Slick Talk: The Hospitality Podcast

Andrew Kitchell sat down with me to unfold the story of how he and his team were able to "rise from the ashes" of Lyric by going all-in with Wheelhouse, their in-house dynamic pricing tool. In this episode, we're going to talk about the difficulty of fundraising and restructuring the way they did for Wheelhouse. A real "underdog" story that shows the true spirit of entrepreneurship. Once this epis...

Sean McGregor literally found hosting through love. When he first started dating Lindsey in 2015, she was renting out the 2nd bedroom in her Austin, Texas apartment which covered her entire rent….then when she would travel, she would rent out the entire home and it would pay her rent & travel expenses! Sean joins me on the show to dive into the world of hosting and entrepreneurship that he and his...

This podcast episode is long overdue! Welcome Jessica Gillingham, Founder of Abode PR, to the podcast as we dive into her entrepreneurial journey in our industry and learning a bit more about what it takes to be in PR & how they serve their clients with multiple services. This episode is brought to you by Hostfully, Jetstream & Safely! --------------- Thank you for tuning into our podcast! Slick T...

You read the title correctly! We have been playing with the Spotify Live app and I did my first one with a good friend, Steve Turk! We even had our friend John Stokinger join for a few minutes! We’re calling this “The State of the Industry from Our Perspectives” because with a lot of people asking us the question, “what’s it like behind the scenes as a person in media?” And so it made sense to com...

Andrew is no stranger to the podcast or the vacation rental industry. Late 2020, Andrew joined me on the show to introduce Rented to the Slick Talk community and told the story of what they built at Rented. Now, he joins me again to cover what's happened since and to also do a little bit of a deep dive on some important industry topics. To hear Andrew's first episode on Slick Talk, click here! Thi...

Max Farley is the Founder of sojo, a guest amenity platform and service that's dedicated to making turnover days suck a little less for property managers. With an extensive background in shipping and logistics in his "past life", Max brings this knowledge and skill to solve the massive problem for the industry and they're just getting started! This episode is brought to you by our friends at Jurny...

I sat down with Scott Parker who has multiple brands within different segments of hospitality & retail. From bars and restaurants, to barbershops and boxing gyms, the reason I invited Scott on the podcast is because his story is one we all should be able to relate to as entrepreneurs. The road to success isn't easy and failure isn't easy either because as humans we want nothing more but to be succ...

Chris Deferio is an award winning coffee professional and coffee consultant with 22 years in the retail specialty coffee industry. He has seen great success in his career as a barista, trainer, cafe manager, operations manager, and playing a key role in the scaling and success of many independent coffee shops. In addition to being a 3 time international latte art champion and US Barista championsh...

Brooke Pfautz is a serial founder within short-term rentals and a second-time guest here on Slick Talk! In this week's episode, we wanted to cover a few things from the first episode on inventory growth hacks but also touch on the importance of the lifetime value a management contract brings your STR business while also showcasing how to actually calculate that value over some specific metrics. An...

Thank you so much for tuning in to this special episode. It is a bonus episode because, during my time here in Cancun, Mexico where I've been for the last month, my friends over at Breezeway hosted their second annual Elevate virtual conference. And it's been super exciting to see them put this together for the second year in a row. This whole episode is dedicated to the session called "How to Win...

Building a short-term rental management software from the ground up to me is an art! Vincent, Co-Founder of Uplisting, joins me to talk about the journey of building a software solution that grows with its users and allows the community of our industry to be hyper-involved and focused on the product that helps the everyday property manager. Uplisting Website Hospitality. FM This episode is brought...

After graduating from hotel school, Matt Welle knew he wanted to make a bigger impact in the hotel industry. Now, he is the CEO of Mews, a new-age and cloud-based property management system that is built out as one of the best in the industry. Matt and I sit down to talk about his journey and the story of Mews as they have been one of the most innovative tech companies in our industry. I knew I ha...

​​Building a software business had always enticed Assaf. In their final semester of business school, he and Tim developed a business plan that would eventually launch TurnoverBnB, a premier tool for short-term rental hosts and cleaners to connect and automatically manage their vacation rental cleaning schedules. In this episode, we dive into the creation, the growing pains, and the thinking behind...

