The Human Side of Hospitality: Nurturing Teams in a Post-Pandemic Landscape with Elisabeth Yoho of Harris Vacation Rentals

Alex Husner  0:02  
Welcome to Alex & Annie: the real amount of vacation rentals. I'm Alex.

Annie Holcombe  0:06  
And I'm Annie.

Alex Husner  0:07  
And we are joined today with Elisabeth Yoho. who is the Chief People Officer for Harris vacations. Elisabeth, so great to see you,

Elisabeth Yoho  0:15  
So Good to see you. Thank you for having me.

Annie Holcombe  0:17  
So you're just right down the coast from me in the Gulf Shores Orange Beach area, which is a competitor to Panama City Beach. But I feel like we're neighbors in arms. Because we are not like the rest of the country. We're definitely not like the rest of Florida. Not that you're part of Florida. But I would love to hear a little bit about your background and how you came to be in vacation rentals. Sure.

Elisabeth Yoho  0:35  
So Brian Harris, he's our owner and CEO, he and I worked together previously. And he told me about his family's properties down Fort Morgan, which is sounded so neat. Fort Morgan is kind of the secluded part of Gulf Shores, it's about 20 minutes from the heart of the town. And a lot of people love staying there. Because it's nostalgic. A lot of homes have been out there for 3040 years. And it's just kind of like a step back in time for a lot of people. So I just thought that was super neat. I was always asking him about his phones and everything. And I went on maternity leave with my now 13 year old. And he called and said, Hey, are you going to go back? Do you have any interest in coming over with me working from home just in sales, trying to book these houses that I feel like I could do a lot better of a job than this other rental company is doing. And that sounded super enticing for me as a new mother and being able to stay at home and just take a part time position. So we did that just the two of us booking on VRBO split key at the time, we tried all different OTAs there was like ring Fido I mean, just all all the things and did really, really well. We were really successful. And about after two years, Brian had this vision of we've done this so successfully for our portfolio. Let's go into it for other people. So we started the management company in 2013. And it just took off it was it was super successful. We were in the beginning, just kind of taking whatever we could get. And you know, we went from one employee to okay, I'm really overloaded on the sales side, we're getting a ton of calls a ton of emails, let's get some help. So Brian had a friend Katie, we still talk. And she too was a mom who would like to take something from home. And so Katie and I were kind of doing the bookings, Brian was doing all the, you know, down to repairs getting out there. He was kind of a jack of all trades of the company. In the beginning, we kind of you know, we had our aha moment out in the middle of Gulf of Mexico, my dad took us fishing, deep sea fishing, and he said, if you have a vision for the company, what do you see? And I said, personally, I think we're taking all these smaller homes that are great, but really, really hard to book and the ones that take a little bit less time are the ones with owners that really protect their vacation rental, and they want to have good reviews, they want to provide the best amenities that they can. And so I'd really like to focus on a more boutique style approach, like be more particular about the owners in the homes that we bring on. So from then on, we just we were really particular. And we felt like our quality really went up. And from there, we just kept growing and we went from two employees to we're now at 41. We went from 16 homes to now we're at about 150 So it's been a fun ride. You know, the industry has had a lot of changes since then we had COVID Obviously, we had hurricane Sally in our area, which was very devastating to the community. But you know, we rebuilt and we're stronger and we're better and it's it's been fun. You know, it's been rocky, we've learned a lot, but I'm really happy to be here after 13 years, and I'm really thankful that I've had this job it's allowed me to raise my children. Brian's just one that is very flexible and understanding of the work life balance, and it's just it's been really great.

Alex Husner  3:49  
Oh, that's awesome. Now what year was it that you started Paris vacations managing for other people?

Elisabeth Yoho  3:54  
2013 13 Okay,

Alex Husner  3:56  
wow. Yeah, what a journey. I mean, so much definitely has changed since those days. But I know when I came down to visit Gulf Shores this summer, I got to see a little bit of what you just described in terms of, you know, the brand and the luxury that you stand for. And I was very impressed. I mean, you guys really have a tight knit operation there but talk a little bit about the branding is I think that really plays into your decision to just you know, really look for those higher end properties and delivering on the guest experience how much has the brand played into your ability to do that passion

