1st of the Month Bonus Episode: March 1, 2022

Welcome to Alex & Annie, The Real Women of Vacation Rentals. I'm Alex.

And I'm Annie.

And we are back for the first of the month episode. It is March of 2022. Annie I swear this year is just flying by

it really has I tell somebody the other day, it felt like we've packed four months into the first two months of the year. So I think this year is gonna outpace last year in terms of just the speed which we'll go through it.

Yeah, it's almost like you just have to take a step back and try and make some some pause and and time here because it really is. It's crazy how fast the years gone. And, you know, from a booking perspective and a company perspective here at condo world, we are just rocking and rolling. I mean, we're getting an unbelievable amount of early bookings for this summer and into the fall monthly stays coming in for next winter. So a lot of you know, different range of booking windows, but great rates across the board. We're seeing overall just better rate in general. So good signs for us. And I know that's that's reflected in the other destinations, too.

Yeah, I was just talking to a partner this morning in Texas. And we were looking at kind of his pace, and he's ahead of pace. So we actually increased rates and kind of, you know, put some more restrictions in and but his revenues are pacing, almost 30% year over year, and last year was a record year for them. So it just seems it seems a little ludicrous to think that we're going to make, you know, these people can make more than they did last year. But one focus that we're putting on for a lot of our partners is just really about the ADR because with staffing issues, they're just not able to handle the demand. And it kind of moving away from really focusing on occupancy and revenue and just really focusing on the revenue. As long as revenue doesn't slow. I think we're okay, the second half of the year will be interesting, but so far anything goes at this point.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's going to be an exciting year, I think, you know, just today, mass mandates have been lifted in several parts of the country for indoor use of bass grade, I think that's going to make a big difference in your going forward. Anybody that was on the fence about not wanting to travel that's going to continue to get less and less. And we were looking at the long Woods International and Miles survey about travel sentiment. And really, I mean, the thing right now that they're showing that as impacting travelers decision to to travel within the next six months, their personal financial situation, is the number one reason that they're considering or thinking about whether or not they're going to travel under Yeah, is COVID. So yeah,

I think that that's, you know, it's only going to get worse, unfortunately, with everything going on in the Ukraine, that's gonna affect gas prices. And a lot of these a lot of the vacation rental markets are driving markets. And that's kind of, you know, an indicative to gas prices will make that fluctuate in terms of what people are doing. And maybe overall, what it'll do is it'll just affect the booking window. I think people still want to travel, they just might be a little hesitant to put too far out at this point.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, time, time will tell and I'm sure it's gonna feel like when we, when we record this episode for next month, it's gonna feel like a blink of an eye. This is the time we recorded this one. Yeah, another

four months will have gone by Yeah, exactly. But we started out the month like on you talk about a crazy high. Yeah, really, really incredible. I guess accolade from the International Hospitality Institute. They recognized Alex and Annie in the top 30 of hospitality podcast. And we actually weren't number 30. We were I think number 28. Nine, so we weren't but just again, the people that we were up against or people that have been doing this for a long time, and to think that we've only been doing this since November and we got rest, you know, kind of a recognition from a respected part of the industry. And indeed, I found interestingly, or interesting enough was that it was a hospitality as a whole and the most of the people that were recognized were more on the hotel sector. So not a lot of vacation rental i x none of our think with the exception of will slickers having one of his podcasts on there. I don't think there was anybody else really from the vacation rental side of things. So it'll be interesting to see. So I guess we have a goal to maintain being in the top 30 And hopefully getting in the top. I think, you know, our second third place next year.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, we didn't even we didn't even have that as a goal. But now, we know our goals.

