Produced by VRMB. Sponsored by Track Hospitality Software. Ep. 1: The Wake-up Call 2 Ep. 2: Journey into Advocacy 23 Ep. 3: Go Together 39 Ep. 4: The Big Day 57 Ep. 5: Money 75 Ep. 6: We Need to Talk 89 Ep. 7: Telling Your Story 109 Ep. 8: When It All Goes Wrong 122 Ep. 9: Big Ideas 143 Ep. 10: Where Do We Go From Here 161 Ep. 1: The Wake-up Call Eric Bay (ANP) Things got out of hand and city council members ran on ​ platforms that said we want to rein this in and stop this. Unfortunately, what they did was take several draconian measures and backward steps in eliminating about 70% of all of the formerly licensed and legal properties in New Orleans. Megan McCrea (NASTRA) The city was basically trying to pass a ban on short ​ term rentals. And even those of us who were in operation would have to stop. Phil Minardi (Expedia) Right now in the US, we have over 4200 municipalities, I ​ would say, decent guests is that at least half of them at this point, have either had the conversation about regulations or are currently having them right now. Paige Teel (NEVRP) We are trying to figure out exactly how we want to be ​ defined, which has always been something that's been hard for us because we've we're not gonna say flown under the radar, but we've also not been regulated. So there's kind of a two edged sword to that, especially now due to the Coronavirus. David Krauss (Rent Responsibly) You need to be extremely aware of the fact ​ that a good actor can have a really bad day and be that story and city hall. Jessica Black (Moms Against Short Term Rentals) Unless you work with the ​ community to figure out how it makes sense. The battle is not gonna end Jonah Mechanic (Seabreeze VR San Diego) I don't think there's gonna be a ​ tourist destination in the entire US that by the year 2022 won't have some kind of a short term rental ordinance in place. Dana Lubner From my friends at VRMB communities. This is "How to Save Your ​ Vacation Rental Business," a 10 part educational series about the do's and don'ts of sustainable short term rentals. This episode is brought to you by Track powered by Travel Net Solutions providing integrated solutions to transform the way vacation rental hospitality works. I'm Dana Lubner and this episode is our wake up call. In this episode, we learn why inaction, complacency, and unwillingness to band together in the face of regulations are the greatest threat to our industry. Community-based advocacy has to be done. It's hard, but it works. And it never stops. Dana Lubner Hello, everyone and welcome to my show. I'm so excited to share ​ everything we've learned from some of the most courageous players in the industry. Matt Landau Hi, Dana. ​ Dana Lubner Good morning, Matt. ​ Matt Landau How are you? ​ Dana Lubner I'm doing great. How are you? It's so good to hear your voice. ​ Matt Landau It's good to hear your voice. I'm doing well. I'm especially excited ​ because this is the first episode of our podcast together. Are you stoked? Dana Lubner I am beyond stoked to be doing this. That's my colleague Matt Landau, ​ from VRMB. I've followed VRMB for a few years now and love the community and how it connects us all at a global level. Matt and I decided to team up to tackle this topic because hope is not a strategy. And this is the biggest threat to our future. I'll lean on him throughout this episode and at certain times throughout the rest of the season. Matt Landau So what are we here to talk about today? What is this podcast all ​ about anyway? Dana Lubner This podcast is all about advocacy, ​ Matt Landau Or should we say this is not about advocacy at all? Dun Dun Dun... ​ Dana Lubner It's bigger than advocacy, but it is related and something that has been ​ near and dear to my heart for the last few years. Matt Landau The word advocacy we like to joke about it, but it's kind of a boring ​ word, right? You hear it and you don't really get excited to listen or do anything. Dana Lubner The word and turn people off whether it's just not something that's ​ exciting or they're intimidated by it. Matt Landau Over the course of our interviews over the last few months. Have ​ you come up with a replacement for advocacy? What is this podcast about if it's not about advocacy? Dana Lubner The word that I've fallen in love with as a replacement for advocacy is ​ "community." And that's really what we're talking about here is how to build community and sustainability for the industry. Phil Minardi, Director of Policy and communications for Expedia Group, does a great job explaining this intersection of community and advocacy. Phil Minardi (Expedia) I would say advocacy is more than policy work. One of ​ the challenges for local alliances is to stay together after a campaign is done. And, Dana, I know you understand this acutely after the shared goal of policy solutions is behind them. A lot of groups get back to regular order, they go back to the important work of putting heads in beds and welcoming folks to their communities. So the local Alliance, the local group, the local engagement falls by the wayside. The truth is, we have an incredible opportunity to position ourselves as community leaders, not just vacation rental operators. Dana Lubner Phil's my go to guy because he's the one that actually shows up, rolls up ​ his sleeves and genuinely asks how he can help and be of service. Matt, what do you think of community? Matt Landau I've always really liked community. But I've also come up with my ​ own replacement, and that is "readiness." I've been looking into the world of disaster preparedness, preparing for whether it's a natural disaster, or even something like if you go off hiking in the woods with 16 friends, you need to have some preparedness there some readiness, whether it's a compass, or telephone, or a first-aid kit. And what we've been learning is that a disaster will strike any given vacation rental destination, if it hasn't already, likely will sometime soon, you got to be ready. Jonah Mechanic (Seabreeze VR San Diego) To be honest, we're, we're in the ​ reactive group, as much as I said, it would be great for more people to be thinking proactively, you know, we we're guilty of being reactive as well. So we're kind of right now just fighting the fight and doing whatever we can do to keep our heads above water and keep a band from coming down. Dana Lubner That was Jonah Mechanic in San Diego, proving that even the best ​ operators in the industry struggle with these issues every day. So no matter what we call it, whether it's advocacy, or community or readiness, we're talking about the same thing here. The basis of this is all about creating sustainability for your business. Matt Landau Yeah. Do you want to continue running your business profitably in ​ the future? If the answer is yes, this is the podcast for you. Matt Landau So Dana, I want to take a moment to heap some praise on you, ​ would you mind, Dana Lubner I'm totally flattered. ​ Matt Landau It's a nice way to start off the podcast season. For those who don't ​ know, Dana, she sort of came on to our radar over the last few years with her amazing community leadership work in Denver, Colorado, your Mile High Hosts group is how old now, Dana? Dana Lubner Our group started in the Spring of 2019. ​ Matt Landau And you are going through this advocacy or community leadership ​ process yourself, you're actively figuring out how to do things with no guidebook or instruction manual. And we thought it would be a great idea to help you do that by introducing you to people who are actively doing it well, but also to document your process to kind of archive it so that other vacation rental professionals can follow along. What's your big kind of goal for the episodes of this podcast for our listeners? Dana Lubner I want to make advocacy and community efforts approachable for ​ everyone. I don't want it to be something that turns them off when they hear the word or they think that they don't have any experience with policy and they can't get into it. I want this to be a practical how to so everyone feels empowered to step up and do their part. Matt Landau Yeah, I like that. And I particularly like your obsession with ​ actionable tips. There are so many interviews that we'll be featuring this season where you really just sink your teeth into a topic and ask the expert to explain it on a granular level, how they did it. And that's really what people want to hear. At least that's what you as a leader of an advocacy group in Denver would find useful, right? Dana Lubner It's Great to hear about everything that people have accomplished.