Podcast appearances and mentions of matt landau

Send us a message!In this week's episode, Matt Landau returns to the show to share one of the most personal and transformational shifts of his career — a journey from building systems and scaling success to rediscovering the power of human connection.Long known as a community builder and founder of VRMB, Matt opens up about the moment everything changed. After years of being surrounded by the same ideas and doing the same routines, he stepped outside the norm and into a retreat that would forever alter his perspective on leadership, creativity, and authenticity.Now leading his own immersive experiences through Here Goes Nothin', Matt is helping business leaders from all industries explore their own breakthrough moments by leaning into discomfort, curiosity, and connection.Key Topics Discussed:1️⃣ The “aha” moment that shifted Matt's trajectory2️⃣ Why scaling isn't always the answer—and what comes next3️⃣ The creative power of letting go of control4️⃣ What it really means to lead with authenticity5️⃣ How retreats are reshaping the future of leadership and hospitality6️⃣ Why personal breakthroughs often unlock professional successIf you've ever felt stuck, uninspired, or simply curious about what else might be possible, this episode is your invitation to take the leap.Connect with Matt:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/landaumatt/ Website: https://heregoesnothin.com/ Mention "Alex & Annie" when you sign up with Boom to get 50% off your onboarding fee and 1 month FREE: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.boomnow.com/⁠⁠ Get $50 credit and $0 onboarding fee when you sign up for Beyond, the leading dynamic pricing tool for vacation rentals: http://beyondpricing.info/alexandannie #vacationrentals #connection #heregoesnothin

In this special episode, we kick off our brand-new Leadership Series with someone who's been part of this journey from the very beginning - Matt Landau. Matt's been on the show more than 20 times over the years, but this conversation feels different. It's deeper, more reflective, and marks a shift in how we talk about leadership in the vacation rental industry. From managing boutique vacation rentals in Panama City's historic Casco Viejo to founding The Vacation Rental Marketing Blog and The Inner Circle, Matt has always led by example. But over the last few years, he's taken a big step back - literally and figuratively - to re-evaluate what leadership really means. His latest project, Here Goes Nothin', is all about helping short-term rental professionals find clarity, reconnect with purpose, and lead from a place of authenticity. Revolutionize Your Employee Onboarding with THRIVE Essentials: Faster Training, Stronger Teams, Better Results! Discover how THRIVE Essentials accelerates onboarding for new property management staff, boosting performance and reducing turnover. >> THRIVE Essentials Are you listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/VRS607

In this episode, we're joined by an all-star cast - Madison Rifkin, Amy Hinote and Matt Landau - to discuss the future of vacation rental industry events, DARM, looking for the right conference for you and a LOT more...Enjoy!⭐️ Links & Show NotesAdam NorkoScott FasanoConrad O'ConnellAmy HinoteDARMMadison RifkinMountMatt Landau Here Goes Nothin

In this episode of the Vacation Rental Success Podcast, host Heather Bayer sits down with Matt Landau from VRMB (Vacation Rental Marketing Blog) to discuss the importance of creative interventions in the vacation rental industry and how stepping outside of your comfort zone can lead to innovation and growth. Matt Landau, a seasoned thought leader in the vacation rental industry, has been instrumental in helping property managers and owners elevate their businesses through intentional leadership and innovative thinking. With a background in founding the Vacation Rental Marketing Blog (VRMB) and organizing transformative retreats, Matt has consistently encouraged industry professionals to embrace creativity and re-evaluate their business models. His deep insights into operational efficiency, guest experience, and team dynamics have made him a trusted voice in the short-term rental community.  ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Discover the THRIVE Training System and attend an information session to get your questions answered about our foundational team training: https://vacationrentalformula.com/thrive-live-webinar. Are you listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/VRS572

Matt Landau, Founder of www.VRMB.com, is the special guest on today's Holiday Cottage Handbook Podcast. The episode traverses the joy of travel, breaking up gang violence in Panama(!), hosting tips, guest emotions, eco-friendly rentals, AI, direct bookings, regulation, and much more. Matt picked Inhabit for his favourite brand and gave Valerie Gangas from Juniper Holiday + Home a special shout-out. 4:48 Matt's story begins with a love for travel11:43 Dealing with gang violence in Panama15:31 The elevator pitch for VRMB.com19:25 How to be a brilliant host24:06 Guest emotions are important 28:15 Are guests demanding eco-friendly rentals?29:36 How is AI changing the industry?32:14 Are direct bookings the be-all and end-all?35:32 Matt's message to political leaders about STR regulation45:43 Favourite brand: Inhabit50:01 Individual shout-out: Valerie Gangas from Juniper Holiday + Home52:02 No. 1 piece of advice: don't do it!  Links: James Varley: https://shorturl.at/rstABHoliday Cottage Handbook website: https://shorturl.at/xLMRYFree newsletter: https://shorturl.at/xLMRYFree e-book: https://shorturl.at/imtW6Survey: https://shorturl.at/axOV6 Matt Landau: https://www.linkedin.com/in/landaumatt/VRMB.com: https://www.vrmb.com/ Petition to reverse government plans to abolish the furnished holiday lettings tax regime: https://rb.gy/u0n35j Sponsor links: Hosthub: www.hosthub.com/hchHCH Financial Services: https://www.hchfs.com/ Call: 0333 1234 536 Email: advice@hchfs.comSustonica: https://www.sustonica.com/RentalWise: https://www.rentalwise.com/ Mentions: Inhabit: https://inhabit.com/Valerie Gangas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerie-gangas/Juniper Holiday + Home: https://www.juniperholidayandhome.com/ Enjoy the show? Please subscribe, rate, and review!  Email the show: james@holidaycottagehandbook.com     

This episode is sponsored by Lodgify, an all-in-one solution that will help you start, manage, and grow your short-term rental business. Use Code VRF10 for 10% off their Professional and Ultimate yearly plans > Click here to visit Lodgify.com to start your free trial today ______________________________________________________________________ In this episode, host Heather Bayer welcomes back Matt Landau, a seasoned mentor and coach in the vacation rental industry. He shares insights from a transformative event he attended in Morocco, which inspired him to rethink traditional conference formats and foster deeper business interactions. The conversation delves into the significant role of retreats in fostering personal growth and professional development. Matt highlights how well-designed, intimate gatherings can spur creativity and innovation, allowing participants to step away from daily routines and reassess their business strategies and life goals. Matt also introduces his new venture, "Here Goes Nothin'," a series of retreats, workshops, and discussions designed to equip business leaders with the tools to navigate the future creatively and courageously. He stresses the importance of taking creative risks and stepping out of comfort zones to propel business success. Additionally, the discussion touches on the concept of experience design, which Matt believes is crucial in planning the customer journey to enhance satisfaction and loyalty, particularly in the vacation rental industry. The episode concludes with Heather and Matt reflecting on the need for continuous innovation and creativity to stay competitive in the rapidly evolving vacation rental market. They encourage listeners to embrace new ideas and approaches, emphasizing the importance of being open to change. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Discover the THRIVE Training System and attend an information session to get your questions answered about our foundational team training: https://thrive.vacationrentalformula.com/thrive-live-webinar Are you listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/VRS560

This episode is sponsored by Minut. You can discover more about Minut at our Virtual Vendor Showcase >> https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/virtual-vendor-showcases/minut Get access to the best education for your short-term rental business! Enroll in The Vacation Rental Formula Business School today and start seeing results tomorrow. Get 25% OFF an All-Access Pass For A Limited Time: Don't Miss Out >> Get Your All-Access Pass Get on the waitlist for the next intake for VRF B-School Consultation https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/consult Discover more about the VRF B-School: https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/courses Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/VRS543

This week it's just us as we recap the amazing year that was 2023!This is a super quick episode that touches on all the right things... but first make sure to visit this link for an EXCLUSIVE no BS 3-month FREE Membership to HostGPO! https://hostgpo.com/no-bs/Episode HighlightsBusiness adaptation: Companies focus on new revenue streams and differentiation.Professionalism: More operators adopt a professional approach, focusing on profitability and data.Profitability and sustainability: Businesses prioritize ethical and environmentally friendly practices.Differentiation: Standing out in a sea of inventory becomes crucial.Creativity and tech-enabled experiences: New trends like glamping and unique rentals emerge.Episode 116 marks the 31st episode of the season and the 2023 recap.Derailed: a fictional murder mysteryThree significant episodes: The 100th episode with Matt Landau, the Bill Faeth episode, and the most downloaded episode to date with Vacasa CEO, Rob Graber.The podcast took a two-month break and came back rebranded as the no BS podcast and focused on a deeper, more intimate format.Appreciation for collaborations with HostGPO and anticipation for upcoming partnerships in 2024.Commitment to eco-positive changes, including planting trees and contributing to ocean and coral restoration with Global Investment Group.Anticipation for the industry's response to challenges and the opportunity for growth and creativity.

This episode features a conversation between Justin Ford and Matt Landau. Justin is a longtime industry advocate, having introduced professional safety protocols to the emerging industry of vacation rentals. In this episode, Matt and Justin talk about leadership and fear, and how certain experiences impact the way we think about, and handle, risk. The episode concludes with a conversation about safety in the vacation rental industry.  This episode is brought to you by Breezeway, https://www.breezeway.io/vrmb the best-in-class property care and operations platform, and bnbfinder, https://www.bnbfinder.com/list, a book direct marketplace with a 20-year history connecting travelers with unique places to stay. No commissions, no processing fees, no service fees. Plain and simple.

In this podcast episode, Matt Landau and Guy discuss personal growth, business insights, and transformative experiences. Matt talks about his life-changing trip to Israel and how travel can trigger transformation. Guy shares his enlightening experiences with psychedelics and how they altered his perspective on life. The episode also covers Guy's journey into parenthood and its profound impact on him, emphasizing the role of children in shaping better individuals.  This podcast episode is an enriching exploration of personal growth, the art of delegation, business expansion, relationship-building, the power of storytelling, heightened awareness, and the transformative influence of life experiences and parenthood. This episode is brought to you by Breezeway, https://www.breezeway.io/vrmb the best-in-class property care and operations platform, and bnbfinder, https://www.bnbfinder.com/list, a book direct marketplace with a 20-year history connecting travelers with unique places to stay. No commissions, no processing fees, no service fees. Plain and simple.

