Vacation Rentals, Bleisure & Technology | with Michael Friedman

The Modern Hotelier #37: Vacation Rentals, Bleisure & Technology | with Michael Friedman === Welcome to The. Modern Hotelier. I'm your host, David Millili.. I'm your co-host, Steve Carran. I'm the producer, John Boomer. Steve, who do we have on the program today? Yeah, David. Today we have on Michael Friedman, the Chief Operating Officer of the Americas For onefinestay, Michael has over 30 years of hospitality, vacation, rental, and real estate experience. He was also named one of the top 20 most influential professionals in the vacation rental industry globally by luxury hospitality. Welcome to the show, Michael. Thanks. Thanks for having me. It's great to be here. So Michael, we're gonna go through a couple sections. We're gonna. Go through a lightning round, ask you some quick questions, get to know where you grew up, talk about your career, and then get into the industry. So, sound good? Sounds great. I look forward to it. All right, so what was the worst job you've ever had? Working at Blockbuster Video. Are, are you, are, are you a morning or a night person? Morning for sure. Absolutely. Morning. All right. So you have to delete all the apps off your phone except for three. What three apps will you keep on your phone? Weather, ESPN. Financial news, And what's your most used emoji? Uh, thumbs up. You got one song to listen to. What's your favorite song? song? Oh God. Uh. Favorite song? Uh, shoot. You can give us a band or a singer if you want to. Uh, I just went to Taylor Swift, so maybe a, I'm a Swifty. So maybe a Swifty song. Okay. You and Aaron, you and Aaron Rogers, uh, what's the, what's the favorite place you've ever visited so far? I would say Rome or Copenhagen. So, if you had your own talk show, who would your first guest be? Oh, great question. I would say Richard Branson. That's a good one. All right, so this is the last one. So now you've got a time machine. You can go into the future, you can go into the past. Which way are you going and what year are you going to? I'm going into the past and I'm going back to like Roman times, sometime around Marco Aelius and, and that whole, era of, Rome. Well done, well done. So now we'll get into kind of the personal details, what makes you click, things like that. So, you went to high school in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. Did you grow up in Whitefish Bay or are you from somewhere else in Wisconsin? No, I grew up in, uh, Whitefish Bay is the suburb of Milwaukee, so I grew up there and, um, yeah, went to, uh, high school there and then ultimately ended up going to the University of Wisconsin, um, here in Madison where I reside now. And, uh, yeah, it was great growing up there. It was, uh, it was good. I liked it a lot and Wisconsin's great. I lived away for about 20 plus years in Charleston, South Carolina, and, uh, eventually came back in the fall of 2020. Awesome. I'm a fellow Scotty, grew up outside of Madison, went to college in Milwaukee. So how, you know, I know the answer how this did this to me, but how did growing up in Wisconsin shape who you are today? I. That's a great question. I think, you know, for those of us who have grown up in the Midwest, I think it's just a, it's a solid upbringing. There isn't an east or west coast vibe. We, I think, are pretty balanced here in the Midwest. And, you know, I've lived all over, but I, I think coming back to the Midwest, it's just, there's a feeling of calmness here and, and, uh, peace. but growing up here just really, really good. You know, morals, ethics, values, things like that. But I think it's just been, been, was a really a well-rounded, Upbringing, I guess is the best way to describe it. Uh, my father was in real estate and, you know, so I learned a lot from him, you know, being in the industry and it's just been great. And it's great to be back too. It, it's a, it's a good place to come home to. Absolutely. I'm coming back in a couple weeks and I couldn't be more excited, so I'm right there with you. Nice. Yeah. So on Amazon, you've got a book series called Stop bitching Start, I believe. How'd you come up with an idea and tell us about the series? Well, it's actually a work in progress and so one of the things I'm working on, yeah, it's, um, so one of the things I've found is that people complain a lot. You know, they just are complaining about e everything from weight to relationships to my business sucks to, I mean, a, a multitude of different things. and I felt like. There's gotta be a solution, for people where they don't have to read a novel. They don't have to read a three or 400 page book. they don't need 85 different, You know, applications to do these steps. There's gotta be a simple way. If you do these 10 or 20 things, you can be successful. And it's, you know, stop bitching, start exercising, stop bitching, start, prospecting an extra hour a day. Stop bitching, you know, say I love you to your wife every morning. Those are the kind of things that I found that, people can consume in smaller bites. And I think it's one of the things I learned in my. You know, coaching with different, various, you know, coaches I've hired is that most people have a hard time applying those, those lengthy lists. And if we could give someone the opportunity just to apply five or 10 or 20 things and they