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From Marriott Employee to Short-Term Rental Master: Wil Slickers’ Journey of Turning Homes into Destinations | Episode 17 | STR Data Lab™ by AirDNA

Wil Slickers, a former Marriott employee, has turned into a short-term rental guru (and our podcast producer). He began his journey by utilizing his parents' 2 bed 2 bath apartment above their house as his first rental property. Through his experience working at Marriott, Wil was able to establish a baseline for what makes a good guest experience. He discovered that by using smart locks, he was able to replace the need for someone to work at a front desk.

Wil believes that turning normal homes into destinations is a sweet spot for Airbnb. He encourages others to get creative and have fun with their rentals. Wil emphasizes the importance of understanding why technology is necessary but it should also not replace people for everything.He recommends hiring someone to interact with guests on a personal level and focusing on revenue management. Will notes that not all properties will be successful as short-term rentals, so it's important to use yield management for pricing strategy.

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Read the Full Outlook Report:

https://www.airdna.co/blog/2023-us-short-term-rental-outlook-report

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Read the “U.S. Market Review”:

https://www.airdna.co/blog/airdna-market-review-us-december-2022

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Read “Europe Market Review”:

https://www.airdna.co/blog/airdna-market-review-europe-december-2022

Listen On:

Transcript

00:00:00:17 - 00:00:11:06

Speaker 1

Wil, Wil Slickers, the man, the myth, the legend. I am so happy that you are on the STR Data Lab today.

00:00:12:00 - 00:00:27:09

Speaker 2

I'm pumped. This is one of my favorite podcasts to listen to, and I probably shouldn't be saying that, but it is one of my favorites. I love it. It's quick to the point. You guys, you and Jamie have some good banter, good guests, you know, all all the combinations for a good podcast.

00:00:27:09 - 00:00:49:17

Speaker 1

So thank you. Thank you. I mean, you know, I also know I do play favorites. I totally play favorites. And you are one of my favorite humans in this business. And also, yes, Hospitality. FM. Shout out! We'll get to it. We'll continue to do some shameless plugs here in a little bit. But I am just so excited to talk you.

00:00:49:17 - 00:01:11:04

Speaker 1

You've been in this business a long time. You've had a very interesting sort of entree into this business. I think it was helping your parents out to start a little bit. And then you've sort of I think you probably had every job in the biz. And I would just love to know what possessed you my friend? How did you get in this business?

00:01:11:13 - 00:01:19:00

Speaker 1

Let's just take it from the top for a minute. What is the origin story? The Wil Slickers origin story, please. It's like Wolverine.

00:01:19:00 - 00:01:50:05

Speaker 2

Yeah, I love it. I'll try to keep it short because it's kind of a twisty turn route. But in 2017 ish. I had a show for an event company did not know what the hell I was doing very much just like trying to figure out riding on the Uber bandwagon train. And it failed miserably. I lost everything, tried to like, recover, and I had all these suits in my closet and I was like, Well, I have to put these suits to use.

00:01:50:05 - 00:02:17:03

Speaker 2

I can't just throw that away. And I remember picking up these clients at this Four Diamond Hotel. So I just put on a suit, grabbed a copy of my resume and went out there and applied and got hired on the spot. And that's when I fell in love with, like, hotels, hospitality, the whole industry as a whole. But that led into a kind of like a couple of years of working front desk and helping with housekeeping and other types of pieces.

00:02:17:03 - 00:02:38:25

Speaker 2

This was a huge hotel, but with it being such a huge hotel under Marriott, it was really hard to move up. So I moved to the Oregon coast, became a manager and that's when I got introduced to short term rentals, a.k.a. My mom and dad were like, ‘We heard of this thing called Airbnb, Can you help us?’ And I was like, Yes, just like a hotel, but without a front desk, let's do it.

00:02:39:09 - 00:02:40:16

Speaker 2

So that was kind of my jump in.