Elisabeth Yoho  4:30  
a lot. So it started out with that moment of yes, these nicer smaller units. Let's take them on. So we did that, you know, with owners that really kept care of their properties. And then it was like well, these are great, but these other ones are booking so much better and so much easier. You know, our sales team isn't having to spend as much time on them the wear and tear on the house seems to be lesser than so we kind of went in the direction of Let's chase these luxury homes. Let's get these big eight bedroom eight baths beach beachfront with a Rabbitt pool, we kind of want that to be our niche. So moving in that direction, you know, I feel like was a big risk, I think Brian would say the same thing. We turned away a whole lot of homes during that period, it was like, oh, gosh, but that's a really nice two bedroom unit. Look at the furniture, they looked like they really care about the house. But we just we felt like, we're going to be more successful if we take on these luxury homes. So we did start doing that. And with that, we recognize, you know, our branding needed some work. So we partnered with Harbinger marketing, they really changed our branding to where it was more clean, it just looked more luxurious. And now when you drive down the beach, you see all the Harris signs that have this nice little, it's supposed to look like a beach wave swoosh in the middle for the H and it stands with that luxury brand. So we feel like our branding really coincides with what we're trying to offer, which is a luxury experience. So

Annie Holcombe  5:51  
your position now as the Chief People Officer been there for a long time. So how did that position for you evolved from handling reservations. And obviously, you very much helped grow the business until you were in the day to day of it. But you it sounds like you saw a need to really not just worry about that external customer. But that internal customer, which was the staffing and focus, you focused on a brand that face the consumer, but she had an idea to focus on the brand internally. I think that's kind of where all this came from. But why don't you tell us about how you came to that. And this position, just

Elisabeth Yoho  6:23  
with anything, you're only as strong as your people. I mean, you know, we got to a point where we kind of we're in this position where we just had to take whatever we could get as far as vacation rentals goes. And then we got in a position where we don't have to just take whatever we can get on the staffing side, let's be really selective about who we bring in, let's make sure that there's someone that stands up to the brand of the company, which is luxury, which is you know, just very separate from what everyone else is doing just kind of different. And I started doing that back then by recruiting people that I knew, kind of like Katie, who was one of our first employees who were working mothers who were looking to kind of stepped back from that just traditional eight to five type of work and do a part time job where they could stay at home with their children, but also have some type of career. So then we kind of refocused on, you know, our recruitment process where we were recruiting from, and Brian gave me all the trust. And if you think that'll work, let's try it out. So we tried it out. And we continued to do that today. Mainly the majority of our guests relation staff and reservation sales staff all are part time remote workers. And they are in Fairhope, which is where my home office is. And we also have a home office in Fairhope. But we are based out of Gulf Shores. So that's about 45 minutes from Fairhope, but just trying to recruit within my community and the people that I knew. And I felt like there was a big base of mothers who were capable and smart. And who would be interested in taking on a part time remote position. Yeah,

Alex Husner  8:00  
absolutely. What about, you know, as you're looking at these different candidates to come work for you? Are you using, like any DISC assessment or any of the different personality types? Yeah, I feel like, yeah,

Elisabeth Yoho  8:13  
this disc is so helpful for not only in the hiring process, we usually only use the disc, if it's a management position, but you know, just in doing the disc with having everyone know what your personality is how you like to be communicated with how you need to communicate with others, it's been so helpful in my position as chief people officer to mitigate conflict, but also kind of stop it before ever begins to start, I'm able to see you know, this person is high see you, you've got to reply to that email before six days from now. And then the high D, you know, like, you need to get it done. I mean, she's, she's saying that this is broken, you gotta go fix it. So the disc has really helped me not only in hiring, but also just in conflict management, and just providing a more cohesive work environment with our teammates, understanding who we are as individuals, how we like to be communicated with and how we can communicate with others. So

Annie Holcombe  9:09  
with so much of your team being remote do you guys get together frequently for like, in person? time because I think one of the things I have a remote team and I struggle with that sometimes is that some of the people I have met in person and there's actually one girl that I've never met in person before, but I've just talked to her via video, and I feel like I know her. But I know that without having that, like in person personal touch, sometimes you don't get the depth of somebody's personality. So do you make it a habit to try to get everybody together? So you can have that bonding, I guess experience?

