Heather Bayer

Two weeks in Europe, one conference, a boat trip with amazing people, and a seasick magician. Time with friends and family and four very different rental experiences. There's a lot to share in this episode, with quite a few learning points along the way.

Heather Bayer

This is the Vacation Rental Success Podcast, keeping you up-to-date with news, views, information, and resources in 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 back to the Vacation Rental Success podcast. This is your host, Heather Bayer, and I am back from a terrific two weeks in the UK, in Berlin and in Barcelona. I'm going to talk about that today, talk to you about the experiences of staying in four different vacation rentals, as well as a little bit of a recap on the Short Stay Week in Barcelona, which was terrific. It was such a great experience to meet so many new people as well as catch up with many that I haven't seen for a long time and to also meet people that I've only met online.

Heather Bayer

So actually the face-to-face thing was really super amazing, and I will mention some names. I may not mention everybody's names. I may not mention yours if you were there, and that's not a deliberate oversight. It's simply because there were so many people that it was very difficult to remember all of the ones that I met. But just know that I valued every single conversation I had in Barcelona. You're all such amazing people. This industry is just wonderful. It seems to bring forth the best in everybody, and I absolutely love it.

Heather Bayer

It came to mind this morning when I was planning this episode, a quote that I took to heart years ago. And the quote is simply, “Every day is a learning day.”  I've been involved in training, going back a lot of years. I worked for Reader's Digest in London and Swindon in England for five years and during that time I got involved in training, and it's where I got my real interest and passion for adult education and did adult education courses. But while I was at Reader's Digest, I developed a customer service training program that got adopted in Reader's Digest offices worldwide.

Heather Bayer

I was in the customer service department, mainly involved with dealing with Reader's Digest subscribers. You may or may not have been a Reader's Digest subscriber in the past, but there were some practices that we wouldn't be using today, I have to say, in the terms of marketing and promotion of Reader's Digest products. For those of you who have a stack of condensed books on shelves that you really don't want to throw out because they look quite nice. But honestly, whoever reads a Reader's Digest condensed book these days, you'll know what I mean because we used to have these subscriptions that went on for… Well, they were endless subscriptions and it was really difficult to cancel them. As I said, it wouldn't happen today, but it's where I really honed my skills in customer service and then got involved in training.

Heather Bayer

When I left there in 1995, I started my own training company and we continued with the same values that were introduced in the Reader's Digest programmes. And that value was ‘learn something new every day', learning from customers, learning from clients, learning from colleagues, from reading, from professional networks, and absolutely recording that learning. And at the end of every day, write down what the day has taught you.

Heather Bayer

And often you get to the end of the day and you think, Did I learn anything new today? No? But yes, you did. You will have learned something from somewhere, whether it was… And I'm not talking about the news because I challenge what mass media journalism brings you. However, I'm watching the Smithsonian Channel at the moment on TV and I'm learning something brand new every day from the Smithsonian Channel or the Discovery Channel. Whatever you learn, and you will learn something new every day, write it down, record it, and then the following day, put that learning into practice in some way, or at least set yourself up to do so. I'm currently learning Spanish. I'm on a 37-day streak with Duolingo, mainly because I hanker after buying something in Costa Rica.

Heather Bayer

I know my husband's about to start editing this, and when he sees this, he will be shaking his head because every so often, every few years, I get this urge to buy another property and bring it up to the greatest rental standard we possibly can, and then make some money from it. I haven't done that for a few years, so sorry, Phil, but I have this hankering to look at Costa Rica, so I'm learning Spanish. I am learning something new every day. And as I say, 37-day streak now.

Heather Bayer

I actually got to use my Spanish in Barcelona a couple of weeks ago, and it worked. People listened and understood what I was trying to say. When I was asking in a supermarket, where could I find the tuna? And it worked – Donde esta el atún? So I've got that far anyway.

Heather Bayer

So the reason why I wanted to talk about this learning something new every day, because I did learn something new every day on my two-week trip to Europe. And I want to kick off with talking about the four separate vacation rentals we stayed in. We also had a hotel. The last night we stayed in a hotel at Heathrow Airport, which was just like any other bland hotel room, so I won't be discussing that. But I want to talk about the vacation rentals because it's always interesting to reflect on being a guest, because we spend so much time on the other side. We spend so much time creating and preparing and making our rentals fabulous for our guests, but do we ever experience that ‘fabulousness' for ourselves? Is it, in fact, as fabulous as we think it is?