00:02:40:29 - 00:02:57:26

Speaker 1

Oh my gosh, I absolutely love that. I love that. Like, because usually I feel like it's us being like, Yo, parents, there's something cool happening in the world. But your parents were like, Yeah, hey, Wil you should know about the super cool thing that's happening. I, you know, So I started the front desk too, of a completely different industry, right?

00:02:57:26 - 00:03:22:14

Speaker 1

Which is marketing. But I love, I love that you had that sort of very hands on experience being being the guy front desk shout out, shout out to front desk guys. People that have property managers shout out, okay, so you dipped your little toe into the Airbnb pool and then I feel like you pretty quickly got sucked in to property management, right?

00:03:22:15 - 00:03:40:13

Speaker 2

Yeah, really quickly. It was through that. And I also had my podcast at the same time, kind of like as a side hustle slash passion project that really I didn't think I was going to monetize. But really it was just like, I'm curious, I want to ask questions. I can't do it at work in the sense of like a deep dive.

00:03:40:13 - 00:04:00:02

Speaker 2

I could ask my boss, but you know, it was just a weird dynamic where you couldn’t be like getting free school, basically. And so that's where I was like, start talking about short term rentals more, even though I was a hotel guy. And then the short term rental audience really took off. And that's when I was like, okay, I think there's something here.

00:04:00:20 - 00:04:22:07

Speaker 2

My experience with my mom and dad's one property was just like a two bad two bath apartment above their garage. They were tired of long term tenants just destroying it or having to always be late on rent and this and that. And they were like, You know what? Let's try it out. And for me it was like, okay, having that Marriott experience, I knew, okay, we need to have standards.

00:04:22:07 - 00:04:40:23

Speaker 2

You need to have white linen, you need to have a fully stocked kitchen, have coffee, tea, maybe some sugar and flour, just like little things to have a good guest experience. And then I was like, Well, how do we get rid of the front desk? Because there is no front desk. And we discovered smart locks. I was like, All right, I'm going to put a smart lock in, do the whole thing.

00:04:41:06 - 00:05:09:15

Speaker 2

And it ended up doing double what they were making in monthly rent. So they were doing like 1800 dollars a month. They were making over like 3600 bucks over four grand with some months, depending on the time of year. So that's when I would start was like, All right, I'm going to start doing this with other people. And I had a company previous to Recreation Rentals wasn't the best partnership, so I ended up leaving and selling my equity, but then formed Recreation shortly after.

00:05:09:15 - 00:05:13:01

Speaker 2

And that's when we went all in on vacation rentals.

00:05:13:21 - 00:05:30:13

Speaker 1

Oh my gosh, I love it. Well, and I think like, there's always a little element of like right place, right time. But I always like to think that luck is opportunity meets preparation. So it sounds like all of that prep you did for working at Marriott, you could really rely on just knowing what a good guest experience was.

00:05:30:25 - 00:05:53:17

Speaker 1

Oh my gosh, it's amazing. And then so podcasting. So you just like you were like, You know what? I need a microphone. I need to talk to people. I think that's the best reason to get into podcasting from my perspective. Like if you go in with sort of ulterior motives, like I want to monetize this or I want to turn this into some sort of business, it's not as, as as authentic as what I love about our podcast is like just curiosity, right?

00:05:53:18 - 00:06:00:23

Speaker 1

Like, yeah, let's just get out there, talk to people you've talked to thousands. I was going to say hundreds and hundreds.

00:06:02:14 - 00:06:04:27

Speaker 2

Not thousands, hundreds.

00:06:05:09 - 00:06:29:03

Speaker 1

But sure, sure. But to me, like in general, probably thousands of people. But you have had so many great interviews on your podcast. Obviously, you've been doing this a lot longer than me. So the thing that I wanted to talk to you about today was just looking ahead. So we are we are recording this in December. It'll probably air in January, but we'll still be very much like thinking about what next year looks like 2023.

