Thanks For Visiting

Stacey Rase is a Superhost from the New Orleans area who has found her passion in offering specialty stays at her short-term rentals. After raising four children, she is now an empty nester. She took on her first property three years ago on a gut feeling and has treated it like her fifth child! She's found a niche in the industry by catering to brides and bridal parties, helping to make their spec...

In your short-term rental business, Airbnb is one of the biggest and best tools out there to get your spaces booked and busy. But as a small business owner, big platform updates can sneak past you, leaving you open for issues down the line. Don’t worry, we’ve got you, boo. Today, we take a deep dive into all of the recent Airbnb updates to keep you in the know and on top of your game. Resources: S...

We’re continuing to bring our favorite speakers from the VRMA onto the show! This time, we’re joined by the wonderful Dana Lubner. As Head of Leadership Development at Rent Responsibly, Dana works closely with alliance leadership teams to build united voices at the local level. She also serves on Denver’s short-term rental advisory committee alongside members of the city council.  In Fall of...

We are all about starting fast without overthinking things. You don’t have to have everything dialed in and figured out before you dive into your first short-term rental property. But one thing you should have some idea of at the very beginning, is the end. That is, what do you do with that property once your STR journey is over? You never know where life is going to take you, so it’s smart to hav...

You can learn a lot from professional hosts, but what about a professional guest? In this episode, we reverse engineer what pulls at a potential guest’s heart strings when making a booking, and compare what we find to things we think or assume are their priorities. When COVID-19 hit, Zach Busekrus and his wife Gabby decided to break out of their 750-square foot apartment in Washington, DC and beta...

Continuing a series of interviews featuring our favorite speakers from the 2021 Vacation Rental Managers Association International Conference in San Antonio, Texas, we sit down with Angie Leong, owner and CEO of Coconut Condos, a vacation rental management company founded in 2011 on the beautiful island of Maui.  We talk about recognizing the tipping point between running things part-time on...

Heather Richer is a revenue management and distribution expert with over a decade of experience. She and her team have done revenue management for hotels, resorts, casinos, restaurants, and have been focusing on short-term rentals for the last 3+ years. We'll discuss the fundamentals of revenue management for short-term rentals. Even if you don’t feel like a revenue expert, it's critical to unders...

We’re still reeling from our first in-person conference post COVID. It was great to spend time among so many great and like-minded people at the Vacation Rental Managers Association International Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Listen for a rundown of our time there, from tips on how to get what you want out of people more effectively to how to handle negative reviews. Resources: Rent Responsibl...

Running multiple rental properties can be stressful… but managing them across multiple states? It’s still totally doable! Victoria is a Superhost who has been at it for over a year in her home city of Columbus, Ohio, and she and her husband recently expanded their hosting business to Nashville, Tennessee. Hosting has allowed her to blend her passion for real estate, hospitality, project management...

The number one thing that communicates to your potential guests and turns them to booked guests is effective photography. Kati and Brian Greene are “Superguests” who, after searching thousands of listings around the world, utilized that experience to create a service that optimizes listings to magnetize guests. They share tips you can use right away to boost the impression your property makes to p...

What can you do when your gut is sending you warning signs about a guest booking? While you don’t want to be individually vetting guests, you do want to make sure that they’re a good fit for your properties – especially if you have specific rules, guidelines, or qualifications. Airbnb is on your side when it comes to making sure guests stay honest. We’re going to outline some of the things Airbnb...

Moira Sedgwick is the James Beard Awards Director and founder of A Chalet Collective, a short term rental design, remote management, and consulting business. In this episode, listeners will hear about the convergence of hospitality and design. We will dive into why it's important to create a unique, elevated experience and how to level up the vibe when creating your space. Resources: The Lost Cabi...

We all want to run a good business, but many of us want to do good in the world as well. Chelsea Dunckley of Digs Co. joins us as we explore how offering up your vacation rental in various philanthropic ways can create a cascade of positive ripple effects within your community, your town, your family, and your business. Resources: digs-co.com Instagram: @thedigs.co Visit thanksforvisiting.me/works...

