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 Sep 20, 2022
Tuesday Sep 20, 2022
Meet Tyann Marcink — the Queen of Guest Experience at Touch Stay, a digital guidebook platform for short-term and vacation rental hosts.
Tyann has a knack for charting her own path. She’s a resilient creative who owns 2 rental management brands and has been active in the vacation rental industry since 2007.
Discover Tyann’s hot takes about the future of the hospitality industry, hear the story behind how she bought a bank and turned it into a vacation rental in the Ozarks, and learn about how she ventured off on her entrepreneurial journey after losing a college scholarship in this episode of Behind the Stays.
Alright, without further ado, get ready to meet Tyann.
You can learn more about Touch Stay here.
Explore Tyann's Vacation Rentals here.
Connect with Tyann on Twitter here.
This episode is brought to you by BuildUp Bookings.
SEO. Paid Search. Email Marketing.
You know they are the marketing trifecta needed to build your brand and increase direct bookings to your properties...
But, outside of watching a couple of YouTube videos and listening to a few STR podcasts, you haven’t had the time to really understand how Google ranks content or what subject line and preview text combo are the best when sending an email to your list about last-minute availability.
If you’re listening to this podcast, chances are you’re not just any run of the mill STR or vacation rental host — you’re an entrepreneur who wants to see their portfolio of homes and the brand that encompasses grow.
And this week’s podcast sponsor, BuildUp Bookings, can help you do just that.
BuildUp Bookings is the digital marketing team that some of the best players in the game use to scale their businesses.
I had their founder, Conrad O’Connell on Episode 44 of the podcast...and let me tell you — this guys know his stuff! In just the last 12 months, BuildUp Bookings has helped their clients earn over $48 million in direct bookings.
If 90% of your bookings are coming via the Airbnbs and VRBOs of the world, it might be time to audit and augment your direct booking strategy — and Conrad and his team have set up a special landing page for Behind the Stays listeners chock-full of free resources to help you do so.
Head on over to www.BuildUpBookings.com/BTS to learn more. And be sure to request a free marketing strategy session with Conrad and tell him Zach from Behind the Stays sent you his way!
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 16, 2022
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Meet Marcus Rader — Founder and CEO of Hostaway.
Marcus grew up in Finland. He was quite a curious kid, but struggled to develop any lasting hobbies as he was easily distracted.
After flying for the first time as a six year old, Marcus’ dream was to become a pilot. Something about being at 30,000 feet was inspirational and invigorating.
Sadly, Marcus was diagnosed with epilepsy just a few years later. And while he didn’t understand much about the disease as a kid, his soul was crushed when he learned he’d never be able to be a pilot.
Tune in to hear the inspirational story of how Marcus turned this moment of despair into the pursuit of greatness and how he ultimately built one of the most valuable all-in-one tools for vacation rental property managers on the market.
Alright, without further ado, get ready to meet Marcus.
This episode is brought to you by Build Up Bookings.
About the Show
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Meet Marc Hostovsky, Founder and CEO of Minoan — a customizable, curated retail platform for short-term rental hosts.
Marc is a self-proclaimed boutique geek and is passionate about the future of retail.
After spending nearly 6 years working at Jet.com and then Walmart (acquired Jet.com), he quickly realized that the best product experiences don't happen on screens or shelves, they happen in real moments of use "in the wild".
Marc founded Minoan to help hosts:
- create, and capitalize on, rich moments in their homes
- save money on everything they need to buy
- and spend a fraction of the time on the unsexy things that come along with ordering (tracking, routing, logistics, etc.)
Tune in to discover the exciting story of the early days of Minoan and learn how you, as an STR host, can leverage Minoan for a current or future property.
Explore the Minoan Experience Website
This week's episode is brought to you by Mount.
Friday Sep 09, 2022
Friday Sep 09, 2022
In just a moment you’ll meet Heather Bien and Adam Shapiro, the creators of Rosehill Cottage — a charming river house on the Rappahannock River in Virginia.
Heather works in marketing at a tech start-up by day and runs her lifestyle and travel blog by night, and Adam works for the federal government.
While the couple lives in Washington DC, they thoroughly enjoy weekend escapes from the city. And it was on one of these weekend escapes that they fell in love with the charming Virginian towns along the Chesapeake Bay.
Tune in to hear the exciting story of how Heather and Adam found the perfect home in Locust Hill, Virginia and how they brought Rosehill Cottage to life.
Book Rosehill Cottage on Airbnb.
Visit the Rosehill Cottage Website.
Follow Rosehill Cottage on Instagram.
Follow Heather Bien on Instagram.
Discover Heather's Lifestyle Blog.
This week's episode is brought to you by Mount.
Tuesday Sep 06, 2022
Tuesday Sep 06, 2022
In just a moment, you’ll meet Vinny Breslin, founder of Uplisting — one of the industry’s leading short-term rental software & channel manager platforms.