As a founder-focused podcast, I realize we can get too focused on titles, accomplishments, and attention that it distracts us from seeing people in a more human aspect. And yes, Dr. Jeffrey is a Founder, but hearing his words "You Don't Need A Fancy Title To Lead" really struck a cord. Enjoy this personal and open conversation he and I had about his story and journey in hospitality. Dr. Jeffrey O...

Neel Parekh is the CEO and Founder of MaidThis, one of the top-rated national cleaning franchises. MaidThis has been called "the franchise for millennials", given its fully remote model and new-age spin on an old-school cleaning industry. As he built his business to reach millions in revenue, Neel traveled for five years while managing a fully remote team — he is now on a mission to help others ac...

This was an episode that I probably enjoyed recording more than most due to the fact I am in the Voice and Audio world all day, every day! David Berger was the first to conceive of, develop, and deliver a viable hotel voice assistant. His insight into the challenges and opportunities presented by voice assistants in hotels is unmatched. He is the Founder and CEO of Volara - the voice hub for the h...

Damian Sheridan and I sit down and talk about our trip to Miami as we planned for the Book Direct Show in October to be based in Miami! What better day to announce our venue than on #BookDirectDay itself?! Press Release: https://shorttermrentalz.com/news/bds-destinationaire-partner-2022/ Venue Page: https://bookdirect.show/venue/ Sign up for the event to get early bird tickets! https://bookdirect....

Join me, Wil Slickers, this week as I sit down with Thibault Masson, Founder of Rental Scale Up, and dive into his story as he got started with vacation rentals and eventually joined Booking.com and now is running his business and team full time! Rental Scale Up is known for its great amount of content that dives into data behind big companies like Airbnb, VRBO, Sonder, and many others. At the end...

Steve Turk is (in my mind) Mr. Miami! With a very successful career in hotels, food, and beverage, and creating amazing experiences, Steve sits down with me to go into his story of finding his passion in the industry and how that has turned into becoming a founder and industry leader with multiple adventures in the industry. Thank you to our sponsors for bringing these episodes to life! It was a p...

"If these last two years have taught us anything is hoteliers are eternal optimists, and I love that about them." - Adam Harris, Co-Founder of Cloudbeds This quote was like music to my ears as I was going through the transcript of this episode. To add to it, hospitality as a whole industry is full of eternal optimists and people who truly are in it for the love and passion of people. In this episo...

Every year, I look forward to the Industry Report that Hostfully publishes for all in the vacation rental industry! In the last two years, I have been able to contribute some thoughts to this report through my partnership with Hostfully! In this episode, David Jacoby (Co-Founder of Hostfully) and Fred Bassili (Marketing Manager) join me to cover the finds from 2020 & 2021 and how they will impact...

Andreas and I were supposed to record an episode together back in early 2020 but never got the chance due to the pandemic. Now, we finally got the time to sit down and go into his story and the story behind the brand of Sextant Stays. I also had the pleasure to meet Brandy, COO of Sextant Stays, at the VRMA conference and covered a portion of her story and interaction with the brand from the begin...

Wellengood President & CEO Glenn Malone co-founded the hotel management and development firm in 2002. As Executive, Malone plays an integral role in expanding the company’s long-term hotel development, operations, and ownership portfolio. He is one of the founding partners in AAA 4-Diamond hotel The Westin Memphis, which is one of Wellengood’s clients. Glenn grew up in humble beginnings and starte...

The final bonus episode from the VRMA International Conference and this one is much needed for hosts and professional property managers! We all know that furniture and purchasing furniture for one property or multiple properties can be a real pain and Host GPO is helping operators standardize that process and save a few dollars along the way! Learn more about Host GPO and Jeff on LinkedIn and on t...

Eric Moeller is the CEO and Co-Founder of Overnight Success with Jasper Ribbers and they focus on putting together Mastermind events and have other educational offerings within their company, one of which I attended! I was involved in their 90-day accelerator program called Legends X and it was a great program for me and my vacation rental business and would highly recommend checking it out if you...