🌍 Culture-Inspired Vacation Rentals: My 10-Step Unique Stays Framework with Anastasia Tara

Summary and Highlights

👤 Meet Anastasia Tara

Anastasia Tara grew up in Russia and fell in love with hospitality as a teenager after enrolling in an intensive hospitality bootcamp. She spent three years traveling and living abroad — a year in China, six months in Spain, and six months in Colombia — before settling in the United States and graduating from the University of San Diego with an accounting degree.

Her corporate career took her into data analytics, where she climbed to senior analytics manager, overseeing a full reporting department. But the pull toward hospitality never faded. When a career transition opened the door, Anastasia took the leap. She started consulting for vacation rental hosts and micro resort operators on everything from branding and marketing to operations setup and pricing strategy.

Meanwhile, she and her husband, Rod, moved from California to Texas, purchased two duplexes and a single-family home, and completely gutted and transformed them into culture-inspired vacation rentals — each themed after a country they loved. A family property in California followed, reimagined as a France-inspired retreat. Today, Anastasia runs The Unique Stay — a growing community, weekly newsletter with over 2,000 readers, and a mentorship platform for hospitality entrepreneurs who want to build properties with personality and purpose.

---

🌳 Your “Why” Is the Root of Everything

The most striking insight from this conversation is Anastasia’s tree metaphor. She compares your personal story and purpose to the roots of a tree. Everything else — your colors, your logo, your website design — those are the leaves. They’re important, but they sit on a second-priority level.

Without roots, the tree is dead.

Anastasia encounters this gap regularly in her consulting work. Hosts invest in professional branding that looks beautiful on the surface — matching palettes, polished websites, cohesive visual identity — but none of it connects to a personal story. She encourages those hosts to take what might feel like a step backward and reconnect their brand to who they are and what they care about. That reconnection, she says, is actually a step forward.

She shared a telling example. A client approached her about building a micro resort near Joshua Tree. His initial pitch was a romantic couples retreat — not because he cared about that concept, but because he thought it would be profitable. When Anastasia pressed him on what he truly valued, three things emerged: his relationship with his son, his love of running, and his passion for branding. The concept that grew from those roots — a family-oriented retreat with outdoor fitness elements — excited him far more than the generic idea ever did. And nothing like it existed in the area.

This mirrors what Isaac French shared on a previous episode about how a strong vision attracts the right investors, designers, and partners to bring something remarkable to life. Anastasia even stayed at Isaac’s Live Oak Lake property and recalled how a simple guest book with his personal story made the entire space feel more alive. It wasn’t just walls. It was a property with personality.

Your direct booking website should carry that same depth. When your “why” is authentic, it naturally threads through your social media, email campaigns, guest messaging, and property design. Without it, you’re left reverse-engineering a story from the outside in — and guests can feel the difference.

---

🏠 From Uninspiring Homes to Culture-Driven Experiences

Anastasia and Rod didn’t start with stunning properties. They started with completely ordinary homes in a regular residential neighborhood. Nothing special about the locations or the structures themselves.

What changed everything was tapping into something personal. Having lived across multiple countries, Anastasia developed a deep “why” rooted in finding home in different cultures. That became the design compass for every property — Japan, Bali, Italy, Greece, the Maldives, and France.

The results go well beyond aesthetics. Culture-themed properties create three powerful advantages for anyone looking to build a brand that guests remember:

Memorability. When guests describe your property to friends, they say something specific: “I stayed in this Bali-inspired home.” That sticks in a way that “nice modern rental” never will. In a sea of similar listings, a themed property stands apart immediately.

Emotional connection. Guests who’ve visited Italy bring their own memories to the stay. Guests who haven’t been yet feel inspired to explore the culture before arrival. Either way, the property becomes more than four walls — it carries meaning that creates the kind of guest experience people talk about long after checkout.

Repeat booking power. Anastasia and Rod use their themed portfolio as a built-in retention engine. At checkout, they message guests: “If you want to experience a different country-inspired home, come back — here’s a discount code.” Guests who stayed in the Italy unit now want to try the Japan unit. One brand, multiple experiences, repeat revenue. This is the foundation of an effective repeat booking email strategy.

And there’s a validation moment that caught everyone’s attention. Anastasia admitted she was nervous about Italian guests staying in her Italy-inspired home. Would they feel the culture was represented respectfully? The feedback came back overwhelmingly positive, which she considers one of the highest compliments a host can receive.