In this episode, Alex & Annie are joined by two recurring guests: Steve Schwab, CEO of Casago, and Matt Landau, Founder of VRMB. Together, they have started a new joint venture called Keystone Retreats.These recurring cohorts aim to help those in the vacation rental industry break through to the next level through creative and educational workshops and events.Last year, Matt was feeling that burnout was creeping up on him.Not being his first rodeo, he knew exactly what the signs are, and decided to start pivoting towards Keystone Retreats - a new venture that would ultimately reignite his passion for the Vacation Rental Industry.Matt decided to join forces with Steve, who has over 22 years of vacation rental industry experience running Casago.Steve describes his time with Keystone Retreats as a real eye opening experience that has taught him how to better serve the vacation rental industry and become an even greater force in our space.Keystone Retreats is all about transformation.Instead of just focusing on just the business side of the vacation rental industry, the real purpose of these events is to help people unlock their north star by collaborating on new, creative projects and stimulating parts of their mind that might have been left unmoved since they were a kid.Steve shared their plan for future Keystone events - they are looking to step up their next iteration by having a clearer vision of what Keystone Retreats is, and constantly improving the value that's brought to the participants.Their next step is to cultivate more amazing thought leaders that will come in to share their journeys, workshops, and transformative paths that will help you break through to the next level.If all of this sounds a little bit fluffy to you, you're not the only one - even our host Alex was a bit skeptical about the creative workshop part of the events, but it ended up being the most memorable and transformative part of her Keystone Retreats experience, and one she fondly recalls to this day.Check out the full episode to learn more on what Keystone Retreats has in store for you!HIGHLIGHTS:01:15 - Matt's Journey with Burnout03:19 - How Steve Joined Keystone Retreats05:58 - The Meaning of Keystone Retreats10:25 - What to Expect in Future Keystone Events14:32 - Should You Indulge in Creative Activities?17:21 - Will Keystone Retreats Attract the STR Industry?23:45 - The World-Class Experience of Keystone RetreatsThis episode is brought to you by Casago and Rev & Research!Connect with Steve:Website | LinkedinConnect with Matt:Website | LinkedinConnect with Alex and Annie:Alex Husner | Annie HolcombeAlexAndAnniePodcast.com

Meet Matt Landau, the founder of VRMB — a vacation rental marketing blog and community for the world's most innovative vacation rental professionals.  When Matt was a senior at the University of Richmond, he stumbled upon an alumni magazine that wound up changing his life. On the cover of this magazine was an alum sitting in a hammock while on a beach in Costa Rica. While Matt had no idea what this guy did that enabled him to chillax in such a pristine aesthetic, he made up his mind then and there that he wanted to do whatever it was that this guy did. And as it turned out, this guy had started the top luxury travel agency in Costa Rica. So Matt decided to shoot his shot and ask this guy to get together for a coffee next time he was in town…and, to Matt's pleasant surprise, he did.  This opportunity was Matt's foray into travel and hospitality and, while he didn't know it at the time, this job would enable him to buy his own vacation rental management agency and, eventually, build a prolific online platform and membership community that thousands of professional operators all around the world would one day come to learn from and be inspired by.  This episode is brought to you by OwnerRez — the smartest property management software for vacation rental hosts. You can get a 30% discount on your first 3 months by mentioning Behind the Stays after booking a call or requesting more information from their team. Learn more about OwnerRez here.  Connect with Matt on LinkedIn Learn more about the VRMB Community  Behind the Stays is brought to you by Sponstayneous — a carefully-curated newsletter that sends subscribers 150 of the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb twice a week. You can subscribe for free at www.sponstayneous.com. Behind the Stays is hosted by Zach Busekrus (@zboozee) — Co-Founder of Sponstayneous. If you know of an Airbnb host you think we should have on the show, please reach out directly to Zach at zach@sponstayneous.com and he'd be happy to talk with them.

In this episode, we dive into the transformative experience that Adam + Scott had at Keystone Retreats with Matt Landau. Matt shares his vision for the future of small and focused in-person events and how we need to evolve as an industry into 2023 and beyond.⭐️ Links & Show NotesAdam NorkoScott FasanoVRMBKeystone RetreatsMatt Landau

Do you like passionate discussions about different opinions in our industry? Well, do we have an episode for you! In this BONUS episode, Wil Slickers moderates a live discussion between industry names like Amy Hinote, Steve Milo, Matt Landau, Mike Sjogren, and Eric Moeller. This discussion was inspired by a LinkedIn thread/post from Jessica Singer who was reflecting on the two segments of our industry. The Short-Term Rental segment and the Vacation Rental segment. What's the difference? To many, the difference is geographic locations like urban vs destination markets. But it goes deeper than that and we try to dive into this more and more throughout the conversation. Do you have thoughts you'd like to have heard? Want to join this conversation? Send us your thoughts via email at info@hospitality.fm and make sure the subject line says "Let's Talk" for a chance to be part of this conversation once we go for round two! Here is the link for the LinkedIn Live where you can read the live reactions and comments from everyone tuning into the discussion as it was happening in real time! ——– Thank you for tuning into our podcast! Slick Talk is a Hospitality.FM production and you can find more of our shows at Hospitality.FM or anywhere else you listen to your podcasts! Listen to more episodes on our website and take a look at our amazing podcast and network sponsors that make this all possible! You can also listen to our Monday morning podcast, Good Morning Hospitality, where we dive into the industry as a whole in a more casual setting! If you ever want to contact us for guest suggestions or anything else related to the podcast, please fill out our contact form and we will be in touch! Last but not least, we love to connect on LinkedIn! Let's connect there so you can see the daily content we post beyond the podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We did it! We made it to 100 episodes! A huge thank you is in order to Matt Landau Founder at VRMB.com for joining us on our celebratory episode! We're fans of Matt and appreciate all that he has done and continues to do for the short-term rental space. When he got started back in 2006 things looked a lot different than how they are today. So much of who Matt is today was initially forged living in Panama living amongst the locals and establishing himself as a trusted community member. This allowed him to organize and demobilize street gangs in his and surrounding neighborhoods where he lived and operated vacation rentals. Matt has done much the same for our vacation rental community where he has earned the trust of the industry by putting out best practices and bringing like-minded people and ideas together. He challenges all of us to be the best of ourselves and continues to question his own direction all while continuing to find things he's excited about. A wonderful episode with an amazing man. Now for our next 100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We did it! We made it to 100 episodes!A huge thank you is in order to Matt Landau Founder at VRMB.com for joining us on our celebratory episode!We're fans of Matt and appreciate all that he has done and continues to do for the short-term rental space.When he got started back in 2006 things looked a lot different than how they are today. So much of who Matt is today was initially forged living in Panama living amongst the locals and establishing himself as a trusted community member. This allowed him to organize and demobilize street gangs in his and surrounding neighborhoods where he lived and operated vacation rentals.Matt has done much the same for our vacation rental community where he has earned the trust of the industry by putting out best practices and bringing like-minded people and ideas together.He challenges all of us to be the best of ourselves and continues to question his own direction all while continuing to find things he's excited about.A wonderful episode with an amazing man.Now for our next 100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeff and Brett speak with Matt Landau, a well-known figure in the travel industry, specifically the vacation rental and home-sharing sector. As the founder of VRMB, the leading media company in the emerging vacation rental sector, Matt is literally building the plane while flying.  Listen in to hear about this exciting industry and how this entrepreneur learns to juggle multiple tasks while searching for meaning in these tumultuous times.  If you are in business, starting one, or just need a vacation, check out this episode!Streaming now on  YouTube, Spotify, Google, Amazon Music, and Apple Podcasts.ABOUT Matt: He has an International Economics degree from the University of Richmond and a Spanish diploma from the University of St. Louis, Madrid, Spain. He is the host of The Vacation Rental Show, presented by Booking.com.   He has a podcast called Unlocked by Matt Landau, and he is the producer behind How to Save Your Vacation Rental Business, a new educational series about community building in the sharing economy.

This episode is sponsored by OwnerRez. You can discover more about OwnerRez at our Virtual Vendor Showcase: https://vacationrentalformula.com/ownerrez Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here:  https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/VRS483 Want to get access to some of our best tools? Get The Toolbox >> https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/toolbox

Matt Landau, Founder of the VRMB, discusses his career in the short-term rental industry with Leo Walton from Know Your Guest by SUPERHOG . From professionally managing vacation rentals for ten years to starting the VRMB community. Find out why he thinks community and knowledge sharing is vital in the short-term rental industry. As well as some insider tips and tricks on how property managers and hosts can strengthen the core of hospitality gestures that big companies cannot compete against.

Simon Says: It's Conference Season!Tune in to hear Simon's takeaways on the Vacation Rental World Summit and Avantio 2022, and preview thoughts of the upcoming VRMA International Conference being held in Vegas October 23 - 26th. If you're attending VRMA International, you do not want to miss Matt Landau's Homerunners premiere on Sunday night! We are SO excited to host the first ever Red Carpet event for the vacation rental industry, welcoming our celebrity guests and friends that have  built vacation rentals into the $100 BILLION dollar industry it is today. Episode 1 kicks off with a bang, detailing Steve Milo and VTrip's rise to fame, having acquired several of the most prominent vacation rental brands on the East Coast in the past two years. You'll also see a preview of Episode 2 with Casago, led by Steve Schwab and Ryan Dame, as they show how building a company on the foundation of culture has enabled a trajectory of unlimited growth for property managers who want to compete at a national level while maintaining ownership of their companies. Their franchise model has the potential to be a game-changer for the rise pf professionalization and standards within our industry - we can't wait to see the full episode!Be sure to RSVP for this event - attendance is limited! Claim your spot here: https://www.paperlesspost.com/go/y8RlVmeS3z93Rvf4B6DyJ Register for VRMA International here: https://international.vrma.org/CONTACT SIMON LEHMANNLinkedInAJL AtelierCONTACT ALEX & ANNIEAlexandAnniePodcast.comLinkedIn | Facebook | InstagramAlex Husner - LinkedinAnnie Holcombe - Linkedin

