Mike Bayer
You're listening to the Vacation Rental Success Podcast, and we don't have a sponsor for our episodes in March for a very important reason; we need your help.

Mike Bayer
In Canada, short-term rentals are under attack from regulations being imposed by legislators, including a full ban in the province of British Columbia. These decisions are being made based on biased reports with inaccurate data generated by lobbyists from competing industries. In an effort to make our voices heard and start the conversation with top-level decision makers, the CanStays Rental Alliance Conference is happening April 20-22 in Banff, Alberta. This is the first time in the history of short-term rentals across the world has had an event like this and on this scale been created so property managers, individual owners and other stakeholders can have their say out from the shadow of Airbnb.

Mike Bayer
This event may be focused on Canada, but if we don't all stand up and support this initiative, your local legislators could follow the lead of these Canadian regulations that will find their way to your tourist area. We need you to attend, we need you to share this message and we need you to get involved.

Mike Bayer
Visit canstaysrentalalliance.com to book your ticket and join the fight for our right to a fair and responsible future for the short-term rental industry. If you need an extra incentive to book, use the coupon code VRF100 to take $100 off your ticket. And also check the CanStays website for discounts on flights with Westjet.

Mike Bayer
Without further delay, let's get to today's episode. Here's your host, Heather Bayer.

Heather Bayer
In today's episode, I'm joined by my son, my business partner, Mike Bayer, to do a roundup of SSTIR Crazy Month that we have just wrapped up. It was a whirlwind five weeks of podcasts, panels, blog posts, and all sorts of social media posts. And in this episode, we're going to do a wrap up and bring you the best nuggets of the month.

Heather Bayer
This is the Vacation Rental Success Podcast, keeping you up-to-date with news, views, information and resources on this rapidly changing short-term rental business. I'm your host, Heather Bayer, and with 25 years of experience in this industry, I'm making sure you know what's hot, what's not, what's new, and what will help make your business a success.

Heather Bayer
Well, hello and welcome to another episode of the Vacation Rental Success Podcast. This is your host, Heather Bayer, and as ever, I'm super delighted to be back with you once again. And today, even more delighted to be joined by Mike Bayer, my son and my business partner at Vacation Rental Formula Business School, and we're going to be talking about SSTIR Crazy Month. Hey, Mike, how are you doing?

Mike Bayer
I'm really good. It's been a while since I've been on the show. It's nice to kind of get back on the microphone and yeah, share some of these incredible nuggets of information that even we've learned after 25+ years in the industry. I think it's just amazing when you can bring this many people together who recognize the fact that this content is something that is just not being discussed enough. And I'm really excited to get into this and to share some of the best bits of SSTIR Crazy month.

Heather Bayer
Well, of course, that's how it all started. It started with Justin Ford talking in a LinkedIn post about the fact that these things were not at the forefront of people's attention, and they should be. So we thought this would be great and it started out as a little idea to talk about safety, sustainability, trust, insurance regulations and bring some life to all of this. And I think we managed it. I think we created a buzz. There was definitely a buzz going  on LinkedIn, Instagram, across Facebook, people were tuning into the podcast. They were coming along to the panels and signing up to get all of that information after we'd finished each week. How did it go overall, Mike?

Mike Bayer
It was incredible. As you said, I think we didn't expect this to snowball as much as it did. It really struck a nerve with a lot of people that everybody needs to take that moment in time. We're all very busy. We're all focusing on bookings and reservations, and everybody needs to take that moment in time to have that little bit of a look into the business. Look into your own business and make sure that your bases are covered. This is what came out of these conversations over this month, and it was amazing to see how many people were getting into the comments and sharing the things they never thought about. As I said, for you and myself, there were many, many nuggets that we'll talk about today that really helped cover some of those areas in the business we just tend to forget.

Heather Bayer
I learned a lot, and I think if I was still back in that position of being CEO of a property management company and being in there day in, day out, I would have taken so many of these things and gone straight back into the team and said, hey, we need to be doing this for safety. We need to be doing this for trust. And in fact, it was interesting when we shared some of this at the workshop we did down here in Orange Beach last month. And we shared some of this information that I'd heard about insurance and trust and safety with some of the attendees at that workshop. They also were hearing it for the first time. So it just shows how important it all is.

Mike Bayer
Yeah. You go to conferences, you go to events, and it's the same conversations about new technology and the better way of mastering your marketing and all of these things that directly relate to ROI and revenue. And these are important conversations. But nothing is more important than the conversation of ensuring that through your own accidental negligence, that you haven't covered your bases. So when an accident happens, whether there's a fire or something happens to your guests or things are happening in your community, that can rock the foundations of your business and.... Yeah. So let's get right into this. There's some great stuff to share.