can do it, they'll stop bitching. and they'll start applying and they'll start seeing results. And so I've created a series that I'm working on now, it's not complete, but will eventually kind of cover all just different aspects. Everything from career to personal relationships to lifestyle habits, things of that nature. And it's stuff that I've experienced because I've bitched, you know, and I still do some days. And so, it's just how do we get around that? But it's consumable in bite-sized pieces that everyone can use and then apply and I think get results. And that's the key part. Yeah, and I really appreciate that. When I was gm, I would tell my staff, if you're bringing up a problem, You have to bring a solution with the problem. Because if you can't come up with a solution, then the problem is just life. I mean, it's what we're dealing with because if you can identify the problem, you have to come up with a solution. So anyway. I love that. So you're also, you also started Vacation Rental University. tell us some more about that. Yeah, so several years ago I got together with a couple industry leaders and one of the things we saw was there was a gap in really good education, for vacation rental property managers in the industry. You know, the hotel industries had a lot of great education. The real estate industries had a lot of really great education, good associations and things like that, but there was really. Not a true platform where if I either A, wanted to start a vacation rental property management business, or B I'm an existing manager and I'm scaling and I'm growing, what are the things and tools that I need? And what we did is we identified. Really the A to Z of running a, truly successful property management business. And, uh, the modules, we created over 400 of them, to, identify and address everything from accounting to. New homeowner acquisition to marketing, to social media. everything you could imagine that a property manager would need if they wanted to start a new business or someone who's in an existing business looking to scale and how to hire properly. And so we created these modules. We spent, uh, considerable amount of time, almost six months, making sure that we, We're preparing these modules with, with, with the right curriculum, with the right information, with the right tools and support that an individual would need. And then bringing in, in industry experts, you know, people who are specifically experts on revenue management, on marketing, on housekeeping, things that we, We're not experts on everything. And so we wanted to really make sure that we have the industry's best. And to this day, vacation Rental University exists. We have, over 3,500 subscribers from our free version to a paid version. But it's, a great platform and it's just kind of self-taught, self-learned, and it's worked really, really well and it's given a lot of value to the industry. That's awesome. Very cool. So, so now we'll get into more, a little bit more about your career, how you got to be the c o o of one fine stays. So, you were in real estate, was working at I Trip, your first experience with vacation rentals. it was Steve. And what happened was they had hired me. They were looking to, bring on someone who could help them build and scale, their I R P University and help them build out a business development platform for their franchisees. so ips, a franchise business model. for the vacation rental industry and they were looking for someone to create and build that support. so I initially started with them as a contractor. It was, uh, kind of a contracted consulting role and within about six months, uh, they brought me on and, uh, hired me as the kind of head of business development and training for the company. I built out their I IP University created all the curriculum and training platforms that their franchisees would need, to be successful in running their, property management businesses, everything again, from how to use the I Tripp software to, you know, how to go out and acquire homeowners, managing the homes, guest relationships, guest experience, all of those types of things that, um, a, person would need to be successful in the industry. And so that was my kind of first. You know, foray into, if you would, the world of vacation rentals. And I had been involved in it a little bit before on the real estate side, but nothing, to that degree. That's what really kind of propelled me into, where I am today, you know, going into just different roles within the industry, working with different companies, and then last year joining, one Fine stay as their chief operating officer. Yeah. And, and now tell us about like, what makes one fine stay unique and a little bit more about them. So we are a, um, property manager and an ota. so for those individuals who don't really know what we do, we are a property manager in London, Paris, New York, and Los Angeles. we operate like any other property manager would. the exception, we are solely focused on luxury and ultra luxury homes. the other vertical that we have in our business at One Fine Stay is we are an ota and we're a boutique OTA for, property managers that have luxury and inventory, but are really looking for a way to promote their homes to those high net worth individual clients. That their clientele, that they're traditionally not going