16+ Top Influencers in the Podcasting Space for Short-term Rentals
July 18, 2022 | Amelia Melching
The 2010s saw people listening to radio shows on their way to work. The 2020s? It’s all aboutpodcasts and influencers. What was once a space for niche creators is now a mainstream marketing strategy for virtually every business, including the short-term rental space.
Here atWheelhouse, we understand the need to adapt. That’s why we use cutting-edge machine learning technology to continue capturing the most relevant data for our dynamic pricing software. And today’s vacation rental podcast influencers certainly have the same idea.
These podcasts focused on short-term rentals offer communication, education, and authenticity. Maybe you’re a “rentalpreneur” but not an influencer — that’s OK. You can learn from industry insights from others in the biz or reap the rewards from sharing and being featured on a vacation rental podcast.
What are podcast influencers?
An influencer has enough knowledge, credibility, or popularity to influence audiences into buying a product. A podcastinfluencer is the same; only their medium of choice is podcasts.
Podcasts aren’t always directly used to directly sell a product. In many cases, they serve as a source of information for industry insights or entertainment.
Say you’re a short-term rental manager who’s just starting up. You might feel isolated in handling some challenges, but what if you could connect with a community of people that speak out about those same challenges? A podcast helps you feel connected and teaches you about others’ experiences in your industry.
What Can Vacation Rental Influencers Bring to Your Rental Business?
The beauty of vacation rental influencers is that you can use them in many ways to improve your rental business. Listening to some solid podcasts can keep you up-to-date on important industry trends and information, from hearing about the latest property management conferences to the best property management software.
Directly, if you work with podcast influencers on marketing endeavors, they can promote your listings and connect you to an audience of potential customers, partners, and investors.
The possibilities are endless, but here are some of the main benefits of working with vacation rental influencers.
1. More Visibility
Visibility happens in a few ways. You could improve your business visibility by creating your own podcast and putting your name on the radar of countless new customers and industry partners. Or, you could pay for advertising on a prominent vacation rental podcaster’s show—promoting your visibility to an entirely new audience.
2. Reduce Advertising Costs
Podcasts still come with costs, but you have options to make them comparably smaller than Google Ads, for example. Managing your own podcast can generate revenue through affiliate ads and new sales leads.
Or, promoting your business on another vacation rental podcast could give you a better return on investment in advertising.
3. Higher Trust
Podcasters build trust in their audiences. They discuss common industry trends, updates, and insightful stories about things that interest audiences.
If you gain enough of a following, you can build your credibility and likeability with people that might purchase your service or recommend you to a potential lead.
4. Better Understand Your Guests
Every marketer will tell you how important it is to understand your customers. Learning about their needs, challenges, and interests through expert podcasts will help you create a product or service they truly need.
Podcasters discuss common industry challenges and customer needs. Some ways they do this include:
Expert guest speakers
Audience Q’s and A’s
Interviews
5. Inspire Renters (and Yourself!)
Podcasts aren’t solely informative—they’re inspiring, entertaining, and thought-provoking. The top podcast influencers for short-term rentals show their audiences something they haven’t seen before.
Imagine a vacation rental influencer that interviews a guest to find out their favorite listing features or interviews a property manager that specializes in eco-friendly treehouses. You’ll bring something new to the table and position yourself as an innovator to new customers.
6. Networking Opportunities
Listening to – and interacting with – short term rental podcast influencers can provide great networking opportunities. You can not only connect with the influencers and other listeners, as well as learn about upcoming events and new technologies.
Top Podcast Influencers for Short Term Vacation Rentals
Let’s explore some of the top social media influencers for short-term rentals (and podcasters, of course).
The Accommodation Show
The Accommodation Show host, Bart Sobies, is a short-term rental management coach and CEO of hospitality booking service iBooked. He’s someone with extensive experience in this business, which might be why it has an average 5-star rating on Apple.
This podcast discusses BnB branding, tech hacks, booking strategies, data leveraging, exit strategies, and more.