Heather Bayer
So what we're going to do is go through each of the weeks and pull out the best bits. And then, of course, in the Show Notes you're going to be getting.... now, how are you going to do that, Mike? Are we just going to put the links in the Show Notes or.....? That's your bit

Mike Bayer
I think what we're going to do is, I'm going to create a landing page where you can have access to all of the content from the SSTIR Crazy Month of 2024. And I say that because we plan to do this again next year, even bigger and even better, with more companies and more people involved to really help to spread the word, because this is more than just covering your bases. This actually makes us, as an entire industry, stand up. It makes us stand up, take responsibility for the organizations that we're creating, the companies we're creating, and the responsibility we have to our guests, to our owners, to our community, and to our teams. I mean, it's been so influential on us as a company at vacation and performer business school. We're even changing our business model to begin to address these foundational core values. And there'll be more of that coming in the coming episodes. But, yeah, we kicked off with safety, just to clarify. Yes. So if you go to the Show Notes, there'll be a link there and you can click and just register with us, and we will send you to a landing page which will detail all of the content that we covered during SSTIR Crazy Month.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, as you say, let's kick off with safety. And in the podcast that week, I had Leo Walton from Superhog, and we covered 'knowing your guests', because often when you think about safety, you're thinking, have I got a fire extinguisher? Is it current? Are my smoke alarms working? Is my CO monitor working? Those are the things that tend to come front of mind. I mean, you know this Mike, this is something that you see on a day-to-day basis. But we wanted to cover the things that are not so out there. And one of them was safety for not just guests, but safety for owners and property managers.

Heather Bayer
So we talked to Leo Walton about how important it is to actually know your guests. We're going to be talking about trust. We had a whole week on trust, but that was really about getting our guests to trust us. But in the safety section in this podcast, we were talking about trusting the guest, how important it is to know who they are and how to trust them. And there was something that Leo said at the very outset that sort of resonated with me....

Leo Walton
I start from the position of wanting to trust the guest, but I also want to verify that that's the right thing to do. So the best way to build trust is to make sure that you're confident that you've got the right guest and that then becomes a big opportunity, marketing to that guest again and trying to retain them, because you're able to start curating the journey towards their needs, learning a bit about them. So knowing your guest, that goes way beyond just getting those key bits of information from them.

Heather Bayer
So that was Leo talking about guest screening, about having the conversations with guests. And one thing that really came out of that for me Mike, was things like putting the screening details on a website. So if you're going to be screening guests, you're going to be asking questions of them. You're going to have a rental agreement, then put that on your website that tells guests that this is what you're going to do and the reason for it. And because you do that, you can deter those with bad intentions. And Leo talks quite a lot about how this actually works and how you can do it in such a way so that you're not frightening your guests off.

Heather Bayer
And then he also talked about the importance of mentioning compliance with local regulations and HOAs to explain why screening is necessary. And I love this conversation, because going back to my early days in this business, that's what we did. We screened our guests. We talked to them. We asked them questions. We asked in fact, very invasive questions. We asked what their names were, what their ages were, what their occupations were, what their home insurance [policy] number was, and their driver's license details.

Heather Bayer
We asked a lot of personal information that you cannot get now. So what Leo was explaining was how we can do that similar sort of screening, but in a less invasive way and in a more sensitive way.

Mike Bayer
Yeah, I think one of the things that I really took away from this too, and of course we can't take away from some of those basic necessities of safety. Evaluating your properties, and we see this all the time with property management companies, is that you take on a wide range of property styles, many different manufacturers and construction methods, and you need to ensure that the property in of itself is safe.

Mike Bayer
One of the conversations that comes up a lot is, do the amenities of the property match the occupancy load that you're planning on inviting in? Things like safety of decks, the pool, do you have all the right signage? All those kinds of things are really bread and butter of what you should be doing. And of course, we included Justin Ford from Breezeway on this panel, because his knowledge is just incredible right across the board, the stories that are coming out of the neglect when it comes to safety.

Mike Bayer
We're wrapped up in this world of our guests wanting that unique experience, that experience you can't find anywhere else. And Airbnb will continuously put out blog posts and influencers will put out blog posts focusing on these ultra unique properties like tree houses and A-frame properties with lofts. But unfortunately, those are beautiful and great creative ideas for attracting guests to your unique stay. But if the safety isn't in there as well, so if you have a fire in a treehouse, can people escape? If again, you have a fire in an A-frame property with this unique loft, with the cargo-net bed, these all seem great when you're being creative and trying to give a unique experience, but you have to make sure that the basics of safety, fire prevention, escape means of egress, all those kinds of things are being met.

