Episodes

  • How Hart Lake Escapes Turned 5-Star Reviews into a Fully Booked Calendar with Andrew & Clare Hart

    How Hart Lake Escapes Turned 5-Star Reviews into a Fully Booked Calendar with Andrew & Clare Hart
    Oct 26 2026
    What does it actually look like to build a reviews-led marketing strategy from the ground up , without a big budget, a marketing agency, or any prior experience of running a hospitality business?Andrew and Clare Hart opened Hart Lake Escapes in June 2022, over the late Queen’s Jubilee weekend. Five boutique shepherd huts near York, each ensuite, with wood-fired hot tubs. A beautiful property, a considered guest experience, and absolutely no guarantee that anyone would come.They came. And they kept coming back.In this guest episode, Sarah sits down with Andrew and Clare to talk through how they’ve built a loyal guest base and a reputation that keeps their calendar full and how reviews have been at the centre of that, not as a vanity metric but as a genuine marketing tool.Andrew is refreshingly candid about what he didn’t know when they started.He built their website without knowing what SEO was. He came to email marketing late, and by his own admission hasn’t always been consistent with it. But he’s also someone who learns quickly, acts on advice, and understands the value of investing in the right support, which is how he found his way to joining Sarah’s membership - THE FULLY BOOKED BUSINESS CLUB®.Clare brings a different perspective: the guest experience side, the detail, the loyalty card system that has guests returning so often some are on their third card. That’s the kind of repeat loyalty most businesses spend years trying to build!The conversation covers how they ask for reviews and what they do with them once they have them, how word of mouth has shaped their growth, and what they’d tell someone starting out with a new STR property and wondering how to get momentum.If you listened to Episode 62 on using reviews as a marketing asset, this episode is the real-world case study of it in practice: what it looks like when a host actually does it, over time, with consistency.Key TakeawaysReviews are a long game, not a launch strategy. Hart Lake Escapes’ reputation was built gradually, through consistently asking every guest, responding to every review, and letting that social proof compound over time.The loyalty card works because it gives guests a reason to come back that feels like a reward rather than a promotion. A tangible, physical card: eight stamps, one free night, has created repeat guests who are now on their third card. Simple mechanics, powerful psychology.You don’t have to know everything at the start. Andrew built a website without understanding SEO, came to email marketing slowly, and has figured things out as he’s gone. What matters is that he kept going, kept investing in his marketing learning, and kept asking for help when he needed it.Word of mouth is still one of the most powerful marketing channels available to a small STR hospitality business, but it doesn’t happen by accident. The guest experience that generates referrals is designed, not left to chance.Getting the right support at the right time makes a difference. Andrew’s work with Sarah shifted their organic visibility and joining her membership accelerated their learning. Neither required a large budget, but both required a decision to invest.Your primary market isn’t always who you expected. Hart Lake Escapes is positioned as a romantic retreat but the mums and daughters, the groups of friends, the people celebrating something that isn’t a couple’s anniversary: they’re part of the picture too. Know who’s actually booking, not just who you imagined would.- - -Find out more about Hart Lake EscapesWebsiteInstagramFacebook- - -More marketing training resourcesFor ‘how to’ STR specific marketing training — join THE FULLY BOOKED BUSINESS CLUB®---Do you have a marketing roadmap for your business?No more winging it and feeling like you are in constant marketing chaos! Create your easy-to-follow marketing roadmap for the year ahead. My Direct Bookings Bootcamp is now available ON DEMAND! Let’s make this the best year yet for direct bookings! Head to my website for more info.---Are you currently rely on Airbnb or another online agent (OTA)? Take Sarah's FREE quiz here - it's time to give them the boot!---Connect with Sarah:WebsiteInstagramFacebookLinkedIn---
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    26 mins
  • The Free Marketing Tool You're Probably Ignoring Your Google Business Profile

    The Free Marketing Tool You're Probably Ignoring Your Google Business Profile
    Oct 19 2026