to get, say, on a V R B O or an Airbnb, because most of our clients, I'd say 98% of them come through private family offices. They come through travel management, travel entertainment companies, And so it just seems like a good fit for them. so we operate that, ota. Business globally, everywhere through central Europe. We're in Asia, we're out throughout the United States, Caribbean, Mexico, central America. And in 2016 we were bought by a core, hospitality. And, uh, so, we really love that relationship. obviously there's a tremendous amount of collaboration, with, uh, the Accord brands that we have and, uh, we work together with them, uh, quite often, and obviously there's a tremendous amount of collaboration on the marketing side of things as well that helps us, build our brand. So you've been with one fine stay for a little over a year. What's been the biggest learning experience for you so far? You know, for me, prior to coming to one Fine Stay. I worked for a lot of startups. I worked for a lot of smaller privately owned companies. Because we are a publicly traded company, we're owned by a large company, like a core, that's been the biggest, I wanna say, challenge. It's just been the, a biggest learning experience, because in, in a good way. I would say because it does give us a lot of levers. And, uh, opportunities, like I was saying earlier, to collaborate with the teams within Acor. one of the great things about being part of the Acor ecosystem is we've got a great guest experience, platform, uh, within a, that we obviously have, you know, woven into what we do at One Fine Stay to create an exceptional guest and hospitality experience. So if someone stays with us at one of our hotels, say the Fairmont in Santa Monica. And then they go and stay with us at a private residence in the Turks and Caicos, they're gonna still have that great experience that they would've had with a, whether it be in a core property or a one fine stay home. and so having those, I would call them advantages if you would, or call, call it. Just having that backbone of a core behind us has been really, really great. obviously being part of a large company too, You know, there is a bit of bureaucracy, so sometimes things don't happen as fast as I'd personally like, but that's just part of it. But it's a learning experience and I think when we look at how we compete in the vertical of travel, hospitality, and vacation rentals, we have some very distinct advantages over our competition. Absolutely. And, and you mentioned the guest experience. I want, I wanna dive a little bit deeper into that. What really makes that guest experience unique to the Accord and the one fine stay guests. Great question, Steve. I, I would say that, you know, first and foremost, we're end to end when I, and what I mean by that is from the time they've booked their home with us, which is a personal one-to-one relationship with our sales team, it's not just an instant book. Book online, to the time they then get handed off to our concierge team. So we have two concierge teams, one here in the Americas, one in Europe, and that personal, I would say relationship with their concierge executive. doing things from pre-stay to in stay, to even post stay. Making it a full end-to-end experience is, is great. I mean, obviously we offer a lot of the services that many concierge firms do, but I think it's, it's really the personal touch and I think the consistency. So if they, like I was saying earlier, if someone stays with us in a home in New York, Where we just recently went back into that market and then they go to one of our homes in Los Angeles, they're gonna find the same consistencies, the same type of bedding, the same type of linen, the same type of experience that they would if they stayed with us anywhere in the world. And so because of that, it does allow us as a brand one fine state brand, to really excel. I think part of that, again, goes back to what I was saying earlier, which is being part of that core ecosystem. We've learned a lot from our colleagues there. You know, what, what has been done, you know, at the Fairmont, what has been done at the Plaza in New York? What is being done with Raffles? and that product as we launch that, You know, and continue to grow that brand globally. everything from like the linen we use, um, New York, we just redid some sounds simple and easy, but we just redid all of our linen in New York City for all of our homes and we're putting in really fine quality linen that we use in our Fairmont properties, you know, globally. So those are the types of things that I think create that consistency. And what we wanna make sure we're doing is that if someone stays with us in one of our hotels, And has that great experience and then decides to come to our brand. they have that same feeling That's great. So what's next for one? Fine Stay. Anything you can share with us. yeah, I mean, I can share a little bit. we find that, our growth as we look at, you know, expanding into new markets, we're really carefully evaluating where should we be, whether it be on the direct side of our business or the indirect side. So we are evaluating some markets here in the Americas. potential markets that were not in leisure destinations, where we think we should be. And probably in 2024, we'll look to continue to grow and expand that