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
Friday Jan 19, 2024
Friday Jan 19, 2024
Meet Antonio Gonzalez, President of ÖÖD House — the company behind the instagram famous mirror houses.
Antonio is an engineer by trade, but always had a heart for entrepreneurship…
So, when the opportunity to co-found Jupe along with past-podcast guest Jeff Wilson and take it through Y Combinator, the world’s most prestigious of startup accelerators, came about, he took it.
Antonio learned SO much from the accelerator where the Airbnb founders also graduated from and had an incredible couple of years at Jupe before realizing that his heart was really in hospitality.
Tune in to hear the story of how ÖÖD House, founded in Estonia, came to be, what their game plan for expanding in the US in 2024 and 2025 looks like, and the kind of hospitality entrepreneurs they are looking to partner with to make this happen.
Learn more about ÖÖD House here.
Connect with Antonio on LinkedIn here.
This episode is brought to you by our friends at StayFi.
StayFi is enables you to create a custom branded WiFi splash page for your short-term rental’s WiFi — similar to what you might experience when logging onto the WiFi network at your favorite coffee shop.
StayFi enables you to collect the contact info of every guest staying with you, not just the one who booked…because who doesn’t need the wifi?
So if you want a frictionless way to capture guest contact info and empower your direct booking strategy with more data, sign up for StayFi at StayFi.com and use the discount code “BTS” for 20% off of your first year…
If you chat with the team there, be sure to tell them that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you their way!
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 Jan 16, 2024
Tuesday Jan 16, 2024
Meet Garett Brown, the visionary and creator behind Cameron Ranch Glamping, a collection of luxury glamping units on 11 acres just an hour outside of Houston, Texas.
Garrett is a professional music producer and traveling DJ who has always loved dabbling in real estate investing. When he wasn’t performing on stage or out on a tour, he’d find himself scrolling through listings dreaming of what it’d be like to build his own portfolio of homes.
He wanted to learn more about real estate so he decided to get his real estate license so he could get an inside look at how the industry actually works.
Tune in to hear the story behind how Garrett quickly swapped showing homes to others for building his own and the series of events that led him to fall in love with hospitality.
In this episode, Garett shares:
- The importance of considering both novelty and variety of structures when building a unique stay to increase virality and attract repeat guests.
- Why he believes you should determine the unit type you want to build and THEN go find the land (rather than the other way around)
- Why you shouldn’t overlook smaller content creators and influencers when marketing your stay
- And how the tragic loss of his brother inspires the work he does today
Follow Cameron Ranch on Instagram
This episode is brought to you by our friends at Turno.
Turno is the smartest way to schedule, pay, and find vacation rental cleaners — think of Turno as an Uber or Task Rabbit for STR hosts.
Simply create an account, describe your listing’s cleaning needs, and Turno will match you with cleaners near you.
Turno offers simple, affordable pricing for STR hosts of any size. Single property accounts and Marketplace users get access to all the platform’s tools and features for FREE. And they make working with your existing teams easy too, with plans as low as just $6/month per property.
Learn more and earn a $150 Amazon Gift Card after you complete your first cleaning.
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 Jan 12, 2024
Friday Jan 12, 2024
Meet Brett Deas, a 19-year-old entrepreneur who owns and operates unique stay vacation rentals across the U.S.
While his high school buddies were scrolling through TikTok before school and playing video games afterwards, Brett was binging Bigger Pockets podcasts to understand the world of real estate investing.
After graduating from high school, Brett decided to try his hand at real estate investing and entrepreneurship before pursuing a college degree. And so far? That decision is paying off dividends.
In this episode, you’ll hear the story behind how Brett raised capital to both build new unique stays and buy existing ones. Brett shares tips on:
- What he’s learned about assessing the value of a unique stay
- Why hospitality entrepreneurs might be better off buying a unique stay rather than building one from the ground up
- The importance of building a consumer-facing brand to help consolidate a portfolio of differentiated stays
- How he thinks about investing in 2024 and 2025
- And so much more
Connect with Brett on LinkedIn
This episode is brought to you by Summer.
Summer takes the headache out of owning a vacation rental by taking care of sourcing, designing, furnishing and managing your home.
What makes Summer especially unique is the pathway to ownership that they offer — think of this as an option to “try before you actually buy an Airbnb”
Here’s how Summer’s Gradual Ownership model works:
- You work with Summer to find the perfect vacation rental — one that’s in a market that you want to vacation to and also in a market that makes sense for a vacation rental.
