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
Wednesday Mar 13, 2024
Wednesday Mar 13, 2024
Meet Fred Boothby, Founder of Enjoy Unique Stays, a collection of 100 short-term rentals across Chattanooga, Michigan, North Carolina, and North Georgia.
Fred was a banker — it seemed like a safe and stable way to build a nice life for his family. But there was something about the “safe way” that never felt quite right to Fred.
One day he got a call from a friend who was looking for someone to help scale a landscaping business in Central Florida.
And while he didn’t know it at the time, that call would change the trajectory of his entire life. Tune in to hear the story of how Fred scaled and sold this landscaping business and how it enabled him to pursue his dream of buying, building, and managing vacation rentals.
In this conversation Fred and I discuss:
- Whether or not his unique properties out perform his more traditional cabin stays
- The future of vacation rental communities and the opportunity that exists here for entrepreneurs
- The emergence of soft brands in the vacation rental space and what the value this provides to both guests and management companies
- Why he loves hospitality and hosts in his own home along with his 7 children
- And so much more
This episode is brought to you by our friends at AirDNA
Want to see if a Treehouse resort in Dubai pencils? You can do so in AirDNA.
Want to buy land in Ontario to build a Glamping resort? AirDNA will show you how other, comparable products are performing in the region.
Or maybe you’ve already got your stay up and running and you want a better understanding of how your Airbnb compares to others in the market? You can connect your listing to AirDNA and get accurate nightly pricing recommendations based on real-world, real-time demand.
AirDNA is the key you need to unlock the insight behind what it’s going to take to bring those big dreams you have to life.
Pay just $25/month and access ANY market in the world — AirDNA is cheaper, faster, better, and stronger to use than ever before.
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 Mar 08, 2024
Friday Mar 08, 2024
Meet Landon Wilkinson, Co-Founder of Hostshare — a new platform that enables short-term rental hosts to trade unbooked nights in exchange for free travel.
Growing up Landon wanted to be a spy — he went so far as to write a letter to the CIA asking them to recruit him …he even had a code name which you’ll hear about shortly!
And while Landon never wound up pursuing a career in espionage, the boldness he had as a child has followed him along his journey of becoming an entrepreneur.
In this episode, Landon shares:
- Where the idea of Hostshare first came from and why he believes a travel platform for Airbnb hosts is needed
- The specific rules and guard rails he and the team had to create to ensure the platform would be exciting for hosts that own mansions in Miami and also hosts that own condos in Detroit.
- How they plan on monetizing the platform
- And so much more.
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.
Tuesday Mar 05, 2024
Tuesday Mar 05, 2024
What’s up friends got a special episode for y’all today featuring my friend Hans Lorei one of the best if not THE BEST designer in the short-term rental space.
While I am a real sucker for the traditional, interview syle pod, I also know that sometimes you need content that is short, sweet, and super practical.
So, once or twice a month, I’ll be dropping episodes on the pod that are slightly more tactical.
Each of these episodes will featuring an industry expert andbe just 10-20 minutes in length.
In this episode, Hans and I discuss how he built an Instagram audience from 0 to 100k followers in just 101 days.
Hans shares why he started posting on Instagram, the content format and framework that helped him go viral, how his online audience has translated to opportunities offline, and so much more.
This episode is brought to you by our friends at AirDNA
Want to see if a Treehouse resort in Dubai pencils? You can do so in AirDNA.
Want to buy land in Ontario to build a Glamping resort? AirDNA will show you how other, comparable products are performing in the region.
Or maybe you’ve already got your stay up and running and you want a better understanding of how your Airbnb compares to others in the market? You can connect your listing to AirDNA and get accurate nightly pricing recommendations based on real-world, real-time demand.
AirDNA is the key you need to unlock the insight behind what it’s going to take to bring those big dreams you have to life.
Pay just $25/month and access ANY market in the world — AirDNA is cheaper, faster, better, and stronger to use than ever before.
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 Mar 01, 2024
Friday Mar 01, 2024
Meet Matt Whitermore, a hospitality entrepreneur who buys, builds, and manages RV parks.
In this engaging conversation, Matt shares how he got started buying RV parks and why he believes there’s huge opportunity to disrupt and reimagine this category of travel and real estate investment.
