Welcome to Behind the Stays — a podcast that shares the stories behind your favorite boutique hotels, short-term rentals, and hospitality brands and the hosts, operators, and entrepreneurs who’ve brought them to life. Every Tuesday and Friday you’ll meet the military veterans, retired flight attendants, tech entrepreneurs, school teachers, single moms, hoteliers, and real estate investors who are all, in their unique ways, shaping the future of travel and hospitality. Discover how these visionaries — from all over the world — have built stunning landscape hotels in the mountains, designed bohemian bungalows on the beach, erected eclectic off-grid and nature-immersed escapes, and so much more. Behind the Stays is brought to you by Journey — a first-of-its-kind loyalty program that brings together an alliance of the world’s top independently owned and operated stays and allows travelers to earn points and perks on boutique hotels, vacation rentals, treehouses, ski chalets, glamping experiences and so much more. Behind the States is hosted by Zach Busekrus, Head of the Journey Alliance.
Episodes
Tuesday Oct 17, 2023
Tuesday Oct 17, 2023
Meet Tanner Cummings — Co-founder and Owner of Thin Spaces, a new hotel brand that’s building its first micro-resort called Cypress at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Jasper, Georgia.
Tanner has always loved finding issues and solving problems, which is why he spent most of his professional career working in quality assurance engineering for software companies like Calendly.
But in 2021, Tanner was bit by the entrepreneurial bug and decided to join the e-commerce start up his wife Melissa founded called, Cedar and Ink. And while the couple couldn’t have know it at the time, this venture would ultimately inspire them to dream bigger.
Tune in to hear the exciting story of why Tanner and Melissa decided to go all in on building a brand new hotel brand and what their first project, Cypress, a remarkably intentional micro-resort with luxurious and unexpected amenities will look like when it launches next year.
Connect with Tanner on LinkedIn
This episode is brought to you by Minoan!
Want to save 30-40% off West Elm purchase for your Airbnb? Or hundreds off of instagram famous mattresses from Bear or Purple? Then you'll want to create your free account with our partner Minoan.
Minoan provides hosts with a one-stop-shop to get hundreds of discounts on the world’s leading brands, and a system where you can manage all of the ordering, tracking, returns, etc. in one place. Saving you time and money! Sign up and tell them that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you there way.
If you liked this episode, you might also like:
1. He’s An Accountant, Artist, and Airbnb Superhost — Meet Isaac French the Creator of Live Oak Lake
2. How to Build a Portfolio of 100 Single-Family Airbnbs and Transform Them into Unique Experiences
Have you signed up for Ping yet?
Ping makes it easy for guests to be notified when their favorite Airbnbs become available — and it's the secret tool the best Airbnb hosts use to maximize bookings.
Sign up today at bnbping.com
About the Show
Behind the Stays is brought to you twice a week by Sponstayneous — a free, biweekly newsletter that brings subscribers the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb.
You can subscribe, for free, at www.sponstayneous.com.
Behind the Stays is hosted by Zach Busekrus, co-founder of Sponstayneous, you can connect with him on Twitter at @zboozee.
Friday Oct 13, 2023
Friday Oct 13, 2023
Meet James Varley — Founder of the Holiday Cottage Handbook and Varley Media.
James has had an impressive career in media — taking jobs around the world to work in print, TV, radio, digital advertising and social media organizations large and small.
For the last ten years, James was living in Qatar leading corporate communications for last year’s FIFA World Cup organizing committee — how cool is that?
James first got into short-term rentals as he’d rent out his flat in London when traveling abroad for lengthy work assignments. He was amazed by how much he loved the experience of hosting and by how lucrative this asset class could be.
After the World Cup finished in Qatar, he saw a gap in the STR media space for practical, helpful content that would help property managers grow their businesses.
And, while he couldn’t have known it at the time, this observation would lead to the founding of a new platform for STR owners, operators, and media partners to connect, learn and grow.