00:06:30:05 - 00:06:45:18

Speaker 1

So talk to me a little bit about you've been in this business for a while. What are some things that you're excited for, for this industry next year? Like what is that thing that you really are? What's your hope and wish for our industry next year?

00:06:46:06 - 00:06:48:15

Speaker 2

Yeah, it's a great question.

00:06:48:15 - 00:06:51:13

Speaker 1

Kind of loaded no bad answers around here.

00:06:52:00 - 00:07:18:13

Speaker 2

I was going to say loaded, but in a great way, because I think a lot of people can answer that question and come up with the same, same or similar outcome. And I think not to ride on the Airbnb bandwagon. But, I've really liked if I can compliment Airbnb on one thing, it would be, I think the fact that they're creating the search ability of property is to be more of I'm not searching by destination market, I'm searching by destination property.

00:07:18:28 - 00:07:57:00

Speaker 2

And for me I'm very passionate about that and very much so. Like if you can create something out of nothing or you can turn a normal home and make it a destination, whether you're in one or not, that is the magical like sweet spot, if you could really hit that. So I hope we see more of that. I hope we see more people get creative with their land and start creating tree houses and, you know, like more like creative spaces for bigger groups or single family homes or even just creating a better apartment experience than most people would get if they had booked, you know, Joe Schmo as property down the road.

00:07:57:01 - 00:08:19:28

Speaker 2

You know? that's my big hope and dream. And I hope, like, operators get better with their tech. That's my big passion. Get get better and more dialed in with it. You don’t need to be a tech expert, but at least know the ecosystem and how it all works and why connectivity is really important and, you know, vetting your partners better with, you know, who do they work with?

00:08:19:28 - 00:08:35:19

Speaker 2

Well, who they not work with. Well, what piece is a no brainer for you that you have to have in your tech versus something you could sacrifice without or compromise through another piece? So, yeah, that's my two answers for you to keep it short and sweet.

00:08:35:19 - 00:08:58:12

Speaker 1

Both of those were perfect one. Yeah, I think that there– I love that Airbnb is sort of opening up hopefully opportunity for innovation right Like there you know Jamie Lane and I talked about this a lot where you are you know they're out there trying to like bring democratize really the industry more which is controversial. Right.

00:08:58:12 - 00:09:20:17

Speaker 1

Not everyone maybe stands to benefit from that or maybe not everyone perceives that as a benefit. For my perspective, I think there is a lot of benefit to that. Right? Because we have to create a sustainable ecosystem. And that is the beauty of this business, is that it creates opportunity for folks, economic opportunity, opportunity for people to explore, to experience things they never have before.

00:09:21:14 - 00:09:37:25

Speaker 1

So yeah, so making that sort of special experience that special guest experience, and also I think one of the things that was great about the pandemic is that we almost got a little untethered, right? We sort of had those destinations in our mind that we were always like, if you're in Colorado, you're always going to go to Vail or Steamboat for vacation.

00:09:38:13 - 00:09:56:24

Speaker 1

And there's a lot of little fringe towns that we discovered when we were in the pandemic because we were like, No, we want to go somewhere smaller. We don't want to go to Vail Resort. So, you know, we found these little pocket towns that were really unique experiences, really beautiful places. So super excited for that as well. And then on the Tech, you just inspired me.

00:09:56:24 - 00:10:10:23

Speaker 1

I think we might have to do a little content piece on the tech ecosystem, right? Because it's it's very confusing. I know you and I were both at VRMA this year. It's a bit overwhelming. How many tech– how much tech is out there.

00:10:11:09 - 00:10:23:11

Speaker 2

Well very overwhelming. But also, I think if you're not trained in hospitality, if you don't come up through hotels or restaurants, it doesn't make sense on what is a channel manager versus a property management software.

00:10:23:22 - 00:10:24:01

Speaker 1

No idea.