Heather Bayer

So I think it's super important that every single operator, and your staff as well, stay in a vacation rental if they've never done so before. And if you manage vacation rentals, then you should stay in as many of those as you possibly can, just to get that experience of being a guest. While I was with CottageLink Rental Management, we started up what we called the ‘We've Stayed Here' programme, and that encouraged our staff to go out and stay in one of our rentals for a couple of nights or maybe a night, maybe a night or two. They used the opportunity to take video, to take photos, and then give a report back to the owners when they got back. Then our properties got a ‘We've Stayed Here' badge on the listing and a little note on that listing to say:  “One of our staff has stayed at this property. We've experienced it. We might have taken our family to it. So if you want our first-hand account of our stay, please let us know and we'll put you in touch with that member of staff.”

Heather Bayer

And people did. They were looking at a property, they saw the ‘We've Stayed Here' logo, and they called us up and said, “Can I speak to the person who stayed there?” And that was great. It was great for the relationships that we developed with our guests as well as the relationships we developed with our owners.

Heather Bayer

So that aside, I wanted to talk about the properties we stayed at. And I'm happy to say that all four were really good. I really enjoyed my stay in all of them. And we started out in an apartment hotel in Berlin. And we've stayed there before. I stayed there last year. And it's right in the center, what they call the Stadtmitte, which is the center of Berlin. So a very highly trafficked area of Berlin, very close to Unter den Linden and the Brandenburg Gate. Lots of restaurants, lots of sites to see. And as an apartment hotel, it's  spotlessly clean accommodation. I would say it's a little bit more on the hotel side than it is on the apartment side. It was really an extended room, but I include it because to all extents, it was a short-term rental.

Heather Bayer

There was a laundry on site. I was able to go and get my laundry done, which was lovely. It was spotlessly clean, absolutely spotlessly clean, as you would expect from a hotel. Of course, as I would expect from any short-term rental, but standards do vary. I enjoyed this stay just as much I enjoyed the last stay. A couple of things that come to mind, there was a kettle. If you listen to my podcast, there has got to be a kettle in every rental I stay in. If there isn't, I'll go out and buy one, I'll leave it with the host, I'll leave it in place because I don't want to be carrying a kettle back home. But I need my tea. And no, you cannot boil water in a microwave oven and expect your tea to taste the same. So there was a kettle as there was in every other property. Europe always has kettles. So there was that.

Heather Bayer

My next absolute ‘must have' was two pillows per person. I like to have two pillows. I think it's important that every double, queen, or king-size bed has four pillows and every twin bed has two pillows.  It's not expensive, and I see so many images of bedrooms on listings that just show a pillow and a sham. And so when I say two pillows per person, that is not one pillow and one fancy covered sham. It is two actual pillows that you can sleep on because often these shams tend not to get washed. And I will put them on one side because I'm not sure if it's got a fresh cover on it. So that's so important to me to have those two pillows per person.

Heather Bayer

Big, fluffy towels. You go to so many hotels and you've just got these tiny towels. And I love a nice big, fluffy towel. My husband does, too. He's a little bit larger than me and he quite likes to have a towel that meets in the middle. So I think that is super important.

Heather Bayer

Now, you see, these things are not beyond the realms of possibility for absolutely everybody to include in their property. And what I'm talking about here today is what I feel. It's my personal preferences. It doesn't mean it's everybody's. So other guests may have different personal preferences. These are mine. The other thing that I want when I walk into any property is to feel welcome.

Heather Bayer

The other thing that the Berlin apartment hotel offered, that made me happy was when we arrived, we had been traveling for nearly… We'd had 10 hours of flying, a short layover in London, a train into the city from Berlin Airport, then onto the U-Bahn [Metro], and then a bag-dragging walk from the U-Bahn station to the hotel. We were tired, we were hungry, we were thirsty. So the first thing I wanted when I got into the hotel room was water. And as it was an apartment hotel, there was no bar, there was no concierge, there was no restaurant. I opened the fridge and the water was there. And that was so welcome. And that shot that property way up in my estimation from that moment. Just to have a cold drink of water, as I say, you don't have to go to huge extents to make your guests happy. You just have to be ahead of their expectations and needs. So that was a great stay in Berlin.