This episode is brought to you by our friends at OptimizeMyBnB
I’ve been trying to find someone who I think understands the platform and marketing strategy better than me that I can refer you all to…
And I’m happy to say that I think I’ve found him.
Meet Daniel Rusteen — he’s a former Airbnb employee, full-time digital nomad, and author of “Optimize Your BnB” which has sold over 50,000 copies by word-of-mouth alone.
Daniel has lived on Airbnb for more than 2,500 nights and has helped hundreds of hosts via his consulting, his program, and his thought leadership, increase their listing’s rank on Airbnb.
If you’re newer to the STR space, or if your listings are starting to drop in rank, I want to encourage you all to do one of two things — if not BOTH — of the following:
- Buy Daniel’s new book, “Profitable Properties: Airbnb Insider Secrets” — you can get it on Amazon for just $10
- Join Daniel’s 9-week program and he’ll teach you everything you need to know about optimizing your STR for Airbnb, VRBO, Google Search, and beyond. You can use the discount code BTS for 40% off the program between now and the end of the 2023 calendar year.
Daniel will teach you what the top 1% of short-term rental owners and managers already know about how to fully optimize their STRs across OTAs and beyond.
Recent episodes you might enjoy:
- How British Airways and an Airbnb in Istanbul Inspired Him to Build a Glamping Destination in the Catskills
- Forget Vacation Destinations — He Builds Collections of Branded Airbnbs Near College Campuses
- He Was Airbnb’s 13th Employee — And Here’s What He Thinks the Future of the Hospitality Industry Will Look Like
Have you signed up for Ping yet?
Ping makes it easy for guests to be notified when their favorite Airbnbs become available — and it's the secret tool the best Airbnb hosts use to maximize bookings.
Sign up today at bnbping.com
About the Show
Behind the Stays is brought to you twice a week by Sponstayneous — a free, biweekly newsletter that brings subscribers the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb.
You can subscribe, for free, at www.sponstayneous.com.
Behind the Stays is hosted by Zach Busekrus, co-founder of Sponstayneous, you can connect with him on Twitter at @zboozee.
Tuesday Oct 10, 2023
Tuesday Oct 10, 2023
Meet John Andrew Entwistle, Founder and CEO of Wander, Sief Khafagi, Co-Founder and CEO of Techvestor, and Cameron Wu, VP of Investments at Arrived.
I invited these incredible gentlemen onto the podcast for a panel discussion on the future of fundraising, portfolio building, and passive investing in short-term rentals.
I’ve been curious, as I’m sure many of you all have been, how these short-term rental funds, REITs, and other forms of fractional ownership of vacation rentals businesses are panning out, and thought I’d bring some of the finest folks in the arena to share their stories and insight with you all.
In this vibrant chat you’ll learn:
- How these business overlap and how they are distinct
- How the strategies for each business have evolved given the changes we’ve seen in macro economic environments over the past year
- Why today’s consumers are ready for altgernative forms of real estate investment
- What exit strategies for each of these companies might look like
- And loads more
Moderating discussions with such incredible people is always so hard — and while we didn’t get to half of the questions I had hoped to because of time, I believe there’s so much value to be garnered from this discussion around how the industry as a whole is evolving and what these entrepreneurs believe the future of travel, hospitality, and vacation rental investing, just might look like.
This episode is brought to you by Minoan!
Want to save 30-40% off West Elm purchase for your Airbnb? Or hundreds off of instagram famous mattresses from Bear or Purple? Then you'll want to create your free account with our partner Minoan.
Minoan provides hosts with a one-stop-shop to get hundreds of discounts on the world’s leading brands, and a system where you can manage all of the ordering, tracking, returns, etc. in one place. Saving you time and money! Sign up and tell them that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you there way.
Like this episode? Here are a few others you'll love:
How to Build a Portfolio of 100 Single-Family Airbnbs and Transform Them into Unique Experiences
How to Build a Franchise-Worthy Hospitality Brand — The Story of Casiola
How AI Will Enable Hospitality Entrepreneurs to Scale Their Brands (and Portfolios)
Have you signed up for Ping yet?