Dan Ferretti has spent most of his life acting, singing, and pursuing a career in theater. He supplements this unstable career choice by managing a rooftop baseball club at Wrigley Field in his hometown of Chicago, as well as working as a standardized patient at Rush University Medical College and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dan is also a Superhost of his vacation condo in...

Last week we talked about how to find a property manager that’s a good fit for you. But what if you’re on the management side, you take a job and, down the line, you realize the property doesn’t align well with your brand? Whether you're co-hosting, you’re looking to bring a property into your portfolio, or you’re stop-and-go on getting started, we’re going to help you listen to that inner voice –...

Even if you LOVE being a property manager, practically everyone hits a point where they realize “You know what? Maybe I don’t want to be managing all of my own properties forever.” When you get there, there’s only one thing to do: start hiring. But when it’s time to hire, how do you make sure you find a great property manager, co-host, or hosting company? We’ve narrowed it down to eleven things to...

We’ve spent a lot of time focused on two phases of the property-owning process: buying and renting. But there’s another step we have had a chance to dive into yet, and that’s the selling process. Jacoby Olin has been involved in short-term vacation rentals, litigation consulting, food and beverage, and real estate for over a decade. He’s one of the preeminent M&A consultants in the short-term...

Mike Hicks is a real estate maverick. He’s been involved throughout the industry for over 20 years, beginning in new construction and working his way to long-term rentals, flips, and short-term rentals as well. When he converted a duplex to a STR in 2016, he was hooked. We talk about real estate, his journey into short-term renting, the pros and cons of short and long-term renting, and building a...

We always try to be transparent about what is going on in our businesses in the hopes that doing so will serve you. We share our hopes, ideas, struggles, and more. And on that note, we’re going to share one of our most recent embarrassments because you can learn from it. As we’ve worked together, we have evolved from wanting to focus on education (don’t worry, we’ll still be doing that!) and into...

Some people like to dip their toes into the short-term rental world. Others, like today’s guest, go all in from the beginning. Despite having no background in the market, Callie Witcher is a Superhost from Fredericksburg, TX in the beautiful Texas Hill Country, where she and her husband built three short-term rentals from the ground up. She shares why short-term rentals were right for her family,...

One of the questions we get asked most often is: how do you hire a team that has the same ethos and attention to detail as you? Taylor Arbaugh is a property coordinator at The Cliffs Hocking Hills and a team member of Sarah's. She helps to host the property. She is a mom and local in the area where The Cliffs is located, in Hocking Hills, Ohio. She doesn’t come from a property management backgroun...

When it comes to safety, it always feels like an accident will never happen with you – until it does. Justin Ford, our Safety Captain, is professionally trained by the coastguard, volunteers as a firefighter, and previously ran a 600-property vacation rental company. He has personally experienced tragedy at one of his own properties, so he speaks from a high level of experience. This time, we’re t...

There are so many things to clean within your short-term rental, so it’s worryingly easy to overlook something. We’re exploring the top five things that could save you a trip to your rental thanks to some smart, preventative cleaning. Resources: barkeepersfriend.com breezeway.io #STRShareSunday: @loosecreekcabins Thanks for Visiting is a production of Crate Media . Mentioned in this episode: Hosti...

When you’re running a business, keeping track of your expenses is just as important as tracking income. But there are some costs that you’d never think of. We’re going to cover one hidden expense that’s going to give you a real gut check – and that’s your time. Most expenses are pretty straightforward: how much are linens, how much is WiFi? But when it comes to the cost of time, there’s far more i...

So many hosts complain about the drawbacks of online travel agencies – but few actually do anything about them. Most don’t even know how! In an ever-competitive marketplace, Mark Simpson helps short-term rental hosts thrive. After successfully coaching over one thousand hospitality businesses to date, Mark’s current mission is to help one million hosts increase their direct bookings so they are no...