- Summer guides you through the whole discernment process of where, when and what kind of home to buy.
- When you find the right home, put down a downpayment of 15+% but Summer buys the home for you and holds it for up to two years — during this time you can buy back the home from them any time you are ready or, after the two year period you can decide you DON’T want the home and get a full refund of your down payment.
- Also, Summer covers all of the closing costs and fees for the upfront purchase on the home, as well as furnishing and design. This means you pay far less out of pocket than you would if you bought the home yourself from day one.
So if you’ve been looking for a way to beta test the whole Airbnb game, this is your sign. Go and chat with my new friends at Summer and tell them that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you their way.
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 Jan 09, 2024
Tuesday Jan 09, 2024
Meet Mollie Reese, the host of the popular Stay in Good Company podcast and an experienced community builder who has spent her career working with leading brands across the the food & beverage and events & hospitality industries.
Having recently left the world of corporate burnout and the hustle and bustle of city-living behind for a slower way of life, Mollie set out to pursue personal passions in travel.
Throughout her journey, she is in search for authentic stories to share, curious about different cultural experiences, and inspired to curate a community who, like her, seeks to be in good company.
In this episode, Mollie and I discuss:
- Lessons she learned while working for brands like Anheuser-Busch, True Food Kitchen, and a couple of startups in hospitality
- Mollie’s thoughts on how the next generation of travelers will discern where to go and where to stay
- Her hot takes on how the next generation of travelers thinks about loyalty programs
- The biggest opportunities she sees for folks to build successful brands and businesses in this space
Stream Stay in Good Company
This episode is brought to you by our friends at StayFi.
StayFi is enables you to create a custom branded WiFi splash page for your short-term rental’s WiFi — similar to what you might experience when logging onto the WiFi network at your favorite coffee shop.
StayFi enables you to collect the contact info of every guest staying with you, not just the one who booked…because who doesn’t need the wifi?
So if you want a frictionless way to capture guest contact info and empower your direct booking strategy with more data, sign up for StayFi at StayFi.com and use the discount code “BTS” for 20% off of your first year…
If you chat with the team there, be sure to tell them that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you their way!
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 Jan 05, 2024
Friday Jan 05, 2024
Meet Assaf Karmon, Co-founder & CEO of Turno — a marketplace that helps vacation rental hosts and property management companies simplify and automate cleaning.
Assaf was born and raised in Israel and as a kid his dream was to be a professional soccer player.
And while that dream never came to fruition, in part because Assaf spent most of his early sports career sitting on the bench, the determination, boldness, and focus he garnered as a child trying to level up his game, has enable him to become the entrepreneur he is today.
In this episode, Assaf and I discuss:
- The founding story of Turno
- The recipe for a successful working relationship with your cleaning team
- What separates the best cleaning teams from the rest of the pack
- His thoughts on working with one team in a market vs a multiple teams in the same market to reduce risk
- And the biggest opportunities he sees for entrepreneurs building new companies in the hospitality space
Oh, and one last thing — Turno has graciously offered Behind the Stays listeners a $150 Amazon Gift Card after you complete your first turnover with them! Simply go to turno.com/behindthestays to claim this offer before March 31st, 2024.
This episode is brought to yo buy our friends at Booklee.
Booklee like a Linktree designed exclusively for Airbnb hosts and STR property managers.
If you’re listening to this podcast, chances are you’re a hospitality entrepreneur that cares about building a brand for your Airbnb/STR business and that’s why many of you invest so much time into building your presence on Instagram.
Knowing where to direct your Instagram followers to is always a challenge:
- Should you send them to your Airbnb listing directly to show off your incredible reviews?
- Or to your direct booking site which is a little clunky to navigate on mobile but will save you 10-15% if your follower books direct?
- Or maybe you’re testing out VRBO and Booking.com
Well, what’s amazing about Booklee is that you don’t have to decide.
Booklee allows you to create a stunning link-in-bio page that showcases everything about your property across all platforms. Booklee pulls in and aggregates your reviews across Airbnb, VRBO, and other OTAs, and invites guests to book via your direct booking site or their preferred OTA.
Get 20% off your first year of Booklee when you reference Behind the Stays at checkout.