Elisabeth Yoho  9:39  
Yes, that's a great question. I feel like COVID really brought us together as far as you know, zooms and Google meats and everything. But as soon as we were able to get together in person, it was like, Oh my gosh, I've seen you on video so many times. It's so good to see you in person. And while you can have that personal interaction via zoom or Google meet, it's just so much different in person. So we try to do at least four get togethers during the year I coordinate those I plan those, we have like a kickoff to summer lunch at a local place. And that's really nice. Everyone gets together and they talk about what do you think the summer is gonna be like? Is it gonna be crazy what, you know, stuff like that we had a Halloween costume contest where we had lunch provided the office, people dressed up, we gave out prizes, that was really fun. So not just getting together for meetings, per se, but getting together to have fun to recognize that, you know, there's also a fun side to work we talk about, you know, revenue all the time. But let's, let's talk about your kids. What are they dressing up for Halloween? You know, so that's been really beneficial for us the at least quarterly type of get togethers. Yeah,

Alex Husner  10:41  
there's a science to it, that breaking bread with people connects you to them. And I think it's a simple thing that whether you have a remote team or in the office team, if you're able to get people together, do a lunch to, you know, something where people can just relax and talk and get to know each other. I think that just really builds the team. So that's great. So what's on the roadmap for Harris vacations when you've obviously grown significantly over the years, both in properties and in staff? But where do you go from here? What's that next trajectory look

Elisabeth Yoho  11:11  
like? So we just opened angle and Volkers Gulf Shores, it's actually Engel and Volkers at the wharf now, our company has always had a real estate side but it was you know, how do we grow that and we have since partnered with England Volkers because they are luxury European brokerage that we feel like best represented Harris vacations, it was something that you know, we felt very much tied into one another. They're selling luxury homes, we're renting luxury homes, how can each one benefit each other. So kind of focusing on the real estate side and how those sister companies can feed off of each other how the sales side selling a home, how we can pitch put it on the rental program, here's what you can make. And then also on the rental program, you know, let's get one of these houses that we know and adviser just sold and put it on the program. So we're hopeful that that's going to be a really successful venture for us but that is our main focus right now is our real estate brokerage Engel and Volkers so I'm

Annie Holcombe  12:05  
going to go back to your the people management aspect of it. And I knew Gulf Shores that area fairly well. And it's a lot of it is spread out and when you just mentioned the wharf and it made me think like the wharf is a completely different market within that market. It's so it's it's not too far away, but it's just far enough away from like the beachfront area and it's like its own little world because it has everything that you kind of need. It's got the waterpark, it's got all the entertainment district, it's got the restaurants, it's got everything there. How do you handle staffing, and that's just been a really big topic in our industry. A lot of people have had to outsource their staffing, a lot of people have multiple layers of staffing. And we have a sponsor of our show turno that handles housekeeping, staffing and helping do that sort of on the guise of like a Uber where you can sign up cleaners and things like that. But along the coast here in the panhandle of Florida, specifically for a long time we use staff from outside the country. So a lot of people from like Jamaica and some of the islands. And I was curious, are you managing that aspect for your organization? Or do you have somebody else that handles your housekeeping maintenance staffing again, and moving around that big area? That that's a lot to manage?

Elisabeth Yoho  13:12  
It is challenging? I mean, we watch the companies literally bussing staff from out of the country that was never feasible for us because we have to focus on Well, where are they going to live? As big as it sounds, we really do have a small area and housing is just really hard to find. So that wasn't an option for us. So then we were like, what if we brought housekeeping in house? So after struggling with trying to find, you know, the cleaning company, we can't find cleaners? What if we brought housekeeping inside and managed it ourselves, but hired 1099 cleaners. So that's how we've managed that we have our own quality assurance department, which includes the cleaning department, but we outsource those cleaners. So we kind of lean on other vendors for that which has taken us a while for sure to get good quality wares. But we're constantly trying to bring those content 99 cleaners in and educate them on cleanliness, best practices, you know, we just had a lunch for them the other day where they came in and we had a vendor, show them different cleaning materials, different cleaning products, and how that can better suit them how certain things are quicker, more efficient. So we've we've definitely gotten to a place that was easy to by bringing housekeeping inside but yet outsourcing and 1099 in the actual cleaners so we have inspectors that go behind the cleaners and just make sure that you know, the cleaning is up to our standard and it's done really well for us. You know, it's been hard. We've definitely staffing agencies to try to fill those positions. We feel like since we've brought quality assurance in house, it's made a significant change for us.

