Slick Talk: The Hospitality Podcast

Brooke Pfautz is one of the industry's foremost experts in growing vacation rental inventory. He got his start in the industry 14 years ago when he founded Vantage Resort Realty in Ocean City, MD and took an idea on a napkin to more than 500 properties in just five years. After a successful exit, he went on to grow inventory for other major vacation rental brands as a Chief Business Development Officer in multiple destinations. Most recently, as an executive at a leading vacation rental software company, he saw first-hand through MasterMind groups that he launched and facilitated what worked and what didn’t for the 20 largest and most successful companies in the country. Today, Brooke leads Vintory, the 1st and only CRM & Sales and Marketing automation platform designed exclusively for Vacation Rental Managers to grow their inventory. At Vintory, a team of over 50 growth experts are laser focused on one thing: helping VRMs hit or exceed their growth goals. This episode is sponsored by Hostfully & Operto! Running a great property management company means you need a great property management platform and the ability to give automated access to your guests so you don’t waste your time doing things manually all the time! Upgrade your tech-stack and get this dynamic duo to power your business! This episode is also sponsored by Jetstream! Jetstream is a full-service hospitality solution with a powerful team behind it! To learn more about Jetstream, just click this link! In this episode, we explore: 03:46 - Brookes Background 08:46 - Finding more qualified properties 09:48 - Good vs Bad Mailing Campaign 11:26 - Increasing bookings and reservations 15:23 - Top 5 Hacks for Vacation Rental Manager 19:51 - Why do we need data scientists? 26:05 - How will you know if the data is useful? 33:36 - Direct Mail 37:53 - What makes people not throw direct mails 40:38 - Custom Audiences 42:39 - What is IP targeting? 45:26 - Direct Mail Retargeting 49:01 - Determining the Value of a proper portfolio Connecting with the Guest: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vintoryhq/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vintory Twitter: https://twitter.com/vintoryHQ Slick Talk Website & Socials: https://bit.ly/3uCsm6H Mid Roll Ad - 24:34 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Samantha Hardcastle, founder of The Storied Experience and Amore Social, brings a decade of marketing strategy & storytelling to hospitality properties and destinations worldwide. Her passion-driven mission is to transform the way we travel and infuse each moment with more meaning, purpose, and magic. After a not-so-pleasant hotel stay a few years back, Samantha started her journey of exploring guest experience design with Cornell in 2018. Her creative marketing background, immense curiosity about other cultures, and empathetic understanding of today’s traveler serve her as she seeks to help hospitality hosts elevate their guest experience and stand out. Samantha’s vision is to combine her unique perspective on storytelling with aesthetic & emotional intelligence, positive design & psychology, wellbeing, and human behavior to build out programming and spaces for properties that are enriching and personality-packed. Her online course, the Spark 5-Star Success Pathway, dives deep into her years of research and strategies. Use code to SLICKTALK get 20% off. As a property manager, business owner, and entrepreneur, you already have so much to do in a 24 hour time period. Don’t let the worry of your property being damaged and focus back on growing your business with Safely! Safely is a proud sponsor and I love that I can use them for my business to ensure my properties are safe, protected and my homeowners know that I think of their asset as my asset too! Go to Safely.com and sign up today and let them know Wil sent you! Our show partners at Operto are the leading solution for operators to enhance their operations by integrating with your property management software and making sure all smart devices create a contactless guest experience while streamlining operations. Check them out on their website, send me a message or just let them know Wil sent you and you’ll be in great hands! This episode is also sponsored by Jetstream! Jetstream is a full service hospitality solution with a powerful team behind it! To learn more about Jetstream, just click this link! In this episode, we explore: 02:10 - Background of the guest 06:13 - Creating Real Expectations with the guest 08:47 - Areas of Inspirations 11:42 - How Covid affects Marketing 15:59 - Relying on Positive Psychology and positive designs 21:14 - Guest’s Experiences 25:07 - Storytelling 30:25 - Importance of knowing your values and personality Connecting with the Guest: Website: http://thestoriedexperience.com/ Website: http://fivestarpathway.