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 Jan 02, 2024
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
Meet Jake and Leslie, the creators of the Lighthouse Cottage, an oceanfront escape in Cape May, New Jersey.
Jake and Leslie had always dreamed of owning a beach house, but acquiring a property in the competitive Cape May market seemed out of reach.
That is until one day Leslie was scrolling on Zillow and noticed a new listing for a 100 year old property located right on the beach.
The home clearly needed a lot of work but something about its character spoke to Leslie…and within hours she had called the realtor, packed the car, and paid the place a visit.
And that visit? Well, it’d end with Leslie calling Jake to convince him that this was the place they’d been searching for.
Tune in to hear the story behind:
- How the couple renovated the home to dramatically improve its aestetic without losing the heart and soul of the property
- The pros and cons of DIY
- How they used design, photography, and Instagram to book the home out for the entire season in just 11 days
- What the future holds for the couple
- And so much more
Alright friends, without further ado, get ready to meet Jake and Leslie.
Follow The Lighthouse Cottage on Instagram
Book your stay at The Lighthouse Cottage
This episode is brought to you by Summer.
Summer takes the headache out of owning a vacation rental by taking care of sourcing, designing, furnishing and managing your home.
What makes Summer especially unique is the pathway to ownership that they offer — think of this as an option to “try before you actually buy an Airbnb”
Here’s how Summer’s Gradual Ownership model works:
- You work with Summer to find the perfect vacation rental — one that’s in a market that you want to vacation to and also in a market that makes sense for a vacation rental.
- Summer guides you through the whole discernment process of where, when and what kind of home to buy.
- When you find the right home, put down a downpayment of 15+% but Summer buys the home for you and holds it for up to two years — during this time you can buy back the home from them any time you are ready or, after the two year period you can decide you DON’T want the home and get a full refund of your down payment.
- Also, Summer covers all of the closing costs and fees for the upfront purchase on the home, as well as furnishing and design. This means you pay far less out of pocket than you would if you bought the home yourself from day one.
So if you’ve been looking for a way to beta test the whole Airbnb game, this is your sign. Go and chat with my new friends at Summer and tell them that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you their way.
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 Dec 19, 2023
Tuesday Dec 19, 2023
Meet Rob Patterson, an incredible hospitality leader whose most recent post was as the CEO of Best Western in the United Kingdom.
Rob grew up in a very remote town in the country of Australia. Growing up, Rob dreamed of becoming a professional footballer — so much so that when an opportunity to move to Sydney to pursue his dream came to fruition, he left home without thinking twice.
And while he never wound up playing football professionally, Rob did stumble into another profession while living in the big city — and that profession, well, you guessed it folks, was working in hospitality.
In this episode you’ll discover:
- What Rob learned during his first hospitality job working in housekeeping at a Hilton
- How dynamic pricing and the internet revolutionized the hospitality industry
- How Rob led Best Western through the pandemic and gained brand equity at a time when so many other hotel companies were struggling
- Why he believes branding in the industry has lost its way and been driven more by investor needs than consumer needs and the opportunity for independent brands to stand out with clear, distinctive identities in light of this reality
- And so much more
Alright friends, without further ado, get ready to meet Rob.
This episode is brought to you by our friends at StayFi.
StayFi is enables you to create a custom branded WiFi splash page for your short-term rental’s WiFi — similar to what you might experience when logging onto the WiFi network at your favorite coffee shop.
StayFi enables you to collect the contact info of every guest staying with you, not just the one who booked…because who doesn’t need the wifi?
So if you want a frictionless way to capture guest contact info and empower your direct booking strategy with more data, sign up for StayFi at StayFi.com and use the discount code “BTS” for 20% off of your first year…
If you chat with the team there, be sure to tell them that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you their way!
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 Dec 15, 2023
Friday Dec 15, 2023
Meet Amber and Charlie Pledge — the founders of Kabn Company, a new hospitality brand focused on creating luxurious, and sustainable nature-immersed escapes.
Amber and Charlie have always loved to travel. The couple has been fortunate enough to live and work in major hubs of innovation like London, San Francisco, and Dubai.
And while Amber and Charlie both love working hard, climbing the corporate ladder just started to feel, well, a bit unfulfilling.
Tune in to hear the story behind how this couple left their day jobs to go and build their first two escapes on the west coast of Scotland.