Heather Bayer

And then a couple of days there with family, and it was a really super time. And then my husband and I separated and he went back to England.  When I say separated, I mean just temporarily. So he went back to England and I went on to Barcelona for the Short Stay Week.

Heather Bayer

So I love to travel and I particularly like traveling on my own. So I'm pretty independent. I was more than happy to fly into Barcelona Airport. I'd pre- booked the Aerobus to get me from the airport into the city and I checked out the map. I knew exactly where I was going when I got off the bus and it was a 20-minute walk bag-dragging down a fairly busy street in Barcelona to find my apartment. Now, the first impression of this, and I've said this to people before when I've met, I have this thing about doors and locks, and I get very agitated and anxious if I cannot get into a door, if a lock doesn't work. I don't know what it is, but it really bothers me. So I get a little bit anxious before I get anywhere, making sure I've got the key or I've got a code or I've definitely got the means of getting in. And with this apartment, I was sent an app and had the unlock on my phone.

Heather Bayer

So through Bluetooth, I was able to stand right next to the door, open my phone, and then just use a slider on the phone. And, hey presto, the big door at the front of the apartment unlocked. Now, that was great because this apartment was in a little tiny, narrow street. In the evening, there were restaurants along it, and this narrow street was just packed with tables and chairs as people sat outside the restaurants. But when I arrived, it was an empty street and the apartment was right next door to a bar with this huge iron door which unlocked perfectly with the Bluetooth connection. So that was great. That was all my anxiety about arriving and getting in was gone. Walked in, there was a light switch which lit up the hallway and the stairs and I walked up just the one flight of stairs, thank goodness, to my apartment and again used the app and the slider to open the door of the apartment. That is the first time I've experienced that. I really loved it. No keys, no codes, no element of am I going to be locked out?

Heather Bayer

And just to let you know that there was a fallback code, if necessary, that I could have used to access both the building and the apartment. But I was really impressed with that system. Unfortunately, when I opened the apartment door, it was completely dark inside. And I don't know why people can't just leave a light on. There must have been a cleaning crew in there before I got there, because I know it had been rented and the last guests had left that morning. Why couldn't they leave a light on so that when you open the door, you're welcomed with being able to see what's inside. So first thing I had to do was to fumble around for a light switch. And then next thing, I go straight to the fridge to see if there's some water, which there was not. Now, once again, I've been traveling for a couple of hours. It was warm. I'd walked my bag down this street for 25 minutes and I got in and the first thing I wanted was a drink of water. Now, personally, I do not like drinking water from a tap I don't know. Years and years ago, I went somewhere and drank water from the tap and was horrendously ill for four or five days. And since then, I will only drink bottled water or water where I'm absolutely sure of its source when I'm staying away. And I thought, Well, that's not a problem. Okay, there's no water here. I'll unpack and I need to get out and do a little bit of shopping, go and get some milk for my tea.

Heather Bayer

Of course, there was a kettle. And I had no idea where to find a local supermarket. And there was nothing in the apartment to tell me anything about the local area. So I'm going to come onto that in a minute, I'm going to be talking about digital guides. But let me just carry on around the apartment. There was, as I say, no welcoming bottle of water. Only there was a brown paper bag on the kitchen table, which was wrapped up. It had little seal on it and I thought, it's a gift. And it was. It was a gift of some cleaning items, a sponge, a bar of soap, and a dishwasher tablet, which I thought was a bit odd. Maybe it's a cultural thing, but I would have gone for the bottle of water in place of the dishwasher tablet for sure.

Heather Bayer

Then I checked the bedroom, only one pillow per person. Now, I was there on my own, so I could have as… There were two bedrooms, I could have as many pillows as I wanted. But, if I'd been there with my husband, I would not have been overly happy to just have one pillow. And it was a very hard bed. And so next thing, I just checked the towels. They were thin. They were, I think, once white, pretty gray, and they had stains on them. I think that is just basic, it's just basic to ensure that towels look fresh, they're fluffy. Just replace them. It's not a huge expense, but to leave towels that have clearly been overused, I think to me, that's not acceptable.

Heather Bayer

What else? After that, it was okay. That's all I can say. It served the purpose. It was not what I expected from a professional management company. So not saying much beyond that. The no information on the local area was a big thing, because I was traveling on my own. It would have been so nice to have information where the nearest supermarket was. As I said, of course, I found one.

