Podcasting the Podcasters: Celebrating Our 200th Episode

Amber Hurdle  
Welcome to Alex and Annie, the real women of vacation rentals. I'm Amber 

Travis Wilburn  
and I'm Travis. 

Annie Holcombe  
Wait what? 

Amber Hurdle  
Hey, we've all come to kind of throw a party and celebrate you all for your 200th episode. 

Alex Husner  
Thank you for being here. We've got a whole crew 

Annie Holcombe  
excited, 

Alex Husner  
yeah, super excited. 

Travis Wilburn  
This is a it's gonna be a fun episode. It's podcasting, the podcasters, and we have the legends of the industry right here, Sarah & T who started their podcast in 2017 Wil slickers, who started his in 2018 Mr. Tom Goodwin from mountain laurel chalets in Gatlinburg, who started his just here in 2024 and so over 1100 episodes between all of you guys, including Alex and Annie, over 6 million listeners. And so, over the next 50 or so minutes, we're going to be talking about the trends that we see of the vacation rental space and what the future looks like, what the past looks like, and what to be paying attention to, yeah, and

Amber Hurdle  
I love having the honor and the privilege to be here, because I was Alex and Annie's very first guest, and Travis you were there on Their 100th episode. So we have some significance in celebrating today.

Travis Wilburn  
Oh, absolutely. And then Sarah and T. The first time I've ever been on a podcast was with Sarah and t, when we actually had to take a break so that Sarah could talk about her relationship with Mr. David Matthews. That happens y'all remember that we had a pause.

Sarah Bradford  
We can talk about that again, if you want

Travis Wilburn  
to talk about Sarah

Amber Hurdle  
 well, let's, let's dive in, and let's start by asking the birthday Girls, what was it that you saw, like, what was the gap in the industry, or the thing that you felt was missing that made you start Alex and Annie, gosh,

Annie Holcombe  
I don't know if there was any one specific thing other than we had been talking and been friends, and we had done some clubhouses during COVID, and had a really good rapport, and that was a lot of fun and and then we had been following Wil, and it just came up one weekend in a, like a we always joke, you know, good decisions come after two glasses of wine. So we decided that we could probably do this. And I don't know, I mean, Alex, we talked about it and joked about it, and then just kind of put it out there. This was something that was laid on us to do and share stories of what made vacation rentals tick. Yeah.

Alex Husner  
And I think Annie and I have worked together in a few different roles prior to starting the podcast and became friends. But I think one thing that she and I very much always had in common was that we really believe in the power of collaboration and connection and how, you know, we're better together, sharing stories and learning from each other. And you know, the things that work, the things that haven't worked, and we just, we really wanted to be able to share more of this, great people that are in the industry and the things that they've done. So ours was always about the storytelling, and we've told a lot of stories now. They've all been fun. Sure. T

Travis Wilburn  
What was the origin of your podcast? What brought you two together? 

Tim Caffery  
We were a blind date conference. I don't mean that in the term that you're thinking of. Didn't know this hot shot was from Colorado. Of course, I knew it all, but we came together, had a good vibe, and she made a comment in a breakout session that she wanted to do a podcast. And I followed up with her, I said, we ought to do that. Three months later, we were doing it.

Travis Wilburn  
That's amazing. Mr. Slickers, what was the origin for you?

Wil Slickers  
Yes, sir. Well, I was a Front Desk Agent, and I like to say curiosity killed the cat, but in my case, it started a podcast instead. And I was really hungry to learn and grow, but I wasn't finding podcasts that I was attracted to in the industry. There's very few in the hotel world, specifically, along with vacation rentals. So trying to kind of figure it out on my own, I decided, you know, I can get people to give me answers to my questions. I just need to put a microphone in front of them. I actually kind of saw Tony Robbins and Gary V video where they're like, Hey, idiot, you can get a mic on Amazon for 25 bucks and go on to anchor.fm and start a free podcast. And life was gravy. And I hired someone off of Fiverr for, I think, $25 to create my intro and my outro. And then I just started recording. And thankfully, people actually accepted the fact that you could just put a mic in front of their face, whether you had no audience or a big audience at the time, and they would give you answers. So that was my kind of like way of learning and growing my career. All

Travis Wilburn  
right, on, I've seen your audience. You're You're definitely a legend with a lot of followers. And then I like to joke that Sarah and T. We've now got Tom with a new podcast who is just looking for his Sarah, but Tom, tell us about yours.

