Feb. 28, 2026
1st of the Month Bonus: Intentional Growth in a Rapidly Evolving STR Market with Carly Traub
Growth in short-term rentals often gets framed as a numbers game. More properties, more markets, more tech, and more scale.
But what if growth isn’t about doing more but choosing better?
In this 1st of the Month Bonus episode, Alex & Annie sit down with Carly Traub, Co-Founder and CEO of Lazy Sunday Rentals, to talk about what it really looks like to build a business intentionally in a fast-moving, information-heavy industry.
Carly launched her company in 2022 alongside her husband, starting with a single property and quickly scaling to a growing portfolio. Like many operators, she said yes to everything early on. Over time, she realized that not all growth is aligned growth.
This conversation explores the shift from reactive expansion to thoughtful refinement.
Episode Chapters:
04:53 Moving from channel-dependent to brand-driven
06:15 Why saying “yes” to everything works at first and why it eventually doesn’t
07:15 Maximizing your existing tech stack before adding more tools
6:26 Evaluating return on time, not just return on money
18:23 Building a direct booking strategy that reflects your identity
27:58 How to define the kind of guest experience you actually want to deliver
31:59 Why smaller operators need a seat at the DMO table
41:26 The realities of operating in a “hot” investment market
45:29 Unrealistic investor expectations and the myth of easy remote hosting
If you’re building in a crowded market and want growth that fits your vision, this episode will help you pause, refocus, and move forward with intention.
Connect with Carly:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-traub-6a402325/
Website: https://lazysundayrentals.com/
✨ Exclusive Offer to Alex & Annie Listeners:
Streamline your short-term rental operations with Hostfully.
Mention the Alex & Annie Podcast when you sign up and get free onboarding ($1000 value).
👉 Click here to get started: https://www.hostfully.com/influencers/alex-annie/
#vacationrentals #shorttermrentals #intentionalgrowth
00:00 - Meet Carly And Lazy Sunday
02:45 - From First STR To Full-Time
04:30 - Portfolio Focus And Saying No
05:48 - Channel Dependence To Brand Building
08:57 - Choosing Tech: Hospitable And Beyond
12:10 - Maximize Tools Before Adding More
14:20 - How Carly Learns: Pods, People, Practice
17:58 - Associations And The Time Crunch
21:10 - Online Events, Overwhelm, And ROT
24:20 - Direct Booking And Brand Strategy
25:39 - Sponsor Spotlight: Hostfully
27:50 - Website And Operations Overhaul
31:40 - Rebrand Challenges With A Mixed Portfolio
33:45 - Pruning, Growth, And Boutique Stays
36:20 - Beyond Urban: Blue‑Ocean Properties
39:24 - Sponsor Message
41:50 - Crafting Memorable Guest Touchpoints
45:04 - Serving Many Guest Types In A Sports City
48:20 - DMOs, Visit Indy, And Getting A Seat
WEBVTT
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Welcome to Alex & Annie, the real women of vacation rentals. With more than 35 years combined industry experience, our teacher is allowed to connect up between inspiration and opportunity.
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Teach them to find the word story, idea, strategy, or decision that likes to forget to think of our moment.
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Join them as they highlight the real stories behind the people and brands that have built vacation rentals into the $100 billion industry it is today.
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And now it's time to get real and have some fun with your hosts, Alex and Annie.
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Welcome to Alexandrie, the Roloman of Vacation Rentals.
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I'm Alex and I'm Annie.
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And we are joined today by Carly Traub, who is the co-founder and CEO of Lazy Sunday Rentals in Indianapolis.
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Carly, it's so good to see you.
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It's so good to be here.
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You know, I'm excited to have you here.
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So you were actually my first um manager client out of the gate when I opened Annie and Co.
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So thank you for giving me the opportunity.
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It was really exciting.
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We had a good time together.
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Um, but I just really wanted everybody to meet you because you've just, you're, you're one of those operators that just exudes joy in everything that you do, which speaks to my soul.