    Have you ever Googled your own property name and actually looked at what comes up?Because what appears in those first few seconds, before a potential guest has clicked a single link, can make the difference between someone booking with you and someone scrolling straight past.And for most short-term rental owners, what comes up is a Google Business Profile that was set up once, never touched again, and is quietly doing far less work than it should be.In this solo episode, Sarah makes the case for why your Google Business Profile is one of the highest-leverage, lowest-cost visibility tools available to you as a location-based business and walks through exactly what to do with it.The episode covers how Google decides which businesses to show (relevance, distance and prominence and why prominence is the factor you can actually influence), what Google is doing behind the scenes with your profile that most hosts don’t know about (including the fact that Google can and does update your information, whether you want it to or not!), and why this matters more than ever now that AI Overviews are pulling content directly from Business Profiles to answer guest questions before they’ve even visited your website.The practical section works through four layers of a well-optimised profile: the essential information (the stuff most people have, often partially or incorrectly), visual content (photos that work harder than a stock image ever will), reviews (how to ask for them, how to respond, and why the responses matter as much as the reviews themselves) and Google Posts (the feature almost nobody uses, that keeps your profile active and feeds Google’s algorithm exactly what it needs).If you’ve been treating your Google Business Profile as a set-and-forget listing, this episode will change that and it won’t take more than 15 to 20 minutes a month to stay on top of once you’ve got it right.Key TakeawaysGoogle ranks Business Profiles on three factors: relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance and distance you can influence at setup; prominence: built through reviews, activity and consistency: is what separates the profiles that appear from the ones that don’t.Google can change your profile information without asking you. It pulls data from third-party sources and may update your hours, address or other details based on what it finds elsewhere online. Check your profile regularly and correct anything that’s drifted.AI Overviews are now pulling content directly from Google Business Profiles to answer search queries before a guest visits any website. If your profile is thin, incomplete or inactive, you may be invisible before the search has even properly begun.Your profile has four layers worth optimising: essential information (name, address, category, hours, phone, website: all accurate and complete), visual content (real photos that show your property honestly and attractively), reviews (actively requested, consistently responded to), and Google Posts (short updates that signal to Google that your business is active).Responding to reviews, including negative ones, matters as much as the reviews themselves. Google surfaces your responses. Potential guests read them. How you handle a difficult review tells them more about you than a string of five-stars.Your Google Business Profile performance data is available and worth looking at. Google emails a monthly summary; the full dashboard shows searches, views, clicks and direction requests: data that tells you whether your visibility is improving and where guests are coming from.A well-maintained profile takes 15–20 minutes a month once it’s set up correctly. That’s a low bar for a tool that feeds your visibility in local search, supports direct bookings, and costs nothing.- - -More training resourcesFor more on how to edit and fully utilise your Google Business Profile - join Sarah’s marketing club: THE FULLY BOOKED BUSINESS CLUB®- - -Do you have a marketing roadmap for your business?No more winging it and feeling like you are in constant marketing chaos! Create your easy-to-follow marketing roadmap for the year ahead. My Direct Bookings Bootcamp is now available ON DEMAND! Let’s make this the best year yet for direct bookings! Head to my website for more info.---Are you currently rely on Airbnb or another online agent (OTA)? Take Sarah's FREE quiz here - it's time to give them the boot!---Connect with Sarah:WebsiteInstagramFacebookLinkedIn---
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    19 mins
  • Behind the Scenes: How the Right Booking System Powers Your Marketing with Alison Carsley

    Behind the Scenes: How the Right Booking System Powers Your Marketing with Alison Carsley
    Oct 12 2026
    Here's a question most accommodation owners never think to ask: is your booking system actually working with your marketing, or quietly working against it?Alison Carsley is a host, a property management system specialist, and someone who has spent years helping accommodation businesses untangle their tech setup so it stops costing them bookings and starts earning them.In this episode, Sarah and Alison pull back the curtain on something that rarely gets discussed in the short-term rental world: the booking and property management system running behind the scenes, and why the right one is far more than a calendar.They cover what a good PMS should actually be doing for your business: capturing the guest data that makes email marketing possible, firing off the automated communications that save hours every week, and creating a checkout experience smooth enough that potential guests don't abandon it halfway through.Alison shares the automations that make the biggest difference (including abandoned booking nudges that can recover guests who got within touching distance of confirming, then disappeared), the data you should be collecting at the point of every booking, and the friction points that are silently killing conversions before a guest ever reaches your confirmation page.They also get into channel management, integrations, and, perhaps most usefully, how to approach choosing or switching systems without ending up with something