Tom Goodwin  
I'm doing alright, Travis, we're our podcast started in October of 2024 so I am new to the scene, but I'm certainly not new to consuming all of your all content and really benefiting from all the podcasts and the education. Our podcast is very different. It's for the love of Gatlinburg, it's a destination podcast, and frankly, there's two reasons I did it, because we have incredible stories that aren't being told, and a generation that is leaving us. And my in laws were some of those people that we really never captured all their stories, and in our community of Gatlinburg, there's a heart and a presence that is difficult to describe just through a website. So we wanted to tell the stories and have the people the community tell those stories to preserve that but also to create rich local content that would set us apart from all the other competitors, big box and the other influxes that are coming into our market. 

Travis Wilburn  
You've always done such a great job representing community, and I've heard you talk about it. I got to see it firsthand. Tom has hosted, I think now it's over 40 something years, the family has hosted an owners meeting, and he invited me to one in Gatlinburg, at the top of the mountain in this beautiful resort, and it was opened up by the mayor of Gatlinburg. And I was like, who actually can get an owners meeting opened up by a mayor? I mean, that is legendary, and that is, by all means, love for your city. And so I've been trying to convince my mayor ever since they're not showing up.

Tom Goodwin  
And he was our first interview. So episode number one is Mike Warner, the mayor of Gatlinburg, a longtime friend of mine.

Travis Wilburn  
Right on. You have some legendary, huge amount of episodes. What's one of the episodes that Alex and Annie that you guys just like a big takeaway? One of the Wow, can't believe that happened. Can't wait to press publish on that. Oh

Alex Husner  
gosh. I mean, the one with Amber was episode number two is still one of my favorite episodes. And yeah, one of the things that we've learned in this is, you know, I think that we've helped connect a lot of people through the podcast, but We've both grown personally, professionally, so much in this journey, too. And Amber's episode was one that we were both nervous about doing this, not sure if we should move forward with it, but have learned just so much from her over the years, and just the value of putting herself out there, of having a voice and having a platform and building your personal brand. So that would be one for me. I know this year we did the OGS of the panhandle, which that was a fan favorite, and was really fun to have those four gentlemen that kind of led the pathway of the early days trailblazers in Florida and vacation rentals. But

Annie Holcombe  
yeah, I would agree. I would agree with both of those. And I think, like, actually, it's interesting, because Tom has been, he was one of our fan favorite episodes last year. You really never know what you think is going to resonate. Might not resonate at the same level, or it might resonate higher than you, than you can imagine. It's just, I think what we have been able to create is an organic conversation, an organic following, and it's not been super planned out. And I think we try to have just honest conversations with people. And so every episode, to me, has a special spot, but the OGS definitely, for me, is high on the list. And I think just coming from the Panhandle and knowing that there's so much greatness that has come out of the area that I live is really exciting. So that would be, that would be my vote.

Amber Hurdle  
I have to say just, you know, obviously, as a good friend of yours, but even if I'm just looking at it as a casual observer watching Alex and Annie, both of your voices grow like, not just your confidence, but like your the agency that you have over your areas of expertise, how you you own that authority and you put it out into the world when people are cheering you on and when people are dragging you down, like you're standing in your power, and it's just really cool to watch, and I think is a testament to the power of podcasting and what probably all of us on this call have experienced through that medium.

Travis Wilburn  
Sarah T Who do you find most memorable if, if you will?

Sarah Bradford  
Well, with all due respect to everybody that's been on our podcast, we aren't really an interview podcast, it's more of Tim and I came up with content for most episodes. It's so fun. You can see what people are listening to. And I've always been surprised by the most popular ones. It's always been content. It's not interviews. One of the most surprising ones is we've done two episodes on the top amenities people want in vacation rentals. Those are always the top listen to and then interviews with the head of VRBO always did well, that was the one interview that would like kind of rise to the top. But really the content that overall did the best, and I thought was the most fun to talk about, was how to handle homeowners, how to work with homeowners. How to message homeowners, why homeowners get mad, why they leave you, why they love you. Not a lot of people talk about that, I guess, out there. And so Tim and I were always had so much fun at conferences, because people would come up to us and say, You changed my business like which means i You changed my life, which is pretty amazing, and that was our goal, because if you don't go to conferences, there is not much content out there to tell you how to do this business. There's a lot of chatter. There's a lot of Oh, Vacasa did this, blah, blah, blah, but nobody really was saying, hey, here are five ways to get new homeowners. Here's three things you've got to do for your guests. Here is one marketing tool nobody knows about. When I listen to podcasts, that's what I want. I want to finish listening and text and email 30 people that we have to change everything we're doing. I just got this new idea. So that's a long answer to say it was really about detailed content.

Travis Wilburn  
What are the top three amenities now Tim?

