The Accommodation Show - Hospitality Success Series!

It has been a couple of weeks since Bali Villa Connect 2026, and the conversations I had on the ground are still rattling around in my head. While I was at the conference I grabbed a microphone, found nine of the smartest operators and suppliers walking around the floor, and asked all of them the same question:What should short-term rental operators be thinking about for the end of 2026?Nobody gav...

Speed has become a virtue all on its own. Everything has to be faster, cheaper, more automated, more efficient. And in the rush to optimise everything, we've quietly stopped asking whether the thing we're optimising actually matters. That tension is everywhere in our industry right now. Operators are pouring time into revenue management, dynamic pricing, OTA visibility, and direct booking...

Bali is professionalising faster than most people realise. The Bali Villa Rental and Management Association (BVRMA) only formed in 2023. They've already got 70+ management companies and over 3,000 villas under the association in under two years. That kind of growth is incredible, and it's reshaping what the Indonesian villa industry looks like for international operators, guests, and inves...

99% of operators are leaving money on the table. Not 60%. Not 80%. Ninety-nine — and Evan Haskell would know, because his team talks to hundreds of operators every week. Evan got into short-term rentals in 2012 and built Urban Flat into the largest corporate housing brand in Silicon Valley — 200+ listings, business travellers and pro athletes — before COVID wiped it out. He lost the lot. Since the...

🎧 Don't forget to subscribe! I have spent a lot of time thinking about the obsession our industry has with growth at all costs. We are constantly told that bigger is better, but after chatting with Elle Knight, I am more convinced than ever that better is actually better. Elle has built an incredible portfolio of 170 properties across New Zealand, but she has done it with a philosophy that pu...

I have always found it fascinating how skillsets from completely different industries can be an unfair advantage in the accommodation industry. Last week, I invited Vivian Yip onto the show because she spent seven years at Apple managing global inventory systems and logistics for the iPhone 12 launch. It turns out that managing a supply chain for a trillion-dollar tech giant is the perfect trainin...

Don't forget to hit that subscribe button! This also keeps us going and creating more useful content for free! I’ve always said that running a business on a "gut feeling" is a fast way to go broke. If you want to scale, you have to move from opinions to facts. In this episode, I sit down with Daniel Leifeld from Key Data to talk about the massive shift happening in the accommodation...

In the Season 22 opener, I sit down with Wil Slickers, a man who has lived several professional lives in just eight years. From the Oregon coast to the global stage at Skift, Wil’s journey is a masterclass in staying agile, identifying traction, and building a "moat" around your business using real human connections. We discuss the "Focus Trap," why the industry is currently dr...

Are you paying an "attention tax" on your business? Most of us rely on the "Set and Forget" model—paying tolls to OTAs and big tech ads just to get a guest through the door. But what if you could drop that spend to zero? I sat down with Madison Rifkin to discuss the "$1 Million Ad-Spend Pivot." We dive into how a "Content Army" of organic creators can replac...

🎧 Don't forget to subscribe! When I was a kid, my favourite act at the circus was watching the clowns keep a dozen plates spinning at once. If you are an accommodation operator, you have probably accidentally mastered this exact same art in your business. You tap the tasks you can control, accept the ones you can't, but underneath it all, there is a chaotic middle ground. It's the ope...

🎧 Don't forget to subscribe! This week, I did something a little unusual. I invited Mark Simpson (Founder of Boostly) onto the show. Technically, Mark and I are competitors. We both build high-converting Direct Booking websites. But we both agree on one critical truth: By relying on third-party listing sites, you aren't just paying commissions—you are leaving your most valuable asset on t...

Running one event is hard. Running 19 in a single year sounds impossible. I sat down with Heidi Henrisken (Executive Director of VR Nation) to ask her how they are physically pulling this off. This year, they are running a full National Conference in Denver plus an 18-city "Roadshow" where they drive a van across the US to host local workshops. We break down the logistics of the "To...

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE!I find that everyone talks predominantly about Airbnb SEO. But I find it hard to find anyone talking about how to rank higher on Booking.com. For most Hotels, Motels, and Short Term Rentals, Booking.com is the engine room that drives the most consistent volume. Yet, most of us treat it as a "set and forget" channel. We feed the rates from our PMS and hope fo...

