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This week Matt and Jed Stevens of Koloa Kai detail a six-step program for building a sustainable and profitable vacation rental business and soft-launch the VRMB Accelerator Program.
[UPDATE]
Official Accelerator Program Sign-Up Page
For more information, send a direct message to @Jed
This episode is brought to you by Point Central, the leaders in smart home automation, and Breezeway, the best-in-class property...
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Latest reply by - Will Franco
[UPDATE 05/12/23]
Official Accelerator Program Sign-Up Page
In this special episode, Christina Thoreson takes us through the complicated reality of selling a business she'd built from the ground up to a big industry name.
Wondering if you might sell one day or what happens in the aftermath? Or just contemplating big changes in life? This episode is for you.
This is also the final episode of the Unlocked Podcast in its current form. We expect you'll hear from Matt...
In this episode we sit down with Lino Maldonado, the CEO of BeHome247, to discuss where the industry is headed in 2023. Lino also offers advice on how to navigate the changing landscape of life and capitalize on new opportunities.
This episode is brought you by PointCentral: https://www.pointcentral.com/vrmb/ the leaders in smart home automation, and Breezeway, https://www.breezeway.io/vrmb the best in class...
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Latest reply by - Terry
Great podcast.
Takeaways:
18:00 minute mark > Do way more in the PMS which I have been saying since /2018.
24:00 minute mark > PMS Light, no threat.
34:00 minute mark > Bloodbath, could not agree more. The self proclaimed Airbnbers are in big trouble. Saturated market and with no escape...
In this episode, we take a look at big leaps, both personal and professional with @alexhusner -- as the newly appointed Chief Marketing Officer at Casago and co-host of the popular podcast, "Alex and Annie," Alex's personal brand has flourished alongside her success in the industry. Join us as we gain insight into her journey and strategies for achieving your own professional aspirations.
This episode is brought...
Matt @Durrette is emblematic of the kind of Homerunner that is positioned to be the biggest winner as our industry evolves. In this episode we'll talk limited edition positioning in the growth to 300 properties, entrepreneurial operating systems and and advocacy in the latest Texas battlegrounds. Also featuring @EmilyRead
This episode is brought you by PointCentral: https://www.pointcentral.com/vrmb/ the...
@KarenHunt 's pre-vacation rental career included selling everything from candy and rice to Ben and Jerry's ice cream to Francis Ford Coppola and a whole lot of wine. Now she's running a lifestyle vacation rental business that is the perfect cap to a legendary career. In this episode she gives us perspective on sales, people, and goal setting that will be useful to industry players of any size.
This episode is...
In this episode, @BrianO discusses the impact of health on our teams and networks after a personal wake-up call. Tune in to hear his perspective on how to prioritize well-being and the well-being of your team in what is often a fast-paced work environment.
This episode is brought you by PointCentral: https://www.pointcentral.com/vrmb/ the leaders in smart home automation, and Breezeway...
In many ways, Sharon Walker is the ultimate Limited Edition vacation rental professional. She built a business from scratch with great care for guests and employees while raising a family. Now, with the freedom that business provides, she is heading up the statewide advocacy effort in Texas and blazing a trail for her industry fellows. In this episode, Matt explores what makes her business great and talks...
In this episode Matt and Nate Wysk of Point Central talk 'advocacy technology' and upcoming 2023 trends for the vacation rental industry.
This episode is brought to you by PointCentral: https://www.pointcentral.com/vrmb/ the leaders in smart home automation, and Breezeway, https://www.breezeway.io/vrmb the best in class property care and automations platform.
Point Central's Smart Noise Monitor...
@Eddie Love used to work in credit analytics giving small business loans to military veterans. When he got let go because of the pandemic, he began to build his short term rental property into Mountain Mama Cabins in West Virginia. The protagonist is a young man who is thoughtful beyond his years: part of a new generation of Homerunners changing their communities and the world!
This episode is brought you by...
Our industry talks a lot these days about a departing generation of wisdom. About the operators exiting their businesses and taking all of their knowledge with them. But what you don't hear about is the new minds, the new leaders who will carry the torch and @Amanda.Hoffmann is definately a new leader on the rise. She's building a finance division from scratch at Highgate and she's forging a new path at the...