Vinny was born and raised in Ireland. If you were to stumble into his room as a young kid, you might find Vinny taking apart a computer or a radio.
When he was 14 years old, he started building websites and was pleasantly surprised when he learned that people would pay him to do such.
He went to school for civil engineering and after graduation started working for a SaaS startup building products and services for the travel industry.
And it was during this season in his life where he started thinking about starting his own company in the hospitality management space.
Tune in to hear the entertaining story of how Vinny Breslin brought Uplisting to life.
This week's episode is brought to you by Mount.
Tuesday Aug 30, 2022
Tuesday Aug 30, 2022
Meet Arthur Colker, Founder and CEO of StayFi.
Growing up, Arthur thought he wanted to be a politician. He was intrigued by how power and influence could move society forward.
After going to school in DC and interning on The Hill, Arthur realized that while he loved following politics, working in it wasn’t quite for him.
And while he couldn’t have known it at the time, this realization was the first major stepping stone in his journey to becoming an entrepreneur and in founding StayFi — a wifi portal for short term rentals that allows hosts to capture crucial data from their guests.
Now you’re going to meet Arthur in JUST a second here, but, before you do so, I have a gift for you.
Arthur has offered listeners of Behind the Stays 50% off their first 3 months of StayFi.
So, if you’re inspired by what Arthur and his team are building and want to leverage their tools to grow your STR business, head on over to StayFi.com and use the discount code BTS50 at check out for 50% off the first 3 months of your subscription.
You can connect with Arthur on Twitter or learn more about StayFi here.
This week's episode is brought to you by Mount.
Tuesday Aug 23, 2022
Tuesday Aug 23, 2022
In just a moment you’ll meet Jason Neil — the creator of Golden Tiny Homes – a collection of minimalist short term rentals in Golden, British Columbia.
Growing up, Jason liked working with his hands. He always had an eye for making things better and this perspective ultimately led him to become a builder — like his father before him.
Jason has also always loved the outdoors — in fact he spends half the year surfing in Mexico and the other half snowboarding in British Columbia.
One summer while surfing in Baja, Jason’s buddies started talking about the emerging Cannabis industry and the business opportunities that surrounded it.
Tune in to hear the incredible story of how Jason built up a Cannabis business only to sell it and use the profits of his exit to start building Golden Tiny Homes.
Alright, without further adieu, get ready to meet Jason.
This week's episode is brought to you by Wander.
Tuesday Aug 16, 2022
Tuesday Aug 16, 2022
Meet Chad Ludeman, Co-Founder of Post Green Homes and Lokal Hotel.
Chad moved around a lot as a kid, but spent high school in upstate New York. He’s an engineer by trade, but an entrepreneur at heart.
Courtney, Chad’s wife and business partner, was Chad’s most critical sounding board — she shot down most of his business ideas until he started talking about real estate.
There was one idea, in particular, that Chad and Courtney both agreed was worth pursuing and that was to build a 1,000 square foot house for $100k. This project was the birth of the couple’s first business, Post Green Homes.
And while they learned a lot through this venture, they realized that their hearts were really in the hospitality space. And it was this realization that ultimately led them to found Lokal Hotel — a collection of design driven boutique luxury hotels.
Tune in to hear the exciting story of how Chad and Courtney built their brand and their first three hotels.
Book your stay at a Lokal Hotel
Follow Lokal Hotel on Instagram
This week's episode is brought to you by Wander.
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Meet Dylan Petrich — Co-Founder of Wilder Ways, a Texas-based hotel brand and management company.
Dylan was born in Paris but grew up in London. After graduating from university he went to work in finance and split his time between London and New York.
While finance was fascinating, Dylan grew tired of just looking at numbers — he wanted to get into the game of business and be an operator.
So, when an opportunity presented itself to move into the hospitality space by joining a new startup, The Guild, Dylan took it.
After a couple of years of learning a lot about hospitality, real estate, and startups the entrepreneurship bug bit Dylan…and he wondered what it would look like to start his OWN hospitality brand and business.
Tune in to hear the exciting story of how Dylan built Wilder Ways.
This week's episode is brought to you by Wander.
Wednesday Aug 03, 2022
Wednesday Aug 03, 2022
Meet Conrad O'Connell (@conradoconnell), Founder and CEO at BuildUp Bookings, a digital marketing agency that helps STR hosts increase direct bookings & build their brands.
Conrad was working at a marketing agency after college. This agency onboarded a new client in the boutique hotel space and Conrad was assigned to the account.
Pretty instantly, Conrad fell in love with the hospitality space — so much so that he wound up leaving the agency to start a firm of his own.
Tune in to hear Conrad share new ideas for how to market STRs, an overview of the most common marketing mistakes that STR hosts make, and how to know if/when it might be time to move off of Airbnb.
This week's episode is brought to you by Wander.