footprint. One interesting area though Of business for us that, we are starting to do more of in conjunction with our relationship and part obviously partnership, but being owned by a core is private residences within resorts. so, we do manage some of the homes in Mayakoba in Mexico. We're gonna be working with the Banyan Tree Resort in Mexico because we're. We manage that. So residents programs in, in the fairmont's, raffles. That's something we're, we're really continuing to look at and we'll probably start to evolve and do more of, down the road because it's a natural fit for us. It's a luxury product. people aren't in those residences on a regular basis. The guest has the beautiful experience of staying in a luxury home, but then also has the. Wonderful experience of being able to be part of that resort or that hotel using the amenities, the spa, the restaurants, so on and so forth. Very cool. Very cool. So now we'll move more into the industry thought side of things. So I'm excited to hear your responses on this just because, you know, ACO is, you know, obviously a part of your, your company. So what is one thing that vacation rentals that are doing a good job at that maybe hotels could take note of? Oh wow. Great question. you know, I think that one of the things that we're able to do, and there's several, but I think the one biggest thing is, hotels have a hard time with this, is, you know, people choose vacation rentals for a lot of reasons. And then two main reasons are, number one, they want more space, and number two, they want the ability to. Cook meals Now, hotels have a challenge with that piece of it. but I think one of the things we've done is to be able to create a similar like experience that a person would have while they're staying in a hotel, but more importantly, we're giving them that extra space, that privacy, that they're getting. So I don't know if hotels can necessarily create that. but I think it's, it's something that we have a distinct advantage over when someone's kinda weighing the option of a hotel or a vacation rental. One of the things we are seeing though, Steve and I think this is very interesting and it will be interesting to see how it evolves for the remainder of the year and going into 2024, which is this mix of leisure, if they call it business and leisure, and we are seeing more and more. Business travel, picking a vacation rental over a hotel. Only because I think people are starting to extend stay. So if I'm going to say Los Angeles for three days and my trip ends on a Thursday, I might now stay till Sunday and have a few extra days of leisure on the back end of my trip. And if I'm going to do that, you know, I'd rather do that in a vacation rental. So again, what can hotels do differently? I think, you know, For us, we're very hands-on. I can't speak, for any of the other vacation rental companies out there today, but in our ecosystem, in our world, we are incredibly hands-on. we meet every single guest at every home that they, check in. it's personal. So I think, if there was one thing I'd say, you know, just maybe, you know, personal attention to detail, if you would, as it relates to the guest. And what do you think right now is the biggest issue? facing the vacation space? Vacation rental space, I should say. So, I'd say regulations, yeah. Regulations is a challenge right now. just reentered the New York City, uh, market for vacation rentals this past fall and, um, In New York City. Now, for those people who are listening and don't know, this is New York City is a 30 day minimum, on all the case rental stays if you're going to operate there legally. Now, I can't speak for what else is being done there, but I can say that we operate there legally. All of our homes are 30 day minimum stays. And part of it is regulations. It's the regulated product that, you know, the New York City laws went into effect. and we're not just experiencing that there. We're seeing it in, you know, California and Palm Springs. We see it in certain mountain markets. We see it, you know, across the globe. And I think regulations are, good. Uh, let me say that first. I think regulations are needed, but to certain extremes, when people are getting, really extreme with the regulations, it's hurting the industry. You know, um, going from seven night minimums to 28 day minimums, you know, the question becomes why and what's it really doing? and I understand some of the dynamics around it and why people want those regulations. And I think they're good to some degree. We have to be careful though, in how they impact, the local economy, these local economies. You know, I lived in Charleston, South Carolina for over 20 years in Charleston. Great example. One side of the street you can rent nightly. The other side of the street you can, you can only do 28 day minimums and two blocks down. Vacation rentals are banned. And so it's really crazy what's happening in the industry. So we as an industry have to really make sure that we understand the rules and regulations and why they're happening. but also make sure that the, governments are being educated on, the value of what vacation rentals are bringing and that they're not just some, you know, party house that, we are bringing in a tremendous amount of, value and, Bringing a lot to the economy of those local economies. you talked about one fine