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samanthahardcastle_/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skhardcastle/ Email: hello@thestoriedexperience.com Slick Talk Website & Socials: https://bit.ly/3uCsm6H Mid Roll Ad - 18:32 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justin Ford is the Director of Safety & Certification Programs at Breezeway; where he is helping property managers and owners maintain the safety of short-term rental properties. An international short-term term rental safety expert, Justin was the first to elevate awareness of safety in short-term rentals back in 2013. Prior to Breezeway, Justin co-founded On the Water in Maine in 2006 and grew the company into the highest-grossing vacation rental company in New England. A former member of the US Coast Guard and a firefighter, Justin travels worldwide to share his industry expertise on short-term rental safety. Risk is something we can’t avoid and you know this! But… you can sure minimize your risk when it comes to putting things in place like NoiseAware & Safely.com! Safely have you, your guests, and your homeowner covered if anything goes wrong or gets damaged and guess what!? By having a NoiseAware device in your homes, you’ll have everything you need in order to have peace of mind! This episode is also sponsored by our friends at Breezeway! Check out this link to learn more! In this episode, we explore: 03:25 - Background of the guest 06:24 - Convincing the waterfront owners 09:49 - Safety Training Course 13:48 - Challenges of creating the course 16:24 - Top Claims in Insurance Company 20:31 - Successful ways to overcome incidents 24:12 - What is Safety Training Course 30:28 - Marketing Tricks 35:54 - Breezeway’s Mission 40:06 - Why Rentals are not considered safe Connecting with the Guest: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shorttermrentalsafety Website: https://www.breezeway.io/safety-app Slick Talk Website & Socials: https://bit.ly/3uCsm6H Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks for Visiting has always been about short-term rentals. Annette and Sarah met at a Columbus, Ohio City Council Meeting fighting for their right to host homes on Airbnb. The two shared a belief that the short-term rental industry needs hosts to be more hospitable. Every resource they'd come across in growing their own businesses was purely profit driven - and "heads in beds" just isn't their style. We had to figure out a lot of stuff on our own and now we want to give you the behind-the-scenes look we tried to find when we started. Thanks for Visiting is like Hospitality Prep School for the Airbnb stager or host. You'll find resources to help you host with heart and improve your processes and systems. This episode is sponsored by our friends at NoiseAware! NoiseAware is the only 100% privacy safe noise monitoring solution so get with NoiseAware so you don’t waste any time while you grow your professional and amazing business! Use SLICKTALK20 to get 20% off your noise devices with NoiseAware! Hostfully is an industry leading software company that provides property managers and hoteliers with a property management platform and amazing digital custom guidebooks that will make your guests' experience with you 10X better! Use SLICKTALK20 to get $100 off of their property management platform and two months free of their premium digital guidebooks! This episode is also sponsored by our friends at Breezeway! Check out this link to learn more! In this episode, we explore: 03:04 - Background of the guests 12:08 - Power of Podcasting 17:55 - How to operate in a high standards 19:07 - Complete Transparency to everyone 23:54 - STR Regulations 27:48 - Finding good resources 30:50 - Balancing media side of the business and the vacation rental business 37:14 - Why we need to continue growing and build something 38:50 - Females are the biggest users in Airbnb platforms 41:03 - Enjoying the Process Connecting with the Guest: Website: www.thanksforvisiting.me Instagram:  @thanksforvisiting Slick Talk Website & Socials: https://bit.ly/3uCsm6H Mid Roll Ad - 21:22 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maeva is the founder of Flying Cat Marketing, a content-led SEO agency for SaaS companies in hypergrowth. She's helped VC-backed tech companies like Operto, Avantio, tye, and others scale their organic user acquisition with seamless content operations and world-class, revenue-generating content. This episode is sponsored by NoiseAware & Operto! Running a great property management company means you need a great property noise sensor and the ability to give automated access to your guests so you don’t waste your time doing things manually all the time! Upgrade your tech stack and get this dynamic duo to power your business! This episode is also sponsored by our friends at Jetstream! Check out this link to learn more! In this episode, we explore: 03:31 - Maeva’s Background 11:24 - Letting go of control 15:35 - Optimizing your time and energy 21:10 - Financial Ambitious Goals 23:36 - Are you charging more or less? 25:19 - Point of view when it comes to technology 30:38 - Why Hoteliers keep everything tight 34:50 - Providing better value to the guests 37:17 - Scaling the services 40:12 - Using LinkedIn to Grow your Brand Connecting with the Guest: Website: https://flyingcatmarketing.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maevaeverywhere?originalSubdomain=es Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flyingcatmarketing/ Slick Talk Website & Socials: https://bit.ly/3uCsm6H Mid Roll Ad - 22:14 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Cruz and I are back to talk about entrepreneurship and the impact it's had in our lives and the lessons and values we are getting from our recent journey!   