In this conversation we discuss:
- How their travels to Japan, India, and Africa all helped inspire the design of their first cabins
- The benefits of long-term leases when building your first site
- What Amber and Charlie learned about how to balance sustainability and luxury when building their cabins
- How they secured a MICHELIN-Star chef to offer incredible personalized dining experiences for their guests
- And so much more
Book your stay at The Kabn Company
Follow The Kabn Company on Instagram
This episode is brought to you by Summer.
Summer takes the headache out of owning a vacation rental by taking care of sourcing, designing, furnishing and managing your home.
What makes Summer especially unique is the pathway to ownership that they offer — think of this as an option to “try before you actually buy an Airbnb”
Here’s how Summer’s Gradual Ownership model works:
- You work with Summer to find the perfect vacation rental — one that’s in a market that you want to vacation to and also in a market that makes sense for a vacation rental.
- Summer guides you through the whole discernment process of where, when and what kind of home to buy.
- When you find the right home, put down a downpayment of 15+% but Summer buys the home for you and holds it for up to two years — during this time you can buy back the home from them any time you are ready or, after the two year period you can decide you DON’T want the home and get a full refund of your down payment.
- Also, Summer covers all of the closing costs and fees for the upfront purchase on the home, as well as furnishing and design. This means you pay far less out of pocket than you would if you bought the home yourself from day one.
So if you’ve been looking for a way to beta test the whole Airbnb game, this is your sign. Go and chat with my new friends at Summer and tell them that Zach from Behind the Stays sent you their way.
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 Dec 12, 2023
Tuesday Dec 12, 2023
Meet Steve Turk — a decorated professional who has spent over two decades working in luxury hospitality.
Steve’s father was a susccessful attorney. From time to time, his dad would bring him along on work travel and Steve remembers being in total awe at the hotels he and his dad would stay in.
There was something so magical about walking into an ordnately decorated hotel lobby and being greeted as if you were some kind of royalty that left a significant impression on Steve.
As Steve began thinking about what he wanted to do with his life during his later high school years, he assumed he’d just become a lawyer like his dad was.
But there was an idea that Steve just couldn’t shake…this nagging that pulled at his heart. And that nagging was a desire to work in hospitality.
Tune in to hear the remarkable story of:
- How Steve worked his way up to executive roles at Loews, Nobu, Mandarin Oriental and other luxury hotel brands
- Why he wound up leaving these coveted roles to become a hospitality entrepreneur
- And why he’s now building a luxury micro resort focused on sustainability and agritourism in South Florida.
Listen to his podcast The Hospitality Mentor
Friday Dec 08, 2023
Friday Dec 08, 2023
Meet Ashley and Andy — the creators of The Glass Treehouse, a stunning couple’s stay in Banner Elk, North Carolina close to downtown Boone.
Andy is a mechanic by trade. After spending years working in the airline industry, he decided to open up his own auto body shop in Charlotte, North Carolina. While Ashely and Andy loved the benefits that came with owning a small business, the couple dreamed of one day leaving Charlotte to move to the mountains.
One day while scrolling through Zillow, Andy stumbled upon a house that had been on the market for 3 years…and, while he couldn’t have known it at the time, this dilapidated home that had been passed over hundreds of times would one day become one of Airbnb’s most wish-listed stays in the entire United States.
Follow The Glass Treehouse on Instagram
Book a Stay at The Glass Treehouse
This episode is brought to yo buy our friends at Booklee.
Booklee like a Linktree designed exclusively for Airbnb hosts and STR property managers.
If you’re listening to this podcast, chances are you’re a hospitality entrepreneur that cares about building a brand for your Airbnb/STR business and that’s why many of you invest so much time into building your presence on Instagram.
Knowing where to direct your Instagram followers to is always a challenge:
- Should you send them to your Airbnb listing directly to show off your incredible reviews?
- Or to your direct booking site which is a little clunky to navigate on mobile but will save you 10-15% if your follower books direct?
- Or maybe you’re testing out VRBO and Booking.com
Well, what’s amazing about Booklee is that you don’t have to decide.
Booklee allows you to create a stunning link-in-bio page that showcases everything about your property across all platforms. Booklee pulls in and aggregates your reviews across Airbnb, VRBO, and other OTAs, and invites guests to book via your direct booking site or their preferred OTA.
Get 20% off your first year of Booklee when you reference Behind the Stays at checkout.
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.