Ping makes it easy for guests to be notified when their favorite Airbnbs become available — and it's the secret tool the best Airbnb hosts use to maximize bookings.
Sign up today at bnbping.com
About the Show
Behind the Stays is brought to you twice a week by Sponstayneous — a free, biweekly newsletter that brings subscribers the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb.
You can subscribe, for free, at www.sponstayneous.com.
Behind the Stays is hosted by Zach Busekrus, co-founder of Sponstayneous, you can connect with him on Twitter at @zboozee.
Friday Oct 06, 2023
Friday Oct 06, 2023
Meet John Sutton — Co-Founder and CEO of Mansion, a new fractional ownership offering for those looking to get into short-term rental investing without needing to own or operate an Airbnb.
Before starting Mansion*, John was the Chief Digital Officer at Red Ventures — the parent company for brands like Lonely Planet, The Points Guy, Reviews.com, and many others, so it’s safe to say John knows his way around building and scaling brands at the intersection of travel, hospitality, and technology.
In this conversation, John talks about:
- Mansion’s vision of making real estate investing more accessible and exciting — fun fact, you can own a piece of your own Mansion for as little as $9/share.
- Some of the learnings he garnered while at Red Ventures about the future of travel and hospitality
- How Mansion’s approach is different from that of Techvestor’s, Here, or Wander who have similar offerings.
- And what he predicts will happen over the next 5-10 years as more of these branded, professionally managed STR funds continue to grow.
Follow John Sutton on LinkedIn
This episode is brought to you by Minoan!
Want to save 30-40% off West Elm purchase for your Airbnb? Or hundreds off of instagram famous mattresses from Bear or Purple? Then you'll want to create your free account with our partner Minoan.
Minoan provides hosts with a one-stop-shop to get hundreds of discounts on the world’s leading brands, and a system where you can manage all of the ordering, tracking, returns, etc. in one place. Saving you time and money! Sign up and tell them that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you there way.
Like this episode? Here are a few others you'll love:
How to Build a Portfolio of 100 Single-Family Airbnbs and Transform Them into Unique Experiences
How to Build a Franchise-Worthy Hospitality Brand — The Story of Casiola
How AI Will Enable Hospitality Entrepreneurs to Scale Their Brands (and Portfolios)
Have you signed up for Ping yet?
Ping makes it easy for guests to be notified when their favorite Airbnbs become available — and it's the secret tool the best Airbnb hosts use to maximize bookings.
Sign up today at bnbping.com
About the Show
Behind the Stays is brought to you twice a week by Sponstayneous — a free, biweekly newsletter that brings subscribers the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb.
You can subscribe, for free, at www.sponstayneous.com.
Behind the Stays is hosted by Zach Busekrus, co-founder of Sponstayneous, you can connect with him on Twitter at @zboozee.
*The Issuer is conducting public offerings pursuant to Regulation A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, through this Website. The most current offering circular for Mansion Collection I is available here. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investments such as those on the Mansion Group platform are speculative and involve substantial risks to consider before investing, outlined in the respective offering materials and including, but not limited to, illiquidity, lack of diversification and complete loss of capital. Key risks include, but are not limited to, limited operating history, limited diversification, risk of asset damage or theft and lack of voting rights. An investment in an offering constitutes only an investment in a particular series and not in the underlying asset(s). Investors should carefully review the risks located in the respective offering materials for a more comprehensive discussion of risk.
Tuesday Oct 03, 2023
Tuesday Oct 03, 2023
Meet Jake Tucker, founder of Roav — a collection of urban and luxury retreat STRs located in the Pacific Northwest
Jake began co-hosting Airbnbs while in college as a side-hustle. He had no experience in real estate or hospitality whatsoever, but after Googling "how to make a lot of money as a college kid", he stumbled upon the plethora of rental arbitrage content on YouTube and began to binge.
When he graduated, all of his friends started getting real jobs and Jake felt pressured to do the same.