that can't actually do what your business needs. Alison's advice: write down exactly what you need before you trial anything. The surprises come later for hosts who skip that step.Whether your current system feels like a paper diary, you're wondering if you've outgrown what you started with, or you're just not sure your tech is pulling its weight: this episode will give you the clarity to figure it out.Key TakeawaysYour booking system isn't just a calendar: it's the engine behind your marketing, your guest communications and your direct-booking journey. The right system captures data, automates emails and creates a frictionless checkout. The wrong one blocks all three.Collect real guest data at the point of booking: name, email, phone, address, party composition and marketing permissions. This is what makes future email marketing, segmentation and repeat-booking campaigns possible. Without it, you're starting from scratch every time.Build automated email sequences into your booking flow: abandoned booking nudges, booking confirmations, pre-arrival information, a check-in message, checkout reminders and a post-stay email with a review request and repeat-booking incentive. These save time and drive bookings without you lifting a finger.Remove friction from your checkout. Visible pricing (no hidden fees), a clear availability calendar, mobile-friendly booking and secure payment options are non-negotiable. Forcing a guest to create an account before they can see your prices is one of the fastest ways to lose them.If you're using iCal to sync across multiple platforms, switch to a proper API channel manager. iCal is slow, unreliable and doesn't pass guest data through: API connections give you real-time sync, guest details and accurate pricing across every channel.List your exact business needs before you choose or switch systems. What works brilliantly for a two-cabin glamping site won't necessarily work for a portfolio of apartments with dynamic pricing, smart lock integrations and multiple channels. Know what you need first.---Find out more about Alison CarsleyWebsiteFacebookInstagramLinkedIn---Do you have a marketing roadmap for your business?No more winging it and feeling like you are in constant marketing chaos! Create your easy-to-follow marketing roadmap for the year ahead. My Direct Bookings Bootcamp is now available ON DEMAND! Let’s make this the best year yet for direct bookings! Head to my website for more info.---Are you currently rely on Airbnb or another online agent (OTA)? Take Sarah's FREE quiz here - it's time to give them the boot!---Connect with Sarah:WebsiteInstagramFacebookLinkedIn---
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    37 mins
  • Are Your Reviews Doing the Selling for You

    Are Your Reviews Doing the Selling for You
    Oct 5 2026
    You've probably got reviews sitting on Google. Maybe some on Tripadvisor. Possibly a stack buried inside Airbnb or Booking.com. And if you're anything like most accommodation owners, you look at them occasionally, feel very pleased that guests love your place and then do absolutely nothing else with them.This episode is the nudge to change that.Sarah makes the case that your reviews aren't a vanity metric. They aren't there simply so you can admire your 5-star rating and feel smug, although, as she freely admits, we all do that. They're sales content. Real guests telling other potential guests: "Yes, it really is as good as the photographs. Yes, it's worth the money. Yes, you should book this." And most accommodation businesses are leaving that on the table.She walks through three things every host needs to think about: first, a fundamental mindset shift, stop treating reviews as a score and start treating them as sales messages, including a practical exercise to mine your existing reviews for the phrases your guests use that you'd never think to say about your own property.Second, how to build a simple, human system for consistently getting more of the right reviews without being pushy, robotic or, crucially, crossing the line into what Google and Tripadvisor prohibit.And third, and this is the part most hosts miss entirely: where to actually put your reviews so they're working at the moment a potential guest is deciding whether to book.Spoiler alert: a dedicated Testimonials page that nobody clicks is not the answer.The episode ends with a three-step action plan you can start this week: mining your review bank, creating your review request system, and putting your best guest words exactly where they'll do the most selling.Key TakeawaysStop asking "what's my star rating?" and start asking "what are my guests saying that could help me sell more stays?" Reviews are evidence from people who've already experienced what you're selling and that's far more persuasive than anything you could say about yourself.Go through your last 20–30 reviews and look for the language, not just the stars. Recurring themes, emotional words, things guests mention that surprise them, objections they remove without realising it: that's your free customer research and your best marketing material.Build a simple review request system and make it part of your guest journey. Ask at the right moment, when a guest sends a glowing message, says they don't want to leave, or shares a photo. Give them the direct Google review link. One click, done.Never incentivise reviews. Google prohibits offering anything in exchange for reviews. Keep your request simple, human and honest: ask for their experience, not a specific rating.Put reviews where the booking decision actually happens: next to the thing they're helping you sell on your website, near your booking call to action, on your homepage in actual words rather than just a star rating, in your social content and in your emails matched to the stay you're trying to fill.Respond to every Google and Tripadvisor review, including the difficult ones. Your response is visible to future guests and is another opportunity to reinforce a selling point or demonstrate how you handle things when something goes wrong. Potential guests are watching.