Mike Bayer
But one of the things that we also took away from this week is a conversation which I hadn't even heard of until about a year ago, was the prevalence of human trafficking in our properties and our ability, or our lack of, for a better term, our lack of knowledge, where we're just not aware of the signals and the things to look for. We had Catherine Ratcliffe, who is really spearheading this discussion in the short-term rental industry, on the warning signs, things to look out for. And it's not just people using your properties for nefarious reasons. It's also keeping an eye on your labor force as well.

Mike Bayer
If you're hiring contractors, if you're hiring cleaners, and these sort of companies, is ensuring that their staff as well are not being human trafficked. Whether it be labor trafficking, you have a responsibility to your community and your team to make sure that everybody is above board and are attending their workplace willingly. And that's definitely something that I took away, which was not a conversation I'd had before.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, me neither. And knowing Catherine so much better now and knowing her background and where this passion for spreading the message about human trafficking comes from, makes it even more important. And I know that in Florida, I believe, and I can't remember who it's mandatory for, but there is mandatory training in human trafficking, and I believe that is within the sort of travel and tourism industry.

Heather Bayer
The other one that got me that I hadn't really thought about was data safety. And this is going back to what I just said. Safety goes beyond what we normally think about. And those things, as you've just mentioned, are super important. But when you start to think of safety from a much broader perspective, you begin to realize how massive this topic is and how much more attention needs to be paid for it. So I want to thank Justin Ford, Humphrey Bowles from Superhog, and Catherine Ratcliffe for joining us for that panel. It was super interesting. I really encourage you to go and have a listen of that.

Mike Bayer
Yeah. And then just the last thing that we took away from that in terms of the data safety is just knowing you're already using technology partners, again, it's ensuring that the companies you're working with, that you're well aware of their processes. Making sure that they're storing your guests' information, ensuring that they are protected against data breaches. I mean, this is something we're seeing on a weekly basis now as hacks are happening left, right and center. And it's got to the point now where it's kind of, I think a lot of people shrug, but certainly the reputation of your brand and your property management company, if that's what's being highlighted, is the fact that you might not come back from that. How will people trust you going forwards if you've not taken every step possible to ensure that your guests identity and their credentials are protected?

Heather Bayer
So that was Safety Week. It was super interesting. I took a lot away from it. I know many people did, because I was seeing the comments coming in from LinkedIn, from those who listened to the podcast and attended the panel.

Heather Bayer
So Week 2, we went into trust, and front and center of that week was Chris Maughan from I-PRAC. Chris...., what would you call Chris? The trust guru, I guess?

Mike Bayer
I'd also call Chris our head cheerleader. Between Chris and the team from I-PRAC and our incredible sponsors, Proper Insurance and their team. These are two phenomenal companies who recognize the value of these topics. Yeah, I mean, Chris was really instrumental in helping to spread the word. And I'm very, very grateful for both Chris and the IPRAC team and the Proper Insurance team for really getting behind this whole initiative.

Heather Bayer
Well, once we really started delving into the topic of trust, and I realized that this underpins absolutely everything. It underpins safety and insurance and regulations and sustainability. It is at the basis of everything. And the podcast episode that I did with Chris was, once again, such an eye opener. And he had a couple of, what would you call them, 'quote bombs' or something?

Heather Bayer
He said a couple of things that really just went down so well with me and with the audience. One of them was, uncertainty is the killer of conversion. And I thought that was a brilliant way of putting it. And what he was saying is that people are more uncertain these days. They have uncertainties when they're buying online. And if you don't address those uncertainties immediately when they get to your website, then you're not going to convert them. And then the other thing he said was this.

Chris Maughan
So there's so much work that a direct booking operator, a property manager, to get direct booking has got to do, because he must attract the trust through professionalism, through reputation, through the trust signals. And I believe that a lot of the property managers out there today, they don't build their website with trust at the forefront of the booking process. What we call the subconscious due diligence.

Mike Bayer
I absolutely love that line. I love that line; what we call the subconscious due diligence. And I think that is something that's really important for us all to take into consideration from the whole process. Going back to the workshop that Heather and I did just recently, we talked about the seven steps of the guest experience and just understanding that these levels of trust go from the guests right from their initial conception of going on vacation all the way to after they've been to stay with you and they're reminiscing. And I think that you need to be making sure that this subconscious due diligence is part of your team, and you're putting this across to your guests as well.

Heather Bayer
And there was one other thing he said that I thought was very timely, very relevant. And he was talking about direct bookings.