Heather Bayer

I had a phone. I had to check out three supermarkets before I found one that got me a tin of tuna for my tuna salad. I was able to try out my Spanish after three weeks into Duolingo. But they could have done so much better, and I am going to feedback to them, of course, and not naming any company, not naming anybody here, except my next one, because we went from after short stay week, went back to England and went to a little place called Blisworth.

Heather Bayer

It's a tiny little village in the English countryside near Northampton, where we've got some family. And this is the second time we have stayed at The Annex at Windmill Cottage in Blisworth; a truly wonderful stay. And thanks to Michelle and David at The Annex for being such fabulous hosts. Now, Michelle and David live on-site. They have the most astonishingly beautiful Victorian property with a great garden. They've got a couple of sheep in the garden in a pen. It's just idyllic. It's absolutly idyllic English countryside. I will put a link to Michelle's Airbnb listing, because if you're going to England and you're going to Middle England, which is beautiful, then this is a great place to stay.

Heather Bayer

And I should mention that when we went to Blisworth last year, we went to visit our family. We have two family members in Northampton that are in wheelchairs, my granddaughter and our son. They both wanted to come and look at where we were staying. And Michelle couldn't have done more to make that happen, to make us feel welcome, to allow us to drive the car along the grass so we could park right outside, so we could get the wheelchairs and the family out. They offered this lovely reclining chair to be brought over for our granddaughter. And yes, they just went over and above to make us feel wonderfully welcome, and The Annex at Windmill Cottage is going to be our go to place every time we go to family now, we're not even looking anywhere else. The things I love there is the cleanliness. It's a beautifully clean property. There's a really comfortable bed, big fluffy towels. You are going to win me every time with the big fluffy towels. So thank you, Michelle and David. Once again, you made us feel supremely welcome and thank you.

Heather Bayer

After Blisworth, we then went with friends down to Port Isaac in Cornwall.  I've been to Cornwall many, many times and we used to go on these wonderful trips with these friends and it would be our annual Cornwall weekend. It used to be a lot of food, a lot of drink, lots of wine, and walking dogs on the beach. And one thing I absolutely love about Cornwall is that it is so dog friendly. Everywhere seems to welcome pets. And my friends had brought their border collie, and we were able to walk and take her into pubs, and she played on the beach, and nobody seemed to be worried about accepting this beautifully behaved dog, in fact, into their premises. So that was great. So I want to thank Sam, who was our host in Cornwall. We booked this on Airbnb. I did try and see if there was a direct booking site, which there wasn't. So it was pretty much a standard Airbnb transaction, which is not much more to say about it other than that I always prefer to book direct because I feel I can make such a better relationship with my host if I book direct than if I'm going through Airbnb. And the other thing is, a book direct site so often has much more detail to inform a choice.  Because when a host has gone to the effort of making a website, they will usually include a lot of information. And that is actually what was lacking on this occasion.

Heather Bayer

I loved the well-equipped kitchen, super comfortable beds, but it was lacking the information that would have been nice to help us choose the pubs. Of course, we went to pubs to eat. We went to plenty of pubs. And I'm not averse to doing my own research. I'm very happy to do my own research. And we'd done a fair amount before we started our trip. But a guide to the local area with specific information provided by the owner or the host or the manager could have changed our experience from okay to extra special. For example, and this is something that I think people forget, hosts and managers forget to think about the needs and expectations of their guests when they're coming for the first time to a location. Because it was a beautiful walk, absolutely gorgeous walk from the cottage down to the harbor, but it was incredibly steep. So for my friends and I, it wasn't an issue. But my husband found it challenging.  He has some health issues and it was a really steep incline, which he found challenging. And that hadn't been shared with us beforehand. And I might have made a different choice if it had been. On the last day of our stay, we actually found a car park at the other end of the village, which led to a much less steep path. This type of information would have been so easily put into a guidebook. I don't understand why operators don't use digital guidebooks. I stayed in four places, every single one of them would have benefited from a digital guidebook. Something with personal recommendations and hints and tips on enjoying the location. We used Touch Stay, and as far as I know, CottageLlink Rental Management is still using the Touch Stay digital guide, which goes out to all our guests. And certainly from my time in the business, the guests really enjoyed the services provided by that guidebook. We were able to include some of our owners' personal recommendations in them.