Weird title to title a podcast episode but hopefully it makes sense. After a long couple of weeks and moving into a new place, I wanted to just brain dump my thoughts on past conversations and how they're playing out today in the industry. From the big players to Matt Landaus "Limited Edition" series and theme on his podcast, I hope you can get yourself included in this conversation and hopefully it is something you're passionate about as well! Mentioned in this weeks episode: Listen to last weeks episode here! Nominations for the Destinationaire Awards are now OPEN! Nominate your industry colleagues today & click right here to learn more about the Destinationaire Awards Grab your ticket for the Book Direct Show happening in Miami this October 18th & 19th right here! Listen to my old episode on "Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast" or now just Hotel Marketing Podcast right here Listen to Matt Landau's podcast, Unlocked to hear amazing industry insights and conversations! Thank you to Jetstream, Safely, and Hostfully for being amazing podcast partners! ——– Thank you for tuning into our podcast! Slick Talk is a Hospitality.FM production and you can find more of our shows at Hospitality.FM or anywhere else you listen to your podcasts! Listen to more episodes on our website and take a look at our amazing podcast and network sponsors that make this all possible! You can also listen to our Monday morning podcast, Good Morning Hospitality, where we dive into the industry as a whole in a more casual setting! If you ever want to contact us for guest suggestions or anything else related to the podcast, please fill out our contact form and we will be in touch! Last but not least, we love to connect on LinkedIn! Let's connect there so you can see the daily content we post beyond the podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Landau is one of the most respected thought leaders in vacation rentals. Founder of VRMB, Matt has built an information-sharing media empire, driven by one simple yet effective concept. As he tells us, "If you have a tip, share it!" You will find more like-minded individuals to collaborate with and by sharing information we are all helping each other and the industry grow. What does it mean to be Limited Edition, and how can you leverage this positioning to create your OWN lane and break free of the competition all together?  Tune in to hear Matt's thoughts on how industry leaders Vtrips and Casago have not only done this, but done it at scale - a feat that becomes much more complicated with growth across multiple markets.  Matt is  a story-teller at heart, and deeply in tune with how important brand and guest experience is to the success of a business. In today's episode we talk about the upcoming premiere of his TV show, Homerunners, which debuts during VRMA International in Vegas on Sunday evening, October 23rd. We are also very excited to announce that we will be hosting the Red Carpet for this event as the official podcast! Be sure to RSVP for this event - attendance is limited, and you don't want to miss the most glamorous event to date in vacation rentals - claim your spot here: https://www.paperlesspost.com/go/y8RlVmeS3z93Rvf4B6DyJ CONTACT MATT LANDAU VRMB.com LinkedInCONTACT ALEX & ANNIEAlexandAnniePodcast.comLinkedIn | Facebook | InstagramAlex Husner - LinkedinAnnie Holcombe - Linkedin

Welcome to the Real Estate Ballers Show. In this episode, Vee is joined by Jennifer Frankenstein-Harris. Jennifer currently serves on the Vacation Rental Management Association (“VRMA”) Board of directors. From middle school band director to vacation rental manager, Jennifer Frankenstein-Harris began Great Ocean Condos in the spring of 2008. After 14 years of ownership, Great Ocean Condos grew to managing over 300 properties in the New Smyrna Beach and Greater Daytona Area and became the largest vacation rental management company in New Smyrna Beach. In November of 2020 Jennifer sold her company to Village Realty Holdings and now works as a consultant for this amazing organization. Vee, the founder of REBallers, is a franchise owner and a Developmental Agent of HomeVestors “We Buy Ugly Houses”.  Today, Vee is actively buying and selling properties in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi, TX while growing her rental portfolio of long-term and short-term rentals.Follow us on Social Media:Instagram @reballersFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/REBallersLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reballers/Join our community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1764098016997548Wanna be on our show? Email info@reballers.comOther links and people mentioned in this episode: Jennifer Frankenstein-Harris Great Ocean Condos and Homes is recognized by Business Insider  as one of the “Best Vacation Rental Professionals in the World” and its story and success have been featured in multiple podcasts in the travel industry including Vacation Rental Success with Heather Bayer, Unlocked with Matt Landau and STR Success Stories. https://www.vrma.org/https://www.greatoceancondos.com/Please visit our sponsor, which made this episode possible: Buzz Vacation Rentals, a premier short-term and vacation rental manager in Houston and Galveston, helps investors to maximize earnings on their investment properties.  https://buzzvacationrentals.com/If you enjoy the show, would you please leave us a short review on Apple Podcast? It takes less than a minute, and it really makes a difference in helping to spread the words. I also love to read them and share them with our guests!Disclaimer: All information, content, and materials available in these episodes are designed for educational and inspirational purposes only. We are not financial advisers. We only express my opinion based on our experience. Your experience may be different. Investing of any kind involves risk. While it is possible to minimize risk, your investments are solely your responsibility. It is imperative that you conduct your own research. There is no guarantee of gains or losses on investments#therealestateballersshow #reballers

In this episode we dive into a case study on Santa Barbara and Theo Kracke, the man who sued his hometown and won.  We dedicate a lot of time on this podcast to finding compromise and working with local government, but in the face of outright bans it doesn't always work.  Theo's solution took a great deal of time, energy and resources, but his victory has ripple effects for vacation rental regulation across California and the country. This kind of effort requires someone to spearhead it, and as you listen you must ask yourself, are you capable of being the tip of the spear in your destination?  If not, find ways to support the folks that can be...as they need all the help they can get!  You can find ideas and resources at STRSantaBarbara.org. Portions of Theo's interview were aired in episode 122 of Matt Landau's Unlocked Podcast. This season is brought to you by Track Hospitality Software and NoiseAware. Track Hospitality Software powered by TravelNet Solutions transforms your vacation rental company so you can transform the way vacation rental advocacy plays out in your region.   NoiseAware users are able to stop issues before they spiral out of control, without having to be there in person or compromising guest privacy. VRMB Communities   Featured Guests: Theo Kracke of Paradise Retreats Tiffany Edwards of the VRMA Advocacy Fund Pam Knudsen of Avalara

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 2020, Dana and VRMB's Matt Landau launched a 10-part educational podcast titled “How to Save Your Vacation Rental Business,” with a second season in the works bravely tackling the difficult question of “What is fair regulation?”  We dive into those plans and much more during this discussion. She delivers actionable tips and tricks to get involved in making sure the rental industry remains accessible to those who know, use, and love it appropriately. To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: https://thanksforvisiting.me/ (thanksforvisiting.me) Resources: http://www.rentresponsibly.org (rentresponsibly.org) https://www.vrmb.com/how-to-save-your-vacation-rental-business-podcast-dana-lubner/ (How to Save Your Vacation Rental Business - Hosted by Dana Lubner) https://effortlessrentalgroup.com/ (effortlessrentalgroup.com) https://www.rentresponsibly.org/resources (rentresponsibly.org/resources) Don't have a STR alliance in your location? Start one! Check out our https://www.rentresponsibly.org/diy-alliance/ (ULTIMATE GUIDE: Building a Self-Sustainable Short-Term Rental Alliance) Visit https://www.thanksforvisiting.me/workshop (thanksforvisiting.me/workshop) to watch our Hosting Business Mastery Method workshop! #STRShareSunday: https://www.instagram.com/thejbbeachhouse/ (@thejbbeachhouse) Thanks for Visiting is a production of http://crate.media (Crate Media)

This episode is sponsored by the Virtual Vendor Showcase. You can discover more about the Virtual Vendor Showcase here: https://vacationrentalformula.com/vvs Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/VRS417 Want to get access to some of our best tools? Get The Toolbox >> https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/toolbox

Authenticity is the quality of being real or true. "But it isn't magic, and it isn't born. It happens because some critical things line up so that a person of good intelligence can put in the sustained, focused effort it takes to achieve extraordinary mastery.” Thomas Oppong Matt Landau, is the Founder of Vacation Rental Marketing Blog (VRMB) and VRMB Communities, the largest private forum for independent vacation rental managers online offering education and collaboration. He is also known for the Vacation Rental Show and most recently has released a docuseries called Homerunners focused on the Vacation Rental Management Industry. Favorite snack are olives. VRMB by Vacation Rental Leader Matt Landau https://www.linkedin.com/in/landaumatt/ https://www.facebook.com/vrmblog https://www.instagram.com/vacationrentalshow/ Music-"Homesick" Copyright 2018. Written by Shireen Amini. Produced by Shireen Amini and Mike Davidson of Plaid Dog Recording (Boston, MA)

Matt Roberts is the CEO of Vacasa, one of the largest vacation rental companies in the world. Matt was previously the CEO at Open Table -- the app that allows you to reserve tables at your favorite restaurants -- but he's not entirely new to vacation rentals as he was previously on Vacasa's board: granted a very different vantage point than being CEO.  But as a disclaimer and a testament to the theme of this season “unglamorous” we've chosen to include Matt because Vacasa, whether you like them or not, is a huge player in the vacation rental eco-system and knowing what their CEO is thinking can be simultaneously awkward and useful. You won't hear a Bob Woodward style inquisition because Matt (Landau) is not an investigative journalist. What you will hear are questions that other managers are wondering and call-outs that we believe can strengthen our positioning. Plus references to new terms like "share shift," "Domain expertise," and black silk sheets.  Theory of Limited Edition Homerunners Docuseries Turnkey Vacation Rentals OpenTable This episode is brought you by Point Central, the leaders in smart home automation, and Breezeway, the best in class property care and automations platform. Both companies' leadership are featured in the middle of the episode talking about the other fondly.  Additional show notes can be found at www.vrmb.com/120

This episode is sponsored by the Virtual Vendor Showcase. You can discover more about the Virtual Vendor Showcase here: https://vacationrentalformula.com/vvs Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/VRS404 Want to get access to some of our best tools? Get The Toolbox >> https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/toolbox

In this week's episode Sarah and T yield the microphone to their good friend and fellow podcaster Matt Landau.   Sarah and T provided Matt one of their favorite episodes for Matt to play to his audience this week and in return Sarah and T are here airing one of Matt's favorites.   Take a listen to this interview between Matt and Alex Cruz of Welcome Home Club in San Antonio, Texas.   Alex has some great ideas about how things should work in the vacation rental business.Sarah and T will be back next time with a new episode.  In the meantime listen to this classic episode of "Unlocked" by Matt Landau.