Boostly zooms in on one of the biggest challenges in the short-term rental industry: pumping up occupancy. The podcast host is hospitality expert Mark Simpson, who interviews industry authors, investors, and others to present listeners with actionable advice to increase their bookings. Some recent episode topics include niche hosting (i.e., bridal parties) and AI technology.
Get Paid for Your Pad offers a few products to smooth the short-term rental business for busy property managers. The podcast host and founder, Jasper, gives masterclasses and abundant free resources through the brand. Listeners love the sheer variety of topics, from scalability and rankings to unique host stories and influencer marketing tactics.
Myka Artis and Steven Suarez have modest beginnings in the short-term rental world, both started with renting out their own homes and eventually moving to Airbnb. The two work full-time unrelated jobs, joking that they’re Airbnb hosts by night.
Live Let Thrive is a podcast dedicated to helping Airbnb hosts thrive in the Shareconomy. You’ll find many topics on their show, including community involvement within property management, scaling, passive income, and more.
Million Dollar Host is for the aspiring Airbnb super host and, incidentally, millionaire. Hosted by short-term rental tycoon Julie George, Million Dollar Host covers endless topics about creating the perfect Airbnb business. George started making $600 per week on Airbnb and built her business to generate over $8 million in just three years.
Decor, industry predictions, maintenance, marketing, and legal issues are only a few aspects of the podcast’s content. Julie also hosts special guests like lawyers, inspectors, successful property managers, and owners specializing in specific properties (villas, for example).
The No-BS Short-Term Rental Podcast has a unique inclusion lens when discussing short-term rental industry challenges and trends. The podcast is relatively new, though both hosts have extensive industry experience:
Mateo Bradford: Strategic Business Development Manager at Ease (capital evangelist specializing in the short-term rental industry)
John Stokinger: Senior Business Development Manager at Hopper Homes, with experience in industry marketing and payment processing roles.
The podcast offers more socially conscious themes in the industry, like inclusion and environmental initiatives. Additionally, reviewers praise the podcast’s raw and unfiltered conversation about the industry’s challenges.
Podcast details:
Episodes: 61
Where to listen: Spotify, iHeart Radio, Apple, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music
The host couple of Short Term Rental Secrets has a short-term rental-property portfolio across the US with over 20 properties.
The podcast features actionable advice and topics from various industry experts specializing in everything from capital funding to tech. Podcast host Michael aims to help people use real estate investments as a tool to find financial independence.
SUPERHOG offers a service every short-term rental manager finds valuable: guest screening. Have you ever rented to a seemingly quiet guest to find they’ve trashed your apartment? SUPERHOG knows the story all too well and brings peace of mind through intelligent screening.
The company also started a podcast called Vacation and Short-Term Rental Titans to dive deeper into every aspect of the business to pump up revenue. They explore technology and industry trends and speak with experts and CEOs from other property management and related companies like Guesty, for example.
Vacation Rental Machine focuses episodes on Airbnb topics, from super host tips to slow occupancy periods. They also discuss the latest tech, including the importance of dynamic pricing software (ahem, Wheelhouse).
This podcast for Airbnb owners discusses the tips and tricks to becoming a successful rental host, what mistakes to avoid when hosting guests, and how to increase your booking rates.
Podcast details:
Episodes: 39 episodes
Downloads: Not specified
Where to listen: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, AnchorFM, Hospitality.fm
This podcast covers everything from hotels to short-term rentals, this podcast breaks down the internal work that goes into working in the hospitality industry through interviews.
Podcast details:
Episodes: 109
Downloads: Not Specified
Where to listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, Google Podcasts, Youtube
Heather Bayer uses her experience as the CEO of a successful cottage rental agency to talk about new trends in renting and how to manage multiple rental properties at once through interviews with vacation homeowners and rental industry experts.