Yeah, we did set our goal is taking over that Hoda and Jenna Chairwoman be sorry. That's a little farther down the road, hopefully

with the today's show would certainly come 30 Ward So. So but yeah, no, I remember when we, when I got that notification on LinkedIn. I texted you and I was like, Is this real? Doesn't seem right. And then I looked up the International Hospitality Institute and I mean, it's incredible organization and they do all sorts of different awards within our industry. I don't encourage anybody to go look them up on on, on that. On LinkedIn, but between social media and operations and all different kinds of awards for outstanding players in the space, so it was a huge honor for us to be nominated on there. And yeah, I think that was interesting. That was mostly hotel based podcasts that we were competing against. So interesting and very exciting for the future. See what else we can rack up? Yeah.

And I think on that note, like we've we've gotten such positive feedback from everybody that listened. So anybody that's out there listening to this episode, thank you for carving a little time out of your day, your week, your commute, your walk on the treadmill, you run around the neighborhood with the kids to listen to us. We appreciate it. We appreciate it very much.

Yeah, absolutely. Now, we appreciate everyone's feedback and encouragement and support. And notice, it's not an easy thing. You know, as we started this, we realized how difficult of a thing it was and a heck of a journey so far, but the supportive everyone around us, makes us want to continue to do it. So very appreciative for that. Yeah. Looking back on the month. So you know, we're still in kind of the quiet offseason right now as far as events and conferences are concerned. So I went to one that is the first event that I've been to this year, which was G next G and E x, which was in Vegas. I just got back from that last week. And Annie I know, I haven't told you a little bit about it. But it was an incredible event. I mean, talk about a world class conference with lots of lots of learn from these folks. But I was invited to go out there. Gene X is it's vacation ownership timeshare collective, and it's mostly C level executives at these companies, developers, and you know, their vendors that come to this event and kind of a meeting of the minds. It reminds me a little bit of aatma, where you and I met that that was kind of a small conference two years, about 250 people, I believe, Oh, wow, it was at the Wynn encore in Vegas. I mean, that's one of the nicest properties. And it was funny when I got there, I walked into check in. And I haven't been to Vegas since COVID. But I just remember everybody saying that they're very, very strict when people are at the tables with mass and in common areas that you have to have a mask on. And I walked in and nobody had a mask on. And I thought, man, it's just this property is just kind of relaxed about it. But come to find out Vegas had just lifted the mask mandate, like two days before I had gotten there. So and I think at that same time, Disneyworld also did right in Orlando. So I mean, that's, that's, that's amazing that you know, these big destinations and attractions are now lifting that so that's a good time for us to but anyways, so it was a great event just wonderfully put on interesting to go to one of these and not know a lot of people. That's a little bit different than I felt like this was kind of like the first day of high school versus when we went to you've never met like high school reunion. The Yeah, everybody was very welcoming. And I was asked to go to this event by Amy Hi note, she was putting on a panel about vacation rental and timeshare synergies and how the two industries can potentially work together. And tell you what there's definitely a lot of ways we could work together. And we're kind of in a unique situation at condo world because we operate on several different models here as a property manager that we have inventory that our inventory that we want to run. We're also an OTA that we want inventory on our platform that we can run and timeshare, a lot of these properties are very, very nice properties. We'd love to work with them. And then on the technology side, they timeshare is different in that when they when they talk about their marketing, they don't do marketing like we do. It's not it's not PPC, it's not email marketing. It's not the traditional type of marketing that we're all accustomed to their marketing is to generate leads for tours. So you know, one of the people I was talking about there, he said, you know, you'll never see a billboard with our company name on it. That's just not how we market. Right? So is it interesting to learn the different dynamics there but they spend an unbelievable amount of money on marketing 50% of the sales that they drive is spent back on marketing. So you think about that. I mean, that's that's a lot of people and it's mostly people that that's how they're doing right. Having people that are out trying to get people to sign up for the tours and then the follow up and call centers and everything else. So it's a well oiled machine but a lot of revenue that goes through it and a lot of expense to make it happen on the panel that I was on. It was Lena Maldonado with be home shoe for seven Lena was also vice president of Wyndham for several years and came from the resort quest days. He's in your area obviously and and also Greg Anderson who he also worked at Wyndham with lino back in that time period, and they talked about you know, how they can make it work and how they did make it work, which I thought was really interesting. And especially with the whole Wyndham situation there. Obviously that's it's just not the same company anymore. But Leno's point was, you know, he saw this opportunity that timeshare is rented at 102%. They always overbook vacation rentals on average are 65% percent occupancy. So they've got plenty of room, you know? And how can you how can you walk a guest from one side of house to the other and make it so that you're not, you know, taking gas or not, it's not competitive, but it's actually more synergistic. And Hammond Greg found a way to do that. And they had just started implementing that across Windham, nationwide, when obviously, they got bought by the Casa. So things change their significantly, but that kind of dropped off. And I think that's where Amy and and these folks that I was on the panel, I thought so Scott bunts from Kevin's for you. We're all kind of looking at it as okay there, we do still still see an opportunity there. And it's just time to bring the industries together. And this was the first this was the first opportunity to do that. But we're hoping that we can get some of those folks to come to our events as well and figure out how we can connect the dots. Yeah, and

