VRS664 - Building Two Businesses With a Small Team and a Smart AI Habit
Release Date: 05/20/2026
Vacation Rental Success
This Episode is Sponsored by StayFi Your ultimate tool for Vacation Rental WiFi marketing allowing you to collect guest emails automatically via custom captive WiFi login splash pages. Drive repeat direct bookings and convert your OTA bookings to book direct for their next visit. Visit and use code VRSUCCESS for 50% off 3 months of StayFi service. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Most people in short-term rentals describe how they got started with a slight apology...
info_outlineVacation Rental Success
This Episode is Sponsored by StayFi Your ultimate tool for Vacation Rental WiFi marketing allowing you to collect guest emails automatically via custom captive WiFi login splash pages. Drive repeat direct bookings and convert your OTA bookings to book direct for their next visit. Visit and use code VRSUCCESS for 50% off 3 months of StayFi service. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Five days before recording this episode, Heather added an AI agent called Viktor to...
info_outlineVacation Rental Success
This Episode is Sponsored by StayFi Your ultimate tool for Vacation Rental WiFi marketing allowing you to collect guest emails automatically via custom captive WiFi login splash pages. Drive repeat direct bookings and convert your OTA bookings to book direct for their next visit. Visit and use code VRSUCCESS for 50% off 3 months of StayFi service. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Twenty-five years ago, Heather could get on the phone with every guest who booked...
info_outlineVacation Rental Success
This Episode is Sponsored by StayFi Your ultimate tool for Vacation Rental WiFi marketing allowing you to collect guest emails automatically via custom captive WiFi login splash pages. Drive repeat direct bookings and convert your OTA bookings to book direct for their next visit. Visit and use code VRSUCCESS for 50% off 3 months of StayFi service. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This episode started on LinkedIn. Gil Chan posted about hyperlocal property...
info_outlineVacation Rental Success
This Episode is Sponsored by StayFi Your ultimate tool for Vacation Rental WiFi marketing allowing you to collect guest emails automatically via custom captive WiFi login splash pages. Drive repeat direct bookings and convert your OTA bookings to book direct for their next visit. Visit and use code VRSUCCESS for 50% off 3 months of StayFi service. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Paul Anderson first appeared on the Vacation Rental Success Podcast in 2021, when he...
info_outlineVacation Rental Success
This Episode is Sponsored by StayFi Your ultimate tool for Vacation Rental WiFi marketing allowing you to collect guest emails automatically via custom captive WiFi login splash pages. Drive repeat direct bookings and convert your OTA bookings to book direct for their next visit. Visit and use code VRSUCCESS for 50% off 3 months of StayFi service. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Gil Chan came at the short-term rental industry from a direction most operators...
info_outlineVacation Rental Success
This Episode is Sponsored by StayFi Your ultimate tool for Vacation Rental WiFi marketing allowing you to collect guest emails automatically via custom captive WiFi login splash pages. Drive repeat direct bookings and convert your OTA bookings to book direct for their next visit. Visit and use code VRSUCCESS for 50% off 3 months of StayFi service. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This episode almost wasn't the one you're hearing. Heather had already recorded,...
info_outlineVacation Rental Success
This Episode is Sponsored by StayFi Your ultimate tool for Vacation Rental WiFi marketing allowing you to collect guest emails automatically via custom captive WiFi login splash pages. Drive repeat direct bookings and convert your OTA bookings to book direct for their next visit. Visit and use code VRSUCCESS for 50% off 3 months of StayFi service. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Sab Mulligan came into the short-term rental industry from a decade in media...
info_outlineVacation Rental Success
This Episode is Sponsored by StayFi Your ultimate tool for Vacation Rental WiFi marketing allowing you to collect guest emails automatically via custom captive WiFi login splash pages. Drive repeat direct bookings and convert your OTA bookings to book direct for their next visit. Visit and use code VRSUCCESS for 50% off 3 months of StayFi service. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Jodi Bourne is back for the latest installment of the new regular segment with Heather, built around a simple premise: AI is moving...
info_outlineVacation Rental Success
This Episode is Sponsored by Lodgify If you have been thinking about building your own direct booking channel and reducing your reliance on the OTAs, Lodgify is worth a serious look. It brings your booking website, channel management, guest messaging, and unified inbox into one place. VRS listeners can get 20% off yearly and bi-yearly plans with code VRS-20, valid through to the end of June. Visit Lodgify and use code VRS-20 to get started. ...
info_outlineThis Episode is Sponsored by Lodgify
If you have been thinking about building your own direct booking channel and reducing your reliance on the OTAs, Lodgify is worth a serious look. It brings your booking website, channel management, guest messaging, and unified inbox into one place. VRS listeners can get 60% off yearly and bi-yearly plans with code VRS-60, valid through June 30th. Visit Lodify and use code VRS-60 to get started.
> Click here to visit Lodgify.com
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It has been over two years since Kerri Gibson was last on the show, and a great deal has changed. The Chalets Hygge brand has expanded into Experience Hygge, an umbrella that now also covers a roadside motel four hours away from the original property. It is a seventeen-room hospitality business with daily turnover, walk-in guests, and an operational rhythm that has almost nothing in common with the chalets that built the brand.
Kerri and her partner Philippe Pichette took on the motel in 2024 and have spent the past seventeen months renovating it while keeping it operational. In this conversation, Kerri talks honestly about what running two very different businesses with a small team actually looks like, how she has stepped back to let her chalet team grow into their roles, and where AI has earned a permanent place in her week.
She also speaks plainly about her seven-year history with Lodgify, her direct booking strategy across both businesses, and the move she has been quietly making from ChatGPT to Claude. There is something here for anyone running a lean hospitality business who is curious about AI but does not want hype.
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📣 The AI Ambassador Program
This episode is also brought to you in part by our AI Ambassador Program. If you're curious about using AI in your business - whether it's for guest communication, operations, or even marketing - check out our AI Ambassador Program. It's designed to help you learn, lead, and get hands-on with the tools shaping the future of hospitality.
🌐 Learn more and join us at VacationRentalFormula.com/AI
Are you listening to this podcast on the move? Get to the show notes here:
https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/podcast/VRS664