Tim Caffery  
fast internet, good sheets

Sarah Bradford  
game tables, game, anything you can do together as a family to get people off their devices, since they want fast internet, which drives me crazy, so give them a foosball table or, I mean, a pickleball court.

Travis Wilburn  
Yeah, I do really, actually think, and we can come back to it, but there's a race in the industry to add those amenities, as we see greater supply, by all means. And so it's something I see, by all means, changing in 2025 will How about you huge amount of episodes there?

Wil Slickers  
Yeah, well, between the two podcasts that I do, it's kind of different. One's an interview show. One's very new focus. So we're constantly kind of battling between the two. But honestly, for me, it's the opposite of Sarah kind of I love conversation. I love to be like a fly on the wall. So when I'm listening to podcasts, I want to feel like I'm listening to friends talk or listening to two experts battle out ideas and theology or business or whatever, right? It makes me think. And so from my kind of overview and reflection of the the podcast itself, it's the ones where I felt like the conversation was the most creative and just free flowing. And it wasn't. It was all driven on curiosity. It was driven off of knowledge that you had had, and maybe it was conflicting with some new information that you're now trying to process. Like I love to watch the inner workings of that, and for me, it's harder to articulate a good question every now and then, because my mind is going 1000 miles a minute, but yeah, like the Joe Rogan style, where it's just driven by curiosity, long form, not really caring about what the listener like. I care about what the listeners are going to get from it, but I want them to be inspired by the conversation to then, you know, carry that conversation beyond the audio. We always talk about Amplifying Voices and how our platforms can really be the driver. And conversations for conferences, for retreats, for one on one business, conversations at like, a coffee shop, right? Like, we want that to be kind of the the meat or the use of the medium, so that's when I have the most fun. I can look at a couple episodes that was pretty, I don't know, driven by that from last year, but there was a lot of good ones. Like Andrew Kitchel is always a great guest, and every time I talk to him, I think we could talk for maybe four hours. And then I get messages from people that listen to the episode and they're like, oh my gosh, you just made me rethink my whole way of how I'm looking at the tech landscape, of how I'm looking at this or innovation. Blah, blah, blah. So those are the fun ones for me. Well,

Travis Wilburn  
I got to go to one of Wil's retreats, and they had a special guest speaker, and it happened to be the founder of a brand called the Ritz Carlton. And they were speaking to us about, or he was speaking to us about hospitality, and then having one of his top educators teach us at the school at Auburn, which is absolutely amazing experience. But, I mean, it was just we were talking. I mean, unreasonable hospitality was entirely defined in such a unique way, which has become a popular subject in our space. So,

Wil Slickers  
yeah, it's a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun. Wil, you're

Sarah Bradford  
just making me think, well, you're making me think about how the reason I love doing the podcast was Tim and I were discussing, just like you said, we didn't agree a lot, so we would debate issues, which I think is what people enjoyed listening to. You do want to hear two people talking? I don't hear one person? Yeah, 100%

Amber Hurdle  
it's it's really interesting. Because, like, I know there's people who are probably watching or listening because they're interested in podcasting, or maybe they just got started in podcasting. And I'll just say I've been doing this since a long time. I'm on a hiatus right now, but kind of in the super early days of podcasting, there were a lot of like, this is how you should do it, and this is how you should do it. It's interesting because I also love those conversations. But the solo. Us, those were the ones that really blew up. And like will like, I would tell my guests, like, we we're gonna try for 30 minutes. If we go 90 minutes, it's fine. My audience didn't care. And so like, you just have to learn what works for you and what serves your audience. So I can't help but educate a little bit as we go. But on that note, of you all being fabulous podcasters and having so many from the OGS to the to the newer, more recent faces, you get a lot of information. You talk a lot of people. And so like, if we could just set the obvious things on the side that we always talk about in the industry, what do you think based on your conversations? The trends are that we're that we're in the midst of and that we're moving towards? That might be something that you wouldn't have known if you weren't a podcast host. Let's start with you. Will you have a lot of conversations, so I'm going to pick on you first.