Heather Bayer

So we had 150 plus properties and every guide book had many similarities, but every one was also different because we were able to include customized information in each of them.  If an owner said, I love this local bakery and this is what you should buy in the bakery, we could include that in that particular guide book. And there's just so much else you can do with the guidebooks to make them into such a useful resource for your guests. And I say I don't understand why operators aren't using digital guidebooks because they're inexpensive. It's a really inexpensive addition, and it can turn a so-so experience into one that could become word-of-mouth viral. So I think for an individual owner, Touch Stay is around $12 a month, which is a really low price for a product that can bring so much more business to you, because these digital guides can be distributed to all guests. So it's not a dog-eared and coffee-stained written guide that's left on the kitchen counter, which we all know people don't read. And of course, it's useless for them to take out and about. And this is where the digital guide really comes into its own because it's in your hand. You can walk out of the door, you can lock the door and you think, Oh, how do I get back in again?

Heather Bayer

And in the digital guide on your phone, you've always got the code to get back in or any other access information. Maybe you've got a walking tour, a local walking tour from the property down to the village in Port Isaac. That would be so cool. And that's on the guide, which guides you to the closer but steeper walk, or you take the car down to a car park and then take the less steep walk, which would be so helpful for those who find steep hills more challenging. It would have information on the rest of the restaurants and the pubs in the village. Places to go and buy the best Cornish pasty, which is something that our friends are always looking for. Where's the best Cornish pasty?

Heather Bayer

It would have had information on local places to see like Tintagel Castle. And we went there because it looked like it was a fun place to go see. We spent nearly £80 on four tickets to get into Tintagel Castle to get there and find that there was this huge suspension bridge that was very high. I am absolutely afraid of heights. I'm phobic about heights.  Just looking at that bridge was an absolute no for me. And I said, I'm so sorry, I cannot go along that bridge and go to the castle. And the other thing was that it was a very steep walk down from the village of Tintagel, down to the bottom of the hill, and then up to the castle, lots of steps. So that made it pretty impossible for other members of our party. So we paid for the tickets at the top. We only used two of them, and we got ourselves… The two of us who didn't go to the castle got a very expensive cup of tea in the restaurant. A digital guide would have had all that information. It would have said, Tintagel Castle, great place to go and see, fantastic history. Go and see the King Arthur statue right at the top of the hill. However, it's very steep down from the village down to the bottom, and there's lots of steps, and there's also a very scary bridge. So this may not be suitable for certain members of your party. Check out the reviews on Tintagel Castle and see what other people are saying about it.  And this is the cost to get in.

Heather Bayer

So this is what can be in a digital guide. I know I'm preaching to the converted because I know many of you are users of many digital guides. There's lots of options out there. Touch Stay is just one of them; I use that one. But certainly shop around and see what's out there. The other shortfall I want to mention, and don't get me wrong, the four places we stayed were fantastic. We had such a great time. Enjoyed them. They were all comfortable. It might sound like I'm nitpicking a little, but I'm just sharing some information on that. But the other thing is we had no communication with any of these hosts or managers between booking and the stay. And I'm not including The Annex, because we'd stayed there before. So we were repeat guests, but nothing from anybody else. And that drives me nuts because for three of these places, I had to check nearer the time that we'd actually… Did I actually do that booking? Have we got a reservation? Because I'd had no communication with them since the time I booked. And we booked four or five months before we stayed.

Heather Bayer

And this communication is where operators get the opportunity to shine, to create a relationship with their guests and to create a lasting impression. And in those exchanges between the booking and stay, hosts can ask questions about what the guests are expecting and looking for in their vacation. Things like, are you coming for a special event or an occasion? How can we help to make your time with us special? What information would be helpful to you before your stay? And do any of your group have special needs or requirements? Those are four questions that you could ask as a host or manager after people have made their booking, they've paid their deposit. You could ask those questions that will inspire a conversation and start to build a relationship. Make your guests feel more confident in what they booked and will build their trust in you, which is just so important. And all you need to do is have generic information created and drip feed it. Things like how to find your way around the local area, what your favorite restaurants are, where to buy food, and maybe a calendar of events to allow people to book things in advance.