Alex Husner  14:46  
Have you done a lot of work with documentation of those different processes to and I know that's one thing that I feel like keeps coming up in conversations of this industry as a whole from the origin. Most companies were not good at documenting their housekeeping Maintenance, there are standard property appearance type guides, is that something that you've focused on? As you've grown and added more employees? Yes,

Elisabeth Yoho  15:07  
we have a point list that these cleaners are responsible for, you know, just what are the number one things that we're checking for, they know that we're going to come in behind them. And if they get called out, you know, it's a feed to them. So I think that's really helpful. You know, they know that they need to get it done right the first time? Or else it's, you know, it's a cost to them.

Alex Husner  15:28  
Yeah, absolutely. So the other people that are in this industry, so the homeowners are that are part of the business are you involved with, with the homeowner side, also,

Elisabeth Yoho  15:38  
yes, I'm kind of, you know, being on the exec team, I have the benefit of being involved in all areas of the business, which I love, I don't want to say I have an add mindset, but I do a little bit, so keeps me just kind of in different areas of the business. And I just feel like I never get bored, which is really nice. We do we love our owners, we, you know, stand by reasonable and respectful both with owners, guest employees, everything, that's one of the things that we really stick to is reasonable and respectful. And then we kind of, you know, in the bringing on an owner process, they know our expectations, we know there's it's a very open type of area where they can get in touch with us, we feel like they can get in touch with them, you know, you have the owners that are very hands on, and then you have the owners that are very hands off. And we have the benefit of having for property managers for all of our owners. So we have, you know, 150 properties spread out over poor property managers. So they feel like they really have someone that's more readily available, because they're not spread so thin with 100 properties just for one property manager. So having that has been really beneficial in the aspect of the owners are happy because they feel like they're taken care of, and they have this really close relationship with their own personal personal property manager. On

Annie Holcombe  16:51  
the owner side, one of the things that we have seen replicated in almost every market that we talk to is that the last couple of years, there have been owners that have come on to the rental scene, and they bought with this idea that by having a vacation rental, they were going to be making money, hand over fist. And a lot of it was the disconnect between the real estate, part of the business and the vacation rental side of the business. Not to say that it that is in your business. But I think just in general, if Realtors weren't engaged with a vacation rental company, or vice versa, there was not a good sharing of data, there was not a really level set expectations for some of these owners. So some owners came in with, again, high expectation of what their return would be. So you guys have a real estate arm. And that's great. And I think that that's a really smart play for you. What have you seen within your market in terms of people coming in the number of units that have been added and the expectation that owners have on their return on their investment within the area,

Elisabeth Yoho  17:51  
we definitely faced that a lot. And the real estate division really does help us when we would give rental projections previously, I'm not sure that they value them as much as having them done from a real estate agent that is actually a sister company of ours or works works for a sister company of ours. So when we're giving those rental projections for these owners, we're very honest, you know, this is based off of comps, this is based off of key data, we really stand by this number. And we never want to over promise and under deliver. And we feel like we're very methodical when it comes to here's what we're presenting them. Here are some factors that could change this number, you know, all owners are going to look at their calendar and question this, this and this, or is it yours and goes, our owners are very appreciative of what we're doing. And they feel like what we promised them is what we actually delivered. So having those rental projections just be as accurate as we feel like they can be is really important to us. You

Alex Husner  18:47  
said earlier about reasonable and respectful. I love that. And I think that starts from those initial conversations that you have with a potential owner companies that are trying to show more rent that is even possible for that property. It's like I don't even really know what the purpose of that is. Because if you get them onto your program, and you're not, you're not gonna be able to hit it. Now, you've already started off on a really bad note with that owner. So I think the more accurate you can be on it, the better. But we definitely see that in our market, there's a lot of, you know, showing just like the gross rent projections, and it's just wildly off. And in a lot of cases, the companies that are going to do the best job don't end up getting the property because you know, they're just looking at that number and not understanding the value and also the information and then the quality of that data that's behind it. Right.

Elisabeth Yoho  19:34  
You know, and we will get some that will say, Well, I saw $15,000 More offered by this company. And and we're honest with them, or we say we know we're not going to get to that number. It'd be awesome if we could but be as honest and open with you as we can be. And it helps to that we have an in house revenue manager and those owners are able to reach him directly if they'd like to. I'm seeing that this week still isn't booked. I'm up for bringing it down. 10% You know, I want to get to that number, that projected number, but I think I could get a little bit higher. If you know, I bring rates down here, bring them up here. So we're definitely open to any owners, you know, wanting to bring their revenue or rates up revenue up or, you know, just want to trust us with our in house revenue manager, he does a wonderful job.