But as he thought more and more about it, the idea of working for someone else seemed untenable to Jake…
So, he decided to trust his gut and go all in on building his STR property management business. And now, just a few years later, Roav is one of the largest short-term rental hosting companies in the Inland Northwest.
Tune in to hear Jake share how he got started with his first few properties, how he navigated COVID, his tips for acquiring new property owners as customers, the pros and cons of managing both traditional STRs AND unique stays, and much more.
This episode is brought to you by our friends at OptimizeMyBnB
I’ve been trying to find someone who I think understands the platform and marketing strategy better than me that I can refer you all to…
And I’m happy to say that I think I’ve found him.
Meet Daniel Rusteen — he’s a former Airbnb employee, full-time digital nomad, and author of “Optimize Your BnB” which has sold over 50,000 copies by word-of-mouth alone.
Daniel has lived on Airbnb for more than 2,500 nights and has helped hundreds of hosts via his consulting, his program, and his thought leadership, increase their listing’s rank on Airbnb.
If you’re newer to the STR space, or if your listings are starting to drop in rank, I want to encourage you all to do one of two things — if not BOTH — of the following:
- Buy Daniel’s new book, “Profitable Properties: Airbnb Insider Secrets” — you can get it on Amazon for just $10
- Join Daniel’s 9-week program and he’ll teach you everything you need to know about optimizing your STR for Airbnb, VRBO, Google Search, and beyond. You can use the discount code BTS for 40% off the program between now and the end of the 2023 calendar year.
Daniel will teach you what the top 1% of short-term rental owners and managers already know about how to fully optimize their STRs across OTAs and beyond.
Have you signed up for Ping yet?
Ping makes it easy for guests to be notified when their favorite Airbnbs become available — and it's the secret tool the best Airbnb hosts use to maximize bookings.
Sign up today at bnbping.com
About the Show
Behind the Stays is brought to you twice a week by Sponstayneous — a free, biweekly newsletter that brings subscribers the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb.
You can subscribe, for free, at www.sponstayneous.com.
Behind the Stays is hosted by Zach Busekrus, co-founder of Sponstayneous, you can connect with him on Twitter at @zboozee.
Friday Sep 29, 2023
Friday Sep 29, 2023
Want to save 30-40% off West Elm purchase for your Airbnb? Or hundreds off of instagram famous mattresses from Bear or Purple? Then you'll want to create your free account with our partner Minoan.
Minoan provides hosts with a one-stop-shop to get hundreds of discounts on the world’s leading brands, and a system where you can manage all of the ordering, tracking, returns, etc. in one place. Saving you time and money! Sign up and tell them that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you there way.
Meet Luca Zambello, Founder of Jurny, a tech company with the mission of bringing hospitality into the age of AI and Automation.
Luca was born and raised in Italy but moved to California to pursue his dreams of becoming a tech entrepreneur more than 15 years ago.
Pretty soon after arriving in LA, he stumbled into real estate and quickly realized there was massive opportunity in the short-term rental management space as Airbnb was quickly gaining popularity.
In the process of scaling his Airbnb management company to over 300 units, Luca had to change PMSes not once, not twice, but five different times! Luca was convinced that there had to be a better way to build tooling and solutions that could grow with a property manager as their business and portfolio grew.
So, he took a big risk, and left his successful management company to go all in on an idea he had for levaragin AI to create a One-Stop Shop Property Management solution to help short term rental hospitality entrepreneurs save copious amounts of time and money on operations so they can focus more time on growth.
Tune in to hear the inspiring story of how he started and scaled Jurny and how he predicts AI will enable the next generation of hospitality entrepreneurs to scale their brands, increase their revenue, and decrease their expenses in hugely significant ways.
Have you signed up for Minoan yet?
In this episode we feature a Minoan customer review from Alyson, the founder of SmartStays — discover what she loves most about Minoan and how Minoan has helped her save thousands of dollars setting up her short term rentals.
Create your totally free Minoan account here.