00:10:25:02 - 00:10:52:09

Speaker 2

And and then I got here through people that are on our podcast or in the network that are like, Oh, well, my property management software isn't syncing with Hospitable or this and that, like because those two your property management software shouldn’t need hospitable if you're going to have a property management software stick with their communication device rather than adding a layer that makes it clunky and not really like you're giving yourself more work by adding too much tech.

00:10:52:23 - 00:11:21:14

Speaker 2

When if you're going to use hospitable, then just use hospitable like they pretty much have the same features. Yeah. So there's like little things like that where to me it's like, does it make sense doing that versus if your property management software has its own built in channel manager? Why are you adding your own channel manager to do the same thing when it's just using your whole system?

00:11:21:14 - 00:11:46:25

Speaker 2

So yeah, it's just like little things like that where I was like, All right, figure out what the pieces are, how they work. Like you said, the ecosystem chart, because it is confusing and there's who was it I was talking to, I was talking to somebody the other day and they're creating a chart basically or a table of property management softwares to insurance to smart lock and home automation to like all the different pieces.

00:11:47:11 - 00:11:59:09

Speaker 2

There's over 15 pieces of tech and property management software has probably over 100 pieces like 100 companies in it. So it's a lot a lot to take in, but it's good to be aware of and know how they work.

00:11:59:29 - 00:12:21:01

Speaker 1

Yeah, Well, maybe we should partner with them because I think I think like as a, you know, pseudo technology, we're a little bit more of a software data source like, you know, business intelligence source. But I think we should I think we as vendors, partners should take some ownership there right? Because I don't know if we make it easy for the average consumer to understand.

00:12:21:01 - 00:12:42:27

Speaker 1

And of course we're like, no, you should use all of our tools, right? And there is always sort of this integration sort of interweaving that we do. So yeah, I think I think we'll take a little ownership on on that. Let's do that as a follow up. All right. I love it. I love it, we're going to come back and we're going to talk about tech more because, yeah, I think for our listeners, what is the difference?

00:12:42:27 - 00:12:45:21

Speaker 1

Wil, between a channel manager and a property management system?

00:12:46:05 - 00:13:08:18

Speaker 2

Yeah, well, the property management software is supposed to be like your hub it’s your core. It's where everything lives. So your reservations, you should have communication in there. And I and so Brandi from Sessions Stays, you know, shout out to Brandi her and I are very much on the train like if you have a property management software, the property management software should not need a channel manager.

00:13:08:18 - 00:13:35:21

Speaker 2

They should connect to Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, all the platforms you need because it's a very old way of thinking. Hotels are very much so an example of that, of having a channel manager and all this like different pieces to add in there gives you more opportunity for things to break, which is 100% what we see all the time. If you're having to manually check and sync your channels to make sure that no reservations go missing.

00:13:36:06 - 00:13:36:26

Speaker 1

Right.

00:13:37:04 - 00:13:40:00

Speaker 2

It’s a bad software, bad software you should not do that.

00:13:40:06 - 00:13:45:10

Speaker 1

That's very simple. Good advice. Like that's like the literally the antithesis of getting the software like that.

00:13:45:23 - 00:14:07:24

Speaker 2

100%. So yeah, like your property management software should be the core and then a channel manager if you need one, because your property management software doesn't have its own built in distribution is basically just connecting you to Airbnb Vrbo, it’s getting you to the eyeballs on other platforms like, you know, OTAs, online travel agencies. So that is where the difference.

00:14:07:24 - 00:14:11:10

Speaker 2

But property management software should have it. So that's just my opinion.

00:14:12:14 - 00:14:30:25

Speaker 1

Hey, we we respect and appreciate your opinion and thank you for breaking that down for everybody because it is again, a little confusing out there, I've been in the VP business for a long time and yeah, same thing. Ownership. We don't always make it easy for our consumers. I love that. Maybe making that a mission for us in 2023.

00:14:30:25 - 00:14:50:20

Speaker 1

Okay, so that's like all the sort of hopes and wishes and dreams. Okay, here's another loaded one for you, my friend. What is one thing that you wish that our industry would just maybe shed let go? Like this is a time to let go of the past. Walk into the future. What's something we should let go of as a business?