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And I and I love that you, you, your husband is kind of doing some stuff with you.
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You're very embedded in the Indianapolis market.
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So really wanted to share your story.
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But before we get started, why don't you tell our audience a little bit about Lazy Sunday and kind of how you became a property manager?
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Yeah, perfect.
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Thank you guys so much for inviting me.
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I'm excited to be here.
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So yeah, so um we started Lazy Sunday, my husband and I in March of 2022.
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We we bought our first short-term rental property here in Indianapolis just really out of excitement for the industry and travel, kind of similar story that you hear a lot where people get into it because they were interested in it.
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So that's how we did and just really enjoyed it.
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I loved hosting guests.
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We had a blast with the design and just really did a fun, uh, unique experience for our guests, and it went really, really well.
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Around that same time, my husband is super handy and he spoke at a networking group and started a general contracting business in the short-term rental industry.
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And we just started showing up to these networking events, and I was able to start co-hosting.
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We bought a second property, it just kind of snowballed um in a really short amount of time.
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I put my W 2 about six months in.
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Not really ready, but I was like, you know what, I'm gonna give this thing a go.
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My husband did the same thing, so uh about the same time.
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So we are living and breathing entrepreneurship um in our household.
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And Lazy Sunday really just came, it the name came naturally.
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Prior to kids, we would have these Sundays where we would literally do nothing all day.
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We would hide out in our basement, watch movies, eat junk food, and we called it, we called it Lazy Sunday.
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And so when we created the business, that was kind of the vibe that we created with that first home.
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We called it the blue villa.
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Just wanted people to feel relaxed and at ease and like they had everything they needed and they didn't have worry worry in the world and they stayed in our properties.
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And as we were thinking about a business name, it just it just came together.
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So ever since I've been growing the portfolio, I've said yes to a lot.
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And so over the last year or so, I've been spending a lot of time just really, really understanding what I want out of the business, what I want out of our lives.
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And Annie kind of pinpointed it with the joy.
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So I've been heavily, heavily focused on what actually brings us joy.
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What don't why am I doing this?
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And it's all about working with people we enjoy working with, providing a great guest experience and growing thoughtfully.
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God, I there's so much I love that you just said, and I can tell you've been hanging around with Annie for a little bit, which I love.
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Um, and we we talk about that.
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We've that's actually kind of been a theme for this year for for both of us of like, you know, you hit a point where you're like, I just I want to, I want to, I mean, your work takes up so much of your life and you should enjoy what you're doing.
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And, you know, uh come into it with the understanding that sometimes things are going to be crazy, but like don't let it just like derail your whole world.
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And I think it's really hard for people of all industries, but in our industry for sure, because it's just it's non it's non-stop.
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But I can't imagine that you would agree now after all this time that really it's a lazy business.
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No, quite the opposite.
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I'm trying to make it more lazy.
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I bet.
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I bet.
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And how many properties do you manage?
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Uh, it's about 15.
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My my portfolio is fluctuating.
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I just am winding down a piece of the business that I had gotten into and just didn't enjoy it.
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Um, it was a whole different business model.
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So I've been saying no to more and yes to more of the right opportunities.
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So it's about 15 right now.
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Got it.
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Great.
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So I think Harley, when we and I first met, um, you came to me and it was like music to my ears because you said, I'm only out, you know, I'm I'm really kind of beholden to this one channel, and I really need help with that.
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And um, one of the things I, you know, like really like harp on is that you want to diversify your distribution so you're not beholden to one channel.
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But in the course of the conversation, we got to talking about like what can we do with Lazy Sunday and building your brand and like going back to the basics, like like of having a good website.
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And so it was really fun for me.
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And Alex, you would have loved this too.
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It was like a process of discovery with Carly, like all these things that she was already doing right and already doing and not really thinking about it because it was just coming natural to like who her who she is, and and kind of you know how we talk about with um, you know, we're we're in the business of hospitality, and at the core, everything we do is around hospitality.