---

🔧 The 10-Step Craft Build Scale Framework

Anastasia walked through her complete framework for creating culture-inspired vacation rentals and unique stays. Here are the key steps — though listening to the full episode is worth it for the nuance behind each one.

Step 1: Identify your why. Start with what genuinely matters to you — not what you assume will be profitable. This becomes the foundation for every decision that follows.

Step 2: Set your vision horizons. Define both long-term (20–50 years) and short-term (1–3 years) goals. Building five micro resorts to pass to your kids looks very different from offsetting a mortgage on a family vacation home.

Step 3: Create your preliminary concept. Combine your “why” and short-term vision into a concrete concept — unit mix, financial model, and design direction.

Step 4: Identify your market. Anastasia recommends tools like AirDNA and PriceLabs for comp analysis. Her advice: build where you already live when possible, and look for areas with diverse demand — not just vacationers. Her Texas properties sit 15 minutes from downtown Austin but outside city limits, in ETJ zoning that offers fewer restrictions and demand from corporate travelers, concertgoers, and international visitors alike.

Step 5: Finance your project. Options range from conventional mortgages (for properties with fewer than 4 units) to hard money loans, SBA loans for micro resorts, and even reward-based crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo.

Step 6: Build your team. Lean into complementary strengths. Anastasia handles data, marketing, and branding, while Rod covers construction. Her biggest regret? Not hiring a designer sooner. Going forward, every project — even a small cabin — will include one.

Step 7: Build the property. Use a general contractor. The only exception: if you are a licensed GC with experience on similar builds.

Step 8: Set up operations early. Think through tech compatibility before construction begins. Small decisions — like whether your smart lock system works with your thermostat brand — affect the guest experience in ways that are expensive to fix later.

Step 9: Pre-launch strategy. Stay at your property for several nights by yourself. Then invite someone who matches your ideal guest avatar to stay and provide brutally honest feedback.

Step 10: Launch and iterate. Anastasia’s first Bali guest had no idea the home was culture-themed because it was barely mentioned in the listing. That one piece of feedback changed their title and description strategy across every property. Early guests are your most valuable consultants.

Her consulting work reinforces this. She recently worked with a micro-resort operator who had an incredible property with waterfalls and multiple accommodations, but was only booking weekends. After small tweaks to listings, photos, and pricing strategy, weekday bookings started flowing in. Wednesday and Thursday nights, which the owner thought were impossible, became regular revenue. As Anastasia puts it, sometimes the same property just needs the right positioning.

---

🧹 Bonus: The Deep Clean Staycation Strategy

One of the most practical gems from this episode came from Gil’s own operations. Twice a year, his cleaning teams receive double pay for thorough deep cleans — reaching spots that turnover cleans between 10 AM and 4 PM can’t cover.

The twist: cleaners are invited to stay overnight with their families. Many of Gil’s properties feature unique amenities like indoor pools, mini golf, and rock climbing walls. By experiencing the property as guests, cleaners shift their perspective from checklist mode to genuine use. They cook dinner and realize the baking pans are worn out. They try amenities and notice what’s missing.

The feedback quality from these staycations far exceeds any inspection checklist. One enterprise client managing over 100 properties runs the same program regularly. Anastasia connected this back to the episode’s theme: when you share your “why” and quality standards with your team — cleaners, VAs, property managers — they feel like partners rather than contractors, and the feedback they provide is more honest and more useful.

---

🧠 Rapid Fire with Anastasia Tara

📚 Book Recommendation: Hospitality Unlocked by Steve Turk — a collection of interviews with hospitality leaders sharing diverse perspectives on the industry. Anastasia noted it covers hospitality broadly, not just short-term rentals, which makes it valuable for hosts looking to elevate their thinking.

🧭 Mindset Advice: “Listen to your intuition, no matter what advice you’re getting.” Anastasia acknowledged that staying in data analytics would have been more financially beneficial in the short term. But following her passion for hospitality was the right long-term decision — both financially and personally. Gil echoed this, sharing that starting CraftedStays meant walking away from a more comfortable tech career, but the fulfillment of building something meaningful made it worth every tradeoff.