This episode is sponsored by the Virtual Vendor Showcase. You can discover more about the Virtual Vendor Showcase here: https://vacationrentalformula.com/vvs Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/VRS400 Want to get access to some of our best tools? Get The Toolbox >> https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/toolbox

As a way to offset some of the unprecedented hype our vacation rental sector is experiencing, Season 7 of the Unlocked Podcast is going against the grain...pulling back the curtain...taking off the rose-colored glasses...and revealing HOW the vacation rental SAUSAGE is made. The theme of the season: Unglamorous! Running a vacation rental company is not sexy. It's unpredictable, messy, and incredibly hard, which makes the people who do so profitably REMARKABLE entrepreneurs! Across 15 interviews this season, we want to address the unglamorous: steep challenges with labor, operations, finance, personal health, and burnout.  The unsexy side of the hottest sector in travel! Our goal this season is to build more realistic expectations about what it takes to get the vacation rental job done. Candid Backstory: The idea for this season was rooted in guilt. As vacation rental advocates — champions even — VRMB's tendency is to root for the best in everything. And our proudest feedback is when listeners say they felt encouraged or emboldened to continue pursuing their craft. We are your cheerleaders! But is there such a thing as too much positivity? Yes! It's called hype. And over the last 6 months as our industry has recovered perhaps better than any sector in travel, we've noticed unprecedented levels of attention and headlines: from journalists, producers, travelers, and new potential owners and managers looking to learn more. There is danger — when entering some place new for the first time with the wrong expectations. If you expect one thing, and the reality is another, you open yourself up to major letdowns. This is true about destination branding too by the way: if guests coming to your destination aren't calibrated, they write negative reviews. We've all learned that experience the hard way. So inside VRMB Communities, we started to talk a little more bluntly about how to best champion the industry but to do so accurately. The best conclusion? Be real. Tell both sides of the story. Show the truth, when it's beautiful and when it's....well...unglamorous. We've spent the past 6 seasons showing you the most rosy side of our industry (and we're not about to go completely negative on you or anything) but this season, we want to bring things down to earth and get real. We want to balance out the rose with the dirt it grows in.

VRMB is thrilled to announce Season 6 of Unlocked by Matt Landau, a podcast that invites you to be a fly-on-the-wall with some of the most creative vacation rental professionals in the world.  The first episode premieres Wednesday February 17th, 2021.  

This episode is sponsored by NoiseAware. You can discover more about NoiseAware at our Virtual Vendor Showcase: https://vacationrentalformula.com/noiseaware Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/VRS372 Want to get access to some of our best tools? Get The Toolbox >> https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/toolbox

Welcome to Boostly Podcast Season 8 Episode 43. This is a recap of my Facebook interview with Matt Landau of VRMB where we talked about the future of vacation rental. Recording date: Friday, 15th May *Please note events and news might have changed since the recording* 04:00 One bit of advice to 21 year-old Matt 05:00 Why Matt went to another country 06:00 Recommendations from Matt 09:00 The most important aspect of the future 11:10 Matt's thoughts on AirBnb 13:20 About Cottage Industry 3.0 18:30 Quickfire Questions • https://Boostly.co.uk • https://Boostly.co.uk/5steps • https://instagram.com/boostlyuk • https://Boostly.co.uk/guidebook • https://Boostly.co.uk/website • https://BookdirectMap.com • https://Boostly.co.uk/podcast                  

We speak to Matt Landau, founder for VRMB, about vacation rental tech and what short-term rental operators are looking for.It turns out, they are still buying. He gives his tips to founders about how to stand out in this niche industry and how to make property managers trust you.

In this episode, we have the special honor of speaking with Matt Landau. Matt is the Founder of VRMB, Vacation Rental Marketing Blog, and the Inner Circle which is an online training resource, where he’s been working with hosts and helping them generate more bookings. Matt entered the vacation rental space in the middle of 2006, pre-Airbnb, and owned and operated the only luxury accommodations in Casco Viejo, the historic district of Panama city where he lived. Without any hospitality training, educational resources, and guidance, Matt did everything wrong. Matt shares with us the things that owners and managers should do right now during this crisis and how they can take advantage of this time to be able to sustain their businesses.

Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: http://www.vacationrentalformula.com/VRS336 Want to get access to some of our best tools? Get The Toolbox >> https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/toolbox

In this edition of what seems like a never ending series of podcasts on Covid-19's effects on the Vacation Rental Industry, our hosts invite two positive-minded people on to discuss how we can be positive as well. You will enjoy the commentary of Matt Landau and Sharon Keefe who bring their A-game in this fast paced podcast. Find out what you should be doing with your marketing, owner communications, business planning and political activism. Our first ever 4 location podcast! Enjoy!

Matt Landau is the host of Unlocked Podcast and the creator of VRMB (Vacation Rental Marketing Blog)! I consider him the worlds leading expert of vacation rentals! He and I sat down and discussed the "101 of hosting" and what it takes in this exciting journey and rise of the vacation rental sector of hospitality! This is a 10 episode/week series with the Masterminds involved in Vacation Rentals and so to start it off, Matt Landau was the perfect guest to have with me in the launch of the series that was all inspired by a blog post that Slick Talk was featured in! Tune in every week for the next 10 weeks in order to hear from Masterminds and the show sponsors! To see more about AirDNA click here! More to come out on the show with them and you can see it all by becoming an official "Slick Talker" through my online community coming soon! Also, please vote for Slick Talk in the 2020 #ShortyzAward! Click here to vote!

In this very special season finale episode of Unlocked with Matt Landau, our sponsor, Sean Miller of Point Central turns the microphone around on Matt and and asks the questions we've been waiting nearly sixty episodes to answer.   Everything from Matt's management past to his Vacation Rental Show future is revealed, along with a great deal of thinking and action items about the vacation rental industry itself.   Don't miss our special finale, and as always, if you want to innovate like the best managers in the industry consider a demo with our friends at PointCentral (free HVAC Analytics included from this landing page): https://www.pointcentral.com/vrmb/ VRMB: www.vrmb.com

Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: http://www.vacationrentalformula.com/VRS321

This episode takes a look back on Matt Landau's favorite lessons from the season. Links: https://www.pointcentral.com/vrmb/ https://www.vrmb.com/podcast/ep40-short-term-rent-long-term-win-with-matt-hoffman/ https://www.vrmb.com/podcast/ep36-a-theater-of-growth-with-cliff-johnson/ https://www.vrmb.com/podcast/ep-34-no-time-to-waste-with-megan-mccrea/ https://www.vrmb.com/podcast/ep-33-picking-the-lock-with-guglielmo-scarpa/ https://www.vrmb.com/podcast/ep28-keeping-it-commercial-with-sarah-nie/ https://www.vrmb.com/podcast/our-vacation-rental-campaign-with-phil-minardi/ https://www.vrmb.com/podcast/ep-25-social-media-influencers-with-kristi-kautz/ https://www.vrmb.com/podcast/ep-24-the-biggest-lesson-of-my-career-with-steve-milo/ Conferences https://www.streamlinesummit.com/ https://conference.liverez.com/ http://www.vrma.org/page/international-conference  

Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: http://www.vacationrentalformula.com/VRS296

In this week's episode Sarah and T interview Matt Landau. One of the most prominent faces and voices in the vacation rental business Whether it is his podcast (Unlocked), his television show (The Vacation Rental Show previously known as A Sense of Place), his various public speaking events, or his wildly successful website (VRMB.com), Matt has become the standard bearer for many operators in the vacation rental business. He has 15,000 followers on his weekly vacation rental blog, and he has more than 800 subscribers to his "Inner Circle" where he delivers special content to his closes followers. When Matt speaks - people listen.In this episode Sarah and T get to the bottom of how he has so many followers, the secrets of the production of his television show, and how he thinks the future of the hospitality industry is held by the vacation rental operators of today. In the weekly news segment we hear how the recent challenge Sarah put to Tim was handled. This is one of the most entertaining and informative episodes so far.

Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: http://www.vacationrentalformula.com/VRS260

Download Episode! Kati and Brian Greene are two long-time travelers who produced an eBook of interviews with vacation rental industry “thinkers and do’ers”. Now, they have created a structured video course, teaching smart phone photography to vacation rental owners. There are good reasons to use professional photographers, but there are also good reasons to learn to take our own pictures to manage property updates and pictures of surrounding neighborhoods. Those pictures have to be good enough to blend in with the other professional pictures on our listings. And, it turns out, they can! 0-3:30 Debi describes how she met Kati and Brian, through a book interview. 3:30 – 9:00 The two are living in New Zealand but also Italy and France – they try to find longer term vacation rentals to base out of. They called themselves Superguests before Airbnb did, and are really into the guest experience. Their company, “overlooked2overbooked.com” provides photography training so that hosts can learn to do their own photography using cell phones. During their years of travel, they found that something like half of the sites they’ve considered staying in lacked good quality pictures. Sometimes they’d book a place on another continent and really wanted to see the photo quality match the quality offered in the written description. 9:00 – 12:45 Discussion of why hosts would want to learn these photography skills, in addition to using professional photography. Kati says is more about the photographer than the high-end camera tool. 12:45 – 16:45 Kati and Brian’s Course: Kati describes the content of the 3-hour video course, broken up in three parts. First is getting to know your phone camera, lighting, all the technical stuff, then walking through an Airbnb looking over Kati’s shoulder, then editing the pictures, selecting the right photos and how to sequence them. The videos are mostly 4-5 minutes, with the longest being 10 minutes. The course is $197. They have a second level, which includes phone consulting prior to the shoot, and Kati will edit up to 20 pictures because she knows that a lot of people might be uncertain about editing. 16:45 – 18:00 Brian discusses the value of learning these photography skills. One example is that you can also take good neighborhood photos, something you don’t usually get from your professional photographer, because it takes too much time. 18:00 Kati & Brian’s Book: They interviewed 28 people who they feel are resources in the industry – an hour of Skype interview boiled down after editing to 5 or 6 pages, which are the best 2 or 3 minutes of the hour. They plan on doing a podcast that will utilize the original full interviews. They interviewed Matt Landau, Heather Bayer, Wheelhouse, Andrew McConnell, Logify, Party Squasher, Erica Muller, and many others including lots of Airbnb experts. They asked a set of questions focused towards a hypothetical new owner. They didn’t want it to just be a list of companies. The book is being offered free on their website. 23:30 Brian noted that 70% of people don’t entertain the thought of hiring a professional photographer. But whether you use a pro or not, there is a value of learning to do this yourself, being true to your rental offering with pictures that are realistic and good quality. Most of the modern smart phones, whether iPhone or not are fine for taking solid pictures. They originally thought the course would focus on the actual details of the photograph, but have evolved to teaching about the emotional appeal of the pictures. In her wrapup, Debi laughs about not intending to do an info-mercial but found the course to be really useful and recommends it. (Debi has no financial connection with Kati and Brian) LINKS http://overlooked2overbooked.com/ And remember to check their free e-Book offer on the website

