Marketing Episodes

Today's episode is a very special one, as we bring you a recent panel discussion we hosted at Rent Responsibly's 2023 Sustainability Summit. What does sustainability have to do with branding and company culture, and why is it more important than ever to focus on this way of thinking? Tune in to find out! Tune in as we dive into this topic with two of the smartest minds in hospitality marketing, Stuart Butler and Pete DiMaio. You do NOT want to miss this one! Stuart Butler After 20 years in th...

In today’s episode, Alex and Annie sit down with Graham Donoghue, the CEO of Sykes Holidays Cottages Group. When Graham was brought on Sykes, the brand was lacking a narrative and a story. They were large and profitable but departments were siloed with no real rallying cry to drive the company forward. Today, Sykes has 25 brands in its portfolio and 24,000 properties under management in the UK and New Zealand, making the brand a major player in the vacation rental industry. One interesting th...

Elevate a Vacation Guest’s Experience In today’s episode, Alex and Annie welcome Mike Flaskey, Former CEO of Diamond Resorts International and Founder of Mike Flaskey Entertainment, as he gives his second public interview since leading the sale of Diamond Resorts to Hilton Grand Vacations in June 2021. COVID profoundly affected Diamond but innovation allowed them to rebound quickly. Mike shares how they did this and how they pioneered a new way to be evaluated on multiples of EBITDA. He ta...

SUCCESS IN THE VACATION RENTAL SPACE ISN’T ALWAYS INTENTIONAL and Arthur Colker is proof of that. Arthur is the CEO and founder of StayFi, and in this episode, discusses how he accidentally fell into the short-term rental and vacation rental space. He talks about how he helped a friend develop an independent brand, and how he saw the value in controlling and owning guests’ data. Arthur built a solution that helps managers and operators capture guest data and then monetize it through tools lik...

Francois Goello who is the founder of Enso Connect joins us today for an interesting tale of how a terrible guest experience led to him founding one of the slickest guest apps on the market. Francois tells us how Enso Connect was built from the guest perspective first - rather than the property first - and how this frame of mind is enabling them to solve communication issues that PMS's (property management systems) were not made to handle. An entrepreneur from a very early age, Francois shares ...

Pete Dimaio of TravelBoom Marketing is BACK for a three-Pete! This is Pete's 3rd appearance on the show, and today he joins us for a very timely and relevant topic. As we head into 2023 and an economic forecast that is anything but certain, it's more important than ever that business owners and marketers are ready to sharpen their pencils, and know when it's time to push the gas or pump the brakes. We discuss the importance of auditing your tracking, re-negotiating contracts, adopting an "alway...

Dennis Goedheid has built a budding empire in Orlando, that has recently spawned into Miami and Aruba. His entrepreneurial journey began in Belgium, where he learned the fundamentals of marketing and branding which he has applied to his Orlando based vacation rental business. Dennis is as humble as he is successful, and an asset to the vacation rental community. You'll never miss the Casiola team at conferences - they are always ON brand, in their bright fuchsia shirts! We love simple touches l...

Lauren Madewell joins us today to share the story of her family's business, Auntie Belham's Cabin Rentals. The company is ran by Lauren and her sister Mallory, along with their Dad, John Madewell, who fell into vacation rentals when a relative passed away and left the business to John in 2008. The family rose to the occasion, and has grown the company into one of the most respected outfits in the Smoky Mountains with a loyal following of guests that return year after year. Topics we cover: ...

John Hildebrand of Hilde Homes joins us today for a discussion on all our favorite topics! John's company is based out of Scottsdale, AZ with properties in Arizona and California and has risen to fame as a Brand Ambassador for Airbnb. Despite having this important role with Airbnb, John's account got suspended last year - a shocking and frustrating mystery that Airbnb couldn't even explain. This incident made John realized the importance of building his own brand off the platform, and why creati...