🛠️ Tactical Tip for Direct Bookings: Make sure your direct booking website tells your story. Let it represent you and your property in a way that helps guests connect with you personally. Don’t reverse-engineer your brand by mimicking others. Break down what you value, what you’re trying to project through your property, and let that authenticity drive your messaging across every channel.

---

📲 Connect with Anastasia Tara

🌐 Personal Website: AnastasiaTara.com | 🏡 Community: UniqueStays.co | 💼 LinkedIn: Anastasia Tara | 📸 Instagram: @AnastasiaTarai |

🐦 X/Twitter: @AnastasiaTarai

---

🎧 Ready to stop blending in and start building a property brand rooted in who you actually are? Listen to the full episode with Anastasia Tara on the Booked Solid podcast.

🏡 Your direct booking website is where your story meets your guest’s search. Make sure it reflects both. Start building yours at CraftedStays.co and join a growing community of hosts who are taking control of their bookings, their brand, and their future.

Transcription

Anastasia: Italians who are staying there right now, they’re very happy. That’s really important for us to hear because that’s like the biggest compliment I guess every horse can, can get. And one other thing I wanted to mention about like the why, I always see it as like if you imagine a tree and the tree has roots, your story and your why is like the roots of the tree and everything else in your branding are the leaves, the colors, the logo, they’re important, but.

Uh, there would be on the second level or second, second priority level. The, the tree without roots is, uh, a dead tree in my opinion. And, uh, I think that would be something every horse need to think about. Good.

Gil: Before we bring on my guest, I want to talk just a little bit about something that I’ve been hearing a lot from Host. I keep on hearing the same thing. I know my website is in. But I can’t afford $8,000 on an agency to rebuild it. Here’s the thing, you’re letting all these marketing strategies, you’re driving traffic and you’re putting it all to work.

But if your site isn’t really built to convert, you’re basically lighting your energy and money on fire. And even if you could afford an agency build, every time you want to test something or make a change, you’re having to pay them again. You can’t iterate, you can’t test, and you really can improve on things.

You don’t need a custom $10,000 website to get the conversion rates that really matter. You just need the right platform. That’s why I build CraftedStays. It’s purpose built for short-term rentals and designed from the ground up to help you drive more direct bookings. You can finally turn that traffic into bookings and you can keep on testing and improving.

As you learn, you can make changes all on the platform. You don’t need to learn something new. So if you need some help or you wanna get started, go ahead and go to CraftedStays co and start your free trial. Now let’s bring on our guests and dive deep into hospitality and marketing.

 Gil: Hey folks, welcome back to the Booked Solid show, the show where we bring in top operators to discuss hospitality, operations, and direct bookings. On today’s show, I have Anastasia Tara on the show. She’s the founder of The Unique Stay and an online community and mentorship group.

On today’s show, we’re gonna talk about the power of storytelling and how she’s applied this to her own hosting business. So without further ado, let’s bring her in. 

Gil : Hey, Anastasia, welcome to the show.

Anastasia : Hi. Thank you for having me.

Gil : Yeah, it’s a huge pleasure to have you on. Our assistant kind of found you through the interwebs and, and saw kind of what you were doing and we thought you were doing some interesting things, specifically kind of in the unique stays and kind of the community building.

Um, so we thought it’d be a good chance to kind of have you on the show and kinda share. Kind of your journey, what you’ve been, what you’ve been working on, how you got into it in the first place, and also how you are serving your students as well too. So maybe to kind of kick us off, Anastasia, do you mind giving us a quick introduction on who you are?

Anastasia : Yeah, absolutely. I grew up in Russia and I, uh, was very interested in hospitality from an early age. I enrolled in Intensive Hospitality Bootcamp when I was a teenager and got completely hooked into it. Uh, then I got accepted into hospitality school in Europe, and I studied there for one semester and then I dropped out.

Um, then I, I was, during the time I was traveling also for about. Three years. I lived in China for a year. Then that time I lived in Spain for six months and then I moved to Columbia, uh, for six months as well. And after that I moved to US and I. Got enrolled into University of San Diego. I graduated with an accounting degree and uh, then was accepted by a company, which was Mortgage Company in San Diego.

And I worked there, started as accounting intern and then transitioned into data analytics. And during the time when I worked there, I met my husband. We both shared dreams of real estate investing and um. We decided to move from California to Texas in order to start investing. We also have family there and we purchased our first homes and, uh, those were two duplexes and one, um, single family home.

And we completely transferred, transformed them into countries inspired vacation rentals. So we currently have, uh, Japan, Bali, Italy, Maldive, Greece, uh, inspired homes, and, uh. Then our family reached out to us and they had a property in California. They said, well, we actually are trying to move away from our current property manager.

Can you take over? Can you check what he can do? And we completely, completely transformed their property into a France in part, uh, short-term rental. And, uh, it turned out really great. Then I started, uh, consulting, vacation rental costs and micro resort operators, um, on their properties.

Just helping them from anything like branding, marketing, as well as, uh, operations set up. Sometimes it would be a full transition from 1:00 PM MS to another. Sometimes it would be finding a different pricing strategy and, uh, that turned out to be an amazing. New career path, kind of transitioning from the data analytics into hospitality, kind of back to what I really loved.

Gil : Yeah, so you mentioned like you were doing this, I, I am guessing that you were working your. Your W2, kind of in the accounting space, you had purchased your rentals and then you started to scale that, and at some point you were kind of pulled in on the consulting side. When, when did you make that that switch yourself completely to, to the consulting side?

Anastasia : So I had this, uh, career transition where I had an opportunity to stay in data analytics or I could start something completely new and, um, I created. An Upwork profile and on Upwork you can have two different profiles. So I did one for, actually wasn’t working at that time in accounting, but I worked in data analytics specifically I was a senior analytics manager, uh, managing our reporting department and. I created one profile for data analytics and another one was for hospitality. And I got some jobs in consulting, um, that were specifically on data analytics side. But I was really hoping that I can get something on hospitality side. And I had this wonderful couple who reached out to me. They were from Australia, and they asked me to create like a.

Short video for their rental. And it was the most fun project that I had in a long time. And it kind of, uh, went from there. I got a review from them, then I had some other clients, some more. And, um, then someone with whom I already worked recommended me to another host. And, uh, yeah, that’s how it started.

Gil : Wow, so. I’m, I’m guessing now Upwork is probably less of a source for you. Um, and there’s other places where people discover you. Now, where are people finding out about you and kind of pulling you to help them with, with their operations or, or their branding market?

Anastasia : Sometimes it’s through LinkedIn or Instagram. I also started about a year ago a newsletter, which I call unique states. And um, I have. About 2000, a little bit more than 2000, uh, readers right now. And I have people reaching out to me who might be reading me for several weeks. Some are reading for several months.

Um, and this whole newsletter started as just a. Uh, kind of an idea of I want to share what I’m finding every week because I’ve been looking at a lot of different properties, deals. I’ve been looking at different links, and sometimes I will send it to my family and friends, but I thought, wow, what a waste.

I need to like share it with someone else and I want to get maybe feedback and I want to discuss it. And I started putting it together in like a newsletter where I share favorite finds news of the week as well as deals of the week. And uh, I also have like a deep dive section where I am diving deep on the topics maybe.

Those would be hosts that I recently met, or maybe those would be even my clients. Sometimes it’s vendors that I talk to, because on weekly basis I talk to vendors in our hospitality space. Sometimes it would be some topics related to my property, and so this gets really good feedback from other hosts and um, that’s how they often reach out to me.

Gil : That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Um, you mentioned that your. Properties when you take them on, they, they’re themed by geographic region or a culture. What inspired you to go down that path of theming at your properties?

Anastasia : So when I left Russia and I started traveling, and I actually started traveling quite early on when I was about 14 and 15. I lived in Australia for months and a half, and then first time in China for months and a half. One year in China and many other places, including Europe and Latin America and all, every country became almost like a new home for me.

And I was exploring a new culture, diving into tradition language. Um, I believe you can really understand the culture through the language and uh, that’s something that was always very inspiring to me. Almost finding your sense of home and belonging in this new culture. Um, and. Uh, I find my, one of my deep whys is in this space specifically.

So when we thought, well, what can we see in our Airbnb? What can we make really special out of them? Because our homes, they were completely uninspiring homes that were in a regular residential neighborhood, there’s nothing, or there was nothing special about them at that time. And we decided, and Rod, my husband, he’s also.

Kind of like passionate about cultures. Uh, we have in a way similar background, uh, in the sense, and we decided why not we should try it. There were not too many themed homes at that time, so it was already unique. Um, yeah, and it was really fun creating them. When you were diving into your deep why and you’re trying to really tap into, what do you care about as a host?

I think you can produce a property that first. Connects you much better with your potential guests and also creates repeat guests. Because people don’t typically fall in love with the walls. They fall in love with people’s stories, and they want to share those stories and experience them and so on. And I think your personal story, such an important aspect.

That I unfortunately still don’t see many costs utilizing it. ’cause with, um, you, you’ll have to market your property some somehow. And your personal story is one of the best marketing tools that you have and you can naturally tell, uh, that can connect you to similar people like you. And another reason why starting with your why is really important when you are building your property is.

It’s much easier to create, to create a concept or even full design or find materials because it comes from this very logical centerpiece from the logical core. Um, I know that one culture that I’m very interested in is, um, Japan, uh, Japanese culture and. I know that just by watching the movies, reading the books, understanding music, understanding language, I can derive some elements that would be easier for me to translate into the property.

Whether that’s just starting from scratch and thinking, well, maybe I can get a nice couch that will look nice on the picture. There’s nothing really connects you to that couch and to that story.

Gil : Yeah, that, that’s interesting. I, I can totally kind of envision as a guest coming in there and it’s a theme property and specifically kind of like if you’re trying to really inspire them of that culture in Japan, the. The pieces that you put in there, the, maybe the little stories that you leave behind, maybe even the artwork that you have on the wall, it kind of feels very cohesive where, for instance, if you have a home that is like mid-century modern, you have a much wider array and almost feels, not numb is the right word, but it’s, it’s.

Very visible or very approachable from others where people have seen homes that were mid-century modern already, even though aesthetically looks nice and it’s very trendy, um, it doesn’t have that uniqueness that allows someone to say like, oh, that is a very unique place. Like if, if you remember that place, you’ll like, if you remember back to that stay, you’ll definitely remember the property and kind of like what made, what made that so special versus a home that is.

Designed off of a, uh, an architectural theme or a a period of time.

Anastasia : It does, and even if you think about how one person potential guest would be describing your property to someone else, typically our guest would say, Hey, I found this ball inspired home and it’s easier to memorize it. In the pool of many other homes that are available on the market. For example, uh, we also have received many feedback from guests who said, Hey, we visited Italy three years ago.

We have so many great memories and we’re so excited to, excited to visit your home because it’s, uh, kind of creates this additional pool of. Memories and revise them. Or we had guests who would tell us, Hey, we really want to visit this place one day, but we have never been there. And it almost inspires them to explore this culture before they, uh, land

Gil : Yeah. Yeah, and I, I, I guess that also percolates out to the way that you position that property and how you market it. I’m, I’m thinking of like the touch points, like on your social media, on your direct booking websites. You almost have this kind of cohesiveness where. That story gets brought into every one of those touch points, and it’s kind of hard.

And if you have a, uh, like you mentioned, these properties were kind of vanilla. They didn’t have anything put together. You can design it really well, but it’ll be hard to bring that same continuity. Um, and that same connectiveness on social media, your direct booking websites, your email campaigns like you, it’s harder to create that connection there because of that.

Anastasia : It, it is. And, uh, we use our story touch points everywhere. We use it on our direct booking website and social media, in our, our messages to potential guests as well as repeat customers because, um. For example, for our repeat guests, we often mention in our very last message when they’re checking out from the property, um, hey, you are an amazing guest.

If you ever want to experience other properties similar to ours, but uh, seemed by different country, uh, you are welcome to come back and we will give you, um, a discount code. Um, and so on, and it helps also. Um, we, we had repeat guests who said, well, I actually stayed in Italy home, but I want now to try and stay in a inspired home.

You have this diverse units that are still under kind of one umbrella, so you have this cohesive scene, uh, cohesive theme, but um, there’s still a different. They’re quite different. So you have a completely different experience every time. Right now we have, um, kind of one experience that I’m feel personally very nervous about.

We have Italians staying in our Italy inspired home, and it’s always a little bit nerve wracking because I want to make sure that, um, we’re doing it in a very beautiful, gentle way and not trying to like, to push, uh, you can highlight cultures in very different ways. We’re trying to be respectful, but also, um, showing that we are admire those Yeah.

Genuine and that we admire those cultures rather than anything.

Gil : Yeah. Yeah, I can. I can imagine. Whether or not like you capture the culture in the right light that is respected by by them. That’s, I can tell that can be that. That can be, that can be stressful. You, sorry. Go.

Anastasia : I just wanted to mention, but I know that our guests, who are the Italians who are staying there right now, they’re very happy. Uh, um, they’ve been yeah, providing great feedback and, um, yeah, we, that’s really important for us to hear because that’s like the biggest. Compliment, I guess every hos can, can get.

And, and one other thing I wanted to mention about like the why. I always see it as like if you imagine a tree and the tree has roots, your story and your why is like the roots of the tree and everything else in your branding are the leaves, the colors, the logo, they’re important, but. There would be on the second level or second.

Second priority level. The, the tree without roots is a dead tree in my opinion. And uh, I think that would be something every horse need to think about. And one last thing also about the Wise is. Typically hospitality projects. Like for example, in our case, we were renovating properties and it was a full gut remodel.

So it was quite extensive, uh, remodeling. Um, those projects take. Sometimes months. Sometimes it could take years. And you want to be rooted in your while. So because it can pull you in these dark moments or hard times, if you have this additional motivation on why you are doing it and why you want to complete it and share it with your guests, it really helps to pull, uh, through those times ’cause things happen.

You probably know right? The,

Gil : Yeah. I, I, I get you there. You, you mentioned something that I, I, I don’t think, and this is, you mentioned something like that I think is important to kind of say again, um, which is kind of like the, the tree roots and the branches there. Anastasia, do you mind kind of recapping that again? I think that, that, that’s an important message for us to all kind of remember because I think that oftentimes when we get into kind of like a lot of folks, they’ll get into because of investing and they’re.

The kinda the why might be investing, but actually there’s a deeper meaning kind of behind it. There’s a different part of it. Um, so I want you to kind of bring that back, um, and kind of kinda repeat it, kind of what you said about the really starting with strong roots.

Anastasia : Yeah. Um. I think many people go into real estate investing because we want to have passive income that is not really passive in the very end once you learn all the, um, ups and downs of the cycles and so on, and, um, we sometimes forget why we’re doing it or how to make it the project that is, would not be just profitable, but would be our project and ours from, I’m not sure how to say it, but. Make it a project. You need to make it a project that you are proud of and that you feel very deeply connect. That you will be proud to tell to your kids, to your family, to your friends, and not just as a rental that you’ll put in market. And if it’ll bring you something that’s helpful. And, um, there’s a very big difference between the properties that have this.

One, the story and, and not, and sometimes I start working with host. I see that they figure out branding and they have this wonderful branding. The logo looks amazing. The colors are beautiful. Everything is matching, but it has no connection to their story, and I’m telling them that they almost need to make the step back, which is in fact.

A step forward for them. Uh, and sometimes it’s just hard to do when you already maybe paid for your branding. You have all the marketing, uh, resources and materials and the website figured out. Uh, but I think it is a very important step forward that you, every cost needs to complete.

Gil : Yeah. Yeah, I, I like that.

Anastasia : I’ll give you another quick example that I’m just thinking about a conversation I recently had.

I talked to someone who want to build a micro resort and I asked him like, what kind of micro resort you want to build? What kind of sea? And he said, well, um. This is like in the area of Joshua Tree. And he said, I see a lot of properties that are targeting, um, romantic couples and maybe I can do like a romantic getaway.

And I asked him like, what really connects you to this topic? And he said, nothing really. I don’t care about it, but I think it might be profitable. And so this emphasis was on the profit. And I started asking him like, what are the three main things that you really love? And he mentioned to me, well, I care about.

My relationship with my son, it’s a family roots. I love running. And I also, uh, love creating, um, like branding, uh, for, for different companies. And we started like brainstorming with him what his, like unique concept could be. Maybe it could be family oriented. Maybe they, there could be some kind of running track.

And when he started like brainstorming about it, he was significantly more excited. Than the first original idea he had. And we also started looking and there were nothing like this in the area. There’s a lot of, there’s many people who are. Things that they can just basically copy and paste the same building or the same concept and it will work the same way, but they have no idea sometimes what goes behind it and sometimes it could work, but I think it’s so much more rewarding to really start and understand like where you are coming from at the person and what you’re trying to build.