Download Episode! Matt Landau         To many hundreds of independent vacation rental owners and VR managers, Matt Landau is the guru of the vacation rental market.  He translated his remarkable experience in Panama into a valuable VR knowledge base that continues to expand within the large, virtual community that he has created.  Matt’s experience, his sense for kind and appreciative personal relations, and his drive for professionalism make him a natural leader for other VR entrepreneurs.  Matt talks with Debi about his background, creation of his VR community Inner Circle, and why he involved gang members in his vacation rental business.  It was a triumph of conversion from a severe, dangerous  humanitarian loss into a unique asset. Debi finds out how Matt found Costa Rica, Panama, New Orleans, how he got his start, what his mistakes have been.  Despite Matt’s experiences and position at the center of the Inner Circle, he is a humble, genuine person who earns people’s trust honestly. Debi Hertert encourages Matt to share some of his experience with her audience. The following show notes are a full transcript, with time markers. LINKS: Matt’s heartwarming article in VRMB about the gang conversion https://www.vrmb.com/hope/ Matt’s Vacation Rental Marketing Blog:  https://www.vrmb.com/ Sense of Place TV show (also can find via the VRMB.com site):  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=matt+landau+sense+of+place [00:45] Debi Hertert introduces the audience to Matt Landau, his “Inner Circle”, and his YouTube TV series “A Sense of Place”. [05:00] Finding Costa Rica:  Using Matt’s Inner Circle members’ questions, Debi asked Matt about the “back story” – how’d he get started?  Matt studied economics in school – but might not have been that enamored with the major.  He chanced upon a story about a University of Richmond graduate who moved to Costa Rica and started an online travel agency, Costa Rica Vacations.  Casey happened to be in Charlotte, VA when Matt called him, and agreed to meet.  He made a 6-month job available to Matt in Costa Rica in 2006.  Casey asked Matt to write a book for Costa Rica Vacations that would be informative for guests, and not be available from any other source.  Matt traveled around Costa Rica to see the various partners that Casey worked with and was jazzed with the experience of traveling in the country, staying sometimes at vacation rentals, sometimes hotels and immediately knew he loved the vacation industry. [09:00] – Finding Panama:  Everyone he met in that first six months encouraged Matt to check out Panama – coincidentally, Casey was at that time interested in possibly opening a branch of his travel agency in Panama, so they checked it out together.  Matt started a blog “The Panama Report” which was one of the first Travel and Investment blogs for Panama, and he found a taste for the life.  On that very same visit, he found the tiny historic district of Casco Viejo: Matt: “I met two gentlemen from Holland, Paulus and Eric who were running the only accommodations in all of Casco Viejo.  It was called ‘Los Cuatro Tulipanes’ (The Four Tulips).  And it was a revolutionary experience for me.  I went into it nervous and uncertain and curious not only about the rentals but the neighborhood.  And it just blew my mind and I decided that this was a neighborhood in which I wanted to live.   Almost within the next 6 months, a series of events happened that I could have never planned but that ended up setting me up for where I am today.  It was a combination of the travel agency that Casey was opening up doing really well, and needing to place people in the evolving historic district of Casco Viejo, and Paulus and Eric determining they were going to leave Panama for some reasons that are probably worth a separate day. And they said to me ‘we are going to shut this business down unless we can sell it to one person and that's you”. Debi: you had you had not spoken to them about it? Matt:  “Not at all. I was helping them a little bit with their marketing after I had stayed. I was living in Panama in the downtown area but I just felt like it was an alignment of stars. And I found a small handful of business partners who were already involved in the neighborhood and on the real estate side of things and others were coming from the United States and we put together a little team. And next thing you know we are running a vacation rental business in Panama.  It was the only place to stay in town and if you had come to Casco Viejo between 2009 and 2013 there was nowhere to stay but with us. We just learned everything on the fly. Fantastic and there was nobody to take our place.” [13:00] Birth of the Vacation Rental Marketing Blog: Debi: and then while you were there you started the vacation rental marketing blog? Matt:  “So that was a really hilarious pivot in all of this in that we learned everything on our own in very much the same way all our colleagues have. I felt like I had a really good notebook of information of stuff that worked because I keep copious notes and I structured it a little bit and made it into the form of an eBook. And it was essentially like the best ways to market your vacation rental business but I wasn't sure that vacation rentals were the right demographic to buy the eBook. So I made four.  I've actually never shared this.  I made four websites: HowToIncreaseHotelOccupancy.com; HowToIncreaseResortSales.com; Bed and BreakfastAdvertising.com and VacationRentalMarketingBlog.com.  One page on each website; the same book for sale on each website with a different title.  The same price. It was an ultimate control versus variable experiment. I pumped probably like 200 bucks worth of add words into that experiment. I was driving traffic from Google to these four sites to see which ones worked.  And one of them blew the others out of the water: Vacation Rental Marketing Blog.   I dropped all the others and I said okay I guess this means I should focus on the vacation rentals.” Debi: Holy cow! On my computer I have a file folder that says ‘The Vault’ Matt:  “Yes!  Those were the original documents; like How to Boost Occupancy. And I refer back to those fairly often to see if they’re still good or not, has the industry changed, and most of the advice was pretty solid”. Debi: Can I ask you how old you are?  (35) So you started this when you were 25 years old? Matt:  “Yeah – right out of college” I would say it's fearless but it's really what everybody in our industry does at the beginning.  It’s just winging it. Debi: Honestly, all the dominoes falling in the right place all the right people came. The universe just looked after you beautifully! Matt: “and I think that's true. A lot of people got into this business. If it wasn't an accident it was some bit of alignment of stars adversity whatever you want to call it that brought this opportunity in front of them and they ran with it.” [15:30] “The Inner Circle” Debi: So what was your thinking when you started the Inner Circle? What was your goal then, and how do you see that you might have met or not met that? Matt:  “Well, before the Inner Circle I was creating one-off Learning Materials eBooks video courses, guides, things like that and I realized that I was putting myself at a bit of a disadvantage because even if someone absolutely loved my work and purchased the book or the video course or whatever, I needed to go and create more in order to sell to them and that was like a bit of a spinning wheel. So I decided to pivot the business model instead of selling one-off learning materials to build a small fee, monthly membership Community where you would have access to all the learning materials that are created on a regular basis but also get this community element that has that's kind of proven to be so unique.” Debi: Have you been in a community like that before? (No) So you really didn't know whether or not it was going to go. Matt:  “Virtually speaking, no. But guess where I was? Physically located in a community called Casco Viejo that was developing from scratch. We were solving our own trash problems, crime problems, we were dealing with like every type of neighborhood building challenge you can imagine.  And I all the sudden start seeing all these overlaps.  Like wait a minute, this is how we do it in real life, why shouldn't that work virtually? And what we have now I think in the Inner Circle is a very tight-knit Community. People who stand for the same thing but who happen to be located everywhere throughout the world. It's a cool thing to compare real life community building and virtual community building. It's a private community, so that kind of immediately rules out anyone who's not serious. The fact that you have to pay means that you will need to be committed to learning. It's one part learning materials, eBooks, courses, workshops. One part open forum - ask questions and get answers from people who have been through it before. And the Inner Circle membership also includes real life meetups. Last year we hosted 26. And you attended one yesterday and those are a chance to bring the virtual sides of our lives down to earth and actually meet each other in person and learn. That’s the value proposition but in general it's owners and managers who are serious and who want to grow.  And it's a very small minority of the general vacation rental population but we're okay with that.” Debi: You also have grown immensely in the last few years. How many members are there now? Matt: “842 - not that anyone's counting” [ [18:45] From Gangs to Esperanza (Hope):  Debi:  Rick Oster wants to know why you started the charity with the gang members? Matt:  “Necessity. This neighborhood that I had fallen in love with had a very serious problem which was prohibiting me and others from contributing, and that was gang violence.  And we had specifically 4.5 almost five street gangs who were constantly at one another and that made walking to the grocery store in the morning a bit of a challenge.  It also made running a hospitality business a little daunting. I wasn't even comfortable with guests walking to certain areas for fear that they would get robbed. So the first, real reason that we put together the program was safety. That's the number one thing about any community. If it's not safe nothing else can happen.” Debi: And did that ever happen? Did anyone get robbed? Matt: “Yes, on a regular basis. In the early days we had a map and we would draw very clearly where it was okay to walk and where was not okay to walk.  And of course, the adventuresome traveler who doesn't like to listen to instructions would venture off the beaten path and almost like clockwork get robbed. It was never a violent crime it was almost always petty stuff. But we had plenty of gunshots. The specific impetus for Esperanza was when we lost a little neighbor of ours named Kevin, who was eight, on the block right outside Tulipanes. I would say that was the breaking point.  We realized this is something needs to be done and no one else is going to solve this problem.  I also had the wonderful guidance of another mentor whose name is also KC, who had a vision. And that was to not only demobilize these gangs but to give their members a real opportunity to participate in the community. And that was something so fascinating to me it was almost beyond my comprehension. But I knew where I could be helpful. I knew how to mobilize the neighbors, all of whom were ready to be helpful. Again, ‘Community 101’. And once the program picked up steam it was almost just this epiphany of realizing that we could take a problem and actually make it part of a solution. And that ended up benefiting everybody in the neighborhood to the point that the very same gang members that were robbing my guests in the early days were at this point offering walking tours to the same tourists and being featured in Travel, and Leisure, and GQ, adding value to the community where they were formerly taking it away. It got started out of pure necessity but picked up momentum because of hope. And I think those are probably the two little factors that start most of these revolutions that are happening in neighborhoods around the world.” [listeners/readers – please do yourselves a favor and follow the link at the end of these show notes] Debi: So where do you see yourself going now? Matt: “San Francisco…my mom is going to receive an award and my whole family is going to celebrate that with her. But what I always like to say is that I know I'm not exactly sure where this is all going but I do know that I'm doing it with the right people. 23:30 New Orleans: Debi: And you're in your next phase, you’ve sold Los Tulipanos and you’re now living in New Orleans.  You’re renting so you're not quite settled Matt:  “Home base will be New Orleans and people ask why I chose New Orleans.  One, because I like the idea of spending some time in the States after almost 12 years living in Panama. Two, I wanted warm weather. I'm big on that. I’ve spent plenty of cold winter months in New Jersey. And, I wanted to be central to where most of my travel and my colleagues are located which is North America. And in some cases South America and perhaps most importantly I wanted to be somewhere with character. Which New Orleans has. That's my home base for the moment and I'll keep going back there in between my trips and I'll begin you know writing my address on Decatur Street on forms and things like that. I have a license plate. So I guess that qualifies as a home for the moment but I'm not sure where I'm going. I do know that I'm doing it with a lot of people that I admire.” [24:30] A Sense of Place Internet TV Show: Debi: Well in your phase includes the TV show or, would you call it a TV show? Matt: “Jessica Mosel just said it's an Internet TV show. It's a travel show that features vacation rentals.” Debi: And you got your blog still and you got your podcast that you say you’re reviving and the Inner Circle. So do you have to have plans for the Inner Circle?  I mean what I'm seeing you do is kind of pull all of this together into kind of one overarching support activity. Matt:  “The inner circle is certainly critical to my livelihood because it's where I generate dollars like that's my salary income. The other stuff tends to be a way to ultimately get someone to join the Inner Circle even though maybe only a small percentage of the people actually will.  But there's a general direction through the podcast through the blog through the show after most of the events that I like to support like this one where we are right now, the Vacation Rental Success Summit. To get my brand out there and my brand is primarily education and empowering these owners and managers with all the right tools and resources to do their own great work. And I believe that that kind of positive energy that style of help don't sell marketing will ultimately trickle back so we are indeed looking to grow the Inner Circle but slowly and surely and I think that's a nice recipe. You’re very much of a founding member there and people think I exaggerate but I consider all of my inner circle colleagues very much my mentors and my friends and we all bring to this community something so different from our former lives. And they were all looking to improve and grow.” 27:00 So what about Airbnb?   Debi: It’s just so charming to watch you grow! I remember not too long ago you were like really down on Airbnb, you didn't think Airbnb was ever going to make it or be a presence in this industry. What do you think now? Matt:  “They most certainly are I'll tell you that much if you close your ears off to reality you don't grow one bit that's for sure. That's a survival tactic!” Debi: So you’ve now stayed in Airbnb’s? (Many) Okay and so what do you think? Matt: “I think Airbnb is probably the most important thing to happen to this industry. I say this industry because they are very much synonymous with what we do. The gentleman in the lobby of this hotel asked ‘are you here for the Airbnb thing?’ (Oh dear) Of course I didn't correct him, I know exactly what he was talking about and that represents the general public.  Airbnb is synonymous with short-term rentals. I think that that kind of awareness is incredible.  I mean you could not have asked for a better explosion in this movement. That being said, I think with that comes a whole lot of responsibilities that Airbnb is still trying to figure out. And I also constantly go back to this question what is best for the greater vacation rental industry. And sometimes it will frustrate an independent owner because they don't think that we’re actually including them personally, but it also goes for Airbnb.  And when decisions are made that impact the greater industry, one bad apple in an Airbnb could affect a greater population. And I think there are plenty of challenges that come with that role in the community. It's changed a whole lot of people's lives. I think there's a huge gamut of players in the Airbnb ecosystem there's people that are as professional as any of the other vacation rental owners and managers we have here. I stayed in an Airbnb in Amsterdam two weeks ago that was one of the worst hospitality experiences of my life and it was 500 bucks a night. So I think again not unlike the greater industry, plenty of room for improvement but what you can't ignore is the scope of their role in all of this. And people like you, who just adopted the role of community leader and with the help of Airbnb, very much using it almost to get on the shoulders of giants in a way. I think that's a pretty amazing thing.  And really fun watching you go through that process. And I will just add this: I have also got to watch everyone in our community grow too. This is a relatively new industry only been around for 10 or 15 years. Some of us for more but the majority of us have started within that time. And I've had the pleasure of watching them become incredible vacation rental professionals just in the past five ten years. I think that's a really cool thing about our industry we've all got to watch one another grow and evolve and those of us that are still here doing something right.” Debi: And you know the home share [hosts] that I connect with, a lot of them don't really feel like they're part of the vacation rental industry.  They think ‘I'm just retired sharing this room.’  [They often deliver great hospitality, but] they don't really identify with the industry aspect. Matt: “I'm pretty sure they will because I believe the moment you're accepting someone's hard-earned dollars that could otherwise be spent at a local hotel, you’re accepting that you are entering the hospitality industry.  And if you don't, recognize that you're leaving open a lot of room for issues.  This place I stayed in Amsterdam it was a two-bedroom place. We had three people staying there, two people in one bedroom and me in the other and there was only two towels. There was hair in the bathroom and we weren't allowed to check in until 7 in the evening. It was not a lovely experience by any means and I knew that this person didn't necessarily do it as a business more so as a hobby. For that reason I get it. But I do think that if the greater industry again is to involve, every single stakeholder needs to understand that this is indeed a Hospitality business. If you feel like doing someone a favor or doing a little side gig do it on the side don't call yourself a professional vacation rental host, because you’re not. 31:30 Have you ever failed? Matt:  “Oh yeah I feel pretty much every day.” Debi: What is the is one of your biggest failures? Matt: I think I made a pretty sincere failure when I started and I entered with a partner who I was very much simply friends with at the time. We went to the same University. And we had our roles and responsibilities; I was more in charge of the marketing and the sales and branding. He was more in charge of the accounting and the operations side of the business but we never actually clarified it. We never actually wrote it out. Which seemed just like a silly formality”. Debi:  It sounds like a marriage. Matt:  “It was.  And we got divorced. If I had done that all over again I probably would have established roles and responsibilities up front. As well as a timeline just so that the communication was crystal clear. And it wasn't that one another's character or values or anything was being compromised but it became a relationship that wasn't working. In hindsight, I don't think necessarily it could have saved it or made it any different but it would have made it certainly clear and we would have had one less variable to worry about. So now when I go into any kind of partnership, I decide to be very upfront about who's doing what and sometimes it feels weird like even if it's a super close friend or someone at work with for many years. It feels strange to sit down and say you're responsible for this and that's so many hours and if you go over this hours you responsible for this.” Debi: And that's what makes you a good leader too because you know where your boundaries are. Matt:  “And I've seen plenty of spouses and couples in this industry learn this one too. And I'm not married nor am I engaged, don't even have a girlfriend but I hear that relationships are best when there's great communication.” 33:50 “Help, don’t sell” Debi:  Okay, I have a question for you here.  It’s from Terry from the Inner Circle. Where does your penchant come from to help people where you're nurturing nature comes from by continually putting people in a position to succeed? Which you do over and over well. He's a sweetheart. Matt: “He is a sweetheart” Debi: But you do help people. The whole ‘help don't sell’, recognizing people in their success mode, where does that come from? Matt:  “Probably the general generosity comes from my parents. My dad is probably the most generous person that I know. He never ever looks out for himself always someone else first. But I also think it's the path of least resistance when it comes to business. ‘Help, don’t sell’ and generosity in your marketing when it comes to business is the path of least resistance. And it's the most enjoyable path because no longer are you going against anything, trying to break down anything, trying to win over somebody. Rather it's a very passive style you're putting out there helpful things. Most of us have this helpful information within us already so it's merely the act of documenting it and distributing it. And being incredibly open about all of that and just giving it away. What ends up happening is it becomes almost addictive because you've got this momentum about your work and the most grateful people or the people who resonate with that bubble up to the top. And they say ‘you know like that I think I'd like to align myself with this business’. And that goes for all of our business vacation rentals. It is a great example, if you're giving away tons of helpful information about your area and not really caring whether or not the person takes it and runs off and does it on their own at your competitors vacation rentals on the street or not. It's less stress. It’s just like feel free to take this and run if what I'm saying resonates I'd love to speak with you further. It's just more lovely and I think that that common denominator of generosity of giving instead of trying to take. Like they say, all of philanthropy gives you back much more in spades.” 36:30 Vacation rental owners/managers as leaders:  Debi: Thank you so much for doing this with me. Is there anything else that you’d like people to know about you, about your business? Matt:  “Thanks for having me! But I know for a fact that I went through this process the exact same way that all of us have. And I may have been fortunate to stumble into a neighborhood that happened to be evolving, and I happened to have the opportunity again to find vacation rentals in a country that was exploding and these are all convenient factors. But at the end of the day the people who make up this vacation rental movement are all leaders. And I think recognizing that I try to remind people that all the time. The fact that you are very much a Pioneer in this industry, you represent the very cutting-edge, you are the Trailblazers of what has happened in the history here recognizing that and taking on that leader role that you so deserve. And that sometimes means helping others, sometimes means stepping up and taking risks. Whatever that means to you I think we all have it inside of us. I was very humbled just to be sitting here with you sharing my story. I feel a little bit awkward, because you could be interviewing one of the 250 people out there [at the VRSS conference] they all inside of them have a very similar Journey. I think the magic right now is about recognizing that. We have a number of Inner Circle members who are presenting at this conference, hosting panels, who are sharing their wisdom. I even if you go home and you're sharing your advice with other local competitors I think that is something that is truly special and I think it's what makes vacation rentals different from everything else.” Debi: Thank you Matt Landau. Matt: “Thank you Debi Hertert!” LINKS: Matt’s heartwarming article in VRMB about the gang conversion https://www.vrmb.com/hope/ Matt’s Vacation Rental Marketing Blog:  https://www.vrmb.com/ Sense of Place TV show (also can find via the VRMB.com site):  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=matt+landau+sense+of+place    