I think what's exciting is we were able to interview lino immediately after the conference since he'll be one of the guests that will have on this month for you to listen to, and again, knowingly know, through his resort his days in Windham days and not like personally knowing him, but knowing of him and having met him a few times. He's always thinking 10 steps ahead of the industry and coming up with really great ways to make people collaborate better, I meet people, but try to get them to collaborate. And I know that from my experience at Expedia, just working with the timeshares, there's so much it just a no brainer for everybody to be working together. We have the timeshares here in the panhandle. I know you have up in Myrtle Beach, and they're heavy in Orlando in Vegas, and, and so many other markets that are big destinations, that there's just no reason that we can't all work together, because again, they're spending the gobs of money to market to bring people to the area to try to sell them. Why not try to get them into some of your rentals if you have them available. So that conversation with Lena was going to be really, I think guests will enjoy it. It's enlightening. It's a lot of good ideas, and I think opens up the door to larger conversations to be had through Varma. And through some of these other you know, maybe he will do something at one of the VRM Intel conferences or, you know, maybe there's another conference to be had that Alex and Annie can host and talk about together these

two, we've still got a lot to learn. It's all possible for sure. It's all possible. Yeah. No, I mean, I felt like a sponge at this event, just trying to take in as much as I could. And I was texting you the whole time. You're like, I can't believe this. It's different, but it's similar at the same time. But yeah, one thing I think that timeshare has done really well that we could certainly learn from and if we can figure out a way from a property management standpoint to make work there. It's not it's not essentially a loyalty program. But I guess it kind of is, their partnerships with companies like an RCI, or a loyalty based program where they offer their owners additional places to book is really great. I mean, that that makes it fairly easy sell. I think that's a big part of how they they get so many people in on it, because you might buy, you know, a certain amount of points at Marriott, for example, but then that also opens you up not just Marriott, but that opens you up to all these other properties and cruises and airlines and everything else that you're getting this great rate on. And you know, we're looking at that as okay, we've always wanted to do a loyalty program. And we haven't officially we've explored it, but we haven't moved forward with it. But I think there's an opportunity within vacation rentals for somebody to really capitalize on that. And then what a great tool for owner acquisition as well as guest retention. So we're going to be looking into some options there. And I think, you know, just just even getting some of their vendors to explore vacation rentals, one on one of which guest view guide, big shout out to those to their crew, they won a major award, they have these awards at the end of the conference. And they recognize somebody from each category, and they won Best consumer products, but they actually they were the only people that were there. Besides the panelists that either come from the vacation rental side, we all kind of bonded on these things together. But guess what, guys a great example of that, that's definitely a product. And I think there's a lot of other vendors that could, you know, bridge the gap and open up their offerings, but it's gonna be exciting to see. I'm glad that this was the first time that we've had that conversation. And the folks that were there from the timeshare side are very interested to talk to us and learn from us too. So that was exciting.

Yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad you had a good time. I know it was an adventure to say the least to just be out there.

Yeah, well, I got, I got stuck. I got to get excited to start my luggage got home, but I didn't get home. So I had an extra day in Vegas, which isn't the worst thing that could possibly happen.

But right.

It was a good trip, though. But we've got verum a Chicago coming up too. So that's that's not in March. That's in April. But Andy and I are both signed up. We will be there. So hopefully we'll see everybody at that event. Two other things coming up for the month of March. We've got some great episodes. Starting. Tomorrow is going to be Jennifer Barbie who she is a destination marketing expert. Annie. She's you've known Jennifer for years, right?

Yeah, I was on the Marketing Committee for the Panama City Beach CVB when They came in to pitch doing the digital marketing for the destination. And she's just, she's just a dynamic human being from from all perspectives. And we've stayed in touch and stayed friends and just, we've just always talked and she's someone who she gets it like she gets every piece of the industry. And I think what was really enlightening from her was that she works with a lot of smaller destinations, she has worked with large ones like Panama City Beach, like VISIT FLORIDA, you know, she's done some things, she's doing things over in Europe, as well. And she's just all over the board, but she's doing some small destinations. And she said that note, she noticed that there was more conversation about, you know, how do we as a destination, incorporate vacation rentals, you need to recognize them, they've been such a huge reason that the destination survived through COVID. So she talks a little bit about that. And I think again, it's just it speaks perfectly to where we're trying to take the show is to be all these pieces of the industry that are, you know, kind of in the background of everybody's day, they're very important for you to consider when you're doing your marketing or, or you're doing your own or campaigns, you know, to get new owners on plan, you have to really work with your destination marketing organization. And Jennifer talks a lot a bit about that. And then we're gonna have Stuart, who is from your neck of the woods from your CVB, you have him on as well to talk about the destination marketing and importance of it.

Yeah, no, it was great talking to both of them. And And again, we somehow we go on these bursts of recording episodes, I guess, like we've got a bunch planned for the next few months, actually. But yeah, we just recorded Stuart this past week. And he had, you know, he's just a brilliant mind. I know a lot of our listeners know him, Stewart Butler. But that was a great one. And yeah, Jennifer is just dynamite. So her understanding of the marketing side of things is just phenomenal. And, you know, working with the CVBS. And really then today, just like you said, what we've learned from all this, and I guess what you and I've learned over the years, and what we're trying to do with this show is is connect the dots and connecting the dots can mean a lot of different things. But in this case, we want people to understand how to leverage their destination marketing organizations, whether you're directly involved or indirectly involved, but knowing how that benefits your business as a vacation rental company, how to leverage those into more direct bookings. And even you know, connecting the dots with the other industries, you know, back to the timeshare thing, that's also part of how we're trying to do this, too. So it's, that's, that's gonna be good, good episode. And, you know, after that, we've got Leno who's going to be coming on Leno Maldonado, we're going to go into a little bit more depth about the timeshare side. And he's going to share his experience directly with Wyndham that we just referenced. And we've also got Pete DeMaio. We were on Pete show a couple weeks ago. And that was a lot of fun. Yeah. And his podcast is the travel boom, marketing, podcast, hotel Marketing podcast. And we went on there and talks about the top five things hotels can learn from vacation rentals. And then he's going to come on our show in March and talk about the top five things that vacation rentals can learn from hotels, and Pete is a genius as well. So yeah, you're smart and very informed on on all sides of marketing. So that's gonna be a great episode.

I think one of the things that I have definitely firmed up in my mind is that there are some brilliant people in our industry. Yeah. And they're just, you just weren't, we wouldn't have gotten opportunity. I knew I wouldn't have Yeah, I wouldn't have ever met Pete and I probably hadn't met Stuart through, you know, through aatma. But some of these people that were coming from across and just though their minds in the industry, what they're bringing to the forefront of like, you know, getting people to think outside the box and getting people don't really think about different ways to approach the business is really, and that's been great for me, I've logged all of that.