Tune in to hear:
- The lessons Matt learned after buying his first RV park
- How he see experiential hospitality and RV parks intersecting in the near future
- Why camping is getting younger and cooler and the opportunity this presents for folks who want to build cool brands and businesses in the space
- And so much more
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.
Tuesday Feb 27, 2024
Tuesday Feb 27, 2024
Meet Kyle Tibbitts, Chief Marketing Officer at Wander, a network of smart, luxury vacation rentals that’s on a mission to verticalize the short-term rental experience.
If you were to have asked Kyle as a 10-year-old what he wanted to be when he grew up, he would have told you a lawyer, which, today, Kyle would tell you would have been a huge mistake.
But if you were to have asked Kyle what he wanted to be just a few years later, he would have told you an architect — from a young age he had a deep appreciation for design and a longing to build things.
And while Kyle wouldn’t go on to design or build structures, he would go on to help design and build some of the most incredible brands in hospitality and real estate.
Tune in to hear Kyle’s stories and musings about:
- What he learned while working at HotelTonight — a marketplace for last-minute hotel bookings that was ultimately acquired by Airbnb
- The growth marketing lessons he learned while working at Open Door
- How he met John Andrew, the Founder and CEO of Wander on Twitter and what it was about Wander that was so compelling to him
- How he and the team built the Wander brand
- Lessons learned when trying to build a consistently luxurious, yet distributed hospitality product
- How Wander has pivoted over the last 12 months in light of macro-economic shifts
- The vision for the Wander brand over 2024
- And so much more
This episode is brought to you by our friends at AirDNA
Want to see if a Treehouse resort in Dubai pencils? You can do so in AirDNA.
Want to buy land in Ontario to build a Glamping resort? AirDNA will show you how other, comparable products are performing in the region.
Or maybe you’ve already got your stay up and running and you want a better understanding of how your Airbnb compares to others in the market? You can connect your listing to AirDNA and get accurate nightly pricing recommendations based on real-world, real-time demand.
AirDNA is the key you need to unlock the insight behind what it’s going to take to bring those big dreams you have to life.
Pay just $25/month and access ANY market in the world — AirDNA is cheaper, faster, better, and stronger to use than ever before.
Tuesday Feb 20, 2024
Tuesday Feb 20, 2024
In this episode of Behind the Stays, Zach shares five tangible and tactical ideas for how OpenAI's new Sora model will fundamentally change hospitality entrepreneurship.
Sora is an AI model that can create realistic and imaginative scenes from text instructions.
Sora is able to generate complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background. The model understands not only what the user has asked for in the prompt, but also how those things exist in the physical world.
This episode is brought to you by our friends at Valcove Hospitality.
Valcove Hospitality enables you to have a dedicated assistant available 24/7 who can help with everything from email comms to responding to Karen — and they make this all possible at a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee.
Whether you’re managing 10 properties or scaling up to 150, Valcove's experienced team is ready to help you streamline your operations. Say goodbye to the endless cycle of hiring and training staff, and say hello to seamless efficiency.
With flexible partnership options tailored to your needs, Valcove offers 24/7 support, or a custom schedule that fits your business. And with a straightforward hourly rate of just $9.95/hour for your entire portfolio, you always know what to expect on your bill - no surprises, just dependable, transparent service.
The team at Valcove is offering 'Behind the Stays' listeners, like you, an exclusive offer. Use the code BEHINDTHESTAYS50 to get 50% off your first month with Valcove Hospitality.
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 Feb 16, 2024
Friday Feb 16, 2024
Meet Stephanie Gutierrez, the creator of North Country Cabin Co. — a boutique collection of short-term rentals located just 90 minutes from Minnesota's twin cities in Comstock, Wisconsin.
Growing up, Stephanie wanted to be an artist — her grandmother had an incredible eye for art and design and Stephanie dreamed of emulating her.
And while she didn’t become a professional artist, her knack for creativity would wind up leading her to launch a boutique hospitality company in partnership with her husband Eric.
In this episode, Stephanie and I discuss:
- How and why she and Eric got into short-term rentals
- The story behind how they found their first cabin and what it took to get it Airbnb-ready
- Whether building from the ground up or renovating an existing cabin yields a more profitable unit
- How they landed in Vogue and on the Magnolia Network
- And so much more
Alright friends, without further adieu, get ready to meet Stephanie.
