Why She Left the Fortune 500 World for Hospitality with Katie Wanzer

Why She Left the Fortune 500 World for Hospitality with Katie Wanzer

How do you find the courage to take on a project that feels way bigger than you—and turn it into something you’re genuinely proud of? In this episode, I sit down with Katie Wanzer, a corporate PR crisis expert turned boutique hotel operator and co-host. We’re unpacking how she transitioned from Fortune 500 communications into running an expanding boutique hotel portfolio and co-hosting company across Door County, Wisconsin. We talk about: * Buying a historic motel sight unseen during a corporate crisis, only to face massive infrastructure nightmares like dry wells and lifting entire buildings off their foundations. * Co-operating a growing hospitality portfolio as a four-way partnership between two couples by establishing rigid role boundaries, structured monthly board meetings, and a dedicated leadership team. * Leveraging a deep background in strategic PR to pitch local media, partner with tourism bureaus, and use nostalgia to put a revived 1940s roadside motel on the map. * Launching simple, community-minded marketing tactics like local food drives and media stays, while using AI tools to polish press releases and discover the unique story behind a property. * Battling peak-season burnout by scheduling non-negotiable self-care blocks, utilizing tech-boundaries like the Brick app to disconnect, and leaning on a steady support system. Katie pulls back the curtain on the intense emotional realities of stepping into true hospitality leadership, including the exact moment the scale of the project hit her. You’ll hear how she and her partners divide responsibilities based on individual strengths to keep the business humming without sacrificing their personal lives. If you are a high-achieving professional wondering how to scale from a single short-term rental into a multi-property commercial hospitality brand without losing your sanity, this conversation is your blueprint. Get ready to learn how to face the unexpected and start leading your business with absolute resilience. HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY POINTS: [00:55] A short introduction about our guest Katie Wanzer, and shares her evolution from corporate communications professional to short-term rental operator and boutique motel owner [03:58] Katie shares how purchasing and renovating a boutique motel transformed her perspective from managing rentals to building a full-scale hospitality business [08:11] How overcoming unexpected renovation setbacks strengthened her resilience and confidence as an entrepreneur [10:31] Katie shares how having partial construction experience helped—but didn’t eliminate the learning curve in large-scale hospitality renovations [12:09] Katie’s approach to overcoming overwhelm by grounding decisions in long-term vision, resilience, and support systems [14:37] Katie on navigating real estate investing and construction projects with both a spouse and business partners while maintaining alignment and boundaries [16:41] Katie outlines how a four-owner STR and boutique motel business is governed through structured meetings, defined roles, and consistent operational communication [20:38] How Katie balances hands-on short-term rental operations with seasonal support while adapting daily focus across multiple hospitality businesses [21:52] Katie describes how she uses PR to turn storytelling, nostalgia, and renovation strategy into earned media that drives early bookings and demand [29:16] How short-term rental operators can identify PR-worthy stories through community impact, relatability, and persistence in earned media strategy [34:42] Katie shares how intentional PR outreach, personalized journalist targeting, and strategic multi-channel follow-ups help turn hospitality stories into consistent earned media and sustained visibility [38:33] The lightning round Golden Nuggets: * “Even with failures, we fail forward, right? Everything that we go through, whether positive or negative, I believe is a learning opportunity.” * “Sometimes giving up a little bit of that revenue for a gain elsewhere can, can really help you long term.” * “You're already everything to everyone: you’re finance, you’re accounting, you’re marketing, you’re everything. But you can't forget that you're also yourself and you have to do things for yourself, and you still have to go and do the things that make you happy.” * “Nobody can advocate for you more than yourself.” Let’s Connect: Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/katetheinnkeeper/ [https://www.instagram.com/katetheinnkeeper/] https://www.instagram.com/katetheinnkeeper/ Website : https://freshcoastmotel.com/ [https://freshcoastmotel.com/] https://spruceandshoremotel.com/ [https://spruceandshoremotel.com/] Enjoyed the show? Subscribe, Rate, Review, Like, and Share!