Chris Maughan
And I know for a fact today that a lot of people talk about direct bookings, and they basically just lie about the percentage of direct bookings that they've got. It's clear they're OTA reliant and that's it. And they don't know how to transfer that over to direct bookings, because they've become so accustomed to the OTA way, they don't know how to start looking at how do you convert an OTA reliant business to a direct booking business? Trust is the main factor. Reputation is key, but if you're not given the trust and the guarantees that anybody else would give, then people are just not going to book directly. So trust is the key factor. But you've got to display it all the way through your website, all the way through to everything, to the end, to the booking process, and have your trust signals in the right place.

Heather Bayer
So then we got to the panel, which was a great panel for that week. We had Neely Khan, who is the managing director of I-PRAC, Harshad Harania from Amari Villas and Dave Goodfellow from Noki Stays. What did you think of that panel, Mike, what stuck out for you?

Mike Bayer
Well, I think the same with this one, as in many of the others, is that all of these topics can seem quite big. But I kind of feel like the trust signals are the easiest ones for you to take action on very quickly. And we talked about in that panel having the importance of trust signals above the fold. And what that means is, that when somebody clicks onto your website without scrolling, without having to do anything, there is something that they can see, or read, or an image that imparts the fact that the guest can trust you. Can trust you with their booking. It can simply be your strap line for your business, 'Your trusted accommodation provider, in.....' whatever destination you're in. So, I mean, that's one of the easiest ones to do. Or it's simply having part of your menu bar. You don't see that as much on mobile [devices] because you have the three little lines. But certainly on your website is to have 'Trust' as one of the buttons on your top menu and have your trust signals on your page point to that. If they click on it, they point to it.

Mike Bayer
And that was something you brought up, I think Heather, was when you look at websites that display 'VRMA Award Winner' of whatever year. I mean, these are all great accolades to have, but your guests have no idea what those mean. And if they are just an image or an icon, they need to be able to visit a page to find out what that means. Why did you get that award? What does it mean to them as a guest? Why do they need to know that this is a trust signal for them to make them feel comfortable to make that booking?

Heather Bayer
Yeah. Quite honestly, a trust signal isn't a trust signal unless you can follow it through and see why it's a trust signal. So, for example, and you often see websites where it has all the places where the person has been published, maybe CNN or BBC or something like MSNBC. And then you hover over it. It doesn't go anywhere. So it's just a picture. What is the point? And this is what's happening in so many websites. And as you say, if you're a member of VRMA, don't just put the VRMA logo at the bottom of your website. Have a link to where it says the benefits for the guest of you being a member of VRMA.

Mike Bayer
Now, I think one of the best things, as I said, is you have one trust page. You have one page on your website that covers why people should trust you, and you have a paragraph on that page covering what VRMA membership means. You don't have to have a different page for every single one. You want to see lots of people go into your trust page. And I'll guarantee you when you start to look at the analytics people landing on that page, they will read it. It's not just a filler page, it's a page that people will land on and that will get them to book with you direct. And that's going to be one of those big make or break things for a prospective guest, is are they going to trust you enough to book direct to not go through on the OTAs? That's where your trust page is going to pay dividends tenfold.

Heather Bayer
Neely sort of followed this up with talking about this is how you manage uncertainty. So she was following on from what Chris had been saying in the podcast, but saying, you manage uncertainty by having a trust page and dealing with all those little uncertainties that your guests have, so that when they've finished looking at the trust page, they've got no more uncertainties, because you've got them to trust you. It seems really simple, but actually  encouraging people to do this thing, I think is the most difficult. I'm working on a post at the moment, Mike, about how to create this trust page. So that's going to be coming out fairly soon, and we will point you in the right direction when that does.

Heather Bayer
So let's go into Week 3, which was insurance. And this was a pretty darn big week, because insurance is such a massive subject. And we were so fortunate to have with us Nick Massey, who's the director of sales at Proper Insurance, who were our sponsor for the entire month. Nick joined us for the podcast. He also joined us for the panel as well. And in the podcast, there's one thing that he made it very simple, talking about the four pillars of insurance that we need to pay attention to.

Heather Bayer
So we have professional liability, homeowners insurance. The third one is the damage waiver and any supplemental insurance, and then travel insurance. And we were fortunate then to have Noga Barpal of Faye on the panel to represent the travel insurance side. But I learned a lot from this, made me realize, Mike, how many bullets we'd actually dodged in 20 years of property management. One of the things Nick had said was about renting things like bicycles and kayaks and having guests buy those rentals directly through you. So maybe as a property manager, you're getting a little bit of commission from the rental company. But what Nick said is that you're also going to be carrying that liability. So if a guest rents a bicycle from a bike rental company, but it is through you, and then something happens to that guest and there is an accident, you are also going to be implicated in any lawsuit because you were the intermediary. So I'd never thought of that.