stay and the touchpoint and check in making somebody's there, for you. But with the emergence of technology, is there any technology that you guys are using that you can point to that helps the guest, the staff drives more revenue? from the technology side, what are you guys doing? Yeah, great question. Uh, so we, we are starting now to be obviously more involved in, in technology type tools. we are implementing a guest app, that we're working with a third party vendor, that will allow us and our concierge teams to be just more effective. so when a guest is in stay now, instead of having to physically reach out to. the concierge exec to book that whale watching tour in Maui, they're able to go onto the app. They're able to book that stay or that excursion, they're able to book restaurants and things like that. and that's really helpful. Number one, it's a great, and, easy way to do an upsell. the other thing it allows them to do, and we're, working with, the technology provider on this is to offer while they're in stay, discounts on. Future stays. So someone who might stay with us in Turks and Caicos, we know they love the Caribbean. Have they ever tried Barbados? And, offering specials and deals like that. So we're starting to, to do a lot more of that. The other thing that we're getting very involved in, we had a call on this, this, this week and we'll be following up with it, is, getting more involved in, We'll call it the Alexa end of things where guests will, in certain, destinations have, uh, a nice little touchscreen in their home. A person personal welcome message from someone from one fine stay, but then also being able to, just get information easier and quicker, than they would if they would have to pick up a phone or look on Google or anything like that. this tool will allow us to, be able to give them a much better, better guest experience overall. Absolutely. What are the hot topics that. This year we've been here at Ova as ai. Have you guys looked into, you know, increasing the guest experience through ai? A little bit, um, on the guest side. Uh, I think it's, uh, it's relatively new for us as, as it is for many people. we are exploring using AI though on, on the other opposite end, which is for when we onboard new homes, in writing, home descriptions. And that's something we're really actively involved in because now we use, you know, we use a company to copyright and write everything, and it's laborious. It's cost. Costly. so now there, there are some tools we're looking into that will allow us to write, home descriptions in, you know, in a matter of seconds. and is it perfect? No. but it is, it is an area we're going to, and I'd say within probably the next two years, we'll be more involved if you would, in AI and the guest experience of such. I think you're right. I think everybody's kinda learning what AI is and how they can incorporate it into their business. Once we figure that out, like next year, all of a sudden everybody will have AI incorporated into their business somehow. But we'll, we'll see on that. you were voted one of the, uh, 20 most influential people in vacation rental technology. You know, what is your advice for somebody that's looking to get into the vacation rental space? or even the business side of it as You know, it's a great industry. I, I love, this vertical in travel, for a lot of reasons. I, I think it's exciting. It's always moving and changing. and It's just, it's fun. It's just, it's a fun business to be in. Um, you know, we're in, we're in an industry where people are going on vacations. They're, they're booking homes and they're happy. And so we're not in an industry where, you know, people are pissed off and unhappy. And so I, I think the one thing I'd say is that, it's easy, but there are a lot of moving parts to it. You know, a lot of people think, oh, I can throw up a website and easily go manage homes. I think the biggest piece to of advice is you're not property managing that you have to think. As a hospitality professional. And, and that's really, really key is that yes, you're managing an asset and a home, but really what you are is you, you are in the hospitality industry. You have to think like that because the minute you stop thinking like that and you start thinking like a property manager, your business is gonna struggle. And so many, many managers, unfortunately, Not being critical, it's just fact. don't operate that way. we are fortunate because we do, and because we have a great company behind us. But even if I'm a small operator and have 10 homes in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, I can still think like a, a Hotelier or, or a hospitality professional and really focus on delivering that great guest experience. And that's what this is all about. You know, the home is the home, the asset's, the home. We're gonna manage it, we're gonna take care of it. That's easy. It's how do you create all those other pieces, which we talked about today. And that's really the key is thinking that way. And if you do that, you can be very successful in this. So is there a current trend or an upcoming trend that you think is here to stay and, and. Change. Change the business, yeah. I mean, I think that the trend we're gonna continue to see is, um, growth in or more urban markets. You know, you've got the likes of companies out