Alex Husner  20:21  
We'll be back in just a minute after a word from our premier brand sponsor, extend team.

Speaker 1  20:25  
I'm Alexis Nielsen. And I'm Gina Allison dreamy and we're the owners of Phoebe vacation rentals.

Unknown Speaker  20:31  
And we've been with XM team for the past year.

Speaker 1  20:36  
We're running into a problem where we were trying to source VAs ourself, and we were having a high turnover rate and issues with attendance, performance, things of that nature. And then we were introduced to extend team we made the switch and it has been night and day of performance, no attendance issues and really allowed our business to scale to that next level.

Speaker 2  21:00  
We use extend team, mostly with our guests communication, vendor coordination, they handle a lot of the day to day that you know, we have 35 properties. So are you know, there's a lot of questions and inquiries coming in nonstop from current guests or potential guests, and they answer all those questions.

Speaker 1  21:22  
So for onboarding with extend team, from the moment that we said, hey, we're ready to go, let's sign a contract. We want to hire these individuals. It takes them up to two weeks Great thing about extending worth mentioning is they handle putting out the job ad they do all the interviews, the vetting the background checks, making sure that the VA has all the software capabilities that they need. And then once they are transitioned, and they're working with us extend team still continues to manage the employee. If we were doing the jobs of all four of our team members that we have through extend team, we wouldn't be able to do it. Yeah, these individuals are really our extra set of eyes, ears, arms. To get everything done that needs to get done. By employing extend team, we're able to focus on growing our business rather than working day to day in the business.

Annie Holcombe  22:20  
The best news is extend team has an exclusive offer just for listeners of Alex and Annie podcast, receive 50% off your onboarding fee. When you visit, extend team.com forward slash Alex and Annie are mentioned our podcasts when you contact them. There's a lot of companies that don't value that revenue management component as much as they should. And probably if they did, and I think he's mentioned that you leverage key data, which they have such a depth of data points to be able to share, it helps you make good decisions. So that that's really great to see that you guys have focused on that I did have a question not related to like revenues. But just in the market that urine again, everybody's facing regulations. How have you guys seen it within the Gulf Shores and Orange Beach area regulations affecting you?

Elisabeth Yoho  23:08  
regulations related to OTAs are regulations related to vacation rentals. So

Annie Holcombe  23:13  
I know that a couple of years ago, there was some, there was some talk of putting some some measures in place that if an owner or somebody couldn't get to a unit within 24 hours, they wouldn't be able to rent the unit, I think get the permitting and it might not have been specific to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. It might have been over in perdido. But just there's a lot of regulatory conversation around the fact that there's not a lot of housing available for when you need to bring in workers, there's not a lot of affordable housing, so people like to point the finger at while everybody's putting their units on rental. So therefore, they're not available for people to rent long term. So just you're you're in a leadership position in a company that is in a very hot vacation rental market. And I don't hear a lot about Gulf Shores in terms of having problems because I believe the state of Alabama sees the value in the coast that they do have and they see the value in supporting tourism. It's not like Florida, where you know, 75% of our state is tourism based in terms of like our coastline. So there's a lot of movement and conversation on that. But you know, are you involved in any regulatory conversations? Are you seeing anything come down the pike for your area?

Elisabeth Yoho  24:19  
Definitely hearing whispers of it, like you said, I think Alabama definitely supports this industry, which is nice. As far as housing goes, Gulf Shores is trying to come up with housing. I know that there's already some in place I don't know when those are set to open, but they recognized a need for that, that there's not sustainability for these people to rent apartments. I mean, the rent is so expensive, and then to also make whatever they make per hour so recognizing that feel like our know that the city of Gulf Shores is very supportive in providing housing, or reasonable housing for outsourcing staffing, kind

Alex Husner  24:56  
of on that topic, too. Do you see how real estate as people come into the area has changed over the years. Have you seen a lot of people that are retiring down there now as well? Yes, for sure. Retired or relocating, I should say, retiring,

