Unlocked Podcast

An African tent safari led Lynn to find the epitome of a limited edition vacation rental business and incredible glamping experience in Texas Hill Country.

In this episode she talks to Matt about the experience she continues to perfect, reconnecting with her property during crisis, and why one is enough.



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In this episode of Unlocked, Matt and Michelle Williams of Atlantic Vacation Homes and the VRMA Board of Directors change up the format and tackle a host of pressing vacation rental industry problems round-robin style. Dependence on listing sites, poor diversity, bad actors and bad regulation, tech madness and a whole lot more.



Please visit our sponsors, which made this...
Matthew and his wife Angela came to vacation rentals accidentally in the wake of the financial crisis and have since built a powerhouse business from Central Oregon to Southern Utah. In this virtual sit-down, Matthew gives a masterclass on the workings of a true lifestyle business where family is everything, employees are like family, and guests keep coming back. The two Matts also delve into Listing Site...
Viktoria Ujj spent 16 years in leadership roles at luxury hotels around the world before settling in Maui and developing Sunny Maui Vacations. In this virtual sit-down with Matt, she talks about the tough realities facing the Hawaiian vacation rental market and how she is using all of her hospitality knowledge to keep her business and her 'Ohana' strong for a brighter future...
Rafat Ali created Skift, the travel industry insider source for news, insight and trends. In this episode of Unlocked, Rafat and Matt explore a post-covid world and what it means for vacation rentals, travel, and business survival.



Please visit our sponsors, which made this episode possible:

Breezeway’s operations platform makes it easy to ensure quality, safety, and...
Heleena Sideris brings the best elements of her non-profit background to her family vacation rental business in Park City. In this virtual sit-down with Matt, she explores the bright post-covid future of outdoor destinations like Park City and talks about finding meaning and creating community with vacation rentals.



Please visit our sponsors, which made this episode...
Chip Conley has disrupted the hospitality industry on more than one occasion. First as 26 year old founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, which transformed an inner-city motel into the second largest boutique hotel brand in America. Many years later he would get a call from Brian Chesky to join Airbnb as the head of Global Hospitality and Strategy.



In this episode of...
Toby Babich not only runs a successful vacation rental and management business, he has taken over as president of the VRMA during this difficult time for the industry.

In a virtual sit-down with Matt, he provides insight into how different vacation rentals are doing, gets into how he has kept his own business afloat and lays out what the VRMA has in the works for the industry...
In Dana's relatively short time in the vacation rental industry, she has emerged as an advocate and leader for responsible, professional rentals in a tough market. By pioneering 'The Good Neighbor Summit' in Denver, Dana learned how getting public and private stakeholders together can change the narrative about the industry and generate positive press.



In our first season 5...
Film producer Tammy Rowe has been working with Matt now for about 5 years. Along with her partner Stuart Hooper, Tammy has a production company based in Panama and works all over the world producing non-fiction broadcast and online content.



The chat with Tammy dives into some of the values she (a Millennial!) looks for in her purchases including her travels, the platforms...
Friend, colleague, and producer of all Matt's media "concerns," Stuart Hooper has a production company based in Panama and works all over the world producing non-fiction broadcast and online content. Along with his partner Tammy, he has been producing The Vacation Rental Show and the Unlocked Podcast, as well as almost anything else Matt dreams up for a few years now.



The...
This update episode of the Unlocked Podcast features Matt giving a heads up on the upcoming season, which will feature industry luminaries who have managed crises before. What to do, how to stay positive.



After speaking with owners and managers daily, Matt also shares some of the patterns he's noticing beneath the surface of what was "the fastest growing sector in travel"...


Carole Lynn Sharoff of Atlantic Vacation Homes in Massachusetts is one of the wisest vacation rental professionals I have met in my 10+ years of interviewing. You can tell a lot about someone from how others describe them. And when some colleagues like Jodi Refosco and Jennifer Frankenstein Harris heard I was launching a new season of the podcast, they were all unanimous: you...
Brooke Pfautz is the Founder of Vintory, one of the only companies that I am aware of that helps property managers grow their inventory. I traveled to meet Brooke in Maryland, where he lives with his family and where he built a property management business from 0-500 properties in 5 years.



Since he sold that business and now focuses full time on helping other managers grow...


This is probably the most unexpected podcast we've ever published. It features a couple, Emily and Jesse Cole, who epitomize a lot of vacation rental hosts using Airbnb to build a real estate portfolio. But that's the end of where the Cole's are normal. They also own a baseball team. Where the *MALE* cheerleaders dance on dugouts, kids find signed baseballs hidden like easter...
Tammi Sims is the VP of Customer at Properly, an industry-leading cleaning app with a host of deeper applications. Perhaps more importantly, Tammi (along with her partner Alex Nigg) are visionary vacation rental leaders: they identified a need for this solution way back before anyone could even name the problem.