---To learn how to use your reviews to sell — why not join THE FULLY BOOKED BUSINESS CLUBⓇ? Learn more---Do you have a marketing roadmap for your business?No more winging it and feeling like you are in constant marketing chaos! Create your easy-to-follow marketing roadmap for the year ahead. My Direct Bookings Bootcamp is now available ON DEMAND! Let’s make this the best year yet for direct bookings! Head to my website for more info.---Are you currently rely on Airbnb or another online agent (OTA)? Take Sarah's FREE quiz here - it's time to give them the boot!---Connect with Sarah:WebsiteInstagramFacebookLinkedIn---
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    30 mins
  • Help! My Photos Were Stolen to Scam My Guests — So Here's What I Did Next...

    Help! My Photos Were Stolen to Scam My Guests — So Here's What I Did Next...
    Sep 28 2026
    If you've ever posted a photograph of your accommodation online and thought "I hope the right people see this" - this episode is a timely reminder that visibility can attract the wrong kind of attention too.On 26th August, Sarah discovered that someone had taken photographs of The Hudnalls Hideout, her luxury couples-only treehouse in the Wye Valley and used them to build a completely fake holiday accommodation website. Different brand name. Random private residential address in Gloucestershire. Convincing booking page. Real guests handing over real money for a holiday that didn't exist.In this episode, Sarah walks through what actually happened: how the scam worked, why it's more sophisticated than simply pinching a photograph and putting it on a blog, and why the fact that your marketing is working well can make you more of a target, not less. She's candid about the moment the situation shifted from "that's annoying" to "this is actually serious" and honest about the fact that she's far from alone. This is happening to more accommodation businesses than most people realise.She covers exactly what to do if you discover it's happened to you: what to document, who to report it to, how to handle a guest who has been affected, and what not to say. And she makes the case firmly, for why the answer isn't to become invisible. It's to make your genuine business so easy to find and so obviously credible that any imposter version doesn't stand a chance.The episode ends with a five-point checklist and a bigger marketing lesson that applies whether you've experienced image theft or not: visibility is valuable. Your job is to make sure that when people find you, they can tell they've found the real you.Key TakeawaysDon't assume being small means you're invisible. You don't need thousands of followers to become a target: you just need photographs or video content that a scammer thinks they can exploit. Sometimes that happens precisely because your marketing is working.Document everything the moment you discover it. Screenshots, URLs, dates, adverts, emails from affected guests: create an evidence file immediately, because fake websites can disappear fast and you'll need proof of what was there.Go upstream when reporting. Report to the website platform, the hosting company, the domain registrar, the advertising platform and search engines and where relevant, the appropriate authorities. One email is rarely enough.If a guest contacts you because they've been scammed, lead with empathy. Establish what happened, help them understand the legitimate booking route, encourage them to contact their bank promptly, and point them to the official fraud-reporting channels. Don't promise to get their money back.Strengthen your digital footprint, don't shrink it. A strong, consistent online presence (website, Google Business Profile, social media, reviews) makes it far easier for potential guests to identify the genuine business. Your website isn't just somewhere to take bookings. It's part of your credibility.Your photographs, videos and written content are marketing assets. As your business becomes more successful, those assets become more valuable and more worth protecting.---Useful LinksIf you discover a suspicious or fraudulent website using your images or identity, you can report it here:National Cyber Security Centre (UK)Report Fraud — England, Wales and Northern IrelandIn Scotland, report holiday fraud to Police Scotland. If you are based outside the UK, check the recommended fraud reporting route for your country.---Do you have a marketing roadmap for your business?No more winging it and feeling like you are in constant marketing chaos! Create your easy-to-follow marketing roadmap for the year ahead. My Direct Bookings Bootcamp is now available ON DEMAND! Let’s make this the best year yet for direct bookings! Head to my website for more info.---Are you currently rely on Airbnb or another online agent (OTA)? Take Sarah's FREE quiz here - it's time to give them the boot!---Connect with Sarah:WebsiteInstagramFacebookLinkedIn---