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And she had all of those fundamentals in place, and it was just really kind of like polishing it and making sure she was in the right place.
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So I kind of wanted to like ask you, um, you know, from your perspective, what do you think it is about um, you know, what you're doing now that you think if if you had known in the beginning that maybe you've learned since that you would like you wish you'd known to help you set up better and and maybe you you would be bigger, maybe you wouldn't.
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I don't, I don't know.
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It feels like you're at a comfortable, comfortable place right now, but it's kind of that education piece that you and I talked about.
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It's like, you know, how do you seek it out?
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And so what do you think you know now that you wish you'd known in the beginning?
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It's a good question.
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I think because of the way I went about this, where I was gaining a lot of steam and I was so ready to own my own business and just do that, that I just said yes to everything.
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And so I think I don't know that I would have I would have done it differently in being more thoughtful about the properties and clients that I took on.
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I don't know that I would have done it differently in regards to the pace because I think I had to do that at that time to be able to provide you know an income for my family.
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So it was kind of just I'm very much a build jump out of the plane and and what is it, build the plane on the way down.
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Yeah.
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That's where I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna figure it out as I go.
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But I would say for sure, understanding uh what I what I want that guest experience to be.
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And I I did know that, but listening to my intuition when I took on new properties and really vetting them out and making sure they're the right properties in the right client.
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Yeah.
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And tell us a little bit about your journey of how you started, you know, picking and putting together the pieces of how you're you were gonna build this business of picking your software and you know, figuring out like what were what was the tech and the tools and support that you were gonna use.
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Like, how did you go about that without that knowledge of being in this for you know many years and deciding to do it?
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Hospitable was the first tool that I started with, and I'm still with Hospitable for my property management software.
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I love the product.
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I explored them and two others, and it just from the price point and the functionality, it just made sense.
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I started using that tool, I think, when I had three listings and started doing the automated messaging, um, working with my cleaners through the tool.
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And I'm so glad that I did it at that time because now I have been up to over 20 listings at a at a given time.
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So Hospitable just kind of came across my radar.
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I really don't even remember how it happened, but I've stuck with them since.
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And then I'm using price laps for for revenue management and another software for bookkeeping, but that's really the tech, and it's just based on what I needed, doing some quick research.
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And again, I'm a select and and figure it out along the way.
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I think the nice thing about hospitable, because I didn't know much about them either, and you you allowed me to kind of get in in the weeds with you on the system, is that they have just enough tools to make sure that you get all the basics done, but you're not so covered up with options that you feel overwhelmed by it.
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And they have a really good team there to help you through the help you through the process, if I'm not mistaken, right?
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Yeah, it's super user-friendly, and they're constantly adding to their capabilities and they listen to their hosts or their customers all the time and are making improvements.
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They connect with the bigger OTAs.
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And we've had some struggles on some of those smaller channels that we've that I've wanted to work with and haven't been able to.
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So that's definitely a missing piece, but I know it's on their roadmap.
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But yeah, they've been just really easy, easy to use for someone who has zero experience with the property management software.
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I was able to just get right in there and set it up.
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And there's still so much more I can do.
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I'm probably using it to like 30%, maybe, of its capability right now.
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But the big goal for this year is to max that out.
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Yeah, well, that's that's smart to be thinking that way too, because we see that quite a bit.
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I mean, with you know, newer people like yourself that's getting into this industry and people that have been in it a long time, that they think that they need to go out and get a new guest app or a new this or that.
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But you know, their software could have something that actually will work.
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And I think, you know, at the end of the day, no tool is gonna be perfect at everything, but it's about doing things in phases that, like, if if you're gonna spend money on something else that you want to add into that tech stack, like, you know, plan it out.
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It doesn't necessarily have to happen all at once.
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And we certainly don't recommend that because when you're adding in multiple new things at the same time, you know, it's just it can be chaos.