Elisabeth Yoho  25:09  
relocating. I mean, it's definitely used to drag down to the beach and you'd see the Michigan Wisconsin license plate just in January and February. And now you're seeing it all throughout the year. I think, you know, the snowbirds, as we call them, they come down for the winter months. And as they've recognized what a great place it is to be. This is where they're retiring. They feel like it's still a small community, you know, Gulf shore, says, little town, big beach, I mean, it really is. It's, the beaches are wonderful, but it's a great little community too. And I feel like there are so many things that these retirees can do, you know, activities and community based events, it's just, I think it's great that they're moving in. And there are a lot of communities that are centered around that, you know, like, craft Farms has a lot of retirees from up north, I don't know what the percentage is, but definitely seeing a shift in that. And you know, our company and other companies have really shifted to let's just get these snowbirds, these retirees that want to come down just for the winter months, let's give them a really, really low winter rate, just get them in the houses. Well, now it's, you know, we're kind of losing money doing that, you know, just retrospectively it's like, well, we sent the maintenance techs out there about six times during one month, you know, what does that cause. And so you've definitely seen a shift in our area, and those monthly rates not being that rock bottom rate, it's definitely one that's, you know, we're not losing money anymore. So there's been a shift in that. And then you're seeing more younger families come in, because these houses aren't booked all of January and February. They don't have kids that are in school yet, or they're preschool aged children, and they're coming down, they're enjoying the beaches when there are a lot of people here

Annie Holcombe  26:47  
that and the amount of people that can work from anywhere. Now I think that that's you know, you have a team that's remote, you could theoretically they could go rent a house over in, you know, Texas coast if they wanted to for a while. I think that that's that's one of the really great things that came out of COVID is people are more mobile and can adapt quicker and move at any given moment to try new things and visit new markets and help us build up that I remember you know, we were talking off camera like the winter seasons in the panhandle, were just you had that January February snowboard, but from Labor Day on, there was no festivals, there was no big things going on. And now people recognize that the weather is spectacular. And like I always say, don't tell everybody, but it's great to be here in the fall in the spring. And people are seeing that. So it's good to see it replicating across all the markets that we I that Alex and I talked to for sure.

Elisabeth Yoho  27:35  
Yeah, it's nice to see. I mean, we have the shrimp fest, which is in October and Annie, you and I were talking about how October is one of the best months. I mean, don't tell anybody but air is nice. And so you know, you see a lot of local people at these festivals, events, but then you also see your community come out. So it's a nice blend of the two. Yeah, I

Alex Husner  27:55  
see the commercials for visit Alabama all the time up here in the Gulf Coast. I'm curious, are you involved actively with like the Chamber of Commerce? CVB? Down there?

Elisabeth Yoho  28:05  
Yeah, we are. We love the Chamber of Commerce. Everyone that works there volunteers. I mean, they're just awesome. They plug our company as much as they can. They're super supportive of us. We're super supportive of them love everything that they're doing. Same with the CVB. really thankful for those two people. Yeah, absolutely.

Alex Husner  28:20  
Well, how about for you personally, Elizabeth, what are you looking forward to this year as you continue to evolve into this role that you've been in for many years, but what's one thing that you're looking forward to Gosh,

Elisabeth Yoho  28:31  
just continuing doing what we're doing, I feel like it took a lot of hard work and effort to get to where we are specifically with our teammates. We actually on Tuesday just had a team building event, which was it was just awesome. We went over everyone's desk, we had an outside person come in from lead workforce management who facilitated that for us. And it was just nice, you know, to go around the table, it was the leadership team, all of our managers. And there were 11 of us. And just to go around the table and introduce he actually had a dip, you know, the whole team would introduce that person. And who is this person who is Anna, tell us about Anna. And I mean, just the feedback that you got from everyone was so positive and uplifting. And I just think that that's the way that it should be. I think that that's why you're going to see more chief people, officers within organizations and companies because the people can make it happen and you have to protect your people. And you have to provide an environment where the people want to work and you're going to continue to get really good quality people if you provide a really good quality of an environment for them because they're not going to stay. So I'm really big on retention and team building and just recognizing you are as strong as your people are. I truly believe in that. And if you nurture and you show respect and value, they're going to want to stay so just I look forward to growing this culture and continue to expand upon this culture that we've created. One that is respectful of work, work life balance. Well One that is, you know, we know your kids names, we know what sports Jimmy is interested in, we know that Anna is Clara and The Nutcracker, you know, just stuff like that I think is so important. So in my role, I'm excited to continue to implement those team building type of activities and also plan out those quarterly events that we have, we're going to have a big one in the spring, later spring, where we're going to include you know, it's usually just the the team members, but we're going to include families, vendors, and just make it a big fun party big fun kickoff to summer, I look forward to just continuing to learn about HR and what makes people want to stay. And it doesn't just come from me, it comes from every position, you know, just continuing to coach people and educate people on how you treat others how you recognize, you know, we talked about the disc, what their personalities are, like, how they like to communicate, and just continuing to provide an environment where people want to work so much.

Alex Husner  30:56  
Yeah, invest in your people. And that's investing in the business. It's so important. Yeah,

Annie Holcombe  31:01  
and I've worked for so many companies in hospitality that a lot of times you felt like you were just a number, and it didn't matter because they they treated you like well, you replaceable I can find somebody else who wants to work. And I think that people have more options. Now for jobs. Again, being able to work from anywhere means that people don't necessarily have to go live in a city to work for a company to get benefits. So the people that would be working for a vacation rental company might choose a job at based out of Atlanta, because they can work from home and not get treated poorly. You know, at a at a hospitality company, which was the way of the world I think 20 years ago, it was just again, people were a number. So I think you're spot on focusing on the people. And if you treat, you know, I always learned that if you take care of your internal customers, as you would take care of your external customers, then the magic happens like the just the two worlds meet. So it's really, really great to see. And I hope that we get to see you on stage, at some conferences, talking about what you're doing, because you have that passion comes out and in the way you're talking about your people, and what you've done at Harrah's vacation. So I do hope that we get to see you. And on that note, will you be at any of the conferences coming up this spring, or even in the fall, I

Elisabeth Yoho  32:11  
haven't signed up for any in the fall or the spring, we're sending quite a few people to the vrma spring Forum, which I'm excited for the people that we picked to go and they're excited they want to learn. But yes, I will be attending a conference in the fall not sure which one I want to get the people you know who really I do want to attend but the you know, budget wise want to make sure that we have the people that are kind of chomping at the bit to get out there. And they haven't you know, some of them haven't been to one yet. And I think you've come back from those things just so empowered and excited and ready to put into what you've learned and help contribute to the company by some of the things that you've picked up on and heard about. So we're excited for them to attend those. And I just, you know, I've gotten so much out of them. And I know they will too. So again, you know, for the people want to do that for them and excited that they're excited about it for sure.

Alex Husner  32:59  
Yeah, that's awesome that they're chomping at the bit to go. I love that. Because, you know, some people it's like, if they don't typically go to these conferences, it can be overwhelming. You know, they're not, they're just not sure about it. But that's, that's great. I'm sure they've obviously heard a lot of great feedback when you and Brian and everybody come back from him. So it's a great way to invest in your people.

Elisabeth Yoho  33:18  
It really is. And I think we've moved from this place of you know, it's just a conference, you're gonna go talk to a bunch of people, and it's just events. And but now I think that you recognize how much you get out of these conferences and events, and you meet people and you get ideas. And Brian Harris is so good at going to these things and talking to people and coming back with hey, I want you to talk to so and so and then, you know, next thing we know, we've found something that's allowing us to work smarter, not harder. And I think that's what everyone's trying to do. So I just I love the conferences, for sure.

Alex Husner  33:49  
I had a conversation with somebody at the Women's Conference about this too, that it's like when you bring your people to these events that people that typically don't get to go to them, it also shows them that it's not just about this job you have right now, like there's a true career in this business. And, you know, that's one thing that you always have to be thinking about is that not everybody is going to stay with you forever. But I mean, not that you're trying to get your employees poached, but it gives them an idea of like how vast this really is. And I think it's really easy to get kind of caught up in your own day to day business when you're in the vacation rental business, but just to see how much is out there. It's inspiring, I think to people to get to actually see that agree. See

Elisabeth Yoho  34:28  
how multifaceted it is. It's like there's no moving parts of our industry. And people don't see it as a whole and when you go to these events, you're just you're looking all the different vendors and how many things you know, go into the vacation rental industry it's it's just a lot there are so many things that you know people could do if they get complacent in their position. You know, let's figure out what we can do what department we can get you in where you're going to thrive instead of just survive. Yeah,