Oh, absolutely. That's the one thing anybody asked when they asked me, how's the podcast going? I say it's doing great. It's so much fun, because it really is. It's just, it's enlightening having these conversations with some amazing people that, you know, some of them are newer to the industry, many of them have been in it for a long time. And, you know, we talked about this on Leno's episode. So many of these great minds come from your neck of the woods in the panhandle. There's that whole crew that kind of grew up back in the 90s, you know, on vacation rentals were coming on. And it's just, it's so interesting to hear about their stories and see the genesis of their careers as they've all gone through different stages in them. But you know, they're still the leaders within the space and, and what they brought to whatever their current role is, is so it's so clear that they've been in the industry for a long time, and they've just taken that knowledge to really excel with it. So very exciting to be able to have those conversations.

Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be I don't know, I just think we have so many different conversations that we can have over the next few months. Yeah, just explore. So it's exciting. But one of the things that we, you know, we've really tried to work on is making sure that people are giving us feedback. And I haven't had anybody say, you know, I wish you guys were doing something different. I wish you were doing that. No one has said that everybody has said What you guys are doing for the industry is so needed, it's the conversations are timely, they're engaging, they love, they love what we're doing. So I know that this year is just going to be it's going to be crazy. It's going to be busy. We know we know we've got a full plate of of guests lined up. But I'm really thrilled that people are receiving the show as well as they are. And that kind of brings me to, we've gotten a lot of good reviews lately. And some of them are kind of astounding. And I thought we could read a couple, just to thank people for giving us the feed. Yeah,

no, I think that's that's a great idea. Great.

So I'll go ahead. And I'm sorry, no, no, go ahead. Yeah, no, I was just going to read one. It really meant a lot to me, because it's a it's a it's a person that I again, another person I would never have had the opportunity to meet in the industry. He hasn't even come from vacation rentals is Alex Alioto, from Wednesday, and I am on the advisory board for Pfizer panelized advisory board for Wednesday and just kind of do some consulting on the side with him to talk about what they could be doing better as an OTA and how they're growing, you know, as an OTA. So it meant a lot for him to give me this feedback, or us this feedback. But he posted this on I think it was Apple iTunes. He said not sure that you'll find a better combination of industry chops and informative, charming dialogue with these two ser mainstays. Whether the plan is to learn as you enter the industry or grows, you're already in it. I love this podcast because it caters to the gamut smart, well intentioned, badass is always a lethal combo in a podcast, couldn't recommend it enough. Now. A call is badass is so

it was really funny that I just noticed listening back to we had been the CEO of Wednesday on the show this past the episode aired this past week. And at one point, he says he says, I think you asked him like what makes him stay different. And he has these long pauses. He said, Can I say that? You know, we're badass. Of course, you can say that. So I think that's a term that they throw around there quite a bit, but in the best in the best meaning of it. But they're, they're such a cool company. And, gosh, I mean, the culture that Ben has created for them. You know, Alex is wonderful. I have only gotten to know him just through LinkedIn, but they're such a great company. And to get that recommendation from people like them is wonderful. So we very much appreciate Alex, website. Thank you so much. And so I've got one other one too. Yeah, this one came from Roxanne Olsen, who she is just a sweetheart. And she has a vacation or a small vacation rental company that she is trying to grow. And I think she's doing some amazing things. And she reached out to us and sent us an email with some questions on how we suggest she grow our business and it was just really fun to go back and forth to her and offer some advice. But she said she said I absolutely love this podcast. I came across it about a month ago and benched it like a series on Netflix. These girls are so motivational and inspirational. I love each and every one of their guests. But the episode with Julie George speaks volumes to me. Thanks Alex and Annie you Girls Rock. I've had several people say that they really loved Julie's episode, because I think there's so much interest from people that are new to the space that I think they can relate to a Julie that she started from scratch. I don't think what she created is is common at all. I mean, like she literally started from one listing and grew it to over 200 before selling the company in a rather short amount of time. But, you know, it's if you like she said, if you put your mind to it, anything is possible. And it's just a great message.