00:14:50:20 - 00:15:23:13

Speaker 2

Oof, that's a really good and hard one. Because like vacation rentals. I really do love that. We have kind of innovated beyond the normal, like, hotel hospitality model, but I do think there could be a lack of human connection or a lack of– I think too much automation can be a bad thing. And so as I'm like ranting about tech, I'm also on the side of let the tech do the simple stuff that you shouldn't be doing.

00:15:23:13 - 00:15:48:25

Speaker 2

And that way you can hire within to have someone really take care of the guests from like a virtual or even in-person concierge. Front desk in my opinion, when I was the best at my job wasn't when I was checking people in and getting them into their room and making sure their key worked. It was when they were they could have easily checked in themselves, either mobile or whatever, and I was able to connect with them.

00:15:48:25 - 00:16:07:22

Speaker 2

I still talk to a couple of my guests from seven years ago, like Mr. Shardine, Mrs. Malone, Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Wall, all of you. Like they were the best connection with them was when they were in. I knew their preference on if they want their Amex or if they want their Visa card to be paid for whatever their whole system was.

00:16:07:28 - 00:16:36:12

Speaker 2

But then I could also tell them like, Hey, just down the road there's this really like speakeasy type bar. I know you love, like old fashions They have a great old fashioned over there or whatever it might be. And just being able to connect with them and kind of take care of dinner reservations or stuff like that. And so I think a vacation rentals can kind of consume that like Ritz-Carlton or type of, you know, guest experience mindset where it's just, hey, let's take care of the guests, make it really, really easy.

00:16:36:21 - 00:17:05:19

Speaker 2

So that way we add a little bit of a wow factor. Let your technology run its course and do its thing, but then let the humans really take over and make memorable experiences. That's kind of the thing. I hope we drop too much automation talk and go more focused into the guest experience, and I also will kind of contradict myself, but I think people, when they do talk about guest experience, they talk about it as an automation as like that's not actually like that’s standard now, that's just basics.

00:17:05:19 - 00:17:30:28

Speaker 2

That's not guest experiences basic, like how to guest experiences, really going above and beyond and making your guest feel like they're not reading a scripted, automated message, that they're reading something or that they're getting a call from somebody, or whether you have an office in person that they're actually being cared for and like thinking about their vacation as a whole, not just getting them checked in and all that good stuff.

00:17:30:28 - 00:17:35:06

Speaker 2

So yeah, that's my let's drop that and move on to the the good stuff.

00:17:35:17 - 00:17:52:18

Speaker 1

Yeah. Oh, I love it. I love it. Yeah. And I think so. I can't remember who said it. We'll put it in the show notes but Right. Like the definition of intelligence is being able to hold two opposing views in your mind at the same time. So life's a great balancing act. There's always sort of, yes, this, but then that.

00:17:53:24 - 00:18:10:19

Speaker 1

So yeah, I love that advice is sort of like, you know, don't rely too heavily on one or the other, right? Like you can't rely on the humans. You can't just rely on the robots, the tech. That's got to be a balancing act there. And, you know, I always like to say like, yeah, put the host back in hospitality, right.

00:18:10:19 - 00:18:27:22

Speaker 1

Like this is and one of the big differentiators for short term rental businesses, I think is the fact that it is more of a personalized experience. You may be in somebody's house. They you know, I love those books that people create where it's like, here's the restaurant you should go to, here's the place you should, you know, do.

00:18:28:10 - 00:18:54:18

Speaker 1

That is the personal experience. That's what we're trying to get to. I love, love, love, all of that. Wil, well, this like this is such great advice for 2022. The next somewhat loaded question for you, but I think you've started to answer to maybe we can just summarize. It is like from your perspective, I think a lot of people right now, you know, let's be real, 2022 and 2021 was a very bananas year for this business.