Tammi is a regular at industry conferences -- and it was at VRMA in New Orleans where Tammi was ‘in...
David Krathamer never thought he’d be running a world-class hospitality business. Along with his wife Edna, David is the owner of D&E Landing in Guntersville, Alabama. I stop over for the evening and hang out and go fishing with David as often as I get the chance. And on this particular visit, I decided to record a podcast.

What’s most intriguing about David and his business is the precision and discipline with...
If there is one person that has been a steady constant throughout the last decade of vacation rental mayhem, it’s Koryn Okey. She started out with a company called FlipKey and now works as the VP of Sales at Breezeway (an awesome cleaning app you should demo immediately). If you have ever attended a vacation rental conference, chances are you have seen or met or at least heard Koryn laugh...
Scott Shatford is the founder of Airdna, which is (by my estimates) the most cited resource in the short term rental industry. I have been virtual friends with Scott since about 5 years back when he and I were sort of dueling vacation rental experts.



But soon thereafter, Scott took the relatively simple idea of compiling all the data on Airbnb properties, and built it atop a...


Elizabeth Maora Sickels is one of those people with infectious energy: she’s one of those people who you can’t help but want to listen to and hang out with. I first discovered Elizabeth on LinkedIn where she was posting a regular stream of videos titled “Dirty Laundry” in which she’d address one less-than-savory aspect of the short term rental business. The videos are as...


Corey Jones is the creator of Lucky Savannah, which in my humble opinion is one of the most impressive boutique vacation rental companies in the world. Corey got started in short term rentals, like many people, by complete accident. A visiting French student was secretly renting out historic Savannah property, and when she disappeared, she left him a note: you should continue...


Jodi Refosco has built her Taylor-Made Deep Creek Vacations into a veritable empire in Deep Creek Maryland, but it wasn’t an easy start. She grew up with vacation rentals as the family business, but restarted in the depths of the financial crisis with a single property.

From paying cleaning staff by taking on late night snow-plow work to dealing with competitors, owners...
Sarah Bradford of Winter Park Lodging & Steamboat Lodging Company not only grew to 160 highly-respected properties from just a handful, she also has her own vacation rental-themed podcast and strong opinions about Norwegian-inspired design.



I had a chance to sit down with Sarah at the Streamline Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona. Sarah is a regular on the conference...


CJ Stam is a vacation rental legend to many who know him. He has built Southern Comfort Cabin Rentals into one of the best cabins getaway fleets in the American South, and now he is focusing on new purpose-built cabins for his vacation rental fleet.

I was road tripping recently and decided to stop and do an in-depth podcast with CJ. In-depth podcasting with CJ may or may...


Amy Hinote is an industry legend and I finally managed to get her on a podcast prior to VRMA international in New Orleans, the first city she got drunk in as a teenager.

Amy rolled in with an entourage of vacation rental luminaries including Steve Milo, Simon Lehmann, and Heather Bayer, so the peanut gallery was intimidating...but that would not stop us.

In this interview...


Jennifer Frankenstein-Harris built her Great Ocean Condos business in New Smyrna Beach Florida into a 300+ property empire after being unable to find a technology-forward management company for a single property. Now the largest manager in her area, Jennifer has played an important role in raising the standards and holding colleagues accountable in her region.

I had a...


After an action packed VRMA week, I got the chance to sit down with Terry Whyte and talk about the conference as well as software and I wanted to share our conversation while VRMA is fresh in everyone’s minds.

Please note that the 4th Season of Point Central sponsored Unlocked launches next Wednesday the 23rd of October!

Links mentioned in this episode:

www.vrma.org...


Heather Bayer of the Vacation Rental Formula Podcast is like my BFF in the industry. We were both in Las Vegas for the VRMA International event and she would be presenting on the 5 Love Languages, a famous book that classifies the various interpretations of love.

Heather applies this thinking to the vacation rental industry — where you may be making extraordinary efforts...


Sean Miller is the President of PointCentral, the sponsor of this podcast. And I just want to say up front that including him in the series was not required or part of the sponsorship contract or anything: Sean's just a really interesting and smart guy...someone I was really curious to learn more about.

I had the chance to sit down with Sean in Barcelona Spain at the...

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Here Goes Nothin'

Retreats, workshops, and discussions that spark creative leaps in your business.

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Upcoming Retreats

Matt's first Here Goes Nothin' retreat is slated for THIS NEW YEARS Dec 26-30 (cohort 1) and Dec 30-Jan 3 (cohort 2).

This retreat is all about creativity as an advanced leadership technique and is open to anyone exploring more creative risks in business (and life!)

Simply reach out to [email protected] with a bit about your current goals to learn more...

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