Have you signed up for Ping yet?
Ping makes it easy for guests to be notified when their favorite Airbnbs become available — and it's the secret tool the best Airbnb hosts use to maximize bookings.
Sign up today at bnbping.com
About the Show
Behind the Stays is brought to you twice a week by Sponstayneous — a free, biweekly newsletter that brings subscribers the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb.
You can subscribe, for free, at www.sponstayneous.com.
Behind the Stays is hosted by Zach Busekrus, co-founder of Sponstayneous, you can connect with him on Twitter at @zboozee.
Tuesday Sep 26, 2023
Tuesday Sep 26, 2023
Want to save 30-40% off West Elm purchase for your Airbnb? Or hundreds off of instagram famous mattresses from Bear or Purple? Then you'll want to create your free account with our partner Minoan.
Minoan provides hosts with a one-stop-shop to get hundreds of discounts on the world’s leading brands, and a system where you can manage all of the ordering, tracking, returns, etc. in one place. Saving you time and money! Sign up and tell them that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you there way.
Meet Sief Khafagi, Co-Founder of Techvestor — one of the hottest new services that allows folks to passively invest in short-term rentals.
Sief has spent his entire career working in tech, and helped scale one of Facebook’s largest engineering organizations from a couple hundred to thousands across the world.
It was during his time at Facebook where he met his now Co-Founder Sabrina who owned a couple of Airbnbs. Sief was shocked by how successful her short-term rentals were that he asked Sabrina if he could just give her money to go buy and operate his own STRs.
And, while he couldn’t have known it at the time, this ask would be the seed of the idea which would ultimately blossom into Techvestor. Today, Techvestor owns and operates nearly 100 short-term rentals in some of the country’s most desirable vacation markets.
Tune in to hear:
- the story of how Sief helped build Techvestor
- why Techvestor is bullish on single-family homes
- what their secret sauce to sourcing, designing, and launching STRs looks like
- the opportunities he sees to build new tech and new businesses in the space, and his hot takes on the future of travel and hospitality.
Learn more about Techvestor here
Have you signed up for Minoan yet?
In this episode we feature a Minoan customer review from Alyson, the founder of SmartStays — discover what she loves most about Minoan and how Minoan has helped her save thousands of dollars setting up her short term rentals.
Create your totally free Minoan account here.
Have you signed up for Ping yet?
Ping makes it easy for guests to be notified when their favorite Airbnbs become available — and it's the secret tool the best Airbnb hosts use to maximize bookings.
Sign up today at bnbping.com
About the Show
Behind the Stays is brought to you twice a week by Sponstayneous — a free, biweekly newsletter that brings subscribers the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb.
You can subscribe, for free, at www.sponstayneous.com.
Behind the Stays is hosted by Zach Busekrus, co-founder of Sponstayneous, you can connect with him on Twitter at @zboozee.
Friday Sep 22, 2023
Friday Sep 22, 2023
Want to save 30-40% off West Elm purchase for your Airbnb? Or hundreds off of instagram famous mattresses from Bear or Purple? Then you'll want to create your free account with our partner Minoan.
Minoan provides hosts with a one-stop-shop to get hundreds of discounts on the world’s leading brands, and a system where you can manage all of the ordering, tracking, returns, etc. in one place. Saving you time and money! Sign up and tell them that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you there way.
Meet Catherine Morris, the creator of Edenwod — a 6-acre oasis in the North Carolina mountains just 45 minutes outside of Asheville.
Catherine is an accountant by trade and spent nearly two decades climbing the corporate ladder taking on big roles in both finance and human resources. And she loved the work she did.
But, when COVID hit, and her 9-year-old son was stuck at home doing school virtually, Catherine realized that it might be time for her family to make a change.
She and her husband had always loved hosting people for dinner, and the two of them had recently discussed extending their love of hospitality into other arenas when the pandemic hit.
Once it became clear that life wasn’t going to return to normal anytime soon, Catherine decided to take an idea she had been noodling on, of creating a unique getaway for folks looking to reconnect with a loved one and nature, into reality.