Mike Bayer
And I think that was one of the biggest things that came out of that week, was that a lot of us think we're covered. Whether or not you're using OTA provided coverage like AirCover or you have homeowners insurance, if you're an individual property owner, or if you're a property management company and you have home owners, but you're not listed on their insurance, your property management company needs to be listed on your home owner's insurance policy that the business is coming through you. So that way you're covered through the home owner's policy as well.

Mike Bayer
There are so many different avenues with insurance, and I think this is an unfortunate sign of our times, is that lawyers are getting better, solicitors, they're finding the loopholes. And if you're not constantly reevaluating your insurance, especially based on case law, I mean, if there's going to be cases going to be tried and adjudications made, if your insurance agent is not keeping up on what needs to be covered, then you could be leaving yourself very open for challenges in the future that you had no idea were there.

Mike Bayer
I think that was the one thing that really came out of this conversation for the insurance week was to, I mean, I'm a huge supporter of Proper Insurance, and they are an incredibly helpful company. Just give them a call. Even if you're not insured with Proper Insurance, call Proper Insurance and say, hey, this is what I've got. Am I covered? Does this do everything for me? Their team are very well trained. They know all of the different angles that you need to have covered right, all the way through. And the biggest thing is, just be honest, and I've heard this from many, many people, is they'll hide things from their insurance company to think they'll get a less expensive policy. And yes, you probably will, but you will find that you're just going to leave yourself out in the open.

Mike Bayer
One of the discussions that came up, we asked, one of the attendees on the live panel was asking, is it okay for me to provide a bottle of wine? Now, a lot of people do that. They'll provide wine, or they'll provide home-baked cookies or all these kinds of things. And I've always thought these are wonderful things and great examples of hospitality. But again, you leave yourself totally wide open to litigation. Should somebody drink that bottle of wine or any other bottle of wine that they brought themselves and then accuse you of providing the means for somebody to become intoxicated and then fall and hurt themselves?

Mike Bayer
It's a minefield, unfortunately. And I think a lot of us will just say, you know what? We just got to risk it. And you do. There are certain avenues where you do, but I think it's important to have that conversation with your insurance agent and make sure that you are covered the best way you can.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, let's just hear that from Nick.

Nick Massey
We're having this conversation with our insurance agent, and we're trying to make sure we're getting quotes that are adequate for our property, that we need to be upfront with this. In these conversations, I am offering a kayak or two or three, because I'm waterfront or lakefront or beachfront, whatever it might be. I have a hot tub, I have a sauna, I have gym equipment. I'm pet friendly. I have bicycles. All of these things, right? You want to be very upfront with what you're doing.

Heather Bayer
So on the panel, we had Nick, as I said, Noga Barpal from Faye and Andrew Boldt from Superhog, and there were just so many nuggets in that entire session on insurance. So once again, encourage you to go and listen to the podcast and take a look at the panel again from insurance week.

Mike Bayer
And this is the same with every single week, is that these are huge topics that can seem very overwhelming. And one of the biggest things we don't want you to take away from SSTIR Crazy Month is that each week there's so much to do, to be bogged down. At the end of the day, just do one thing from each week. Take one nugget and implement that in your business. And then once that's done, then maybe pick up another nugget. There's always going to be more and more you can do with your business. I mean, that's inevitable. There's no end to the things that you can change and adjust to ensure that you're providing the best service possible to your guests, to your owners, to your community, to your team. And I think all we can encourage you to do is just go back, listen to these podcast episodes, watch the or listen to the recordings of the panels, take out one nugget and apply that to your business. I think that's one of the best takeaways from this month.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, Humphrey Bowles actually mentioned this right at the very beginning in safety week. And he said, if it all feels overwhelming, just do one thing. There's a book called The One Thing, isn't there? We try and do that, Mike. We are getting into just doing the one thing. And actually, when you commit to just doing one thing and not try and do 100 things at once, it's amazing how much more you get done cumulatively.

Mike Bayer
Yes, absolutely.

Heather Bayer
Okay, so in Week 4, we talked about regulations, and this was an interesting week too, of course, coming on all the discussion we've been having recently about the CanStays Rental Alliance Conference and what's happening in British Columbia. So we wanted to talk to somebody who's very comfortable with walking the corridors of power. And I found an article by Rolf Blizzard, who is the managing partner at Atlantic Realty of The Outer Banks. And I found that article on the Rent Responsibly website. It was called the 7Cs of Advocacy.