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So it's like get really strong in one area and have it figured out, make sure you're maximizing, and then start adding the things that you know make sense at that time.
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But um, I'm curious where also like how how did you navigate from an educational standpoint about the industry?
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Did you listen to besides the meetups that you went to?
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Like, did you go to listen to podcasts, like start, you know, following the news, vacation rental news sites, or what did that look like?
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Lots of podcasts.
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Get paid for your pad was a really big one for me early on.
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That was like, I got their book, like right, might have even been before we bought the property, read through, like flew through that, listened to their podcast a ton.
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Um, thanks for visiting the group, the ladies over in Columbus, Ohio.
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I've listened to them a ton.
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And that one's a great one for me because it's such a similar market.
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They they are in Columbus.
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Seemed to tailor their content to smaller hosts as well.
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So that was super helpful.
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And then just following stuff on LinkedIn, really.
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And most of my learning has been from doing.
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I mean, it's just doing it and figuring out.
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And then when I'm lost on something, finding a resource to help me, whether it's a human being like Annie or Tool.
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I think that's a great thing.
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The great thing about our industry though is like people are willing to share.
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So I mean, I think you and I talked about it.
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It's like you just connect with people on LinkedIn and throw a question out there, and somebody's either gonna have a suggestion or a solution or a workaround or what what have you.
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You know, there's there's a lot of that.
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And um uh, you know, I'm on the board of ERMA and Alex was a couple of years ago.
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And one of the things that we've been challenged in is how to reach the smaller host and how to help them out.
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And so that's that's one thing.
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Like, I know you and I had some conversations about it, but you talk with a lot of, I mean, Indianapolis is not a large-scale host community, but there's around 6,000 units within the the greater Indianapolis market.
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So it's not a small market in terms of rentals.
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But I wondered, like, you know, with your meetups and working with other hosts, how do you think from the VRMA standpoint, like, how do you think an association could help these smaller hosts out?
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Like, what do you think that there's a there's a definitely an opportunity to interact and reach out, but how do you think the association could help the smaller host?
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I guess maybe not feel overwhelmed by the association's size, but just to be able to access the information and the depth of knowledge that's sitting there.
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You mean specifically for VRMA?
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Yeah, well, I I mean, I think any association, but VRMA is the one for the for the kind of for the industry.
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So, you know, I think it's just like it's so big, they want to reach out to the community of the smaller host.
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You're a smaller host, but you probably feel overwhelmed by the, you know, the, I guess the no the members tend to be larger in in terms of like the size of property uh portfolios that they have.
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So I'm thinking, like, you know, are there things that you think the association could do better to engage with the smaller host?
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It's tough because I feel like when you're at the size that I'm at, it is a I'm wearing 30 hats, right?
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I'm doing every I do have public team members, but generally I'm doing every every job in my company.
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And so the thing I have the biggest struggle with is time.
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And so for me, it's more valuable to engage when I'm able on in a smaller group or on a one-to-one um scenario versus thinking about going to these big shows.
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Like I've got it's not even about the financial investment, it's about the time and the opportunity cost.
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And and I understand there's a ton of opportunity by going to those events as well.
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But when I'm like, oh, I'm gonna be gone for three days and there's nobody doing my job, currently working on fixing that.
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But for me, that's probably the biggest challenge is having enough opportunity to slow down to actually even uh consume the content that that's providing.
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And there's so much, Annie, I remember in our very first conversation talking about just all the noise, and that's and I will intentionally not like I haven't been on LinkedIn in probably three weeks.
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And it's just like I've had enough going on and I just need to block out all the noise for a minute because I start looking at stuff and I'm like, oh, I should be doing that, I should be doing this.
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So I'm just like putting my head down and do the things that I've got in front of me and the opportunities and the projects and just do as best as I can with those and then get to know other hosts in my area.
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And you know, we do that a ton and network and hey, what's working for you?
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This property isn't working for me anymore.