From Medicine to STR Investing: Building a Thriving Airbnb Portfolio with Dr. Christina Kendrick

How do you grow a thriving short-term rental portfolio, protect your family life, and still keep a demanding career from taking over your entire identity? Most professionals assume they have to choose between their career and building wealth. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Christina Kendrick, a pediatric anesthesiologist turned short-term rental investor. We’re unpacking how she and her husband transitioned from accidental long-term landlords into active operators of an 11-property STR business across Sedona and Cornville, Arizona. We talk about: * Hunting for properties that have sat on the MLS forever, negotiating the price down, and uncovering hidden income streams like forgotten RV pads. * Using sweat equity and buying at the right price to keep fixed expenses low enough that a property only needs 10 to 12 booked nights a month to cover costs. * Moving past vague rules to implement explicit, direct guest messaging after a close call with a guest's grill on a wooden deck near propane tanks. * Transitioning 50 existing reservations into independent hosting profiles and scaling a portfolio through a mix of solo ownership and co-ownership with other families. * Leveraging MBA marketing principles to revamp a direct booking platform, optimize for AI search, and launch email campaigns that actually convert. Christina pulls back the curtain on how she manages her time and energy while balancing medicine, an MBA program, and parenthood. You’ll hear how she applies the hospital philosophy of "only do what only you can do" to her personal life—outsourcing house cleaning and grocery shopping, and shifting her medical schedule to build a dedicated business admin day. If you are a high-achieving professional wondering how to buy back your time and build a generational family enterprise without burning out, this conversation is your blueprint. Get ready to learn how to drop perfectionism and start leading your life and business with intention. HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY POINTS: [00:49] A short introduction about our guest Christina Kendrick, and she shares how a series of practical real estate decisions evolved into a self-managed short-term rental portfolio [06:37] Christina explains how disciplined risk-taking and value-add investing have shaped her real estate decision-making process [09:08] Christina reveals how overlooked properties and strong neighborhood relationships have become key drivers of her portfolio’s success [13:26] Christina discusses how proactive neighbor relationships help mitigate conflicts and support long-term short-term rental success [19:12] How delegation, role clarity, and structured time blocks allow her to balance medicine, family, education, and real estate investing [22:47] Christina’s approach to outsourcing everyday responsibilities to create more time for high-value work and personal priorities [25:58] Christina shares how lessons from her MBA program have directly influenced the way she markets and operates her short-term rental business [29:21] Christina talks about how running a short-term rental business with her husband has naturally evolved into a clear division of strengths [32:16] How Christina and her husband handle feedback between each other after real-world guest situations that expose gaps in communication and house rules [36:14] The importance of intentional communication and structured check-ins in maintaining a strong business and personal partnership while scaling together [40:19] The lightning round Golden Nuggets: * “You don't create wealth by saving, you create wealth by taking risks and investing.” * “One of the keys to having a successful STR is having nice neighbors.” * “The biggest life hack is outsourcing stuff that other people can do.” * “As long as it's getting done, and nobody's getting hurt, and everything's happening the way that it should happen, it doesn't have to be perfect.” * “You have to take that first step, otherwise you're going to be stuck where you are.” Let’s Connect: Website : www.stargazersedona.com [http://www.stargazersedona.com] http://www.stargazersedona.com Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/stargazervacation [https://www.instagram.com/stargazervacation] https://www.instagram.com/stargazervacation Proudly sponsored by strsisterhood.steadilypartner.com [http://strsisterhood.steadilypartner.com/] http://strsisterhood.steadilypartner.com/ Enjoyed the show? Subscribe, Rate, Review, Like, and Share!