Wil Slickers  
I will say it's tied to a thing that we're talking about behind the scenes. But I think we saw a lot of venture capital money come into the industry during COVID, and obviously that blew up on multiple fronts, in the terms of investment into operators or urban brands that like, say, Alfred, you can name the list that goes on, and then also the tech. So that was a lot of money going into hopefully, what would be future growth, in my opinion, but not a lot of money into city or even local or destination infrastructure to support a type of business, like vacation rentals that can be sustainable. And I got that kind of trend from what horse Schultz, he was talking about Travis in the sense of we talked about it was decentralized inventory, right? That was the question that Ben and ADRA were talking about minty living. They're like, Okay, how do you work with decentralized inventory? And it's all dispersed, and it's very hard, but yet, we want to focus on the hospitality experience that Ritz Carlton, four seasons, Marriott Hilton, all provide. And for me, I'm hoping the trend, as we're seeing, you know, the acquisition of acasa and some other roll ups happening, that the trend of money going into the industry now isn't just on tech or just on a brand, it's on the actual infrastructure to support the operations. So getting more well and good professional managers like the well and good franchises out there, or any type of storage facilities I can actually hold, because that's what hotels have. Hotels have their own laundry. They have everything, but we don't. So hopefully, my thinking is the trend will shift away from investment in fluffy numbers and shiny objects and hopefully more into infrastructure and growth that's sustainable for the industry to actually build something that guests can rely on for the future to come

Travis Wilburn  
Tom How about you? 

Tom Goodwin  
Well, I'm hoping, and I'm sensing that the trend is going towards local, a little bit back to local from the large, big box, or there's lots of mergers. We're experiencing a lot of that, and that has an impact on us as the small operator, family owned local business. And there was a season where we're wondering, Where's our place? Where's our voice? Do we have? Do we have a spot and our team? We always said we're just going to continue doing what we do. And what I have found is what we do no one else can do, and that is that is being local and knowing our guest and really creating a unique relationship with our guests. And we've been doing this since 1972 My in law started the business, and, you know, 53 years ago. So we, I stand on the shoulders of their pioneering spirit in the 70s to move into vacation rentals when no one else was doing that. So we're we really hearken back to a lot of the things that they did, and that we continue doing those. And so it's been exciting. I'm very hopeful for 2025 I'm very excited about some of the larger mergers, and very excited about professionalism. When everyone moves towards professionalism, we all do better, but I think our small operators have the ability to accomplish that at an accelerated rate beyond the large operators. So that gives us a bit of a heads up, or a opportunity in this market. 

Amber Hurdle  
Good edge, Annie and Alex. You want to jump in.

Alex Husner  
One thing that comes to mind, we had a very popular episode A couple years ago where the hashtag, we are not Airbnb came from and had T shirts made and everything. And, you know, I think back to that time, and you know what was going on in the industry, and what, you know, VR, M, A's role, and like, what, what we were collectively going to try and bring together here, to try and, you know, get the vacationing public to understand that these are vacation rentals that were not all just one brand. And I think, you know, just kind of tracking that and having conversations over the years since then, unfortunately, I don't know that we couldn't change it. Sadly. I mean, Airbnb has truly become the Kleenex and I have clients that don't even use Airbnb. I mean, there's plenty of people out there that are just don't even use the platform, but I think, you know, just seeing the impact that that platform has had on our industry, and just the visibility that it's getting. Into all of us to grow. I think there, there's, there's a lot of good things, and I know we, you know, there's a lot of bad things about Airbnb, but at the end of the day, just seeing how much we've we've all grown collectively again because of that exposure. It's just been phenomenal. Yeah,

Tim Caffery  
thanks. I think this is interesting. I think what's old is new again, as I've listened to everybody, and I certainly respect and agree with what will said about the mergers and acquisition type money coming in, I am a bit saddened about the loss we've had the industry of some of those operators who are no longer out there day to day. There's a professionalism that was lost there. But at the same time, this has always been a very welcoming and opening industry. Back to vrma, my very first memories of going there was meeting people that did the same thing I was doing in another location, and they maybe did something slightly different. And I think it's quite frankly, intimidating for newer people to come into an environment and see either people who are well known or larger companies. But what I've seen, particularly in the industry conferences I've been to in the last year, is there's a real influx of new operators and smaller operators, and they have a real thirst for how it's supposed to be done, how to do it right, how to be professional. And I really think it's incumbent on all of us that are in the industry and have the knowledge to bring those people along and raise the tide for all boats on the professionalism.

Sarah Bradford  
I'll add on to what Tim and Tom said. Tom, you couldn't have said it better, and I still agree with it, and I always have. When people talk about this race to professionalize it's often combined with money coming into our industry and large companies, and I couldn't disagree more, the smaller companies who are owned by an owner that started it, or someone that's keeping a local brand, to me, is focusing on the what we call professionalizing, much More than the larger companies have shown to be professional. And I think we could talk about what is professional for a while, since I sold we sold my husband and I sold our companies a couple years ago, which has actually been two and a half years, if you guys can believe that, I've been doing some consulting on the side and working with companies across the country, that's very been very interesting, because I'm seeing common trends, and that is that smaller companies can thrive. And I want every small company to know they can absolutely thrive. You got to get a budget, you got to be lean and mean and figure out how to have incredible customer service. But when Tom answers the phone, or his crew answers the phone and says, I'm right here in Gatlinburg, and it's snowing right now, and I've went to Dollywood yesterday, and, oh, they have this new ride, guys that still matters so much. And I'm sorry, blank name and blank name, don't do that when you call their number. So back to Tim, we're just saying the same stuff we've always said, right? Still works, and on the Airbnb thing, Annie or Alex, I absolutely agree with you, but I want VRBO to make it. I want to just say that out there, I somehow have become like this giant VRBO advocate, because they actually care about us. Maybe they care about us so they can make money, but they have a relationship with us, and that is what Airbnb still doesn't have with us after so many years. And it fires me up.