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Is this something you'd like to add to your portfolio?
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So I'm in the middle of that right now, shifting some of my properties to to another manager, and he's talking about doing the same in return because he wants to go more midterm and I want to keep on the short term.
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I don't know if I answer your question, but I think the biggest challenge for an operator of my size is being able to slow down and and understand those uh resources that are out there.
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Yeah.
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I I've literally had that conversation with three people today because we're we're talking about our our new um podcast partnership program.
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And a lot of the suppliers in the in the space are just they're getting frustrated because when they go to conferences, it's it's mostly the same people that can go.
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And it's a lot of those same people, you know, they've done the right things over the years that they have a staff at home that can stay and run the business while they get to go to these conferences.
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But we're missing a big part of the industry, people like yourself that are you know doing everything you can to grow this business.
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That it's you know, it's it's it's a lot, I mean, in all ways to go and take time off.
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But it's also, you know, you want to have that blend of working on the business and in the business.
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But I and I think you know, some of the online conferences have been really good for that point, actually hospitable.
00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:54.080
We were on their online conference earlier this year, and you know, there was a few hundred people on there.
00:15:54.080 --> 00:16:02.399
So obviously people are they want the information and they want to stay up with things, but you know, to your point about being overwhelmed, I totally get that too.
00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:14.799
Like if you go to one of the conferences like in Vegas for VR Ma, I mean, you can walk out of that vendor hall completely just overwhelmed or have spent a lot of money because there's so much to choose from.
00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:26.799
And everything sounds like it'd be good for the business, but that goes back to you know just really understanding like what's a nice to have, what's a must-have, and what's like, you know, maybe in the future type of a uh situation there.
00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:39.200
I think too that there's always so much information thrown at us that at any of these things, even the hospitable one uh last month I was on there for a bulk of it, and it's so much at once.
00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:41.200
And again, it's that like there's so much noise.
00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:43.120
Like, which of these things do do I do?
00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:48.960
Like, what is a valuable use of my time and resources right now?
00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:59.840
Because maybe I've got a couple thousand dollars to spend or what a tremendous amount of time, like what's the thing I am constantly using this term of like what's the thing that's gonna pull the lever?
00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:07.039
Like yeah, for it not I don't want to say the least effort, but there's just like there's a million things I could be doing.
00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:13.279
And well, it's it's just like advertising, it's the ROI, you know, where are you gonna get your return on it?
00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:14.240
Right.
00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:15.519
And for me, it's time.
00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:19.519
Like, how can I put in ROT, the return on time?
00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:20.720
Yeah, yeah.
00:17:20.720 --> 00:17:31.200
That's yeah, all I'm focused on right now is like how do I get myself out of every single thing so that I can do these things, or I can just uh have more freedom in my life, you know.
00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:32.720
For sure, for sure.
00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:41.359
I think one of the things that Alex and I talk about a lot is um going back to the beginning when you know where you came to me was like you were kind of channel dependent.
00:17:41.359 --> 00:17:45.759
Um, you have had a little bit of a direct booking, but now you're really focused on it.
00:17:45.759 --> 00:18:00.240
And I'm super excited for you because you're really like focusing in on you've you've built this brand, you had kind of a a look and a feel that you put together, you kind of knew where you what you wanted the ethos of it to be, but now it's like really like buttoning up, buttoning it up and and making it happen.
00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:15.119
And so um I'm curious like what that process has been like since you and I stopped working together because you're focusing on your website and you're and you're really thinking methodically about what that brand looks like so that you know, not that you cut off using channels, but so that brand is it can stand on its own.
00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:19.279
If something were to happen to these channels, you've already got this like direct booking strategy in place.
00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:23.279
So maybe talk us through a little bit about what you're doing right now to implement that.
00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:30.079
Yeah, so right now I'm just kicking off a website and branding project with another Indiana company.
00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:35.359
Um, they're a sister duo in in northern Indiana that I that I met very much like I met you.