00:18:54:18 - 00:19:11:26

Speaker 1

We all sort of tend to index off the high, as I like to say, right. Which is like we're like, oh, it was like, you know, the all the salmon were swimming upstream. They were just jumping into my bucket. It was like, really no problem. Occupancy, no big deal. ADR’s were great. So obviously revenue was just flowing through.

00:19:13:06 - 00:19:30:09

Speaker 1

You know what, Jamie and I talk a lot about is like that may that is changing in the new year. It's not going to be as easy as that. Mm hmm. Which means, like if you're an innovator, if you're good at what you're doing, you're probably going to continue to have success, but you're also going to be called upon to do some creative thinking.

00:19:30:21 - 00:19:36:27

Speaker 1

So what, from your perspective, does a healthy STR business look like in 2023?

00:19:37:26 - 00:19:55:12

Speaker 2

I would I would say it's a combination of kind of everything we talked about, you know, trusting but verifying your technology stack, making sure that it works and it's functional. It shouldn’t be something you have to look at every day. But I love it because Jamie, Jamie Lane the data nerd gangsta.

00:19:55:12 - 00:19:56:08

Speaker 1

The Data Gangsta

00:19:56:23 - 00:20:21:27

Speaker 2

Yeah, the one. The one and only. He said, You know, the big thing for especially this upcoming economy of a looming recession and other things like that is that for property managers to really focus on surviving through it is to focus on really good revenue management to be not like, okay, yeah, you have dynamic pricing, but don't just let that don't set in, forget it.

00:20:21:27 - 00:20:44:21

Speaker 2

Like you need to yield. Management is a real thing. There's a reason why, like I know I dogged on the hotels a little bit earlier, but there's a reason why hotels have dedicated revenue managers that are doing yield management every day because it does work. And I would just say for, you know, I guess the whole combination of 2023 is to really– you’re going to have to step up your game.

00:20:44:21 - 00:20:52:00

Speaker 2

Like if you're just getting into the game, then your standard level is higher than it was for me when I entered in 2017 or 2018.

00:20:52:07 - 00:20:54:03

Speaker 1

Really good point, really good point.

00:20:54:15 - 00:21:15:16

Speaker 2

So it's like just taking that into consideration and you're going have to work harder. Like everyone's gotten into this industry based off of seeing news articles or hearing about it from a friend or whatever. And you know, hospitality to the core is really going to be you have to stay above it through really good experience, really good property is really good design, really good locations.

00:21:15:16 - 00:21:36:27

Speaker 2

So knowing that not every property should be a short term rental, not every property is going to make you a ton of money. So just to be like I love, I just visited Robin Craig in Steamboat Springs, (Moving Mountains). So good. But I would ask him like we would be driving around like, Oh, well, why don't you want that home or this and that?

00:21:36:27 - 00:21:56:18

Speaker 2

And he's like, It's just not our it's not our bread and butter. It's not our standard. And being able to walk away from a property just because you know who you are to the core as a company that is like such a great strength. So I think I think that is good advice for any operator for 2023. Not every property should be something you have to jump on.

00:21:57:03 - 00:22:14:10

Speaker 1

Right? Yeah. And just to get to your point, like yes, like if you're just getting started, it is not as easy as maybe it was for young Wil back in the day or you just kind of, you know, using some good standards. On the other hand, the technology has never been as good as it was. It wasn't as good.

00:22:14:21 - 00:22:36:04

Speaker 1

You just talk about like putting on the smart lock. Things have gotten way more advanced overall, the resources at your disposal, way more advanced, right. The expertise folks, like Wil and others can provide you with that guidance. I love that. All right. I think those were great, great pieces of advice for anyone getting started and anyone just operating right now.

00:22:36:05 - 00:22:53:17

Speaker 1

Right. Like don't turn your brain off. Turn it on and have some fun this year. I'd say it's a great. STR business is always going to be a great place for people that are outside of the box thinkers. I would say that are like, I call them the rebels, right? Like they're the ones that are like, No, I don't want a 9 to 5.