Heather Bayer
Rolf has been a lobbyist. He has been chief of staff to a senator. So Rolf has been involved with VRMA for many years in terms of advocacy and regulations, and has worked hard in his area around The Outer Banks as well, and certainly kept his hand in on the regulations front. We talked in the podcast about these 7Cs of Advocacy, and let's just hear from Rolf as what he says is the first step.  

Rolf Blizzard
The most important step in advocacy is the first step. And that's where I talk about a conscious commitment. I channel my inner Baptist. You have to be willing to give your time, your talent, and your treasure to this. You actually have to decide in your business, that this is going to be as big a part of the business as revenue management or as marketing. It's going to require dollars, it's going to require a commitment of your time.

Heather Bayer
So I think that was just such an important point for him to make, that very first step, Mike. That conscious commitment. You've got to decide that you're going to do this. I know that you've become very involved in how advocacy plays out, mostly by talking with Catherine Ratcliffe. And our contribution to the CanStays Rental Alliance Conference, what's your take on it?

Mike Bayer
I think the biggest thing to take away is the fact the number of people who just don't think it's going to happen to them and then don't take that time to get involved, to create an advocacy group. It's more important to start the conversation before you have to have the conversation. And I think that was something I really took away, is that it's never too late to get involved. But the longer you leave it, the more challenging it is, and the more stressful it is.

Mike Bayer
The top of the episode throughout the course of March, we're going to be promoting the CanStays Rental Alliance Conference being put on by Catherine Ratcliffe in an effort to open the conversation between Canadian short-term rental business owners and the regulators and legislators here in Canada. But it's one of those things. It's like we're still struggling to get people to attend this conference, because everybody feels that they're doing their thing in their own little tourist area, and that's all that matters to them. But the problem is, if you don't get involved at all levels, at the HOA level, I mean, we're talking down into the grassroots here.

Mike Bayer
You need to have members of your team attending HOA meetings in the communities and in the buildings that you have businesses, because you have a vested interest in how that organization is run. Then going up to the town or municipal level, ensuring that at the grassroots there, the regulators, the councilors, the representatives who have been elected or elected officials know who you are. If they want to ask a question before they make a decision, they know who to talk to, whether it be individual property management companies or advocacy groups. You need to have had those conversations with them before it gets critical.

Mike Bayer
Here in Canada, the provincial level, or in the US, in your state level. Again, there's nothing more important than having an advocacy organization at that level where you can have a PAC, where you are paying into a fund to provide lobbyists and professionals who can speak on your behalf at these top levels of government, all the way up to the federal level. So I think the biggest takeaway is you have to get involved now. And that's what we said at the top of this episode, is we need you!

Mike Bayer
Even if you are a US-based business, we need you to come to CanStays. We need you to get involved. We need you to take action. Because if you're not part of the conversation, then other people will 'represent' you. If you're listening, this is in quotations and that's going to be companies like Airbnb. They have a vested interest in making sure their agenda is met, so they will always be attending, but they are there to represent their interests and their shareholders and their business. They're not there to represent the individual property management company or the individual short-term rental host. So if you can't get involved, at least share the message.

Mike Bayer
Get in touch with your software companies, all of the resources and vendors that you rely on to run your business. It's important for them to get involved as well. Because what happens specifically in this case, what happens here in Canada if we don't show up and all of these politicians and decision makers show up, but we don't, it's going to be a very loud and clear message that really they only need to pay attention to the top dogs and not the people who matter.

Mike Bayer
And I think that the worrying thing is we're allowing a tool that we use to market our business, to dictate the business. And that's all I can say, really, is that you have to get involved in some way somehow.

Heather Bayer
So it'll be really worthwhile for you to listen to or watch the panel that we had in regulations week with Megan Moylan from Outpost, Alexa Nota from Rent Responsibly, and Jen Boyles from the Direct Book Summit. Jen is very vocal right now within the British Columbia regulations movement, the movement to do something about these regulations that are taking place in BC. She will be there at the CanStays Conference. But that panel, I thought, was very informative in terms of what you can do at the grassroots level, whereas Rolf was, this is what you need to do when you're up there. You're talking to the big politicians on the panel. They were talking about how to get started, how to get going, how to network with people and how to get something off the ground, even if you don't have any regulations out there at the moment, because they are coming. And I think that's what the message, the big message I got from that week, Mike, is never, ever be complacent because these are coming.

Heather Bayer
Rolf actually said about his in The Outer Banks, an area that has always been a place for vacation rentals, purpose built vacation rentals are the norm right across the outer banks. And there is one area now that is looking to regulate this and regulate it unfairly as far as he's concerned. So regardless of where you are, if you haven't got regulations yet, they're coming.