Lance & Elaine Stitcher are owners and co-founders of Seaside Vacations & Sales, a premiere vacation rental management company that represents nearly 300 properties in Chincoteague Island, VA and Ocean City, MD. This power couple has grown their business rapidly in the past decade by staying focused on the fundamentals - company culture, happy homeowners, work/life balance, innovative marketing and dynamic pricing. This episode is part of our Spotlight on Exceptional Property Managers, brought ...

Vanessa Humes of ICND joins us today to share the top 5 strategies for building a book-direct vacation rental brand. As we often talk about on the podcast, building your house on someone else's land puts your business in a dangerous position - but where do you begin if you want to take business BACK from the OTAs? Whether you're an experienced manager or just starting out in the industry, Vanessa has great insights and tips that will help you build your business on your own land...because the gr...

Matt Landau is one of the most respected thought leaders in vacation rentals. Founder of VRMB, Matt has built an information-sharing media empire, driven by one simple yet effective concept. As he tells us, "If you have a tip, share it!" You will find more like-minded individuals to collaborate with and by sharing information we are all helping each other and the industry grow. What does it mean to be Limited Edition, and how can you leverage this positioning to create your OWN lane and break f...

Marc Hostovsky, CEO/Founder of Minoan Experience, joins us today for an enlightening look at e-commerce and how vacation rental companies and hosts now have the ability to make their properties a shoppable, revenue driving experience. Gone are the days of ordering furniture from multiple websites or companies and keeping track of work orders - Minoan Experience allows you to make all the furnishings and decor in your unit shoppable to your guests. Marc's previous experience at Jet.com and Wal-Ma...

We often talk about the importance of not building your marketing house on someone else’s land (Airbnb, Vrbo, Google etc), but in this episode we discuss how creative marketers are building their brands on their own channels. Stuart Butler, CMO of Visit Myrtle Beach and undeniably one of the sharpest minds in all of hospitality marketing joins us today to explain the concept of creating gravity in a destination, and why creating branded entertainment is key to distinguishing your destination or...

We are so excited to welcome Pete Dimaio, VP Of Client Success for Travel Boom Marketing, back for his second tour of duty! (Pete joined us back in March on Episode 19). Pete is here today to talk about a very timely and important topic as many of us enter hurricane season: how to manage your marketing/communications strategy when faced with a natural disaster. From hurricanes and tropical storms to wildfires, if you are in a vacation destination you NEED to hear Pete's candid advice along with ...

Tune in for Part 2 of our episode with Ed St. Onge, President of Flip.to and Founder of the first ever channel management software for hotels, EZ Yield. On last week's episode, Ed took us through the early days of channel and yield management and how the technology his team build became the foundation of an industry. On today's episode, Ed shares his story of Flip.to and how they are transforming the guest journey to drive more direct bookings, grow profits, and enhance the quality of the conve...

As one of Greg Fisher’s partners recently said, “There’s a difference between an Owner and a Founder; and Greg is a Founder.” Greg joins us today to share his entrepreneurial journey and how he grew TripShock into one of the largest online tour & activity marketplaces in the country. When Greg launched TripShock back in 2009, he faced significant headwinds as he battled to get the platform up and running. Most water sports and attractions were still managed by pen and paper during this time, so ...

Today we are joined by Pete DiMaio for a very special episode! Pete is Vice President of Travel Boom Marketing, the hotel industry's leading marketing agency and on this episode he joins us to share the Top 5 Things Vacation Rentals Can Learn from Hotels. We recently joined Pete on his show The Hotel Marketing Podcast to share what hotels can learn from vacation rentals. This was a fun switch-a-roo episode and it is packed with helpful information! Pete details the following tips: #1: The On-P...

On today's episode we are joined by Jennifer Barbee, CEO of Destination Innovate and a dynamic leader who has worked with over 400 hospitality and destination brands. She has been credited with many innovative firsts in the industry; including the first personalized destination website, tapped to lead digital account strategy for the first inbound travel campaign for the US Department of Commerce and the first destination campaign to be used as a Facebook Business Case study. She is a contributo...