Travis Wilburn  
It's you can spend a lot of time on that one, but I will say it's amazing. I mean, I think one of our mutual friends, we had one of our members on the hunter collection. When they changed the photo algorithm on VRBO, it caused a lot of financial disruption. And we took a screenshot of that, sent it to one of those leaders, and that leader went to the powers that be, and then the next morning, it was changed back. And I didn't actually learn until vrma that it was due to that screenshot and the impact that they were listening. And then, you know, to Tim's earlier point about these conferences, you know, one of the things I'm always reminded by is it is one of, I mean, this our industry is actually one of the oldest industries of hospitality in the US. And it's crazy, because we always have this feeling of being alone. And, you know, here I am in Charlottesville, Virginia, and it wasn't until vrma in Nashville in 2013 or 14, I was like, Oh, wow, there's all these other people like me, and so you literally want to go hug them. And the best part is, is this is an industry which they will take that hug, and we do all by means, you know, they'll love you. And you know, historically, it reminds me of one of my favorite scenes. There's. This old farm axiom that says the best seed is the owner's footsteps. And that's what, you know, I see that trend. I hear that in a common I see that in this big merger that just happened with, you know, casa, going for casa. That's what they're going to attempt. But it's like, it's the local people. And, you know, one of the things that I believe people don't realize is that, you know, everybody sees Marriott as like these 6000 plus hotels. They actually only own 12 hotels. They have 32 brands, and they leave it to the local owners to be able to make decisions to best guide the future there. But

Amber Hurdle  
you're a process company. That's it. I say that I'm diminishing it down on my Marriott friends. You know, I know better than that, but like at the end of the day, it is the Marriott brand and all the Marriott processes and technology and everything that is sustaining the local hotel group. 

Wil Slickers  
I'm glad you guys brought up Marriott, because my kind of trend thing that I'm seeing, and I'm actually kind of want, I really want to hear your guys perspective. Because, Alex, when you were talking about, like, Airbnb, or we are not Airbnb, and how, like, the brand basically became that, every time I've told people that I was a property manager, right? They're like, Oh, how are you competing against Airbnb? And I was like, Oh, well, okay, they don't get it. They know it's a Kleenex, right? Like, they know it's that type of verb or noun or whatever you want to call it, but like, they don't understand, like, that's not me. I'm not Airbnb. I'm not going against them. And so it's really funny, because now I'm starting to think like I think the big brands like Marriott, as we seen them, dabble with homes and villas, which I won't even say dabble anymore. It's pretty well solidified. And now apartments by Marriott and these other brands that have been established for hundreds of years, I think they're going to become the OTAs now they are going to switch to distribution. Marriott has the biggest loyalty program in the world for hospitality, over 200 million bond boy members. So their shift is now going to be distribution and growth. And I think maybe a Marriott OTA will go against Airbnb, right? Like, that's the thing we're seeing now. So from brand to now distribution, I think that's going to be a key player, especially with credit cards, banks. Everyone is looking to monetize their audience, and we have the inventory for them to displace or to put their customers in. But again, it's so fragmented, so I think the OTA shift is going to be pretty interesting to watch with traditional brands not normally being the distributor or distributor, they're more of the operator, going into that role. So it's gonna be quite interesting to see how they kind of balance the two, especially with how the maybe, with the majority of their hotels being franchises, that could get a little sticky depending. So yeah, there's a lot I would love you guys thoughts if you agree or disagree.

Travis Wilburn  
 No, we've seen a lot of our partners have seen greater market share from homes and villas over the last two years, by all means. And so while it's not huge or significant, it's definitely up a couple of points from where it was.