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    30 mins
  • Using Marketing Insights to Drive More Direct Bookings with Joe Marshall, Prospect House Farm

    Using Marketing Insights to Drive More Direct Bookings with Joe Marshall, Prospect House Farm
    Jul 27 2026
    To close out Season 6, Sarah is joined by one of her Fully Booked Business Club members whose results over the last two years have been, in her own words, impressive and whose approach to marketing holds a lesson every short-term rental accommodation owner needs to hear.Joe Marshall is a heating engineer turned glamping and campsite owner. He and his wife Kimberly bought Prospect House Farm in Scarborough, North Yorkshire in March 2022 with a vision of living the good life and quickly discovered that keeping a farm, a growing campsite, glamping cabins, a plant nursery and a livery yard financially viable requires rather more than Big Dreams and good intentions.Joe knew nothing about accommodation marketing when they started. He opened a five-pitch campsite in their first summer, added a glamping cabin that winter and has been building ever since.By July 2026, Prospect House Farm now has 27 campsite pitches, two glamping cabins running at 90-96% occupancy, two more cabins due in September and a guest waiting list.What changed?Joe went looking for knowledge, found Sarah through a Facebook group reply, downloaded a free social media masterclass, joined her signature Direct Bookings Bootcamp, joined the marketing club and then, critically, did the actual work.But the thing that has driven the most dramatic shift is something most hosts overlook entirely: obsessively tracking the right data and making every marketing decision from insight rather than instinct.Joe talks through the live dashboard he built himself: pulling data from Google Analytics, Mailchimp and his booking system into a single view, so he can see at a glance his average nightly rate, year-on-year performance, which marketing channels are actually generating bookings (not just traffic) and where his guests are coming from.He shares the moment he realised Facebook ads were consuming budget without producing results and how redirecting that spend towards a social media manager and a professional website transformed both his brand and his bookings.He also covers the pricing shift that happened once he truly understood his costs and his demand, from discounting to stay competitive on OTAs, to confidently raising his rates because the data showed he could.The headline numbers tell the story: when Joe started, he was 80% OTA-dependent and 20% direct. Today he’s 80% direct bookings, has switched off Booking.com entirely, and has Airbnb on standby for the occasional cancellation gap. For two consecutive months he hasn’t needed to enter a single Airbnb booking into his accounting software.Joe’s top tip for any host who doesn’t yet know their numbers: start small, go on Google Analytics weekly, ask one question each time and use AI to help make sense of what you’re seeing.The data stops feeling like gobbledygook faster than you’d think and once you know your numbers, the stress of running a hospitality business starts to ease significantly.---Key TakeawaysGoing from 80% OTA to 80%+ direct bookings at 90-96% occupancy didn’t happen by accident: it happened because Joe committed to understanding his business data and making every marketing decision from insight rather than guesswork.Know where your bookings actually come from before deciding where to spend your time. Most hosts spend the majority of their marketing effort on social media but data consistently shows Google and other sources can drive far more bookings. Track your sources and allocate your energy accordingly.If you’re spending marketing budget on a channel and you can’t tell whether it’s working, stop. Joe ditched Facebook ads that weren’t converting and redirected that budget into a social media manager and a professional website: both of which made an immediate difference.Average nightly rate across the whole year matters more than peak-season highs. Once a date is sold, it’s sold: understanding your true average rate helps you price with confidence and raise rates when demand justifies it, rather than discounting out of fear.Know your full cost per stay before you price anything. Include cleaning, laundry, consumables, utilities….everything. Hosts who skip this step often discover they’re discounting below their own cost of delivery.If Google Analytics feels like gobbledygook, use AI to help decode it. Screenshot what you’re looking at and ask AI to explain it. Go on weekly, ask one question at a time, and build the habit gradually: it gets easier, and the insights it unlocks are worth it.---Find out more about Prospect House FarmWebsiteFacebookInstagram---Want more support on your marketing insights & direct bookings?Check out THE FULLY BOOKED BUSINESS CLUB here.---Do you have a marketing roadmap for your business?No more winging it and feeling like you are in constant marketing chaos! Create your easy-to-follow marketing roadmap for the year ahead. My Direct Bookings Bootcamp is now available ON DEMAND! Let’s make this the best year yet for direct ...