The Demand Generation Strategy Every Airbnb Host Needs with Amber Knight

Are you truly in control of the demand for your short-term rentals, or have you quietly outsourced it to the OTAs without even realizing it? Relying solely on large platforms means you don’t actually own your customer base; the hosts who master true demand generation are the ones who will thrive in the next phase of our industry. In this episode, I sit down with Amber Knight, the founder of Bookings Cloud and a seasoned veteran of vacation rental heavyweights like Vacasa, Rented, Inhabit, and LiveRez. We’re unpacking what it really means to build a direct guest acquisition engine for your properties and step into true ownership of your business. We talk about: * How public booking platforms control the narrative using your listing content, and why reclaiming that control is vital for long-term business survival. * Why a beautiful direct booking website means nothing if it breaks guest trust by kicking them over to an unbranded, clunky PMS engine at the final step. * Utilizing true paid social ads, not just boosted posts, to feed rich property data into algorithms that match your stay with the perfect guest. * Why clicks on Meta can be pennies compared to dollars on Google, why you should never put pricing in your ads, and how to automate property-level campaigns at scale. * Clear guidance on when to focus strictly on guest communication versus when your portfolio size justifies a full website investment. We pull back the curtain on the messy reality of data tracking and attribution in a world of privacy laws and GA4. You’ll hear why diversifying your booking sources isn't just a quick fix for the low season, but a long-game retirement strategy that compounds over time and builds a business with real enterprise value. If you are ready to move from hoping bookings show up to intentionally creating your own demand, this conversation will give you the playbook. Get ready to stop letting other platforms dictate your revenue and start engineering your own growth. HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY POINTS: [01:03] A short introduction about our guests Amber Knight, and journey from growing up around vacation rentals to building a career focused on strengthening local hospitality businesses and destination communities [04:12] Amber reflects on how intentionally building a life and business through consistent daily actions creates opportunities that once seemed out of reach [06:10] Amber explains how owning guest demand has become a critical competitive advantage as short-term rental operators can no longer rely solely on OTAs to drive bookings [10:58] Amber emphasizes that successful demand generation starts with building trust and creating a direct-booking experience that converts website visitors into guests [18:24] How demand generation moves beyond simply having a trusted website and focuses on actively driving qualified traffic to it [21:07] Amber breaks down Meta advertising as a layered system—from organic content to fully automated, property-level ads—designed to turn raw property data into targeted demand at scale [28:15] Amber explains when paid social becomes viable for STR operators based on ad spend consistency and unit economics versus OTA commissions [30:40] What are the effective Meta ads for STRs rely on high-intent, property-specific visuals and structured data feeding rather than pricing-driven creatives [33:35] Amber explains that attribution is imperfect and long-term direct booking growth should be measured through influence, pacing, and consistent investment rather than immediate ROAS results [42:16] The lightning round Golden Nuggets: * “It's really empowering that we each have the ability to build a business around a life that we love.” * “If every day you make another step to get to the life you want, the career you want, in the place that you want, eventually you’ll get there.” * “A business that is sellable does not require the owner to be in the day to day.” * “You can't change what happens to you, you can change how you respond to it.” Let’s Connect: Website : www.bookingscloud.com [http://www.bookingscloud.com] http://www.bookingscloud.com Instagram : https://www.linkedin.com/company/bookingscloud/ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/bookingscloud/] https://www.linkedin.com/company/bookingscloud/ Email : aknight@bookingscloud.com [aknight@bookingscloud.com] Proudly sponsored by PriceLabs [https://pricelabs.co/users/sign_up?referral=STRSISTER] Enjoyed the show? Subscribe, Rate, Review, Like, and Share!