Mike Bayer
Yeah. And we had this wonderful time down in Alabama a few weeks back, doing a workshop and some training with several companies in the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area. And we had a lovely meeting with one of the owners of one of these companies. And we mentioned this, about getting involved in advocacy. And the answer was, Well, this is never going to happen here. Like our mayor, our elected officials, they would never stand for that. This is not going to happen.

Mike Bayer
But the thing is, you have to remember, elected officials, they're only there for a snap in time. And all of that can change overnight, and especially with changes in the demographics of your destination area. Going back to this conference April 20-22nd in Banff, we've been looking for accommodation in the area and really, really wanted to book with local providers, a local property management company. Almost all the companies in Banff are owned by multinational businesses. And we really struggled to find a locally run and owned and operated business. And this kind of thing can happen without you even knowing where the interests now are not aligned with the local community. And this is why, again, I talk about this all the time.

Mike Bayer
Now you have your four stakeholders, your guests, your owners, your community and your team. If you're not addressing all four of those when it comes to these regulations, you're going to lose out. And again, from this workshop, we realized that many of these companies have never been in the same room together. They've been operating for decades and have never kind of hung out and had these conversations.

Mike Bayer
So it's everywhere where this is not happening. And literally, once you listen to this podcast, pick up the phone and call the next company that you know of your competition and say, hey, let's get together for lunch. Really concerned about this advocacy thing. I'm really concerned about it, let's have a conversation; make friends. We're all trying to do the same thing, and there's nothing wrong with having those meetings and making those connections because we're stronger together.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, great stuff. So Week 5 was Sustainability, and when we started out with this Mike, we just had thought, oh, there's only four weeks in February. So we just went for the STIR with one S and then we realized that sustainability was equally as important as the other four, and a growing importance in this topic. So we added sustainability. And it was really interesting in terms of the podcast and the panel, how important it is now to get involved in this and make it part of the strategic plan for your business. This sort of came from something that Vanessa de Souza Lage said at a panel in Orlando. And she said, If you're not taking notice of sustainability now, you may not have a business in ten years. Now, she's coming from the European perspective, where they take sustainability incredibly seriously. Maybe not as much in North America as Europe, but I think it is coming, and I think we all have to, as we go forward, think more about responsible tourism. And that's what Marc Ribail was talking about in the podcast. And he said.......

Marc Ribail
.....The message we receive from the media and from local authorities is full of fear and anxiety and urgency. And we find that it paralyzes the people because they have no idea where to start, what is important, what is not important, how to do it. And also they've got this perception, thanks to the greenwashing regulations being in place, that I've got to be very cautious or I've got to be very perfect.....

Heather Bayer
Marc sees this as a little bit of a scary thing and likes to use the term 'responsible tourism' instead of sustainability. But what did you think about the week in general, Mike, about sustainability?

Mike Bayer
Well, I think what Marc was saying there is, I think certainly in North America, I think that there's obviously two sides to this discussion. There are the people who are fully onboard, and there are the people who are not, about sustainability. And I think that to be sustainable, or to look at sustainability as one of the core values of your business, you're not going to turn people away. And I think that the thing is, people are not going to book with you because they think, Oh, this is another green company, I'm not going to book my vacation with them.

Mike Bayer
I mean, at the end of the day, all it can do is benefit you as a business, is to show that you're operating with sustainable business practices. And I think that was something I took away, and not from anything specific that anybody said, is that I don't think there should be any fear of putting yourself out there and saying, this is what we are choosing to do, because there's nothing wrong with it. Whether or not you believe in greenhouse gasses and global warming and all those kinds of things, whether you do or do not, all of these things that we talk about in sustainability week, if you do them, it will not impact your business negatively.

Mike Bayer
So that's what I'm trying to say. And there are many options that will actually help improve your bottom line because there's some options that are actually cheaper. One of the key takeaways, and I still haven't done this yet, and I must do it, is that you can actually call, in many jurisdictions, you can call your utility providers, especially for your electricity, and say that you wish to be switched to a plan that is from renewable energy. It's one of those simple things you can do, and quite often actually is exactly the same price. But you're just stipulating that your funds that you're paying to the electricity company are actually being funneled towards more sustainable and energy renewable sources. So again, lots of simple things you can do, very low cost. And quite often it's just a matter of, as we said earlier, is just take one thing. Just take one thing that you would like to improve upon in your business. And I think sustainability is one of those things that I think people again think is a massive task, but you can just go piece by piece to do something just that little bit better for your business.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, Marc Ribail said much the same.....

Marc Ribail
We know there is a problem or there is an issue. Let's try and find a way to make things better. And which means that you remove somehow the anxiety and the fear of not doing well, because you can say, start tomorrow, start with one thing tomorrow, and start with another thing the week after, and so on and so forth.....