Some of the links mentioned are affiliate links. if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Commissions come at no additional cost to you. Listen & Subscribe via iTunes As you all may know, I'm going to be in San Antonio, Texas where I'll be speaking at the Vacation Rental summit this May 2018. The topic I'll be discussing is a really good one. It's one that is often overlooked by vacation renters. I've decided on this particular subject because of its potential and lucrative impact. My topic at the conference will be “The riches are in the niches.” If you want to stand out and differentiate your vacation rental from your neighbors and perhaps target an untapped market of travelers, you need to come and listen to my session… You can also learn from the many speakers who will be in attendance, including our very own friend, Tammi Sims. Tammi will be there discussing the importance of building a community for your business. You can also catch Heather Bayer, Matt Landau, and many other experts. If you want to build a prosperous vacation rental, then this conference is the one to attend. Airbnb Open? Another reason to attend…I haven't heard anything about this year's Airbnb Open. Have you? Perhaps, I'm just out of the loop? Hmm. The Vacation Rental Success Summit is THE PREMIER VACATION RENTAL CONFERENCE, where you learn to TAKE YOUR VACATION RENTAL FROM ‘BEST KEPT SECRET' TO HOUSEHOLD NAME. Yes, you still have time to get your discounted ticket. VRSS INFO I will be arriving early to have a meetup with you, my dear listeners, which will take place on Friday, May 18th. You don't need a ticket for the meetup or anything. This get-together is free and fun. Win-win. It's just for us to connect face-to-face. You know, share our stories with live reactions. It's a way of getting out from behind our computers and engage with real folks living the experience. I love that! The meetup will take place at: The Westin Riverwalk 420 W Market St, San Antonio, TX 78205 go to the lobby of the center of the hotel at 6 pm and I'll be there until 8 pm. I hope to see you at the FREE meetup and hopefully in the audience at the conference as well. Our Regular Show: Speaking of our friend Tammi Sims… I finally managed to wrangle my dear Tammi… Yes, our elusive feline makes it to the mic! In this episode, we begin by singing and sharing our dreams. You know, of where we are and what we always wanted to do. And I also think, as a birthday gift for myself hint..hint, I'm going to take a few lessons because it's never too late to learn something new. Listen to “Reunited and it feels so good a Hot Mic with Tammi Sims” Catching Up: Of course, on this episode, I catch up with what Tammi's been up to since the last time she stopped by the hosting journey. As usual, she's been busy and traveling. New Zealand, Paris, London, Washington. It's hard to keep up with and keep track of all the places she goes in between our visits. She also talks about her first date with Alex at an Airbnb on Orcas Island. You have to listen to get the juicy details. We talk about the new Airbnb 48-hour grace period. I understand that some hosts are confused about this rule, as are some guests. The new rule is that the guest can cancel a reservation within 48 hours if they book a reservation 14 days in advance before arrival. Now hosts don't have to share their address with the guest during this 48-hour window. I speak about why we as hosts feel this is important on THJ 36: The Sharing Economy is Here to Stay… Embrace It We also go deep into cancellations-how often it can happen, how we handle them-plus, travel insurance for guests. We wonder why Airbnb doesn't offer travel insurance for the guest??? We think it could make our lives as hosts a bit easier. Tammi tells a story about how she handled a very particular request from a guest. You know, those very special requests where you say to yourself, “Is this reservation even worth it?” Tammi explains how she handled it by trusting her gut. Gut instincts are important hosts. Listen to that little voice… it can help. Reviews and Cancellations: Do you ever ask your guest for a review or for a 5-star review? You have to listen to our take on this because we have a very strong opinion. I'll be updating the reviews episode as well because Airbnb has changed the way guests review us. Oh yeah. There is a whole new system, and unless you're a guest, you have no idea why we are getting 4 stars…. We spoke about cancellation policies for that business badge and whether we want to change it to moderate. I'm strict, which I can't be if I want to have the business badge. My cancellation policy is the only thing holding me back… and we talk all about how I feel about it. We also talk about one of my students from the Airbnb 101 class who is a Tammi fan… Well, it seems like they might get together in person. Dear hosts, the Airbnb 101 class will be available again in June. We have tons of great stuff coming up in June-webinars, cleaning challenges-so join The hosting Journey newsletter, so you can be in the know. I want to thank Tammi for joining me one more time. It was a great episode, chock full of information. I'm looking forward of seeing her, and hopefully, many of you, live in San Antonio. Your host, Evelyn Links: Some of the links mentioned are affiliate links. if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Commissions come at no additional cost to you. Vacation Rental Success Summit The Hosting Journey Facebook Group PS: Want more… Instagram Facebook Twitter The post THJ Ep39: Reunited and It Feels so Good a Hot Mic with Tammi Sims appeared first on The Hosting Journey.