In this episode, two of the industry's top thought leaders reminisce on their friendly rivarly and come together with insights meant to push the whole industry forward.
This episode is brought you by PointCentral: https://www.pointcentral.com/vrmb/ the leaders in smart home automation, and Breezeway, https://www.breezeway.io/vrmbthe best in class property care and automations platform.
Join VRMB Communities...
Sometimes, great initiatives need to be shut down because they are not sustainable.
Which is a difficult pill to swallow, especially when you're passionate (read: stubborn) about something and you badly want it to work.
But it's the truth: as vacation rental innovators we test out lots of ideas...some work, others don't...and then some (the really "special" ones LOL) are both amazing and unsustainable.
What...
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Latest reply by - DeborahL
I love this. I love what you guys have done, I love the lack of a plan (and the honesty to say it, but that is the...
Lauren Madewell found her calling when Vacation Rentals unexpectedly became the family business. In this episode Lauren and Matt discuss finding that calling, how a passion for the family business can unlock tools to work with guests and staff and what the future holds for our industry.
This episode is brought you by PointCentral: https://www.pointcentral.com/vrmb/ the leaders in smart home automation, and...
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Latest reply by - RuthM
Amazing podcast. Our industry is full of great stories and good people. Thanks Matt for shining a light.
Tiffany Edwards grew up in the vacation rental business and has become one of its foremost goverment affairs experts and fundraisers. In this episode we dig into what our industry is doing well and what it needs to do better for a fair regulatory future.
This episode is brought you by PointCentral: https://www.pointcentral.com/vrmb/ the leaders in smart home automation, and Breezeway...
@Steve Schwab went from living in the back of a bar in Puerto Peñasco Mexico and helping out with HVAC systems to building Casago into a major property management company with thousands of properties and franchises all over the US and Mexico. He's featured in our second episode of Homerunners and he's become a thought partner to Matt in tackling some of the deepest questions of our industry.
This episode is...
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Latest reply by - Steve Schwab
What a great experience working with Matt and Stuart on this project. I am always available if any of you ever want to talk about the industry, how to find...
Our scheduled epsiode for this week was interupted due to uncertainty around Hurricane Ian. Everyone involved with the show is fine and we'll be back next week with regularly scheduled programming, but for now we're going to archives and resharing Episode 19 with you, where Mike Harrington gives us a big business takeaway from Hurricane Florence in 2018. These are lessons we all need to be mindful of in the...
Miriam Ramsey is a key player in the VTrips model of growth through local brands and a star of our first Homerunners episode which premieres worldwide on October 23rd at VRMA International in Las Vegas.
In this episode Matt and Miriam discuss what it takes to make it in this industry, how to handle getting bought and how to nail it as a Homerunner.
This episode is brought you by PointCentral...
Michelle "MJ" Boyle is a patented inventor, the Hostess of the Tiny House Podcast, founder and creator of My Tiny House Village, Oregon Teardrop Rentals, and My Tiny Creekside Retreat. In this episode Matt and MJ explore the rushes and reversals inherit in Homerunning...from hitting a niche market at just the right time to real adversity shutting you down.
This episode is brought you by PointCentral...
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Latest reply by - Debi
Great podcast, Matt! Michelle is one of my favorite people! It was she who introduced me to the artist who created the mural on our beach...
Welcome to Season 9 of the Unlocked Podcast! Lukas Krause is part of a new generation of industry professionals bringing superpowers from other industries into our own. He’s running a large company in the space but focusing on small hospitality details. In this episode Matt and Lukas dive into the good, the bad and the ugly of our current high paced acquisitions cycle and talk about what it means to be a...
Prior to launching Season 9: Homerunners this week, Matt sat down with Breezeway founder and perennial Unlocked sponsor Jeremiah Gall to discuss highlights from last season and the state of the industry moving forward.
Episode One of Homerunners featuring Lukas Krause of Skyrun Vacation Rentals drops with the VRMB newsletter Thursday September 8th.
This episode is brought you by PointCentral...