Podcast details:
Episodes: 474
Downloads: Not Specified
Where to listen: Apple Podcast, Listennotes, Spotify
How to Choose Your Short-Term Rental Podcast Influencer
Learn about how people rent their homes as Airbnb with personal stories shared from personal interactions. Give listeners a chance to look into the human side of rental hosting homes.
Podcast details:
Episodes: 58
Downloads: Not specified
Where to listen: Apple Podcast, Audible, Listennotes, Podbay.fm. Podcast.com, Podchaser
Hospitality Cashflow is a podcast that connects up-and-coming entrepreneurs with other like-minded people. The hosts, Noble Crawford and Matt Anices, teach their listeners about making short-term renting long-term cashflow.
How to Choose Your Short-Term Rental Podcast Influencer
Now that you know which influencer podcasts are available, it’s time to pick your perfect match. How do you assess which podcasts are the best for your marketing endeavors? Each individual offers a host of knowledge, insight, and hours of free content at your fingertips. And if you like what you hear, there are courses, content, audits, and insider information available if you wish to sign up for their paid content or services. It all depends on what you’re looking for and what they can offer to help grow your business.
1. Listener Count & Engagement Rate
How many people follow the podcast’s social media pages? Do you see regular reviews, comments, and shares? Listener count and engagement rate work together to tell an important story about an influencer: whether the world believes in them.
Remember, follower count doesn’t matter if there’s no engagement. But, if they have amazing 100% engagement–and only 10 followers–that won’t work either. It’s important to find a balance between them when looking for a podcast influencer to support your short-term rental business.
2. Brand Fit
Niche is super important. We’ve seen a few influences that specialize in particular booking platforms, rental types, locations, and more. It’s up to you to ensure the podcast you choose aligns with your brand and business.
3. Content Quality
Does the podcast sound scratchy and unprofessional? Make sure you’re featured somewhere your dream audience will take you seriously.
Moreover, the podcast content should be consistently credible and valuable. If reviewers cite dissatisfaction with inauthentic promotions and vague industry insights, you might consider another option.
4. Partnership Options and Cost
Influencers should have a range of partnership options to meet your needs. If you’re on a budget, look for exchanges where you can trade advertising or services with each other.
Some partnerships might include guest interviews, affiliate marketing and linking, and more.
How to Prepare for Your Vacation Rental Influencer Campaign
Prepare for Your Vacation Rental Influencer Campaign
Make Campaign Goals
What do you want to accomplish using influencer podcasts as a marketing tool?
Do you want to grow your social following?
Thought leadership content?
More bookings?
Whatever it is, write down clear goals that you can measure.
Why bother writing campaign goals? Because they’ll inform the type of content you create for your influencer podcasts, and you can compare the results against them.
Choose the Right Podcast
Our list of the top vacation rental influencer podcasts features a wide range of topics. Airbnb specialists, motels, property management software, and others share their knowledge on each podcast. Narrow in on the podcasts more relevant to your brand, business, and ideal audience.
Determine Content
Remember the goal setting we mentioned above? That’s step one in determining the type of content you’ll create for your guest features.
If you want to inform, consider sharing your company’s unique lessons learned through interviews or reports.
If you want to promote, use the podcast as a way to strut your stuff. Go on, tell the world how fantastic your occupancy rates were last quarter and how you got there.
Prepare Your Vacation Home for the Influencer Stay
Maybe you won’t have a guest interview on an influencer podcast, but they will test out your rental. You should cross every t before arrival and ensure their experience is top notch.
We’re talking complimentary coffee (and ancillary services), lush sheets, 24/7 service, quick responses, flexible bookings, and the whole nine yards.
Optimize Your Short-Term Rental with Wheelhouse
Influencer podcasts open a new world for your vacation rental business. You can network with valuable contacts, gain a new audience, and attract investment with an influencer’s positive presence.
Bottom line? You’ll generate leads for new clients and partners. And once you do that, you’ll need to ensure your listings are priced correctly for your increased occupancy! We can help with that. Try out Wheelhouse, the vacation rental industry’s most trusted dynamic pricing tool!