This episode is brought to you by our friends at Valcove Hospitality.
Valcove Hospitality enables you to have a dedicated assistant available 24/7 who can help with everything from email comms to responding to Karen — and they make this all possible at a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee.
Whether you’re managing 10 properties or scaling up to 150, Valcove's experienced team is ready to help you streamline your operations. Say goodbye to the endless cycle of hiring and training staff, and say hello to seamless efficiency.
With flexible partnership options tailored to your needs, Valcove offers 24/7 support, or a custom schedule that fits your business. And with a straightforward hourly rate of just $9.95/hour for your entire portfolio, you always know what to expect on your bill - no surprises, just dependable, transparent service.
The team at Valcove is offering 'Behind the Stays' listeners, like you, an exclusive offer. Use the code BEHINDTHESTAYS50 to get 50% off your first month with Valcove Hospitality.
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 Feb 13, 2024
Tuesday Feb 13, 2024
One of the newest and hottest industry events, STR Wealth Con, just wrapped last week — and we wanted to know what people thought about the event!
In this episode, Zach sits down with Wil Slickers (emcee of the event), Sean Wilkinson (Co-Founder of Hostshare and first-time conferences attendee), and Heidie Henriksen ( a vacation rental industry veteran, to get their thoughts on the content, the community, and the networking at the event.
Let us know what you thought of the event by joining the conversation on LinkedIn!
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 Feb 09, 2024
Friday Feb 09, 2024
Meet Jeremy Gall, Founder & CEO of Breezeway — the leading property care, operations and messaging platform for hospitality entrepreneurs.
Growing up, Jermey wanted to be a professional basketball player. And while he never made it into the NBA, he did make it into Law School.
But Jeremy’s professional career as an attorney wouldn’t last long because he was bit by that sneaky, but ever so enticing, entrepreneurial bug.
Tune into hear the exciting story of how Jeremy co-founded and built Flipkey, the first online marketplace for vacation rentals, which was ultimately acquired by Trip Advisor, why he built Breezeway, the industry’s leading operations hub, and the opportunity he sees for other hospitality innovators and entrepreneurs over the next 5 years.
Connect with Jeremy 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 there 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 Feb 06, 2024
Tuesday Feb 06, 2024
Meet Meaghan Moylan, Executive Director of Outpost — a Vacation Rental and Property Management company located in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
If you were to have asked Meaghan what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would have told you a cat, a veterinarian, a nurse, or a lawyer — depending on whether she was 3, 10, 15, or 18.
As fate would have it, Meaghan did not become any of the aforementioned and, after graduating from college with a degree in public relations, decided she was going to move to Thailand to teach English. One night at a bonfire she was telling an acquaintance about her plans to move abroad when said acquaintance asked her if she’d ever considered working in hospitality.
She hadn’t…but that night, Meaghan went home and, on a total whim, applied for a job at 360 Blue, one of the most respected, luxury vacation rental companies in the country…and, well, she got the job and almost 10 years later, Meaghan has become one of the most interesting and influential young voices in the industry.
In this chat, Meaghan and I discuss:
- Opportunities she sees for young entrepreneurs to build great businesses in and around vacation rentals
- What the quote-on-quote “Instagram Airbnb Host” can learn from professional operators (and vice-versa)
- Her new love of podcasting
- Hot takes she has on the future of hospitality
- And so much more…
Connect with Meaghan on LinkedIn
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This episode is brought to you by our friends at Valcove Hospitality.
Valcove Hospitality enables you to have a dedicated assistant available 24/7 who can help with everything from email comms to responding to Karen — and they make this all possible at a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee.
Whether you’re managing 10 properties or scaling up to 150, Valcove's experienced team is ready to help you streamline your operations. Say goodbye to the endless cycle of hiring and training staff, and say hello to seamless efficiency.
With flexible partnership options tailored to your needs, Valcove offers 24/7 support, or a custom schedule that fits your business. And with a straightforward hourly rate of just $9.95/hour for your entire portfolio, you always know what to expect on your bill - no surprises, just dependable, transparent service.
The team at Valcove is offering 'Behind the Stays' listeners, like you, an exclusive offer. Use the code BEHINDTHESTAYS50 to get 50% off your first month with Valcove Hospitality.
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.