Heather Bayer

One thing I always remember about going to Costa Rica years ago, well a couple of years ago, was that our host sent us information on the drip,  information on the tours we could do and the trips we could take and where to rent a kayak and do other things that if we'd left it till we got there, we probably would have missed out on, because these things would have been booked. And having that information in advance made this stay so much better, because everything was organized before we went.

Heather Bayer

At last year's Book Direct Show in Miami, Tyann Marcink shared what she did with her Branson Family Retreats guests. And I think she shocked the audience when she said that sometimes she would have up to 20 communications with her guests between booking and stay. Now, bearing in mind that her target guests are large family groups and reunion groups, any help she can provide the organizer is great. But she also does this with some of her much smaller properties at Missouri House, which is her property management company. And she sends information on hiking and biking trails and information on the events that are happening at the Purina Event Center, because many of her guests come to go to this Event Center and bring their dogs.

Heather Bayer

So just bear in mind that after your guests have booked and before they stay, they're in this ‘anticipation mode'. They're looking forward to their stay. They're making plans and you want to keep yourself front of mind. They're coming to your location, they're coming on vacation and they can go out and you can let them do all that research on their own. But if you help them out by providing lots of information, showing your local knowledge, then you are endearing yourself to them. They're going to be telling other people. That word of mouth referral system kicks in and they start sharing information on this great place they're staying and this great host they have who is giving them all the information they need to plan their holiday.

Heather Bayer

So that's it. That was a really great two weeks of vacation rentals. I love it. I got home and usually, after a long flight, it's never again, never again. Then the following day I'm thinking, where can I go next?

Heather Bayer

So now I come to one of the reasons for doing the trip in the first place, and that was going to short stay week in Barcelona.

Heather Bayer

Short Stay Week is a collection, I guess, of conferences. It has the Book Direct Show, it has the Scale Rental Show, which is over two days. And at the beginning, there were a series of workshops, longer workshops, and at the end was sessions on selling a company and other topics. I was able to go to two days of it and really enjoyed it. Enjoyed the Book Direct Show and the first day of Scale Rentals, which was aimed at property managers with 25 to around 75 properties, maybe a little bit more. I'm sorry, I missed the others, but unfortunately, the timing did not allow for spending any more time in Barcelona. But I really made the most of those two days I was there, met loads of people that I've interviewed on stage, which was great. And that I haven't met before in person. So Mark Simpson from Boostly, Neely Khan, Daniela Darin, Evan Dolgow, Bob Garner, Vanessa de Souza Lage. I've met Vanessa many times before, but it was lovely to see her again. And then those I've connected with over the years but never met, like Margarida Ruelar from Portugal, Louise Brace, and Anne Murray, who's one of our students in the Vacation Rental Formula Business School.

Heather Bayer

So it was just super to catch up with many people. And there was so much learning. But I'm not going to go into that learning here. I'm going to be writing a post that outlines all that learning in the next week or so, because I've still yet to take it all apart and take out all the different learning points and how I'm going to apply them. I just want to make a shout out to Damian Sheridan and Gianpaolo Vairo for organizing the week. They kept it on track beautifully. I know from the organization that Mike did for Vacation Rental Success Summit over three years in 2016, '17, and '18, I know what goes into creating a conference like this, and it's a huge amount of work. So huge credit to them for doing this. I know there's another Scale Rental Show coming up in Paris, and then they'll be moving on to UK and back to the other side of the channel again, I guess. I will try to go to as many of these as possible, because this was a really good one. Such a great show.

Heather Bayer

A highlight was the boat trip that was sponsored by Touch Stay, Boostly and others.  So a thank you to all the vendors, in fact, who do all this sponsorship. We do appreciate you. I appreciate you. I will make sure that there is a mention of all of the boat show sponsors in the Show Notes, so credit definitely goes to you.

Heather Bayer

The highlight of the week was the boat trip. I got to spend some time encouraging the magician to ignore his growing seasickness, because it was really quite rough, trying to get him to look out over the horizon.  But I had some great conversations during that trip, even though the waves were rolling it about quite a bit.

Heather Bayer

So rather than talk about the takeaways from all the sessions I attended, and I did go to quite a few, I just wanted to share my thoughts on the benefits of attending these events. And I know I've talked about this before, but I cannot say it enough that it's an investment. It's an investment in yourself and it's an investment in your business. And the return on that investment can be massive. But here's some of the benefits. Networking. You can't operate… well, you don't have to… operate in a vacuum.

Heather Bayer

It's so good to talk to your peers and some of the best people in the industry. The people who are out there doing the research and collecting the data and then sharing it with you, so that you can be the best you can possibly be. And going to these events helps you be the best you can possibly be. Every event I've ever been to is welcoming. You just have to sit at a table and introduce yourself, and you'll be immediately involved in a conversation about the industry, about all the stuff that you know and love to talk about. I have never been to an event where I felt left out of it and sidelined. You occasionally see somebody that's sitting out on their own, and within minutes somebody will go up and sit with them, introduce themselves, and bring them into the fold. So if you're new to an event, don't ever worry about walking into it and feeling that you don't belong because you do. You're guaranteed to have ‘aha' moments. You're guaranteed to learn something that you can take away and put into action in your business the moment you get back. I've, once again, never been to an event where I haven't taken away so much that has improved my business and made my life easier and certainly better.

Heather Bayer

You're with people who know what you experience, because they've been there. Everybody has been through what you're going through and will empathize with you and maybe offer you some solutions if you've got issues or problems that you're tackling at the moment. Another huge benefit is you get to meet the vendors. I know with going to the VRMA International Conference, the vendor hall is just massive. I make a point of going and talking to absolutely everybody because I want to know what they do, how they can help me. And in general, you're not going to be hit with hard sales. You're going to just meet other passionate industry people. Most of the vendors know the property managers. They've been involved in the business for a long, long time. And don't forget that they are creating products and services that are designed to make your business life better. And then finally, you get to go to the best venues and on great trips like the boat trip. Touch Stay are magic at creating trips and little fringe events. So you get the opportunity to do these things as well. And the venues that I've been to over the years have been just amazing.

Heather Bayer

The first time I went to San Antonio was to a conference. The first time I went to San Diego was to a conference. And then I've been to conferences in Barcelona and Florence and Amsterdam and in the UK. I can't recommend highly enough that you should book at least one conference a year. And you will get that return on your investment. So for me as well, I find my best podcast guests by meeting them personally at these conferences. So you can look forward to hearing in the next couple of weeks from Paul Stevens from Short Term Rentalz. I had a great conversation with him. We're going to be talking about what's going on in the industry and how he, as a journalist, captures what's happening and keeps his finger on the pulse. I'll be talking to John An from TechTape about revenue management and how we can make revenue management simple to understand for everybody because I know it's something that I've struggled with for a long, long time. I'm going to be talking to Rebecca Cribbin from Australia. She runs a very large property management company. She's a consultant, she's a trainer, and she had a wonderful session on the 12 lessons she's learned in a decade and more in this business.  And every single one of those lessons resonated with me. So she's going to come on the show and share those 12 lessons with you all as well.

Heather Bayer

So I know over the years, you've heard me talk over and over again about the benefits of conferences. I would love to hear from you, the audience out there, what is it that you enjoy most? What conferences have you been to? Which ones are your favorites? What don't you like? And I will probably be putting together another episode in the coming months that will bring some of your experiences out so we can share that.

Heather Bayer

I heard recently, and it's a great announcement, from Amy Hinote, that the Vacation Rental Women's Summit will be going ahead this year at the  beginning of December in Nashville, and it will be followed at the same venue by the DARM Conference, the Data and Revenue Management Conference. So this is brilliant news for anybody who's been to the Vacation Rental Women's Summit, you've got to go. You don't have to be female to go to the Vacation Rental Women's Summit. It's a very different conference.  It brings together so many of the amazing women in this industry. And the education sessions aren't all on vacation rental topics. They're on some very diverse topics as well. I'm sure we're going to be seeing that at the Nashville conference this December. I can't wait for that one. I will put whatever information I have on the Women's Summit and the DARM conference on the Show Notes. I'm not sure if Amy's website is up yet, but I'm sure it's going to be there very shortly. And I will keep the Show Notes updated so you can check back.

Heather Bayer

So that's it. A little bit of recap on my two week trip to Europe that took in the four vacation rentals and the Short Stay Week. It was an amazing time. I enjoyed it very much. I hope you've enjoyed my review of that time and I look forward to being with you again next week.

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 the episode at vacationrentalformula.com; we'd love to hear from you. I look forward to being with you again next week.