timing and the idea never seemed right… That is...

Meet Mike Harrington , a true legend among vacation rental managers.   Mike’s career in hospitality started by accident.  After graduating from business school, Mike received a call from a recruiter to join a vacation rental management company on Hatteras Island. He learned the ropes of the industry at this first gig, grew to love the art of the business, and eventually decided that what he really...

Meet Josiah Mackenzie , Founder of Hospitality Daily — a community, podcast, and email newsletter that helps hospitality professionals stay informed and inspired in this ever-changing and dynamic industry.  Josiah has spent his entire career creating, innovating and building in Hospitality. He founded a company called Hospitality Marketing Strategies which went on to become the #1 hotel marketing...

Meet Tanner Cummings — Co-founder and Owner of Thin Spaces , a new hotel brand that’s building its first micro-resort called Cypress at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Jasper, Georgia.  Tanner has always loved finding issues and solving problems, which is why he spent most of his professional career working in quality assurance engineering for software companies like Calendly.  But i...

Meet James Varley — Founder of the Holiday Cottage Handbook and Varley Media .  James has had an impressive career in media — taking jobs around the world to work in print, TV, radio, digital advertising and social media organizations large and small. For the last ten years, James was living in Qatar leading corporate communications for last year’s FIFA World Cup organizing committee — how cool is...

Meet John Andrew Entwistle , Founder and CEO of Wander, Sief Khafagi , Co-Founder and CEO of Techvestor, and Cameron Wu , VP of Investments at Arrived. I invited these incredible gentlemen onto the podcast for a panel discussion on the future of fundraising, portfolio building, and passive investing in short-term rentals. I’ve been curious, as I’m sure many of you all have been, how these short-te...

Meet John Sutton — Co-Founder and CEO of Mansion , a new fractional ownership offering for those looking to get into short-term rental investing without needing to own or operate an Airbnb. Before starting Mansion*, John was the Chief Digital Officer at Red Ventures — the parent company for brands like Lonely Planet, The Points Guy, Reviews.com, and many others, so it’s safe to say John knows his...

Meet Jake Tucker, founder of Roav — a collection of urban and luxury retreat STRs located in the Pacific Northwest Jake began co-hosting Airbnbs while in college as a side-hustle.  He had no experience in real estate or hospitality whatsoever, but after Googling "how to make a lot of money as a college kid", he stumbled upon the plethora of rental arbitrage content on YouTube and began to binge. W...

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...