Beyond Dynamic Pricing: STR Revenue Strategies with Melissa Stewart

Is your short-term rental truly set up to cash flow, or are you just hoping the market will do the heavy lifting for you? Most hosts look at dynamic pricing as a "set it and forget it" tool, but real revenue strategy requires getting behind the wheel of your data. In this episode, I sit down with Colorado host and revenue strategist Melissa Stewart, the founder of Rev Collective. Melissa scaled from zero to four high-performing mountain cabins in under two years by combining a value-add investment blueprint with a highly intentional, data-driven revenue management strategy. We talk about: * Buying distressed mountain properties for maximum negotiating power, doing a full gut rehab to build equity, and leveraging a smart refi to roll into the next deal. * Moving past simple bulleted descriptions to craft narrative-driven listing copy that makes guests feel like they are walking through a storybook. * What a "healthy" MPI looks like, how to recognize if you are underpriced or overpriced, and why treating dynamic pricing tools like autopilot is a massive mistake. * Designing interior and exterior spaces with a strict guest avatar in mind—from luxury robes and sound machines to curated coffee and tea stations. * Shifting your mindset around money as energy, shedding old financial stories, and building wealth that creates real opportunities for other women in hospitality. Melissa pulls back the curtain on how her background in accounting and data analysis gave her a unique edge in the short-term rental market. You’ll hear how she bridges the gap between high-end hospitality and cold, hard data, and how she built her company specifically to empower women hosts who love the guest experience but feel overwhelmed by numbers and tech. If you are ready to stop guessing on your pricing, master your local pacing, and inject serious intention into your operations, this conversation will completely redefine your approach to revenue. Get ready to stop relying on market luck and start commanding the rates your property deserves. HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY POINTS: [01:14] A short introduction about our guests Melissa Stewart and shared her journey from exiting a business to getting into the short-term rental industry [03:06] Melissa reflects on how a background in real estate and a desire for lifestyle-driven wealth building led her and her husband into the world of short-term rentals [05:30] How strategic investing, leveraging equity, and taking bold action helped Melissa scale from one short-term rental property to four in a relatively short time [07:36] Melissa and I dive into how taking on distressed properties, embracing renovation challenges, and viewing obstacles as opportunities helped accelerate equity growth and STR success [12:31] How embracing problems, adapting quickly, and treating short-term rental hosting as a constant problem-solving business is essential for long-term success [14:36] Melissa unpacks how creating intentional five-star guest experiences, strategic branding, and emotionally driven listings became the foundation of cash-flowing STR properties at the top of the market [21:10] Melissa highlights how overlooking listing strategy after investing heavily in a property is a common mistake, and how emotional storytelling and optimization are key to turning beautiful homes into booked STRs [24:54] How STR success depends not just on design, but on operations, pricing, and listing strategy working together to drive higher nightly rates and long-term profitability [28:08] Melissa shares how her passion for entrepreneurship, wealth building, and supporting women in business ultimately led her to launch The Rev Collective [34:16] Melissa’s emphasis on active revenue management as a critical profit driver that requires strategy, oversight, and expertise beyond Pricelabs [38:15] Melissa’s guidance on using listing optimization, market pacing, and key revenue metrics to make smarter pricing decisions and improve booking performance [43:23] The lightning round Golden Nuggets: * “Know your obstacles. That way when they come, they're opportunities.” * “We cannot leave any stone unturned when it comes to positioning ourselves for getting that booking, these guests have so many options in front of them on the OTAs.” * “If you're not operating well, your reviews are not going to be what you need them to be, and you're going to fall to your competition in the marketing.” * “Stick to doing things that you're good at and delegate the rest.” * “If your ultimate goal is to cash flow to build wealth in this real estate, you know, gig that you've got going, if that's your goal, then revenue management should be your top priority when it comes to running your business, because that's how you make your money Let’s Connect: Website : www.revcollective.co [http://www.revcollective.co] Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/itsmelissastewart [https://www.instagram.com/itsmelissastewart] https://www.instagram.com/itsmelissastewart Enjoyed the show? Subscribe, Rate, Review, Like, and Share!