Tune in to hear the story of how Catherine found the perfect plot of land through cold calling, how she worked with a local architect to build a one-of-a-kind barn and treehouse, and how she hopes to fully replace her former salary with revenue from Edenwood over the next year.
Follow the Edenwood Treehouse on Sponstayneous
Follow the Edenwood Barn on Sponstayneous
Have you signed up for Minoan yet?
In this episode we feature a Minoan customer review from Alyson, the founder of SmartStays — discover what she loves most about Minoan and how Minoan has helped her save thousands of dollars setting up her short term rentals.
Create your totally free Minoan account here.
Have you signed up for Ping yet?
Ping makes it easy for guests to be notified when their favorite Airbnbs become available — and it's the secret tool the best Airbnb hosts use to maximize bookings.
Sign up today at bnbping.com
About the Show
Behind the Stays is brought to you twice a week by Sponstayneous — a free, biweekly newsletter that brings subscribers the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb.
You can subscribe, for free, at www.sponstayneous.com.
Behind the Stays is hosted by Zach Busekrus, co-founder of Sponstayneous, you can connect with him on Twitter at @zboozee.
Tuesday Sep 19, 2023
Tuesday Sep 19, 2023
Meet Jacob Mueller, Co-Founder and CEO of Renjoy — a next generation short-term rental management firm based in Colorado Springs.
Growing up, Jacob never would’ve guessed he’d be an entrepreneur, he studied economics in college and thought he’d go into policy.
But during his senior year, Jacob had the opportunity to work on a school project as a part of his thesis that revolved around launching a business in rural Michigan — and while he couldn’t have known it at the time, this project would inspire him to leave his dreams of working in Washington DC to own and operate businesses.
After graduating, Jacob wound up getting really into coffee and bought a local chain of coffee shops in the Colorado Mountains. But after a couple of years of working in the restaurant businesses, Jacob desired a pivot — and so he began binging episodes of Bigger Pockets and learned as much as he could about real estate.
Tune in to hear the exciting story of how Jacob wound up going all in on real estate as he believes it’s one of the best ways to help people achieve financial freedom, and how this mission of his led him and two of his friends to start Renjoy and scale it to over 150 properties under management in just a couple of years.
Discover Renjoy
Follow Jacob on Twitter
Have you signed up for Ping yet?
Ping makes it easy for guests to be notified when their favorite Airbnbs become available — and it's the secret tool the best Airbnb hosts use to maximize bookings.
Sign up today at bnbping.com
Meet Zach in Person!
Annette and Sarah from Thanks for Visiting were kind enough to invite Zach to come speak at TFVCONon SEO Strategy for STR Hosts and he can’t wait to participate in this dynamic event.
Zach would love to meet all you listeners in PERSON…so please consider coming to the event. You can use the discount code “BTS” as in “Behind the Stays” at checkout for $150 off any ticket level.
About the Show
Behind the Stays is brought to you twice a week by Sponstayneous — a free, biweekly newsletter that brings subscribers the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb.
You can subscribe, for free, at www.sponstayneous.com.
Behind the Stays is hosted by Zach Busekrus, co-founder of Sponstayneous, you can connect with him on Twitter at @zboozee.
Friday Sep 15, 2023
Friday Sep 15, 2023
Meet Stephen Pellicano — a hospitality entrepreneur in the Catskills focused on building simple glamping structures with everything you need and nothing that you don’t!
Stephen is a graphic designer by trade and fell in love with travel and hospitality after winning not one, but two free, round-trip tickets to Europe on British Airways as a part of a giveaway they were running back in the late 90s to promote the Concorde.
This trip abroad would inspire Stephen to spend the next decade living, working, and traveling across Europe. It was during this time abroad where Stephen had his first encounter with Airbnb and while he couldn’t have known it at the time, this experience would ultimately inspire him to start a glamping hospitality business a decade later in the Catskill Mountains in New York.