Today joining Alex & Annie is Kimberly Miles, Executive Director of the Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA) - an international, professional trade association of the vacation and holiday rental property management and hospitality industries. Kimberly has been with the VRMA for 2 years, and previously had an impressive 19 year tenure at American Hotel & Lodging Association, where she advanced up to becoming their SVP of Operations.
Our very own Alex Husner is also a board member of the VRMA, so on this episode Alex and Kimberly dive into highlighting the role of the Executive Board at VRMA. The 13 leaders that represent the board develop and drive the strategic course for the association and set out their goals and priorities to make sure the organization is always a valuable asset to the vacation rental industry and a true representative of the hospitality space.
When Kimberly started with VRMA, they had just held their first in-person meeting since the pandemic. Associations were struggling in a remote world, so Kimberly had her hands full with reigniting the spark of in-person events. Within her first 6 months, she got up to speed with the task at hand and successfully held a staggering 1700 person event in San Antonio.
After weathering the storm of returning in-person conferences, in 2022 Kimberly was able to shift her attention to the long-term planning and goals of VRMA and take a more strategic seat in her duties as Executive Director.
The approach that the VRMA is taking to their growth strategy is centered around embracing change. The board is focused on adaptability, and their goal is to make sure that everyone in the industry has a place under the VRMA roof. The organization heavily emphasizes education as the best way to grow, and it’s one of the reasons why they’ve become an industry leader.
In order to maximize the reach of their educational efforts, the VRMA is always promoting their conferences and events, but they’re also cognizant of the fact that not every vacation rental owner is doing this full time, meaning that lower-commitment educational sources like webinars and ebooks get the same amount of attention.
There’s a huge event on the horizon - The VRMA are hosting their International Conference in Orlando, October 22-25, 2023. The event is hosted at the Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, and Kimberly expects this to be a record breaker - so get your tickets now before they’re sold out!!
Tune into this episode to learn more about the exciting things that the VRMA have prepared for you, and we hope to see you all in-person in October at the 2023 VRMA International Conference!
HIGHLIGHTS:
01:58 What Does the Executive Board at VRMA Do?
06:01 Kimberly’s VRMA Post-Pandemic Onboarding
10:03 VRMA’s Growth Strategy
14:35 Building Your Educational Engine
17:15 Partnerships With Other Organizations
21:40 What To Expect from the VRMA International Conference in October of 2023
This episode is brought to you by Casago and Rev & Research!
Connect with Kimberly:
Website - https://www.vrma.org/
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-miles-cae-cmp/
Connect with Alex and Annie:
Alex Husner - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-o-husner-%F0%9F%8C%8E-1844306/
Annie Holcombe - https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-holcombe-vrgal/
AlexAndAnniePodcast.com