Annie Holcombe  
Yeah, I wanted to add perspective, just from my day to day, like, because I work in channel management, I think that last year taught everybody that, you know, if you're not paying attention to your OTAs, you can lose ground really, really quickly. I mean, I think, you know, VRBO made some missteps, and they they know it, and it hit everybody. I don't think everybody was totally surprised, but there were some managers that were completely surprised, and by the time they realized what was happening, it was a little late. So people are looking for that, like diversity in their distribution. And I know just from like next packs perspective, we're seeing Marriott make very big leaps in terms of being able to get market share. And when I talk with people about their strategy, it's always about like, you know, you want all the channels, but you want to be able to share shift them based on what your customer profile is, that you're looking for certain times of the year, that type of thing. And so looking at all the channels as levers, instead of looking at them as like this necessary evil, you know, they're a tool in your toolkit. And so I think we're seeing better adoption of channels and more interest in these other channels, and not just saying, like, everything I do is Airbnb, or everything I do is VRB, or they want to have diversity in what they're doing, so that they're not beholden to one because I think we all know what happened during COVID, and everybody that had their their eggs in the, you know, in one basket, lost a lot of dollars in their their bank account one day. So nobody wants to see that happen again. I was a property manager for 15 years before I got on the distribution side of it. So completely understand that it's, it's a frustrating piece of the business to work with. But as long as you have diversity, and are looking out there, and there are channels that are offering various types of customers, they're offering calendar fills, they're offer they're not all offering the same thing. And I think if people are mindful of, and that's what I know we've been interviewing people about that in these different channels, is that there is diversity out there for people, and it's not just vanilla in the OTA world anymore. 

Travis Wilburn  
Guys gonna switch it up a little bit. And, you know, so often we've seen the, you know, we are a technology company and technology multiples, but in the day, you know, we all agree, I think, that we're a hospitality industry. That being said, You guys are at the forefront talking to various different groups. What technology Sarah T will see. Start with you. Have you seen or you hear most about that maybe new to the industry, or that is helping change or optimize a vacation rental manager's life right now? 

Tim Caffery  
Well, I think we have seen more that helps the boots on the ground. You know, we've talked so much about technology and it's yielding and pricing and looking at the inventory down the street, I think the future of this industry, I'm not sure if you're going here is always going to be boots on the ground. I'm not sure I'm going to be in the booking business 10 years down the road, but I am sure the house needs to be cleaned every Saturday, and the pool needs to be cleaned, and the toilet is going to get clogged, and we need tools to help us do that. So to call it out, I think breezeway has been a major star in the operations world over the last couple of years, and they continue to up their game, and they've even parlayed that into a whole educational track now where they have these conferences virtually, and they're well attended, and people just can't get enough of that. So that's the thing that comes to mind for me. 

Travis Wilburn  
They do have one of the highest net promoter scores within the space right now.

Sarah Bradford  
The one that comes to mind for me I'm seeing across the board is having a chat texting system that's really efficient, whether you have that in a system like breezeway, or I'm hearing great things about Akia, a, k, I A, and it's not just to have online chat on your website, but to be texting your guests. I know that sounds basic to us, probably, but you'd be surprised how many people aren't using texting out there, and guests don't really want email anymore, especially when they're in house, and how to do that efficiently without having a bunch of people sitting there typing texts every time is essential and really helps the guest experience, but also makes the team more efficient. Tom

Tom Goodwin  
I might be a difficult one to ask this too, because I I've been burned in some major ways by technology as an operator, and well over promised and very much under delivered. And so I am, I'm cautious as I move forward, and I think, what is it that we need? What are the basics that we need to accomplish our objectives? We use breezeway, sold on it. It's been a good product for us to use, but I was used to be the person who go through the vendor Hall and get all the swag and the freebies and sign up for all the free things. I'm like, Oh, I'm really cautious to do that now, because I just, like my wife would say, everyone wants 20,000 of our nothing, you know, we want to make more. We need to be making, you know, more profit, as opposed to just keep investing in new technology and bright shiny objects. So we have really focused on more of the guest interaction, guest experience and and putting our money and our technology towards those things that get us more to the human side. So I'm always looking but I am. I'm pretty cautious right now, the

Travis Wilburn  
Tom does a really cool video introduction to his guests that you have to ask about him if you ever see it at a conference, but every one of his guests gets a personalized introduction. Yeah, I

Tom Goodwin  
could tell you that when it's really simple and it's really affordable, it's bomb bomb.com and it's a great way to personalize messages. You know, the Listen rate, or the watch rate, increases greatly when you say a video with someone's name on it, or show their name, and they're going to listen to it and feel like they're getting a personal greeting. And they are. So every guest that comes to stay with us before they come, of course, they get the text, but they get a personalized video welcoming them to their home and making ourselves available to them. That's a, that's a very simple tool. And it's, you know, is that 40 bucks a month. It's, I like those kind of, I like that kind of technology.