We will be bringing on other founders in the industry and we plan to make sure that we are 100% vulnerable and open during these recordings! Slick Talk Sponsors: NoiseAware Hostfully Safely.com Operto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chloe Cohen is the CEO of BRIQ, a Real Estate Investor, and the Founder of Real Deals by Chloe. She is an empathy-driven entrepreneur focused on helping others self-empower by approaching life from a balanced perspective-mind, body, and soul. She is a real estate investor and prop-tech advisor at BRIQ, a tech-focused Real Estate Estate Marketing Agency, in New York City. Join us today to learn more about how to utilize what’s right in front of us with Chloe Cohen. This episode is sponsored by Hostfully & Operto! Running a great property management company means you need a great property management platform and the ability to give automated access to your guests so you don’t waste your time doing things manually all the time! Upgrade your tech stack and get this dynamic duo to power your business! This episode is also sponsored by our friends at Jetstream! Check out this link to learn more! In this episode, we explore: 02:18 - Chloe’s Background 04:55 - Best software or technology 07:55 - Different periods that we go through 09:08 - Niche Marketing 10:01 - Overabundance of staff 15:50 - Is there a universal technology? 20:18 - Flexible Living 22:13 - Variation of Personality types 26:37 -  How will we know if it’s scalable? 33:12 - Knowing which route to take in investing Connecting with the Guest: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realdealsbychloe/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chloecohen/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RealDealsbyChloe Slick Talk Website & Socials: https://bit.ly/3uCsm6H Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Airbnb became a publicly traded company, we (and many others) predicted this would have a chain reaction with many others trying (and succeeding) to go public as well!   In today's episode, we will cover the news of Vacasa's recent announcement to go public with a 4.5 Billion dollar evaluation!   Thank you ShortTermRentalz for this article: https://shorttermrentalz.com/news/vac...  Startup of the week is: https://www.getwebee.com/  This episode is sponsored by Breezeway! To learn more about our friends there, you'll want to check out this episode and go to www.breezeway.io/gmh Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I loved having Daniel Cruz, CEO & Founder of washbnb, on the show so much, and with all of their exciting news as a company, I just had to have him on for a "late-night recording session" to hear it all! Tune in to hear how washbnb is doing from the recent crowdfunding campaign to being accepted and in week two of Techstars! If you haven't heard Daniel's first episode on Slick Talk, you NEED to go listen to it now because it was that good!  👇 https://www.slicktalkthepodcast.com/podcast/episode/3b77f51d/created-by-hosts-for-hosts Listen until the end to hear a little announcement from Daniel & me as well! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Luca Zambello is the co-founder and CEO of Jurny, a hospitality tech company pioneering the next generation of tech-first, on-demand accommodations. A born entrepreneur, Luca launched one of the first professionally operated Airbnb vacation rental companies in 2012, quickly earning the Superhost status that he still holds today. Following that success, he realized there was a need for a more streamlined, on-demand hospitality experience for both guests and operators. Partnering with David Phillips in 2017, he co-founded Jurny and has led the company to triple-digit growth with more than 570 units under management across ten markets. The company is a leader in hospitality technology and automation allowing it to manage and operate some of the top-performing hotels and multi-family buildings in the industry. As an expert within the hospitality industry, Luca has been featured in Bloomberg, Forbes, Entrepreneur and other major industry publications. His mission continues to be modernizing hospitality and creating solutions that cater to the heightened expectations of today's traveler. Smart locks, Smart thermostats, automation, and a solution for any hotel and vacation rental company. Our show partners at Operto are the leading solution for operators to enhance their operations by integrating with your property management software and making sure all smart devices create a contactless guest experience while streamlining operations. Check them out on their website, send me a message or just let them know Wil sent you and you’ll be in great hands! As a property manager, business owner, and entrepreneur, you already have so much to do in a 24 hour time period. Don’t let the worry of your property being damaged and focus back on growing your business with Safely! Safely is a proud sponsor and I love that I can use them for my business to ensure my properties are safe, protected and my homeowners know that I think of their asset as my asset too! Go to Safely.com and sign up today and let them know Wil sent you! In this episode, we explore: 02:58 - Luca’s Background 04:12 - Things need to consider when managing Airbnbs 05:35 - What makes Jurny different from others 09:47 - Offering full management service 10:51 - Making Guest feel at home 17:56 - Eliminating human interaction 21:18 - Why some guest don’t need human interaction 25:47 - Roadmap for Jurny 29:37 - Key things when leading a team Connecting with the Guest: Website: www.jurny.com, Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urjurny, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jurny-115358886519014, Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/jurny Slick Talk Website & Socials: https://bit.ly/3uCsm6H Mid Roll Ad - 15:34 Making your guest feel at home 10:51 - 12:25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices