14 Women Rocking the Short-term Rentals Industry

It’s Tuesday. It’s March 8th 2022. It’s International Women’s Day. 

Today, we celebrate the achievements, the courage, the battles, and the wins of women around the world; from all walks of life, and from all socio-cultural, political and workplace backgrounds (including within our short-term rentals industry)!

It’s an opportunity for us to come together with one common challenge: to live in a gender-equal and inclusive world.

The campaign theme for International Women’s Day 2022 is #BreakTheBias, encouraging us to imagine a gender-equal world, free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. You can find out how to get involved at the end of this article.

A Short-term Rental Space where Women Thrive

At Your.Rentals we wanted to spotlight some of our incredible colleagues working in the Short-term rentals sector.

There is always room for improvement, but our industry is an inclusive one, welcoming diversity with an open heart. And we are certainly lucky to have our fair share of empowering women leading the way in innovation and creativity.

Through hard work and total dedication to the industry, they are creating a working environment where not only do women thrive, but also collaborate and lead; they are pioneers carving out an exciting path for the future of the short-stay sector and inspiring a new generation to be fearless about taking centre stage.

Spotlight on 14 Incredible Women Rocking our Short-Term Rental Industry

Heather Bayer

Role: Founder of Vacation Rental Formula and the Vacation Rental Success Podcast, and CEO of an Ontario Rental Management Company.

What do you do?

I’ve been CEO of a rental management company in Ontario, Canada for the past 20 years and for the last 8 years have been the voice of the Vacation Rental Success podcast – the longest-running audio show for the industry. Right now, I am working on some projects to help small property management owners create success in their businesses.

What do you love about our short-term rentals industry?

What’s not to love? Being in the hospitality business is like no other. We get the chance to help people have the holiday of their dreams – that time when they can get together with family to bond and renew connections. 

Whether it’s dealing directly with a guest or an owner, solving a problem, or networking with other passionate professionals, it’s an all-consuming passion. The people in this industry are so open and willing to share their experiences in conferences, events and online groups, its an amazing privilege to be among them.

How will you be celebrating International Women’s Day?

I will be travelling all day returning to Ontario for a meeting and visiting my granddaughters who I haven’t seen for a few months. Their favourite reading is from the Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls Series – a collection of stories of extraordinary women from around the world through history and the present day.  I’ll be telling them about IWD and reading some of their favourites.

What do you love about short-term rentals?

I have personally operated two large holiday homes overlooking Loch Long, Argyll for the last 20 years. Welcoming guests and enabling them to create lasting memories in a wonderful part of Scotland and this for me has been a true privilege.

I am steered by an unwavering passion to support the sector that I have worked in and loved for 20 years, and working with fabulous, equally passionate industry colleagues across the world.

Deborah Labi

Role: Creative extraordinaire! Serial entrepreneur. Networker. I love to connect people.

What do you do?

I have developed a few initiatives in the short-term rentals space over the years, including the global guest referral platform (Have You Got).

Currently, my baby is The Guest Innspector which is a “mystery guest” for your entire guest journey starting from landing on your website through to leaving the property after the stay. This then sprouted Techsplained where I interview software and service providers in very concise interviews discovering exactly what they do and offer.

What do you love about short-term rentals?

I love this industry because its hospitality. A word to me that means warmth. A welcome. A smile. Open arms. Sharing. Feeling looked after.

I also love it because it involves travel, whether it’s me travelling (I have been a digital nomad for about 10 years now!) or talking with guests about their travels. Travel is always exciting.

I’m looking forward to travelling to Miami in October, to work on my third Book Direct Show!  Hope to see many of you reading this article there!

How will you be celebrating International Women’s Day?

Working. I work on my own, and usually don’t know what day it is, let alone a special day like this. I’ll be reminded when I scroll through Linkedin or Facebook on the day. In a way it’s a shame to have to have a special day to celebrate women. Every day we should be celebrating ourselves and each other. But if you ask me, what I’d like is an Auntie’s Day. We’re a forgotten bunch!

What do you love about short-term rentals?

I love travelling, meeting new people and seeing new places. I love that the short term rental industry allows for travel to be more sustainable when we can share our homes and experiences. With the changes in how we travel nowadays, we no longer have to make short one or two day trips, but can instead choose to stay somewhere for longer and combine work (or WFH) at the same time as we’re living like locals and exploring the area. This benefits so many stakeholders, not just the traveller and the host/property manager, but also the communities, local businesses and the economy as a whole.

How will you be celebrating International Women’s Day?

We’re publishing a Minut article about Women in Tech Startups and celebrating with an IWD fika with all colleagues!

Noelia Novella

Role: CEO and co-founder of Doinn

What do you do?

Doinn is an operation centre for short-term rental property managers to schedule, manage and/or buy certificate cleaning, laundry and linen rental services in more than 600 cities and 11 counties.

I love the optimization of processes and that is where Doinn has been focused during the last 7 years helping both, cleaning companies and property managers to work in an efficient and digital way.

The short-term rental industry is evolving fast and beautifully in the same direction but also bringing happiness to people that are dreaming all year long about sharing those days with their loved ones in one of our properties. It’s a big responsibility! but also a job full of freedom and with no creativity limits when it comes to improving the guest experience, the traveller’s dream-days.

What do you love about our short-term rentals industry?

It is full of entrepreneurs, but selfless entrepreneurs, those that are willing to put others ahead of themselves on a constant basis. Most people understand we are all necessary and complementary, often with a quick word to make you feel better about yourself in an effort to lift you up. 

And they’re nice…like, genuinely nice. Not nice in the way that people in power are when they want something. But nice because they can’t help themselves: it’s who they are and these qualities are not only cherished, but they’re inherent among the most successful executives

What will you be doing on International Women’s Day?

Same as the rest of the days: working hard, enjoying every minute and feeling grateful for all the good things that happen to us. 

Every day should be Women’s day, in fact, I try to make “My day” and the “Doinner’s day” as much as I can. There are so many negative things around us these days that I just feel responsible for compensating for them with positive thoughts and actions. Can you imagine what would happen if they all could do the same? 

What do you love about our short-term rentals industry?

I started out in the industry by chance when I started to sublet my apartment in Paris to tourists to supplement my income in 2004 when I was out of a job. 

I didn’t want to just rent it but to welcome them, show them my neighbourhood and share my favourite places to eat, drink, and visit. After a while, I thought I could make a job out of this and started to draft my business model 

I have always been a true believer that staying in a home is one of the best ways to enjoy your holidays, I have been holidaying like this since I was a kid.

I love my work, being my own boss and juggling all of this with family life!

Paola Gheis

Role: Luxury Rental Consultant

What do you do?

I have a consulting firm specialising in luxury accommodation and I am family brand manager for The Villa Italy and co-founder and host for LUXRE, the first training conference dedicated to luxury rentals.

My view of luxury is developed around four pillars: uniqueness, excellence, craftsmanship and emotions. From there, I develop the solutions which ensure my clients (owners, investors, PMs) maximise the value perception of their proposition and communicate that in a memorable way to high net worth travellers.

What do you love about our short-term rentals industry?

In my role, I am surrounded by beauty. I love to discover amazing properties in gorgeous European locations and to work with clients to unleash the potential of their luxury hospitality business. 

I love delving into the architecture and culture of these destinations while designing meaningful guest experiences and travel adventures. In this way, I also get to enjoy a level of proximity to guests and find out what it is they want from a luxury travel experience.

How will you be celebrating International Women’s Day?

I would like to celebrate by offering a free consulting session to two women owners, investors or PMs who read this article and have luxury or premium properties and would like to step up the value perception of their offer. Get in touch with Paola!

What do you love about the short-term rentals industry?  

So many things! I love the general enthusiasm and genuine goodwill of people working in the industry, this really helps make it an enjoyable environment to be part of. The growth of the industry and the seemingly endless possibilities within it is what really keeps me hooked. In the 6 years I’ve been working within the industry I have seen so much change in how the industry works, so much innovation from the technologies within the space, so much adaptation from property managers to handle all these changes and new technologies and I think we still have such a long way to go in terms of education, standardisation, and removing a lot of the negative connotations of the Short Stay space and the idea that I can be part of this change is something I’m very passionate about.

How will you be celebrating International Women’s Day?

I will proudly be working alongside some fantastic women at SUPERHOG and trying my best to show support. Last week we already made a start in the build up to International Women’s Day with a dedicated roundtable and I learnt so much so I will continue to listen to, learn from and share other women’s stories. I don’t actually think this is good enough to do just on one dedicated day a year so I will endeavour to show support in the ways I can all year round and hopefully do my bit to #breakthebias

Neely Khan

Role: Hospitality Writer & Storyteller at Neely There

What do you do?

I take my exciting background in creative storytelling and embed it within brands in the short-term rental space. This results in story-led content that sings (for both branding and marketing); as well as greater guest loyalty and repeat businesses for STR professionals, across the board.

What makes you feel passionate about our industry?

For me, it’s got to be the ‘people’ aspect. Even as a self-proclaimed introvert, I adore the way our industry hones connections and is built on meaningful relationships. The short-term rental industry makes the world feel like a smaller place (especially in recent years); and that is what I love most. 

I have made lifelong friends purely because of the work I do in the STR space – and these are people I probably would never have connected with otherwise. Business really is about relationship building more than anything else. I can’t think of an industry to do that better in, than STR. 

What will you be doing on International Women’s Day?

I’m actually super excited about International Women’s Day this year. After being featured on a couple of webinars and roundtable discussions (talking about women in our industry), I’ll be attending a spoken word performance with my 10-year-old daughter. I love spoken word poetry and perform a lot in my spare time. This performance will run with the theme of ‘female empowerment and is a great way of sharing the innate strength of women (across the board) with my little girl – who will form the next generation of female leaders. 

What do you love about the short-term rentals industry?  

My ‘why’ is to make people happy and to ensure that they have the best possible holiday experience, smooth and relaxing. And I love to be around people when they check in or are hanging it around the gardens. I always have a chat, I love how social this business is.

I also love that it is such a collaborative space among short stay professionals, always ready to help and support each other.

How will you be celebrating International Women’s Day?

I would love to attend one of the many networking events around town but I am busy both with guests and taking bookings, so I guess I’ll probably go about my day and try to spread awareness on how to make women’s day every day and always support each other as EMPOWERED WOMEN. 

Vivan Chin

Role: Head of Marketing at Your.Rentals

What do you do?

I’m a marketer, communicator, as well as a dot-joiner.

Born in Hong Kong, Based in Sweden, Eyes on the world.

I feel like “travel” has always been a tie with what I have been working for throughout the years. In the early days of my career, I advised clients like Singapore Tourism Board on their destination marketing projects, Amadeus on their market entry, and Cathay Pacific on their sustainability strategy.

When my family relocated back to Sweden, I first worked for a niche OTA to provide accessible accommodations to people with limited mobility, and now with Your.Rentals to provide a complete solution for property managers and hosts to save their time and make their short-term rental management work easy.

What do you love about short-term rentals?

One thing I love and enjoy is the people, the community, the ones who work day in and day out in the travel industry.

I can always feel our community’s strong interest to connect and the openness to share – whether it is as simple as our personal travelling stories, our industry knowledge and insights, or homes. The genuine smile, fun and laugh, or even a grumble of a hard day – all these light up a day. The sharing also opens up many chances for me and definitely many of us to grow, personally and business-wise.

What do you love about our Short-term rentals industry?

I love the fast-moving pace of the industry, the innovation and businesses that have been born out of it and the reverence and honour of being part of someone’s holiday, a haven from their day to day life or just relief in someone who is working away from home’s busy visit. My biggest love is the community – the people that make this industry – the people working hard behind the scenes to make it all happen.

How will you be celebrating International Women’s Day?

We will be celebrating the incredible women of our industry inside the Short Stay Pros facebook group – a series of lives throughout the day, rereleases of interviews with our top female guests and giveaways of our top programmes to ease their day to day!

Uvika Wahi

Role: Head of content & community efforts at Rental Scale-up

What do you do?

I head content and community efforts at Rental Scale-Up, a short-term rental media company. We publish industry reports, analyses, and news to help hosts, property managers, and industry vendors make informed decisions that grow profitability.

I help bring forth diverse and unique perspectives from the short-term rental industry through the content on Rental Scale-Up. I also help organise online conferences each month dedicated to a different aspect of running a short-term rental business to empower hosts, managers, and vendors alike to grow their business. Through Scalers Network, our private network for short-term rental pros, I help them get results and achieve transformation for their businesses while facilitating a space to connect with peers to exchange notes and form a strong network.

What do you love about our short-term rentals industry?

Having experienced incredible growth and category awareness in the past years, short-term rentals are the precipice of complete transformation through tech and standardization. It is exhilarating to be part of an industry at a time that will shape how it looks for years to come.

What do you love about our short-term rentals industry?

I feel extremely lucky to work in the vacation rental industry. It might sound cheesy, but it’s the industry where I’ve met the most genuine, approachable and nice people.

Additionally, it is so easy for newcomers to mingle with other VR professionals and learn from one another. Our industry is called the hospitality industry for a reason and what I love about our industry is that we are all about the people and it’s all about the connections that we make!

What’s more, our industry offers a really creative, and impactful, force. I’m constantly inspired by the incredible resilience of the people in our industry, especially in light of the recent events in Ukraine. Again, our industry joins forces and stands together to take action, and the response shown by our sector has been remarkable. This same resilience occurred during the pandemic, and within the last several years we’ve seen many property managers and VR companies quickly pivot, adjust their strategies and, for some, completely rethink their business model and continue to thrive. 

And of course, on International Women’s Day, it is impossible not to mention the creative and driving force that women bring to this industry. Women in our industry have a great ability to foster relationships, forge social networks and build on them.

I, myself, have been inspired by many amazing women in the industry, and I hope to see more female leaders taking the stage and being more visible at conferences and in discussions about the future of our industry. 

And let’s remember, women are absolutely essential to our industry, especially since 80% of all booking decisions are made by women (according to Mary Bond, author of The Gutsy Traveler)!

Collectively, we can #BreakTheBias in our Short-term rentals sector. In fact, many colleagues have been pushing boundaries and breaking the bias for more than a decade.

Thanks to the amazing women in this article, and the many others that make our industry such an incredible and exciting place to work and hang out.

I also wanted to finish with a special mention to our Your.Rentals team members, Bjanka, Alice, Lorna, Carla, Yia, Christina, Angela, Judith, Van Anh and many more of our female colleagues in Hanoi who are integral in driving our business forward every day with their passion and energy.

Happy International Women’s Day 2022!