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Here is a fun, short talk from just Debi, about the new Host2Host association.  It is a natural outgrowth of the Portland, Oregon community of hosts and the result of three years of community building through the 41 monthly Meetups Debi has organized, and the great success of the Portland Area Hosts Facebook group.  Debi mentions in her talk that Portland has been told by Airbnb that we have the highest per-capita ratio of Superhosts in the world.  It certainly could be that our community, which tries harder to support than compete, is better for all the communication and has learned to be even better hosts. Moving to a non-profit trade association allows us to afford a website and some other recurring costs, and do an even better job serving the educational and business connection needs of our community. A complete transcript is below, followed by some web links.  If they don't show in your podcast show notes, please go to hostingyourhome.com and read them there! Transcript  [0:34] Welcome to Hosting Your Home, this is Debi. Thanks for being here. Our podcasts are usually about hosting experiences.  I love to interview local hosts (and host from all over the world) about their experiences and to help tell their stories. This week is a little different.   This week you've just got me.  I want to tell you about our new nonprofit organization called Host2Host.  [1:04] You may know a little bit about me; I'm going to tell you a little bit more so that you’ll get the full scope of what we're doing here. My background:   my husband and I have some vacation rentals on the Oregon coast, which I have been managing since 2009, as an ‘accidental’ vacation rental manager.  I didn't know what I was doing and was very hungry for information and connection. I found Matt Landau’s Vacation Rental Marketing Group, and learned a lot from the Inner Circle there.  At some point (I believe it's 2014) Airbnb came to Portland [and Portland began allowing short term rentals as a permitted activity, for the first time]; I had already been renting on Airbnb  since 2010, so I was pretty familiar with the platform and their rental philosophy. After the wonderful exposure with Matt’s group and the Inner Circle, I wanted to connect more with our local hosts.  As a result, I created a Meetup Group [through Meetup.com]  This was in 2014 and the Meetup group has since flourished. 300 members at the date of this podcast.  At some point we decided to create a Portland Area Host Facebook group, and that group has just gone gangbusters, with 910 members at this date]  [2:40] I have always wanted to have a little conference here in Portland and after I started the podcast, I was interviewing some of our local hosts, I started asking them questions like:  “What do you think?  Do you think we could have a conference here? Do you think the people would like it? Do you think that we have the skills and the wisdom here to be able to share who we are and what we do?   Before I knew it, we were organizing a fantastic conference that happened in April 2017.  We were blessed with about 15 core committee organizers who have become fixtures in all of our development after the conference. The public response was overwhelmingly positive with around 140 attendees.  We had educational breakout sessions and some fantastic speakers, keynotes and vendor support.  It was just really, really, really fabulous.  After the conference that it was obvious to us that our community wanted more. We started talking about how we could deliver, and if we could deliver.  We reorganized the Host2Host Conference to support a Host2Host nonprofit membership group. [trade association]  [3:56]  Next month on February 12, 2018 we're going to be rolling out our full offering of Host2Host support services and membership to our local community and to the world at large.  I want to tell you a little bit about what we have planned for that:  We will have will have the education piece.  You know that's really important to me, that's what I do and that's what I love.  We will continue with having conferences and vendor fairs, classes, and meetups. Since 2014, we have hosted 41 monthly meetups!  We will be having workshops.  Our membership consists of  people who have come to this business from all kinds of backgrounds.  We've got professional photographers and lawyers and event planners. You name it, we've got it all. It's very cool to see these people coming forward to share what they know and help us organize into a group that helps to support our community.    Our “Members Only” section will offer a variety of informational articles, such as:  The importance of Photography  Why Hire a Bookkeeper.  Service Animals.  Anatomy of a Lawsuit (oh my goodness!) and  Insurance   There are going to be many, many, more as we continue on.  We will be we will be adding more as we grow, expanding in areas that I'm sure I can't foresee.  [5:32] You also may have heard that in Portland we have had some issues with our city government.  You also probably know if you're an Airbnb host or a host on any platform that there are advocacy issues everywhere in the world right now.  Part of our energy is focused on advocacy, our own permitting process, politics and policy.  In fact just yesterday I was invited to a meeting at City Hall with policy makers.  It was was a fabulous experience!   We want our local government to hear us as a group. We don't need somebody else speaking for us; we want to do our own speaking and be heard and seen for who we are which is, as you know: Members of the community; taxpayers; supporters of local businesses and neighborhoods. There is a there's a lot of work that can be done around that.   [6:42] We also will have a Business Directory so that we can gather support from our local businesses and from Global businesses.  Businesses are invited to include a special offer for members.   I anticipate that not only will we have businesses that come to us because they sell to us but there will also be businesses coming to us, because of what we can offer them. We direct our guests with recommendations to our local businesses.  Membership is going to go live next month with a Grand Reveal gala. We will be having that catered and we’ll have what we're calling fondly the VOTH Hour (Voice Of The Host) featuring a few short inspirational stories from hosts.  Following our VOTH hour, a panel discussion will offer information about the organization and we’ll have Questions and Answers.  The Portland Host Community is the focus for the face-to-face kinds of activities that we have.  We expect that we will have people from all over the world interested in the online part of what we will be offering and we're purposely keeping our subscription rates ridiculously low.  [8:15]  I thought we should be charging more but honestly we really want to cover expenses. None of us are being paid, we are 100% volunteers, but we have a few expenses in hosting the website and various other things.  The host membership is $50 a year. Small businesses with one to five employees will be $75 a year and The larger businesses over 5 employees is $195 a year.  I don't know of any other other membership group that has such low cost and we want to make it available to everyone. We feel that the education of what we do is what makes our industry better and better and better.  I can tell you that Airbnb tells me that our Portland Community per capita has the highest number of superhosts in the world.  And I think that's because of our community and the way we interact with each other.  I hope that you are interested in Host2Host.org and that you will check us out.  Our website will go live February 12th and we would be happy to accept your membership.  [9:51] If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.    I'm available and I respond. You'll find the show notes as always at HostingYourHome.com. Leave me a message, ask a question, make a comment, offer your skills.  Any of the above!  Our next podcast will be back to our normal interview style. Take care, and have a great week!   Oops I forgot a couple of things! Our website Host2Host.org -  on and after February 12, 2018. You will get an “under construction” note if you go now. https://www.facebook.com/host2host/   [11:15] Website:  Hostingyourhome.com Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/HostingYourHome/ Facebook Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/hostingyourhome/  Highly recommended vacation rental guru: Matt Landau:  vrmb.com  