JJ King thought he was starting a side hustle. Three years later, he has over 300 properties under management. In this episode, we break down exactly how Beachside Vacation Rentals went from zero to market leader in Florida in record time. We discuss the "Google Maps" strategy that allowed them to dominate local search, why they focus on "Donuts over Referral Fees" when talking...

Are you running your accommodation business with 50 tabs open? One for pricing, one for cleaning, one for the PMS... it’s a recipe for burnout. In this episode, we gather the leaders from Resly, PriceLabs, Operto, and Whizz—our key partners for the Strive Conference—to map out the future of hospitality technology. We go beyond the buzzwords to find out what is actually working. We discuss the rise...

In Part 2 of our 2026 Predictions series, we head to the ASTRA "Here to Stay" Conference to get a global perspective on the Short Term Rental industry. For Episode 2 of Season 21, I grabbed the microphone at the ASTRA "Here to Stay" Conference to ask 14 of the smartest operators and executives in the APAC region the same question: "What do operators need to look out for in...

How do you go from finding clients on Gumtree to selling a 145-property portfolio? In this episode of Building It, I sit down with Hayden D'Arcy, co-founder of Home Hero. His journey is one of the most relatable and inspiring stories we've had on the show. He started in 2015 with no clients. He drove a wrecked car to his first listing appointment (and hid it around the corner!). But through a rele...

Is your AI just a toy, or is it a business asset? In this episode of Automate It, I sit down with Dr. Rachel Gainsbrugh, a retired healthcare professional who built a luxury STR brand using advanced automation. We dive deep into why the PDF lead magnet is dead (and what to use instead) and how to build a "Marketing Library" to train Custom GPTs that write exactly like you. Rachel shares...

Traditional search is dying. The "Great Reset" is over. And if you are still running your business like a hobby, 2026 is going to be a wake-up call. To kick off Season 21 of The Accommodation Show, I took the microphone to the floor of VRMA International in Las Vegas to ask 14 of the smartest people in the industry one single question: "What is the #1 trend operators need to look ou...

I’m a firm believer that great operations beat great intentions, every time. In this episode of Building It, I sat down with Noelia Novella, founder of Doinn, to unpack the unglamorous engine room of our trade: cleaning, maintenance, and the workflows that either delight guests… or quietly drain profit. After a decade building an ops platform now used in 20 countries, Noelia has the scars and the...

What's the most profitable question in history? "Would you like fries with that?" 🍟 It’s the original upsell, and it built an empire. In our world, airlines, hotels, and OTAs all do it. And yes, Airbnb is building it with "Experiences." We all know we should be offering more than just a bed, but let's be honest—it’s hard. That's why I was so excited to sit down wit...

My litmus test for "useful AI" is simple: does this tool buy back my time, or just find new ways to spend it? The best insights come from peers. At VRMA, Dennis (Casiola) told me I had to see what Cole Rubin and Conduit were building. This is that conversation. We're not talking AI hype; we're talking a real-world look at 85% guest message automation with a 95% guest satisfaction...

What if the secret to growing your revenue was shrinking your portfolio? In this episode of Building It, I sit down with Tom Goodwin of Mountain Laurel Chalets, a 50-year-old family legacy business in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. When Tom stepped in to turn the struggling company around in 2012, his first move was radical: he cut 40 underperforming properties. The result? Revenue jumped 75%. This is a p...

Welcome to Season 20! Savannah Jackson (Hello Queenstown) reveals her "go deep, not wide" strategy, building her own cleaning and linen companies, and how she funded it all without using her own capital. It’s a powerful lesson in vertical integration, hybrid growth (acquisition + organic), and the "Screw It, Let's Do It" mindset. SHOW LINKS Hello Queenstown → https://www.he...

You've survived your first year. Now what? How do you break through the growth plateau and scale from 20 properties to 500+? In Part 2 of my Building It conversation with Dennis Goedheid, founder of Casiola, we dive into the playbook for the scale-up. Dennis reveals his unconventional but brilliant growth hack: buying contracts directly from his competitors. He gives a step-by-step masterclass...