there today, like, you know, Sonder and other companies, mint House and these others that are, are doing, you know, We'll call them service accommodation. I think we're gonna see more of that in urban settings. We're se gonna see more of this trend in this leisure, if you wanna call it travel. I think where business travel and leisure travel is, is being mixed. and then as far as you know, vacation rentals overall, I think there's going to be, And I, I'm not trying to be negative here, but I'm gonna say it, is that there's gonna be consolidation. There are companies out there today who are operating, who are losing massive amounts of money, and unfortunately, we have to be careful because the, the industry is viewed as one of growth. And yet if some of these major companies are struggling and fail, what does that look like for the industry? And so I think the, the biggest key there is that. we're a successful vertical. we have to think of ourselves and should act like professionals. And we are, unfortunately, sometimes the industry doesn't view us that way. And so I think from a trend perspective, the more we can galvanize and work together as an industry, cuz we're not big, we're not a big industry globally, believe it or not. but as more, the more we can work together, the better off we'll be. vacation rentals are here to stay. We're gonna compete against hotels. We're gonna, do a great job. I think it's an education process though, as more and more people are exposed to staying in a vacation rental. And I think once they've stayed in one, what we're seeing is that the option to pick a vacation rental over a hotel, they choose us cuz it's just a better value and it's, um, and it works for them. Absolutely. And I can imagine that especially with BLE leisure travel, getting, more popular, going away for a work trip, the family comes, you don't want to have the whole family come into one hotel room. Right. You wanna have more space and things like that. So I can definitely see, see this space growing as, as BLE leisure gets more popular. it is. And I'd say the other part for us real quickly, I'm sorry, I just wanted to throw this in, is that for us, we're in a very unique segment of the vacation rental world, which is we're we're strictly luxury. And so I'd say that that is one element where for us, we see that continued growth and we don't have a lot of the same, I don't wanna say barriers, but. economic elements that impact us, where when the economy changes or this changes or that changes, we're really not impacted or affected by it. Now. Travel patterns have changed a lot. We're seeing more, you know, US travelers go to Europe this summer than we ever have before. but one of the things we are, are, we never really see as an impact, based on, you know, economic conditions because most of our clientele, don't, you know, financially are or are well to do, and they don't have those issues. Well, very cool. So John's actually been, John, our producer, has been sitting, listening this whole time. we're gonna kinda wind down here with him answering one of the final questions here or asking one of the final questions.  So you said that, uh, you were a Swifty and you recently went to a Swift concert. What. Is the song when it, when she started playing it that you knew all the lyrics to, and were just singing with Well,  I'm gonna even show you guys this and you're gonna be, I, I'm, I, I don't even know if I want to admit this, but here's my Swifty bracelet and it says a tw a t w and that's all too. Well. So that's my, uh, that's my Swifty song. yeah, no, I, uh, I do like her. I, I, I respect her as an artist. I think she's, an incredible performer. it's not my favorite of all time, but, you know, she, she, she was great in, in concert. So,  That was awesome.  Most importantly, she's an Eagles fan, so that's all I really care about. uh, I, I, I, I, I, you know what, and I, I heard that today actually for the first time. I forgot that she grew up outside of Philly yeah. I grew up outside of Philly too, and that's what I thought was so strange that when this came out, I'm like, she's not like. She's not like a new popular artist. She's been popular for a long time and then all of a sudden it comes out that she's an Eagles fan and like on my Bleacher Report feed, I'm like, why is Taylor Swift in my feet? Anyway. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's hard, you know, that we, I had a struggle this year with our Green Bay packer, Steve, so I don't, you know, I don't know what to say. You know, Eagles had a great year. We will see what happens here with this new, new love era. But hey, I'm I'm ready for it. I'm ready for it. Sounds good. So that does it for ano another episode of The Modern. Hotelier. Michael, this is where we like to ask you to plug away. Let us know, we can find, uh, find you, find your company. It's all yours. Sure. Um, you know, if you're interested in learning more about One fine stay, one fine stay.com, or you can find us@acore.com. And, uh, for, for me personally, um, Michael dot Friedman one fine state.com and happy to chat with anyone and share my ears of experience and understanding of what we're doing in the industry. And uh, it's been great to be on the show. So thank you very much for having me That does it for another episode of The Modern. Hotelier. Thank you, Michael.