Download Episode! Come to Italy and listen to Debi Hertert talk with Bob Garner about his beautiful, 6-apartment vacation rental in Le Marche, Italy.  Dubbed “Casal dei Fichi”,  12 years ago this building was an ancient farmhouse where the family once lived on the second floor to make use of the heat rising from the animals living on the bottom floor.  From this humble origin,  Bob and his partner Ian created a hospitality work of art.  They transformed the farmhouse into modern, spacious apartments with gorgeous views and amenities.  A swimming pool and olive grove are on the property and every evening, Bob bounds up the stairs (if you are in an upstairs apartment) and knocks on your door to check with you about your day and what you might want to do tomorrow.  There are countless villages, farms, wineries, castles, monasteries, and restaurants just waiting for you!   In this discussion between two friends and colleagues, you will hear about Matt Landau, the “guru” of the Inner Circle, a collection of like-minded entrepreneurs who own and manage vacation rentals around the world.  Matt’s group focuses on how to give the best experiences for guests, and at the same time, how to not be bound to the listing platforms. Debi mentions in her intro that Matt is filming a TV series titled “A Sense of Place”, and Casal dei Fichi is one of the stops. Debi is excited to see this when it comes out.     Bob relates to Debi the story of how he and Ian decided to change from their lives of professional work in London to managing this wonderful vacation retreat in Italy, the (understated) process of rebuilding the farmhouse, and how they interact with their guests.   You will hear some amazing numbers - like 50% plus repeat business, increasing to 70% plus this year...and summer stay requirements of 1 week minimum, Saturday to Saturday, and with many guests booking their stay for the next year, before they leave this year!     Bob doesn’t really say it, other than to note a couple of times that he and Ian live on the property,  so they can interact with guests, but these two people are SO charismatic and social, that half of the stay feels like getting to hang out with them.  We’re not surprised that they have so much repeat business, they engage so fully with their guests that all become friends.   It was a truly memorable experience, and being there for a week was so relaxing and allowed us to visit so many different places in Italy.  Early during the week, Bob suggested we visit a local winery.  And that we take an empty (5 liter?) bottle and have them fill it up.  Which we did, and had wine for the whole week for $8 Euro. !  We also went to a fabulous restaurant with them and several other of their guests, and then went with just the four of us to their favorite restaurant on the coast.  Wow.  That was great seafood and a great view.  We felt so welcomed and integrated to their living, as Debi says in the interview, it was very intimate.   “Giving Back” often comes up with these stories of hospitality.  Bob and Ian introduced us to Treedom, a company that facilitates donations to plant trees, which you will hear about in the interview. The goal is to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the thoughtful way that Bob has worked it out with guests and restaurants is an example for all of us to study.  Debi goes on to say that all hosts can find something similar to do, and it helps the planet, makes the hosts and guest feel good, and may even help business. [editor’s note:  We LOVED our stay with Bob and Ian and if we weren’t off to Florence with Bob, we would have been even more sad! LINKS: Casal dei Fichi website:  www.casaldeifichi.com Trailer for Matt Landau's "A Sense of Place" series:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T94C0EU4xx8 Link to Matt's Inner Circle:  www.vrmb.com  

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#0071803 Statement of Jack Barnabas regarding a short-lived courtship with Agnes Montague in the Autumn of 2006. Original statement given March 18th 2007. Thanks to this week's Patrons: Martin Orchard, Cheryl Peterson, Kristen Bonner, Zack Clark, Marc Elliott, Anna O'Rourke, Erin Dombrowski, Jay Fernandez, Matt Landau, David Minch-Dixon. If you'd also like to support us, head to www.patreon.com/rustyquill Sound effects for this episode provided by previously credited artists via freesound.org. You can subscribe to this podcast using your podcast software of choice, or by visiting www.rustyquill.com/subscribe. Please rate and review on iTunes, it really helps us to spread the podcast to new listeners, so share the fear! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Join Alex, Lydia, James, Bryn and Ben as they continue to work out what to do in the wake of Mr. Ceiling. This episode Sasha is a Hero, Zolf has a very important meeting, Hamid is inspirational and Bertie... helps? Thank you to this week's patrons: A.L. Hade, Tim Ledsam, Kay, Kandria Sanchez, Rokk, Julie Saunders, Nate Cleveland, Rhys Lawton, Sam Gregge, Ash Pile, Martin Orchard, Cheryl Peterson, Kristen Bonner, Zack Clark, Marc Elliott, Anna O'Rourke, Erin Dombrowski, Jay Fernandez, Matt Landau, David Minch-Dixon If you'd also like to support us, head to www.patreon.com/rustyquill SFX this week by GoodListener, Craxic, alegemaate, benjaminharveydesign, dheming, soundslikewillem, VitaminL, Bird_man, OroborosNZ and previously credited artists via freesound.org Today’s game system is available for free at d20pfsrd.comCheck out our merchandise available at https://www.redbubble.com/people/RustyQuill/shopJoin our community:WEBSITE: rustyquill.comFACEBOOK: facebook.com/therustyquillTWITTER: @therustyquillREDDIT: reddit.com/r/RustyQuillDISCORD: https://discord.gg/KckTv8yEMAIL: mail@rustyquill.comRusty Quill Gaming is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill Ltd. and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share alike 4.0 International Licence. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/andorraandpanama/ One of the things that Dan and Ian discuss pretty frequently on this show are the places in the world that location independent people tend to gravitate toward. In this community a lot of people move around for lifestyle and social reasons, but traditionally business owners have moved to places that are offer low tax situations, or otherwise business friendly environments. On today's show, two of our listeners are going to share their experiences of living in a few of these countries; Panama and Andorra. Jase Rodley is a digital marketer for boutique hotels who visited Andorra with his wife Jess about 18 months ago and fell in love with it. Matt Landau owns his own boutique hotel in Panama, and he used his experience in that industry to create his own online business targeted towards vacation rental owners. You'll hear the two of them share their stories about why they chose to live these countries, and what makes them so appealing to digital nomads who are looking for a place to settle down.

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Matt Landau is the Founder of the Vacation Rental Marketing Blog, an online resource for vacation rental owners and managers. He is also the owner of […] See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Our guest for this week’s show is Vacation Rental Expert, Matt Landau. Matt currently owns and operates multiple vacation rentals in Panama City, Panama and is the founder of the popular niche vacation rental website, VacationRentalMarketingBlog.com Matt and I had an awesome conversation regarding the vacation rental industry which has seen explosive growth over the past few years with the emergence of sites such as VRBO.com, Homeaway.com, AirBNB.com and many others. Matt talks about how he got his start in the industry and how he was able to quickly able to become known as one of the leading providers of premium vacation rentals in the historical district of Panama city, Panama. He also discusses what unique qualities attracted him to Panama City's historic district which he describes as New Orleans 100 years ago in that it's rough around the edges but is full of opportunity and is abundant with culture. Matt believes that the Vacation Rental niche is still in its infancy and that there is a still a ton of opportunity available for those investors who are looking for an investment vehicle that offers strong returns and stable growth. Being someone that has personally used vacation rentals for multiple vacations I have to agree with him, especially if you're buying in highly desirable tourist markets. In this show you’re going to learn:   How he got his start in the vacation rental business         The important role that 3 mentors played in his life and how he found them          What unique attributes excited him about investing in the emerging tourist destination of Panama City, Panama         Why he feels that the vacation rental market is still in its infancy and will continue to grow at a fast rate         How he was able to find and befriend strategic partnerships in this new county which enabled him to complete his first acquisition          How he was able to position his properties as "best in class" in a very short period of time          How he uses technology to create consistent bookings thus creating very high demand for his properties          Why the big brand hotel operators aren't too happy about the vacation rental niche impeding on their market share         And much more...   Recommended Resources  Download my free success guide,  “7 habits of highly successful multi-family investors” by going to www.KevinBupp.com/guide Schedule a free "no obligation" call directly with Kevin by clicking this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/KV2D2 Looking to invest in Mobile Home Parks? Want to partner with the industry experts? Check out http://www.SunriseCapitalInvestors.com Check out Matt's website http://www.VacationRentalMarektingBlog.com  

Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: http://www.vacationrentalformula.com/vrs065

Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: http://www.vacationrentalformula.com/vrs061

Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: http://www.vacationrentalformula.com/vrs056

Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: http://www.vacationrentalformula.com/vrs044

The sand between your toes, the soft roar of the waves crashing on the beach, the beautiful people sunbathing on the shore. If this is your vision of a vacation rental… it’s about to change!In today’s episode of the BiggerPockets Podcast, we chat with vacation rental expert Matt Landauabout getting started as a vacation rental investor and building a scalable (and profitable) business around leasing rental properties to nightly guests in great vacation areas. Matt shares a ton of great tips, tricks, and skills to help you learn more about this fascinating – and largely misunderstood – niche of the real estate space.Additionally, Matt shares some really great tips for any landlord to decrease vacancy rates and increase profits in your real estate business, so no matter what kind of investing you currently engage in, this episode is bound to help your business improve!So grab a beach chair, make yourself a piña colada, and sit back and relax… it’s time to take a vacation!In This Show, We Cover:What is a vacation rental – and why should you consider one?The legalities of vacation rentalsScreening for the tenants who won’t destroy your propertyMarketing for great tenantsThe first steps in buying a vacation rental propertyExpenses when dealing with a vacation propertyUsing Adwords to fill vacanciesThe secret to getting national press for your propertiesAnd a lot more!Books Mentioned in the ShowThe Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan HaidtLinks from the ShowBiggerPockets.com/proBiggerPockets.com/biz – Using BiggerPockets to Grow Your BusinessVRBOHomeAwayFlipKey.comVacation Rental Automatic Door Lock (via Amazon)Pat Flynn and the “Be Everywhere” Philosophy.Pancho- The Sea Lion Turns THIEF?!Tweetable TopicsWe’re at the beginning of a very massive trend: vacation rentals. (Tweet This!)Be generous in having faith in people. (Tweet This!)Create a bulletproof reputation of being the industry expert. (Tweet This!)Connect with MattMatt’s BiggerPockets Blog PostsMatt’s Website: VacationRentalMarketingBlog.com

Listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here: http://www.vacationrentalformula.com/vrs006