Alex Husner  
Alex Annie, I think one thing that I've seen more this year now that I started my own business and working as a consultant, working with clients all over the country, and, you know, different sizes, is it goes to Sarah's point of, you know, guests don't necessarily want email, but what I've seen is that, I mean the guest journey from the time that the guest inquires to pre arrival to post day, the varying complexities of how we're getting that information to guests that they book on Airbnb, and then they get an email. They've got to sign a DocuSign, but now you're going to call them and then you're going to text them the day before. The day before, and then you're going to message them back on Airbnb and ask for a review. It's really, really gotten very convoluted, and I understand why it has, but you know, I think the companies that are taking the time to sit down and really audit what that journey looks like, and I totally recommend every company do that. You can start to find areas where either you have overlap in different tools that you're using, or just ways that you can really refine that messaging, that you're going to be able to reduce the calls and the questions, because it's like if you give the people the information they need, then they shouldn't have to be asking all these questions. And that's what leads to reservation teams being burnt out and stressed and. Having to go a million different directions. Yeah, I think, you know, it's the it's an area that we don't talk about enough, that, you know, certainly there's room for improvement there. And I did come in as a co founder and happy guest this year, which is a platform that actually answers that specific problem. So it was good to see that as I made that decision, also seeing the true need for it throughout the industry this year. And

Travis Wilburn  
then finally, Slickers. I can only imagine how many pitches you get. What do you see?

Wil Slickers  
Yeah, too many pitches. We had to create a whole new email that was basically all four that my team was like, Yeah, your email box is too much. But I will say the things I'm excited about go into OTA distribution. So automizer, or auto rank, they're based out in somewhere in Europe, I totally forgot, but Belgium, based on Belgium and just a young team, so I see them as a rising star. They've been really focusing on distribution as the OTAs are consistently changing as Airbnb and VRBO, sometimes ranking could be harder, so they're really crushing it over there. And then to Tim's point, boots on the ground. Well and good professional services is one of my my favorite companies. I became an advisor this year. And just love the culture, love the team, and love the vision that they have, using tools like breezeway, using the technology, and partnering with the local operators that may not know how to really educate a cleaner or make sure a maintenance staff team is well supported. And then the second one to go into Sarah's point, because I also agree with texting, and we just applied it to hospitality FM across our shows, is send squared as a CRM, going beyond just email, we have text messages. We have one 800 numbers. We have hospitality hotlines now that we created through our network, like it's just such a cool tool, and then we're applying it to our vacation rental business. So to have everything kind of organized and not have to create separate emails for pitches and other things, and I just have all fun on the one area for phone calls, texts and email. It's so nice. And I think, as operators know, they're tired of having 20 different tabs open just to make sure that their guests can get a door code or get their guidebook properly set up, or whatever it may be, and so to have everything under one roof or one tab for those services and all that just makes it so easy. So shout out to all those guys. So yeah,

Travis Wilburn  
I'll say it sounds like a full on trend. There a specialized CRM system, or all in one CRM system seems to be a definitely comment. Theme, Amber,

Amber Hurdle  
yeah. So I've got a good, juicy question that used to be a question that Alex and Annie asked on their podcast in their early days, and they would ask their guests, what does your job like say about you or your identity? And so my question is, what is your job as a host of your podcast, say about you or your identity, and let's do a quick lightning round to wrap up. Back over to you, Travis, but Annie, I'd like to start with you.

Annie Holcombe  
So mine, I think, says I scream passion for the industry, but also that I'm just, like, completely inquisitive. I know a lot about a lot of things, but there's still so much that I don't know, and I just want to know all the things. So it gives you an opportunity to ask all the questions that my teachers used to drive me like, think I drove them crazy for asking so many questions and talking so much, you know, so and

Amber Hurdle  
that's why we're friends, yeah? Curiosity, yeah. What about you, Alex?

Alex Husner  
I think the show has made it more apparent for myself at least, and hopefully for others too, that I just, I really have a passion for connecting people and, you know, just connecting, obviously, with Annie, of course, over the years, but with the guests that we have on the show, and being able to, you know, connect our listeners to ideas and companies and things that are going to help them. It's just been a very fulfilling part of it. I guess we could say, 

Amber Hurdle  
Tim, what about you? 