00:22:53:17 - 00:23:12:09

Speaker 1

Like, I don't want to wear a suit every day and I don't want to collect a paycheck. I know I can do something different and better. So should be hopefully exciting for everyone. Certainly is for me. All right. We're going to wrap up with a couple of things. Thing number one is a game we call who, what and where.

00:23:12:13 - 00:23:26:17

Speaker 1

And then let's let's do a shameless plug. Let's do it. So so number one, who besides yourself and obviously me too would you take advice from in this business? Like who would you recommend people tune into?

00:23:27:12 - 00:24:05:28

Speaker 2

I have two pieces. I'll give one for the ladies. So I would do Natalie Palmer with No Vacancy podcast. She's a beast and she has the best Instagram content you can find, so definitely follow her. And then for the people that are all about scale, systems, eos type of like mindset. Mike Shogren with the STR Secrets podcast. Very like a legendary story with him built a great business and has created like that financial freedom to spend more time with his family and go golfing and, you know, do other things like that.

00:24:05:28 - 00:24:09:19

Speaker 2

So, yeah, those are my two recommendations.

00:24:10:04 - 00:24:23:05

Speaker 1

Very cool. Very cool. I'm going to get on those immediately. All right. The next question is, what do you wish you knew before you started in this business that you now know?

00:24:23:05 - 00:24:38:04

Speaker 2

Don't focus on scale too much in the beginning. Be okay. Be okay with being at ten properties and having a profitable, sustainable business. That should be your number one thing. So yeah, don't focus on scale too early.

00:24:38:22 - 00:24:51:26

Speaker 1

Great advice. Wil, okay. And then the last one is, and I know you do a little bit more property management than investment, but where do you wish you had started in that business if you could hop in your little time machine and go back?

00:24:52:27 - 00:25:18:29

Speaker 2

Yeah, I would’ve actually started in Colorado before all the regulations and I'm, I wouldn't call it saturation, but I would definitely have gotten here earlier. I think it's a beautiful destination. You get all four seasons. So after living here for a year, I'm like, damn, I wish I had a property here to use or even to just rent out and, and have that kind of cool hospitality experience.

00:25:19:13 - 00:25:26:05

Speaker 1

Totally, totally. Yeah. It's got a lot going for it. I too. And I'm a native, so I don't know why I didn't think of doing this 100 years ago.

00:25:26:05 - 00:25:27:14

Speaker 2

I know it's like, Ah.

00:25:28:05 - 00:25:41:14

Speaker 1

Oh, yeah I know, I bought all of my properties way too late. But that's a story for another day. All right, my friend. If people want more wisdom from you, which I suspect they will, where should they? Where can they find Wil Slickers these days?

00:25:42:24 - 00:26:06:14

Speaker 2

I'm very active on LinkedIn, so that's my number one, like social channel. But I'm going to do a shameless plug of Hospitality.FM, which is our podcast network. It's the biggest podcast network for hospitality, and we have great podcasts like this one and 30 plus other podcasts from hotels, restaurants, vacation rentals, you name it. So it's just a great place for good educational content.

00:26:07:05 - 00:26:24:20

Speaker 1

Oh my goodness. Yes, I double down on that double click on that or like it. Yeah, like and subscribe. That's where I am. Like and subscribe, like and subscribe folks. Wil wishing you a very, very happy New Year. It has been a pure pleasure to have you on the podcast today. Thank you so much.

00:26:25:03 - 00:26:28:02

Speaker 2

Yeah, I'm so thankful. Thank you for a great conversation.

00:26:28:14 - 00:26:33:29

Speaker 1

Agreed, agreed. I could talk to you all day, but we'll have a follow up. We're going to do a follow up. That's all we're going to do.

00:26:33:29 - 00:26:36:13

Speaker 2

We will, we will. In person follow next time.

00:26:36:22 - 00:26:43:06

Speaker 1

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll work on our audio for that. But yes! Thank you, my friend. Bye.

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