I've known Matt Hoffman for what feels like an eternity. I remember talking to him back when I was running my vacation rental business in Panama in 2008 and his passion and enthusiasm for vacation rentals has not faded since...if anything they've sharpened.
Matt is the Senior Vice President and Product Leader at Kigo, which is a vacation rental management software company.
Our conversation about Matt's...
This week's podcast episode (embedded below) featuring @TomG of Mt. Laurel Chalets in Gatlinburg, TN includes a very special segment (starts at 11:05) about an idea Tom calls Hometown Heroes here's how it's described on his site:
Every hometown has its heroes. The unseen caregiver who is called to serve. An unlikely achiever who tackles obstacles with a can-do spirit. Perhaps it's the unsung champion who runs...
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Latest reply by
- Debi
Matt and I had a discussion about our Hometown Hero Contest on his podcast Unlocked back in May. We launched this pilot right after that and we are now naming our first round of winners. The fun is only getting started as we...
Dana Young is one of those people who is just unyieldingly passionate about technology. But so are a lot of people. What makes Dana unique is the way he is applying that obsession -- specifically with voice activated devices -- to the vacation rental space. He got started in our industry managing a property with his mom. But the ramifications of his singular and relatively straightforward "Unlocked" tactic reach...
In this episode you'll get a taste of what's to come in the next season of Unlocked themed "First Mover Status" in which we'll interview owners and managers who are gaining HUGE advantages by being first to market with new innovations. But until then, enjoy this brief audio essay from Matt's visit to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Where he visited Robin Craigen of www.movingmountains.com
Link's Mentioned in...
As a follow-up to the popular discussion 8 Deep Adjustments To Your Listings, in this week's podcast featuring @Heather we talk about what is simultaneously the biggest challenge AND the biggest differentiator (when you solve it) for independent vacation rental marketers: standing out in a crowd. You can skip forward to 12:15 to hear that part of the discussion:
Heather talks about the classic graphics like...
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Latest reply by - Robin
We Zigged - Moving Mountains is not a conventional name by any means, and this has served us well...
Our niche is Luxury - in the true sense of the word, and every time we have strayed from this we have learned that LUXURY is what our guests expect of us...
In this final episode of Season 8 we speak with the godmother of vacation rentals, Heather Bayer of the Vacation Rental Success podcast, which has featured more than 440 vacation rental innovators and given an enormous wealth of knowledge to our community. Heather recently sold her vacation rental business after twenty years and we dig into that process, the state of the industry, and how well she has been...
In this episode producer Stuart Hooper gives an update on progress at Mangofish Studios, an off the grid creative retreat center in Panama and talks to Matt about his recent article for Phocuswire.com on the challenge of scaling what cannot be scaled.
Phocuswire Aritcle: https://www.phocuswire.com/challenges-scaling-vacation-rentals?fbclid=IwAR131IU5NxRVFt3T_SxGb4Mgfl_IKRin0XMHX5QbGl-fyqv8MwX4DVDsVvM...
Victoria O'Connell is the creator of GoLightly, a home sharing platform for women. In this episode we dive into the genesis of the platform, talk about creating accountability and deep ties in a network and discuss broader concepts in niche marketing.
GoLightly: https://www.wegolightly.com
This episode is brought you by PointCentral: https://www.pointcentral.com/vrmb/ the leaders in smart home automation...
Tom Goodwin of Mountain Laurel Chalets in Gatlinburg, Tennessee is celebrating 50 years of making limited edition memories for guests. In this episode we dive into his direct marketing techniques, which are among the most holistic and comprehensive we have ever encountered.
Mountain Laurel Chalets: www.mtnlaurelchalets.com
Rue Bar Rue: https://www.ruebarue.com
Track: https://trackhs.com
Bomb Bomb...
Welcome to VRMB!
I’m Matt Landau, the founder of this forum. It was created in 2016 when a group of us wanted a safe space to discuss our growing STR businesses.
Today, you can join our community of 1,000+ creative, thoughtful, and generous members who believe in a better future.
The Accelerator Program
Each quarter, we choose vacation rental managers to join our 1-year, mentorship-driven accelerator, providing hands-on business building and access to our network.
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