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    30 mins
  • How to Promt AI Better to get Content that Actually Sounds like Your Short Term Rental!

    How to Promt AI Better to get Content that Actually Sounds like Your Short Term Rental!
    Jul 20 2026
    You asked AI to write an Instagram caption for your accommodation. It came back with something about a “tranquil haven nestled amidst breathtaking natural beauty where luxury meets comfort.” You deleted it immediately. Sound familiar?In this solo episode, Sarah gets practical about one of the most common frustrations she hears from hosts: AI that produces bland, generic content that sounds nothing like their actual business. The problem, she argues, isn’t the tool — it’s the prompts. Most people are using AI like a magic content machine, typing “write me an Instagram caption for my Airbnb” and pressing enter, then wondering why the result could have been written for any property, anywhere.Sarah introduces the principle of ‘garbage in, garbage out’: a computing concept that’s never been more relevant. AI is not unlike a new marketing assistant: hand them a vague brief and walk away, and you’ll get average work. Spend time giving them real context about your guests, your brand, your story and what makes your accommodation different, and the work transforms. AI amplifies the insights you give it. It doesn’t invent them.She walks through three practical approaches that change the game: first, training AI on your business before asking it to produce anything and the concept of building your own ‘AI business bible’ that you can reuse again and again. Second, using AI as a creative thinking partner rather than just a writer: feeding in guest reviews, asking it to analyse emotional themes, or getting it to help you understand what questions your ideal guests are asking before they book. And third, the PROMPT formula: a memorable six-part structure (Purpose, Role, Offer, Market, Personality, Technical details) that gives AI everything it needs to produce content that actually sounds like you.Sarah also shares a full worked example: a detailed prompt for a luxury treehouse in the Forest of Dean, so you can see exactly what a strong prompt looks like in practice and adapt it directly for your own business.If you’ve been getting mediocre results from AI and assumed the tool was the problem, this episode will reframe how you use it entirely. The goal isn’t more content. It’s better content — content that sounds like you, connects with your ideal guests, and helps the right people find and book your accommodation.---Key TakeawaysGarbage in, garbage out. The quality of your AI content depends almost entirely on the quality of the brief you give it — vague prompts produce vague content, every single time.Before asking AI to create anything, train it on your business: your ideal guests, your brand voice, what makes your accommodation different, words you love, words you never want to see, and guest reviews. Build an ‘AI business bible’ you can paste in again and again.Use AI as a thinking partner, not just a writer. Ask it to analyse your reviews for recurring themes, identify the emotional reasons guests book your type of property, or audit your website copy for generic language — before you ask it to write a single word.The PROMPT formula gives every AI request the right ingredients: Purpose (what’s the goal?), Role (who is AI acting as?), Offer (what are you promoting?), Market (who is it for?), Personality (your tone and brand voice), and Technical details (length, format, CTAs).Your guest reviews are a goldmine. They contain the exact words your guests use to describe the experience — feed them into AI and it will immediately start producing content that resonates with the people most likely to book.AI is a first draft tool, not a final draft tool. Never publish without editing — add the human layer, the local knowledge, the details only you know, and always fact-check any specific claims or local recommendations it generates.---Free Resource: AI Marketing CheatsheetWant the prompts and frameworks from this episode in one handy reference? Download Sarah’s free AI Marketing Cheatsheet — everything you need to start getting better content from AI today. Download your free AI Marketing Cheatsheet here.---Do you have a marketing roadmap for your business?No more winging it and feeling like you are in constant marketing chaos! Create your easy-to-follow marketing roadmap for the year ahead. My Direct Bookings Bootcamp is now available ON DEMAND! Let’s make this the best year yet for direct bookings! Head to my website for more info.---Are you currently rely on Airbnb or another online agent (OTA)? Take Sarah's FREE quiz here - it's time to give them the boot!---Connect with Sarah:WebsiteInstagramFacebookLinkedIn---
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    27 mins
  • Women in Short-Term Rentals with Lisa Roads. A woman on a mission!