Heather Bayer
So that was a great podcast with Marc. We had a great panel that week with Claire Binns from Sykes Cottages, which is the largest property management company in the UK, Vanessa de Souza Lage from Sustonica, and Bob Garner from EnviroRental. These were the three great powerhouses of sustainability. And as we record this, I heard this morning that Vanessa de Souza Lage was on a panel at the VRMA European Conference in Paris, and she was saying on LinkedIn this morning, there's two panels at VRMA Europe on sustainability. I hope we get to see more in North America next year because of this growing importance of taking sustainability seriously.

Heather Bayer
So in that panel, we talked about things like certifications, because you can get a certificate with Sustonica relatively easily just by going through the criteria and picking a few, doing that one thing this week and another thing the next week, and gain a certificate with just 20% of all these criteria met. And then the next year you have to increase your criteria or a certification with QALIA, which is Marc Ribail's initiative for the luxury market.

Heather Bayer
But you don't need to get a certificate. You can go through these criteria and just decide you're going to do it yourself. And then - going back to trust - you put that on your trust page as to what you're doing from a sustainability perspective. So I loved that panel with those three. Bob Garner from EnviroRental has been out there talking about sustainability for a decade or so. Definitely go to his website because there's just a lot of resources there, a lot of really helpful stuff and some case studies that show how other people are doing it.

Mike Bayer
Yeah, I think we're going to see this a lot more and more in North America. I think we're going to start seeing a lot more education on the different areas where you can make some very small, low impact changes that in the long term not only benefit you and your ROI, but also benefit your environment as well. As Vanessa said, I think with the change in demographic, with the change of what is becoming much more of a higher priority for our younger generations who are going to very rapidly become our primary target market for vacations in the not too distant future, their priorities are going to be different from your audience right now. So if you haven't taken the time to position yourself ahead of that changing demographic, I think that is where you're going to start to see the biggest impact in your business and why sustainability is something you need to start looking at now and not ten years in the future. It is coming.

Mike Bayer
One thing that we did share, which I thought was great, I believe it was Brooke Pfautz from Vintory shared on LinkedIn. It was a very simple post, just sharing that he got a week booking in the off season in an area where there's plenty of choice. And he actually contacted the guests, as he does, just to connect with the guest and make that connection to ask why was it you booked my property and not others? And the guest came back and simply said, You were the only four bedroom, pet-friendly property that had an EV charger. So he had actually installed an electric vehicle charger and made that as part of the marketing for the property. And that paid for itself. The installation of that charger paid for itself with that one booking, to be able to get that information directly from the guests, that that's why they booked. So he was thrilled and shared that on LinkedIn.

Mike Bayer
And something as simple as that is just knowing how everything is beginning to change, even if you are begrudgingly changing in that direction, some of these changes are inevitable and something that Vanessa also said is that with more sustainable business practices in local jurisdictions, you're going to start seeing regulations based on sustainable business practices. So again, if you are not already beginning to elevate your business now, voluntarily, and beginning to set the standard, you may see those regulations imposed upon you in the future, whether you like it or not.

Heather Bayer
And that's a great way to end this wrap up, Mike. I think that was very well put. So that was it. That was SSTIR Crazy Month. I'm just overwhelmed by the response we got from it and the feedback. And we will definitely be doing this next year. It'll be bigger, better, I won't say longer because February only really is four weeks next year, but we will sort of spread it out just a little bit over the beginning and the end.

Mike Bayer
Yeah. So thank you so much for everybody who contributed, who commented, who shared, who just got involved. And I think that this is a movement we're not going to let slide. We do see all the time some of the foundational core values that get forgotten in short-term rental businesses when all we're chasing is the guest and the heads on beds. We need to be looking at how do we ensure that our businesses are responsible, are good contributors to our community, and that we're being recognized as standalone businesses outside of the shadow of Airbnb and the online travel agencies. And this is where you will start securing your direct bookings is when you can put all of these values out front and center, and your guests will see that, and resonate with that. And you will see some incredible advances in your business by just taking some of these steps that we discussed during SSTIR Crazy Month and implementing them in your business.

Heather Bayer
And on that note, we're going to wrap this up. I just want to thank Mike so much for joining me this week.

Mike Bayer
Thanks for having me on the podcast.

Heather Bayer
And we will be sharing some things with you soon, the both of us, so just listen out for that.

Heather Bayer
It's been a pleasure as ever being with you. If there's anything you'd like to comment on, then join the conversation on the Show Notes for this episode at vacationrentalformula.com. We'd love to hear from you, and I look forward to being with you again next week.

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