Unlocked Podcast

Mailie Green manages three vacation rental villas in Bali from her home in South Africa. And like any manager, she is constantly on the lookout for ways to boost occupancy in the low season: she is always open to ideas that result in a win for everyone involved.

This particular technique started with a skeptical email...but it has turned into one of her regular booking...

Lawrie Lawrence is a real estate guy. He loves real estate. he’s really good at real estate. And only recently has he become infatuated with a new kind of real estate, and that’s vacation rentals.

But in his typical renegade style, Lawrie doesn’t do anything textbook.

What I like most about Lawrie’s boat model is that it is based highly on statistics and evidence. He...

Bernardo Retana of Otium Residences in Marbella, Spain has a great pedigree of hospitality and finance. But what I like most about his topic here is its unconventionality — it’s innovative in that no one taught him or instructed him to do this. But simple enough that pretty much all of us could do it too.

I was drinking beers with Bernardo in Barcelona, Spain at the...

The vacation rental industry has exploded in the last few years with big players. Big players like AirBnB, HomeAway & Booking.com have been rapidly consolidating the industry, creating an industry with more familiarity that’s palatable to the average consumer. But what does this mean for the “mom-and-pop” style businesses who don’t want to grow? Those who would rather create...

Ralph and his wife Karen, like many people, fell in love with Paris. However, instead of doing what most people would of done, they began buying property in Paris & Nice. Since then, they have been successfully operating a vacation rental business remotely. In this episode we learn how Ralph and Karen have created a remotely operated business process, and how they’ve overcome...

Jan Stevens’s journey in the vacation rental industry began when she inherited an old family fishing shack that they bought for $1,200 in the 50’s. Realizing she could leverage her talents as a professional interior designer, she turned the home into a vacation rental. As peers began to take notice of her business, they began asking her if she can manage their properties too...

Teena Kulakowski is a former chemist who now runs the successful Four Seasons Lodge in New Hampshire. Her experiments have taken her from newspaper advertising to chainsaw artists to building her own website. Along the way we’ll find out that the “secret ingredient” to her vacation rental’s success is a high dose of good ol’ fashioned personality. You’ll leave here learning...

Darik Eaton is the founder of Seattle Oasis Vacation Rentals. After the 2008 financial crash Darik closed down his business in commercial finance, and transformed his vacation rental from a simple side business, to a full-time vacation rental property management company with over 45 properties. Darik shares his experiences growing his vacation rental business, exporting his...

Stan Horst is one of the world’s few vacation rental veterans. He’s been hosting guests before the days of AirBnB, HomeAway, and even before the internet itself. With his unique perspective, Stan shares how his business modeled has evolved in the digital age, and how he still uses old-school marketing tactics to drive extraordinary results. We hope this episode will stir up...

Lot’s of people dream of unplugging from “the grind” and escaping to some far off exotic island paradise. Karla Gustafson, owner of Tropical Blessings, did just that. Frustrated with life as an English teacher in Dallas, Karla escaped to the Caribbean island of St. John where she became a “Moko Jumbie”, and then eventually found herself owning a vacation rental property with...