    Women in Short-Term Rentals with Lisa Roads. A woman on a mission!
    Jul 13 2026
    If you’ve ever felt isolated in your business, wondered whether you’re the only one juggling quite this much, or noticed that the people on the big industry stages rarely look like you, this episode is for you.Lisa Roads has spent over 25 years in short-term rentals, starting with buy-to-lets at 19, building a holiday portfolio in Cyprus from the UK, and eventually running a fully managed property management business of 225 luxury coastal villas and apartments across three locations on the island, all operated remotely. She sold that business in 2021 and has since moved into consulting, coaching and speaking and more recently, into building something the industry was sorely missing.Women in Short Term Rentals started in December 2024, born out of Lisa’s frustration at attending major industry events and consistently not seeing women on the stages or at the tables shaping the sector’s direction, despite the fact that 70% of hospitality employees are women, and that data consistently shows 82% of travel decisions are made by women. The community now has over 500 members, a Facebook group, WhatsApp and LinkedIn groups, and has become a delivery partner for the Host Planet Roadshow, taking industry education on the road to make it accessible to women who can’t always get to the big conferences.In this conversation, Lisa and Sarah talk candidly about what women in the industry actually struggle with: imposter syndrome that strikes even after landing a £300,000 contract, the sandwich generation reality of juggling aging parents, children still at home, a relationship and a business, and the under-discussed impact of the menopause on women running businesses they simply can’t pause.Lisa is refreshingly honest: her desk, she says, has seen everything from complete joy to floods of tears over 20-something years and she wants the community to be the place where that honesty is normal and welcome.They also get into Lisa’s biggest business lessons from scaling to 225 units: why she always put systems and processes in place before growing, and why the best hiring decision she ever made was to recruit for aptitude rather than experience: a principle she borrowed from Richard Branson.Whether you have one property or a portfolio, whether you’re just starting out or well into your hosting journey: if you’re a woman in short-term rentals, this community exists for you.---Key Takeaways82% of travel decisions are made by women, which means women running hospitality businesses have a powerful, innate understanding of exactly who they’re marketing to and what those guests are looking for.Imposter syndrome doesn’t discriminate by experience level. Women who project enormous confidence publicly can still spend the week after landing a £300,000 contract questioning whether they made the right call and having somewhere honest to take that matters.The ‘sandwich generation’ is a real and underacknowledged pressure for many women in STR: aging parents at one end, children at home at the other, a relationship and a business in the middle. A supportive community of people who genuinely understand the industry makes navigating that far less isolating.The menopause is a business issue, not just a personal one. Women running short-term rental businesses can’t simply walk away when they’re struggling — and having a space to talk about it without judgement is something the industry has been missing.Recruit for aptitude, train for skill. Lisa’s biggest operational lesson from scaling to 225 units: she never cared what a candidate had done before. If they were passionate about people and service, she would teach them everything else and those people stayed for years.You cannot scale on sand. Systems and processes come first, growth comes second and as a business grows, the leader’s job is to continually reassess what skills and people are needed for the next stage, not just the current one.---Join the Women in Short-Term Rentals CommunityA free, no-sales-pitch community for women in short-term rentals, whether you have one property or a large portfolio. Join via the link below:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1538537940121422/---Find out more about Lisa Roads below: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagram---Do you have a marketing roadmap for your business?No more winging it and feeling like you are in constant marketing chaos! Create your easy-to-follow marketing roadmap for the year ahead. My Direct Bookings Bootcamp is now available ON DEMAND! Let’s make this the best year yet for direct bookings! Head to my website for more info.---Are you currently rely on Airbnb or another online agent (OTA)? Take Sarah's FREE quiz here - it's time to give them the boot!---Connect with Sarah:WebsiteInstagramFacebookLinkedIn---
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    31 mins