Why the STR Market Isn’t Scary: Data-Driven Investing and Opportunity with Sandy Lee

What if the “scary” short-term rental market you keep hearing about is actually one of the best opportunities you’ll see in the next decade—especially if you’re willing to get smart with your data? Most investors are backing out due to market noise; my guest today used engineering logic to lean in and build a highly resilient portfolio. In this episode, I’m joined by returning guest Sandy Lee, an engineer-turned-investor who built a multi-market STR portfolio in her 50s. We’re talking about grounding big brave moves in math rather than hype, and why right now is a powerful time to buy if you know how to stress-test a deal. We dive into: * How Sandy spent eighteen months analyzing her first deal, using spreadsheets to move past analysis paralysis and into confident action. * Sandy’s exact system for connecting AI directly to her property management software to run pacing analyses, build dashboards, and generate plain-language summaries twice a week. * How to look beyond standard calculators to find hidden market catalysts—like shifting local regulations, nearby airport expansions, or reopening ski hills. * Why pricing for momentum instead of ego out of the gate is critical in highly seasonal markets, and why professional photography remains non-negotiable. * Overlooked pathways into the industry for hesitant investors, including house hacking, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and strategic co-hosting partnerships. But this isn't just about running analytics. It’s about the line between smart investing and pure speculation. We pull back the curtain on how to ensure your baseline numbers work on day one while still positioning your portfolio for massive long-term growth. You’ll hear real examples from competitive markets like Steamboat, Orange Beach, and the mountains of North Carolina, proving that data and deep local research are the ultimate risk mitigation tools. If you’ve felt hesitant to scale or buy your next property in an uncertain economy, this conversation will completely reframe your perspective. Get ready to zoom out, trust the math, and build a business that supports the life you actually want to live. HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY POINTS: [01:06] A short introduction about our guest Sandy Lee and her reflection on how a major career transition in her 50s, pushed her to explore short-term rentals [03:09] Sandy shares about the use of data and AI to build confidence and simplify decision-making in short-term rentals [05:57] Sandy and I discuss how AI has evolved beyond simply analyzing data to becoming a strategic business partner [09:44] Sandy explains why she believes now remains an attractive time to invest in short-term rentals despite recent industry challenges [11:42] Sandy and I discuss the many ways investors can build a diversified real estate portfolio, emphasizing that there is no single path to success [13:11] Sandy’s approach to finding investment “magic” beyond the data to anticipate future market growth [19:56] How to identify emerging opportunities by paying attention to large-scale developments, infrastructure projects, and long-term regional shifts that may signal future growth in a market [24:09] Sandy’s approach to balancing conservative underwriting with strategic, forward-looking real estate investment decisions [25:43] The importance of timing in real estate acquisitions is highly situational and ultimately comes down to the underlying numbers and the investor’s financial flexibility [29:54] Sandy and I discuss two critical components of a successful short-term rental launch: professional photography and strategic pricing [32:52] the importance of intentional pricing strategy at launch, particularly in the context of property management and co-hosting relationships [34:46] Sandy’s perspective on overlooked short-term rental opportunities that help investors move past fear and re-enter the market strategically [37:13] Sandy’s breakdown of the ownership and operations paths in short-term rentals, and how co-hosting creates flexible entry and exit options [39:09] The lightning round Golden Nuggets: * “If I start to get anxious and if things start to seem scary, I'll back down into a spreadsheet, and I'll think really hard about it, and I'll look at all of the numbers. It has got to make financial sense.” * “If you don't have money to invest in property right now, starting out co-hosting is a fabulous way to get your feet wet, earn that cash flow that you can eventually invest in the real estate asset.” * “Do the big scary thing that you're afraid of. I mean, that's the best piece of advice. What's the worst thing? Figure out what the worst thing that could happen is, and work yourself through it, and do it anyway.” Let’s Connect: Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/strjumpstart/ [https://www.instagram.com/strjumpstart/] Website : https://www.strjumpstart.com/ [https://www.strjumpstart.com/] https://www.strjumpstart.com/ Enjoyed the show? Subscribe, Rate, Review, Like, and Share!