00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:36.079
I don't even remember.
00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:37.680
Some somehow we got connected.
00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:40.480
But regardless, they're gonna go through a branding activity with me.
00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:49.359
I've done a lot of that work on my own of just spending some time just thinking and writing down like what does Lazy Sunday really mean and putting that into some notes.
00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:51.359
So I've provided that to them.
00:18:51.359 --> 00:18:55.759
Um, we've kind of gone through like what is the structure of the website gonna be.
00:18:55.759 --> 00:18:59.440
And she's asked me some tough questions, like, what do you want it to feel like?
00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:06.079
Like, I want it to feel joyful and and easy, but I don't want it to just be another site that has a bunch of properties on it.
00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:16.880
Like, I think sharing my story and being vulnerable on there and working to connect with the guests and potential clients that will serve my management services as well.
00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:18.960
So that's about an eight-week project.
00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:52.400
Um, and then at the same time, I'm doing a key project for operations where we're looking at the tech stack that I just mentioned and uncovering, okay, what and I know a lot of this on my own, but I'm I'm working with a partner to really dive into hospitable, dive into price labs, like understand where we're not using the tools, how they can work better together, how they can be working instead of human beings, how my team can be interacting with the tools to kind of get us out of those, just out of the weeds and and into strategizing more.
00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:55.039
Tell us a little bit about the branding process.
00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:59.759
I mean, what what are some of the things that the was it like a designer that you worked with or an agency?
00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:04.000
Um, yeah, so it's an agency that does branding.
00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:09.599
They do websites all in short-terminal only and furnishing and design.
00:20:09.599 --> 00:20:12.799
So we haven't actually kicked off the branding piece yet.
00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:16.160
We just kicked off the website or started the website conversation yesterday.
00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:22.160
So I haven't gotten into the branding uh just yet, but I imagine they're gonna be, you know, asking all of those.
00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:31.359
I already they asked just like what is what is one word you could use to describe what you want it to be like, and and ease is what comes to mind always.
00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:35.440
Um, but yeah, I'm excited to get further into that process.
00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:43.039
I'm sure it's gonna be tough to really uh delve into uh it's all that's the fun part though, you know.
00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:44.480
I mean, like that's that's the fun part.
00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:49.039
I've got um a client that we're in the process of of a major rebrand.
00:20:49.039 --> 00:20:56.880
This is a big company, and this is they've had their brand since they opened you know 15 years ago, and there's a lot of things to change with it.
00:20:56.880 --> 00:21:01.599
But we found um a great designer to lead us through that process.
00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:04.000
And you know, she's really kind of pushed us.
00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:15.519
I mean, as far as the materials and the examples of the things that we like, and you know, the textures and the colors and the fonts, and it's it's hard for some people if you don't have that creative eye.
00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:30.720
But like if you if you are interested in marketing and like you know what you're looking for, it's actually kind of a fulfilling process because it's like you get to see, you don't know exactly what you want it to look like in your head, but like you know what you like, and then when it comes to fruition, it's like, oh my God.
00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:32.880
And in this case, that's how it was.
00:21:32.880 --> 00:21:38.319
We just got our our first uh proofs of the new brand last week, and we were all like, oh my god, she hit the nail on the head.
00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:41.759
So I hope that that's the process that you have with us too.
00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:44.160
Yeah, I'm I am really excited about it.
00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:53.039
I think I kind of get a little nervous because of what I mentioned before of my portfolio being a bit of a uh hodgepodge.
00:21:53.039 --> 00:21:58.640
So I don't want to misrepresent some of the properties, which is what I'm working on adjusting right now.
00:21:58.640 --> 00:22:01.359
So I'm super Excited about the branding process.
00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:05.119
I want to make sure it's cohesive with the portfolio that I have, you know.
00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:06.880
Yeah, for sure.
00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:15.680
Now, on the um, once you get the brand done, um, I imagine then the next step is kind of growth, you know, adding properties.
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