Tim Caffery  
Well, I think first of all, I'd say that I found the sister I never had. We really get along. Well, she's a lifetime friend, and I, I learned something every time we do a podcast. And if I don't, I don't feel like it's been a good effort. And so I think that is put back into the podcast we are trying to share, and we're also learning at the same time. And they say, what better way to learn something than have to present it? And that's the key to my identity. I think in this little trip we've been on, Sarah,

Sarah Bradford  
what, how does it describe my life? I was only a official teacher in life for three years back in my 20s, I was a high school teacher. But it's interesting, every single role job company I've owned. I found a teacher role. It's just who I am. I love to inspire and teach, and it gave me that fulfillment, as well as talking with Tim, and I like to argue, and I like to my husband could come in and explain that, but I loved what. In I love to also say I've never thought of that, right, that curiosity element will that you've mentioned, but also what it says about my life, that we stopped because we did take a break, or let's call it, officially stopped in June, is I'm in another phase. I just worked my face off for many years in this industry, and I'm loving the consulting part, without managing people and having to be anywhere specifically too much at one time, just taking a break, really enjoying my children that it was hard to spend time with them when I was working so hard.

Amber Hurdle  
and you deserve every bit of that. Sarah, well done in life. Thank you. It's been really fun.

Tim Caffery  
I'm not done,

Amber Hurdle  
Tim, we already had, we already had to lose Sarah, so

Tim Caffery  
news forthcoming?

Unknown Speaker  
Oh yeah.

Amber Hurdle  
Well, on that, Tom, you're new, and he's got news. So let's go to you and what does that mean about your identity? And

Tom Goodwin  
I'm just starting, but I think what this podcast, for the love of Gatlinburg, has taught me is that there's probably no other better or more powerful way to connect with humanity, at reach people at an emotional, relational and even a spiritual level than to tell a good story. And I love telling stories, and I love hearing other people's stories, and so that's what our podcast is doing, and I honestly hope it spreads that there'd be other markets that would say we want to do for the love of whatever market that is, and tell that story. And you know, the book from I think, 2007 the world is flat, and it talked about the globalization, the accessibility that people have with technology. Like Will said, just buy a $25 speaker and start. There's a lot more involved than that, but there's opportunity to have a voice and but most to use that voice for good, and I'm hoping that this is representative of my life, and what I hope and aspire to is telling a good story.

Amber Hurdle  
So good well, well, we have pretty unilateral connection, curiosity, storytelling and educating. What? What does your hostmanship say about Wil, I

Wil Slickers  
hope it says that I care about people. I have a mission to amplify voices, which is a personal mission and a professional mission for myself. And I hope that my shows, and the shows that we have in our network and on our platform, and the guests that we have on and the people that we discover, and the interactions we have and listeners that we have, I hope that that shows them. I truly do think Tom on your note, and even it's just like, there's so many good opportunities, I don't think I would have been here today without having the podcast and to have the conversations and to have the humanity. Piece of it is such a intimate medium. And so I just, yeah, I really hope my career, if you know I'm on my deathbed and my grandchildren are like, what a what should I go back and look like, go look at the show like, look at, I hope that it shows you that I cared about people and the people that was with and the ideas that were shared. And that's, that's my goal. I want to amplify voices. And if I'm doing that, then I'm good. Take me away.

Amber Hurdle  
Okay, good job with that for sure, right? Travis, I'm lobbing it over to you. Let's bring it home. Well,

Travis Wilburn  
I'm just trying to figure out how we're going to get on Alex and Annie's 300th episode.

Amber Hurdle  
Send them dog toys for their dogs.

Travis Wilburn  
You know, it's very appreciative of everybody's time. I think there's so much to learn from every one of you, and have such a huge amount of respect. I've heard nothing but great things from the consultants that are here on the call, and the vacation rental managers are all legends within the space. And Alex and Annie congratulations on 200 episodes. That's no easy feat. There's a I'm stealing this from a friend, but the do to say ratio so often we say and we never do. And doing 200 by all means, is going to be huge. And so I'm going to leave it there and let you guys close it out. Oh, boy, here we go.

Alex Husner  
Oh, thank you guys, all of you, for coming today. This was amazing, and this will be one that I'm super excited to listen back to I know that, but we've all been inspired by you and and just you know, grateful to have you all, not only as colleagues, but also as friends in this journey. 

Annie Holcombe  
Yeah, each one of you has played a very important role in our development, and only as podcasters, but as thought leaders in the industry. And I know that. I know if I had to pick up the phone or text any of you for a question, you would be there to help. And I think that you know, Tim, to your earlier point, you know, we have a really loving industry and really gracious industry, and I could not imagine being any other place. So to be able to celebrate 200 episodes is insane, but to be able to celebrate it with people that I absolutely adore and admire and respect so much on so. Many levels is just next level. So thank you guys for giving us a little bit of your time to celebrate with us.

Alex Husner  
Awesome. Well, thanks for listening, everybody. If you want to get in touch with Annie and I, you can go to Alex and Annie podcast.com We'll include how to contact each of the participants today in the show notes. But thank you again for tuning in, and we'll see you next time. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai