The Smoky Mountain Vacation Rental Forum

Episode 6 STR From the Ground Up: A Conversation with Vernon Corum

What does it actually take to succeed with a vacation rental in the Smoky Mountains right now? Not the version you see on Instagram or in a realtor's projection — the real version, from someone who walks the properties, sees the gaps, and helps owners fix them. Vernon Corum is a real estate agent, investor, STR educator, and founder of Short-Term Rental Rescue — a program where he walks struggling properties and identifies exactly what's going wrong. He's toured over 200 Smokies properties a year and has a boots-on-the-ground perspective on this market that's almost impossible to replicate. In this conversation, Tom and Vernon dig into the operational blind spots that are quietly killing properties in this market, the misconception that vacation rental ownership can be truly passive, what it means to actually know your guest, why differentiation matters more than ever in a market with 13,000–19,000 available properties, and what it looks like to do this business the right way. Vernon also shares his vision for GRID Smokies — a new collaborative community for investors, operators, and vendors who want to get in a room together and actually help each other. Details in the show notes. This is a conversation about stewardship, trust, and the long game. We think you'll find it worth your time.

Episode 5 Don't Build Your Business on Borrowed Ground

If you vacation rental reservation are all coming from one platform, you are not building a business, you are renting one. In this episode Tom Goodwin unpacks what the data actually says about chanel dependency in the short term rental industry, and why it deeply matters for cabin owners and operators here in the Smoky Mountains.

Episode 4 Managing From Four Hours Away: What 20 Years of Getting It Right Looks Like

Tom Goodwin sits down with Paula Elliott, owner of Goldilocks Haven in Chalet Village — one of Gatlinburg's most storied vacation communities — for a conversation about what professional self-management actually looks like over the long haul. Paula bought her three-bedroom cabin in 2004 with her late husband, spent nine years learning the ropes with a management company, and has been self-managing from Indiana ever since. What she's built over 20 years isn't passive income — it's a system built on trust, relationships, proactive communication, and genuine care for guests, neighbors, and the community she's been part of for decades. In this episode, Tom and Paula talk through the infrastructure every long-distance owner needs, why setting expectations with guests prevents middle-of-the-night calls, how to think about the local workforce with the respect they deserve, and what it really means to be a good neighbor in a market that's changed dramatically since 2004. Paula also shares her honest take on the wave of new investors entering the Smokies — and what she wishes someone had told her from day one. If you own a cabin in the Smokies and you're doing it yourself, or thinking about it, this conversation is one you'll want to hear more than once.

Episode 3 What Great Hospitality Actually Looks Like — And Why It's Getting Rare

Think about the last time you were a guest somewhere and walked away thinking — that felt like they actually cared. Not just clean, not just functional. Like someone thought about you before you arrived. Like you mattered beyond the transaction. How long ago was that? Now here is the harder question. Is that what your guests experience when they stay at your cabin? In Episode 3 Tom Goodwin makes the case that genuine hospitality is the single most underutilized competitive advantage in the Smoky Mountain vacation rental market right now. The properties are getting more elaborate every year. The amenities keep growing. But the human care for the people staying in those cabins is not keeping pace — and that gap is both the biggest problem in this market and the biggest opportunity for anyone willing to close it. Tom shares the story of Dot Egli, co-founder of Mountain Laurel Chalets, who built one of the most guest-loyal businesses in Gatlinburg's history on five simple words — love people and care for them well. He also speaks directly to self-managing owners about why their size is actually a hospitality advantage, not a liability. Great hospitality is not expensive. It is intentional. And it is available to every single person listening to this episode right now.

Episode 2 What's Really Happening in This Market — The Honest Version

div]:bg-bg-000/50 [&_pre>div]:border-0.5 [&_pre>div]:border-border-400 [&_.ignore-pre-bg>div]:bg-transparent [&_.standard-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pl-2 [&_.standard-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,ul,ol,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pr-8 [&_.progressive-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pl-2 [&_.progressive-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,ul,ol,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pr-8"> _*]:min-w-0 gap-3 standard-markdown"> When was the last time someone gave you a completely honest answer about how the Smoky Mountain vacation rental market is actually doing right now? Not a projection. Not a pitch. Not a number someone pulled out of a report to make you feel good about signing a contract. Just the truth. That is what this episode is. Tom Goodwin has been watching this specific market for over 30 years — through fires, through a pandemic, through the wildest boom this market has ever seen, and through the correction that followed. In Episode 2 he cuts through the noise and gives you the honest picture of where things stand right now. What actually happened between 2020 and 2024. Why those years were never the new normal. What the correction means for your cabin. Why high occupancy is not automatically good news. What metrics actually tell the real story. And most importantly — what you should be doing about it right now. The market is not broken. But it is maturing. And maturing markets reward quality and punish mediocrity. This episode tells you what that means for you.