Annie Holcombe  34:54  
helping people build their personal brand within the business and and find that skill. Because I think people get into it and don't necessarily know exactly where they want to go. But if somebody can help identify something where they have passion that maybe they didn't know they had they just become a more driven part of the team. Yeah. And we're connected. Yeah, absolutely. One of the things we ask a lot of our guest is, you know, besides what you think for yourself, what do you see in the industry? And again, you know, there's a lot of speculation about where we were coming into this year, where are we going to be in a recession? Or things going to be dire, where, you know, where are we going to be? And I think everybody's kind of gotten to the point where we know it's, it's not going to be as great as it's been the last few years. But that doesn't mean it's going to be bad. But there's a lot of things that we need to address. We know regulations is a challenge. Staffing is a challenge, taking care of our staff is a challenge. What do you see as something within the industry that maybe we're not addressing as much as we should? Or maybe we are, but it needs a bigger spotlight a bigger place on the stage.

Elisabeth Yoho  35:52  
offhand. I know, we had a really hard time with setting rates for this summer, I feel like two years of just kind of getting whatever we wanted, after the beaches, and after COVID, kind of, you know, wasn't as prevalent and people weren't as scared. You know, we, we saw that we could get whatever we want, we could put those rates up. And people are just booking and booking and booking. And I think it's been really, really hard. In both the owners mindset, as well as like our revenue managers, mindset. I mean, just all the different departments are like, Why aren't we booking as much like, the booking season for us is January. And it just was a really slow start. And we had to recognize, which was really hard for a lot of people because that we have this mindset of get as much as you can get having to lower those rates was was really hard for everyone. And it was a lot of disagreement, respectful disagreement, but no way, you don't need to bring it down to that amount. And as soon as we did, I mean, those homes did start to book so you know, I think it's finding what is reasonable rate in a post COVID world, which has been very challenging for us.

Annie Holcombe  37:03  
That's actually as interesting because a lot of people haven't addressed that. It's been it's been more of like, well, how are we going to maintain relations with the owners that might again, not be either Max expectations not being met? But I don't think I've heard anybody say, I don't know, Alex, but just say that like, setting the rates as a challenge, I think being able to figure out what the normal is, but I think that's a really great topic that we should dive into at some point here.

Alex Husner  37:24  
Yeah, absolutely. And, and really, because it's like, you know, with demand being down, you'd have to be careful, because lowering the rates isn't necessarily going to change the demand that's out there. I mean, blown. But you might be able to capture more of what is currently there in front of you. But I think it's definitely a conversation that people are having right now, as we speak in many companies, we're all seeing the same thing that you're seeing out there that bookings just started slow in our area, and are not really picking up with the velocity that they used to by this time. So what we all don't know is what's going to happen this summer, if it's going to be a gold rush, and we're gonna get tons of last minute bookings. But by that point, you know, we'll have discounted the rights so far that we're in a bad situation. But actually, I just talked to one company who this is the only company I've heard about from anyone recently, that is up 60% year over year, and their strategy was to start the year with their rates significantly lower than they had been in the past and pick up a lot of that early booking traffic and just get bookings, you know, on the calendar for their homeowners. But I'm not sure what the best way is to do it. If you should start that way. I mean, if you're going to end up having to discount anyways, once you get closer to the summer, it's not a bad strategy. There's so many different ways to do it. And I think everybody's just trying to do the best that they can this year. Yeah,

Elisabeth Yoho  38:43  
you know, riding that wave of get whatever we can get was fun. But now it's yeah, it's

Alex Husner  38:51  
not realistic. Yeah, this might be the first real year of the new normal in a while. Yeah. And

Elisabeth Yoho  38:58  
again, we go back to reasonable and respectful, you know, one of our core values and parents and we, we don't want to do anything to the owner that they're going to be upset with, you know, just setting the rate super, super low just to fill their calendars. You know, we want to try to see if we can get a decent amount for them. And then we bring those rates down. That seems to work well for us.

Alex Husner  39:17  
No makes sense. Well, Elizabeth, it's been just a pleasure having you on the show. Getting to hear a little bit more about your journey. I'm sure there could be people that want to reach out and hear more about what you guys have going on down there. What's the best way for them to contact you?

Elisabeth Yoho  39:31  
Sure. My email address is my name Elizabeth e li s AB eth Yoho y O H, our Gulf Shores, which is OURGULF sh o r e s vacation.com. And I'm happy to be reached by email anytime awesome.

Alex Husner  39:47  
We'll include that in our show notes. And if anybody wants to get in touch with at night, you can go to Alex and Annie podcast.com And until next time, thanks for tuning in everybody.