Yeah, yeah, it's I don't know, there's no words at this point. There's just so much great feedback. And we've obviously inspired people and Roxanne's No, it was just great because she did send us a personal email to engage with us on another level. And I feel like we're inspiring that we're also bringing conversations and bringing information to people that maybe like in Roxanne's case, she's newer to the industry, so she doesn't look for it. And without even being in, you know, I think we're being intentional without being intentional. Maybe that's the way to write.

Yeah, great. Yeah. Yeah. No, thank you so much, Roxanne. We truly appreciate the the review and that you're listening. And, you know, one other thing that just hit me too, that I wanted to mention, of connecting the dots of themes that we're seeing between our guests. You know, Julie George said that, you know, why not just take it make a crack at it, just give it all you got and see what's the worst that can happen? And we've had several guests have kind of said that same thing that Viread from gesi. She said that that you know she that anything is possible. I mean with you, if you put your mind to it, anything is solvable, I think is how she said it. Yeah. And then from Wednesday said essentially the same thing on our episode this week, too. And it's just it's interesting seeing these these top leaders that their mindset is so similar, that they're all very positive people and they just have that sense of determination in them. That it's really about you have to have the tenacity to want to figure something out. Everything is figured out. And I think that's another book.

If not, it should be. Yeah.

But yeah, so really cool. And one other thing that we noticed too, between our guests, how many of them the men guests we've had that have a pilot's background?

was an airline weird thread. Yeah.

Yeah. Simon Lehman ran Swissport airlines. That was one of the first ones that we noticed. Yeah. And then Jim DeVos would ran pot. I was at pi. P mine. Piedmont Airlines. Yeah, marketing. And then I trip Steve Caron has episode was great, too. He was he was in the Air Force. Just just really interesting. So that's, that's a unique thing that we've noticed. But it makes sense. I mean, if you're a pilot, or in that realm of work, you're very detail oriented, which that leads to becoming a great operator, and anything you do in our space, being that detail oriented is key to success.

Absolutely. And I was thinking about that, this morning, thinking about this episode and the takeaways from the different guests that we had this month. And all of them had really great things to say, like you said, you know, Ben was just positive and there and you know, she's just incredible being a woman leader in tech. But the one thing that stands out to me that just makes me laugh, every time I think about it, is that we learned that the bat chickens or the OG mean, girls. And I was like, What's so funny is Karen's episode has gotten almost more listens, then like, even if he's climbing up there, and we're the top listen to episodes, and short amount of time, there was so again, he's got a colorful background. And my takeaway from him was that chickens are means

there they are, they are the original meat girls. And when he was telling us the story about how he brought the one chicken, it was home. Like, when he loves these chickens, I mean, it's just it's, it's fun seeing the softer side of

it is well, and then the fact that everybody's not, they're not so in or like so into their business or into their, their, their career, that that's all that they have. It doesn't define them.

Absolutely. Yeah. We're very blessed Danny to be our this and do it together and talk to these wonderful people. So thank you, everyone, for listening to this past month, and we hope that you'll continue listening. If you would like to leave us a review, we would love to hear from you any feedback you have. Or if you have ideas for topics you'd like us to talk about, or explored or anybody that you'd like to have us have on the show, we'd love to hear from you. So if you go to Apple podcasts is going to be probably the best place for every view. But if you don't use Apple, you can use whichever podcast service you use. Or you can go to Alex and Annie podcasts calm. And from there that links to where you can put a review just right on our website or contact us with any feedback. So thank you, everybody. Here's to a great month of March 2022. And if you're watching on YouTube, you can see we've got our little Alex nanny coffee cups. There we go. Cheers. Thanks, everybody.