And you should connect it not just to your why, but also to your long term and short term goals. Like we all have this different horizons. For example, for me, maybe my long-term horizon could be 20, 30, 50 years, and the short-term horizon could be one, two to three years. So you want to understand how with your long-term and short-term horizon, your why, how can you create this cohesive concept and what are the exact steps for you to implement it?

Gil : Yeah, I like that. And you mentioned something that I, I’ve heard. From other kind of guests on this show is really when you, and I think Isaac French, um, has done a really good job at, at talking about this and, and starting with kinda like why he built this, his vision of this. Um, and he mentioned even planting, I think it was like a hundred trees in, in this large acre of, of land there, of, uh, in, in a very short timeframe and watching it grow and how he was able to build, bring the whole community together.

There were. I don’t know how many people, I think in the picture there was like 20, 30 people in the picture planting trees in, in this orchard. And the, the kind of the takeaway that he says is that when you have a strong vision of something, you can then translate that vision to other people and inspire other people to kind of come along for the ride.

And I think that’s very applicable, especially in the micro resort. Micro resorts aren’t done. With one person, it’s done by. It could be a community people, it could be partnerships with people, but it’s done with a collection of people that have to come together to make that thing a reality there. Um, and I think that if you start with the wrong, a strong vision, a strong purpose, a strong why, you’re much more able to find the right investors, find the right designers, find the right people that are.

Wanting to create and bring that vision to life rather than just putting together another investment. We’re not here to make commercial properties, like that’s not the purpose of us. We’re here for hospitality. We’re here to really being, bring an experience that is quite unique. So I I, I love that you kind of brought back the, the sense of why and vision back into it.

Anastasia : Yeah, absolutely. And I’m glad you mentioned Isaac. I stayed in, uh, his property. Live Oak Lake, I believe. And I remember he had, I think that guest book and there was like a short story about, uh, like him or why he built it. And there was such a great introduction to the host, to the person, and immediately the property felt a little bit more alive.

It wasn’t, again, like I mentioned, just the walls. It was a property with personality and I really loved it. I think he done a really great job on that.

Gil : Yeah. Uh, and Sage before the show. Um, and kind of the, the days kind of leading up to kind of our recording here, uh, we were talking about some of the topics that you wanted to bring forth on, on this show and, um, one of the things we talked about was kind of your process in really creating these really memorable stays.

And we talked a lot about a lot of different parts of this. Starting with your why, thinking about your, uh, ideal guests and experiences that you want to have, you want them to kind of leave with. But maybe can you walk us through maybe the parts that we did not cover, um, as part of kind of how you think about the framework of building these really unique stays.

Anastasia : Yeah, absolutely. So we already shared you the very first step, and I call this framework craft build Scale of Unix days. Um. The very first step is identifying your why, and we already figured out why it’s really important. The second step is identifying your long-term and short-term vision. So you will set up your horizons.

You will really understand what you’re trying to achieve in those years because maybe you want to have a small portfolio of vacation rental homes and you’ll be staying there with your family and friends. And, um, in the time when you’re not there, you just want to offset your mortgage. Um. Maybe you have a completely different dream.

You want to build five micro resorts that you’ll be passing to your kids. Um, and that could be a wonderful dream as well. But once you have this vision, like a long, long form, long-term vision, you’ll then. Switch to the short term, and if it’s a micro resort portfolio, you will start with one micro resort.

You will write all the steps that you need to do, and the very next step, the step number three would be creating this preliminary concept, and it will come down from your why and from your short term, uh, vision, you will try to understand, what kind of unit mix you want? Like for example, in my case, it would be most likely culture inspired resort.

I love Japanese culture, so li likely it’ll be a Japan, uh, inspired micro resort. Maybe something else. Uh, the unit mix probably will be 10 units. You need to have an underwriting model. Um, and that’s part something that I’m offering in my unique sales community. Or you can also find it, uh, or create one from scratch and you would be able to. Um, plug in your numbers, see revenue projections, see expenses, and so on. And have a, the, this first idea of what, what your property can generate potentially and what it looks like from the financial, um, standpoint. And the next step would be identifying your market and sub-market. And for. I, when we were looking for our properties, we used to like prop stream, uh, for, um, vacation rentals.

Air DNA could be a great tool. I actually really like, uh, price Labs dashboard. Uh, you can create wonderful com sets there and, uh, really analyze your competition, understand what works and what, uh, doesn’t work. And my recommendation is always, if you can, and if, um, it makes sense. For your property is to build where you are because you might already know the market.

And, um, if, if you have other factors that are working for you. For example, the permits, the permitting process isn’t that hard, or you have a diversity of demand, which is another really important factor you don’t want to have. Only vacationers in the area you want people from. Um, for example, in our case, we got a property that is about 15 minutes from downtown Austin, but it’s not in the city limits.

So we were looking specifically for a zoning code, which is called ETJ, and. Uh, those zoning codes, they have, uh, significantly less restrictions, uh, which really helps during permitting, during construction process and so on. But that location has a very diverse demand. So we have vacationers, we have, uh, people from abroad, we have corporate workers, uh, people who come for concert, uh, to Austin.

So, uh, we, it helps to. Properties when you have, when you go through different cycles, uh, to stay booked and also tap into different markets. So you want to kind of look for those things when you are looking for your first location to build, especially. Um, and then the next step would be financing your project.

So you are trying to, if you have. You are looking for a property that is, uh, under four units you can use just something like conventional mortgage. In our case, uh, we couldn’t buy our properties with a conventional mortgage. We had to use either cash or hard money loan, and we went, uh, with a hard money loan.

If you’re building something like a micro resort, uh, SBA loans are very, uh, popular In those cases, if you want to use some kind of like creative strategy that could be, um, like a crowd-based, um. Uh, crowdfunding, uh, oh, sorry. I meant, I meant reward-based, uh, crowdfunding. And then, uh, those campaigns could be set up on, uh, sites like indiego.

Uh, and the next step would be, uh, by that time you probably already have a team if you working with your spouse, like in my case, rod is really good in construction and he. Uh, is covering that side and I’m within data analytics. I can cover like data analytics, pricing, marketing, and that side of the business.

Uh, but, but one of the most important team members that you can have is a designer and, um. I see a lot of host overlook it. I think we think we can just design the property ourselves, and that’s what I thought. And uh, all homes that we have created, we designed them together with Rod. But I wish we would have hired a designer.

And for any projects that I’m doing going forward, we will, even if it’s a small cabin or a large large property, I’m going to hire a designer who can really understand my vision and kind of. Tap into that. Yeah. So, um, that was step six and we have, uh, step seven, just building the property for that. I always recommend using, uh, gc, um, even in our case. With lot of experience, we still, for next project, we likely will be using a GA gc, uh, I would say 99% cases that make sense. The only 1% case when it doesn’t make sense. Uh, when you are a GC yourself and you have built such projects and you are comfortable taking a new project, that that could work. And the next step would be operations.

And operations typically needs to be, um, sought through. Before even construction begins, because if, for example, you are going to use tools like maybe Aperto and Aperto is compatible with some devices, but it’s not comp compatible with others, like Aperto has disability to. Manage your thermostats so you can set up specific te temperature for guests before they arrive.

Uh, but they’re compatible with Kobi, but they’re not compatible with Google Nest. And you need to know such small nuances to be able to, uh, kind of really, um, provide the most value. Um, to your guest thinking about this experience from the beginning. Um, and then, then we are on the eighth, uh, on the ninth step, which is a pre-launch strategy.

And that’s when your property is ready. It’s fully built. You furnished it, you set up all your operations, and you want to stay in your property yourself for at least several nights. And then if you know your, and you should know by then your customer avatar. So for example, if you want to host couples, you want to find such couple who can experience your property firsthand and who can provide you very detailed and uh, almost harsh feedback.

And if your customer avatar or families with kids, you then want to. Uh, provide such, uh, invite them and so they can provide you this feedback. And the last step is just launching. You would have everything ready by then. You would switch the toggle to on, you will ask your first guest to give you feedback.

Um, I remember when our first guest arrived to our Bali inspired home. Uh, we actually were there and we met him. He was with his kid, and he tell us, you know, I had no idea. It’s a about inspired home. Because we barely mentioned in our listing description, we didn’t have it in the title. And he said, you should put this in your title because, uh, to me that was such a big surprise.

But it’s, uh, a huge factor. I would definitely pick your property over others if I would knew it, because it’s just a different experience. So you can collect all of this pieces of information and improve, uh, as you go.

Gil : Yeah.

Anastasia : That’s, uh, the 10 steps that I use. Hmm.

Gil : Uh, I can, I can tell kind of like as you’re going to going through this, like you’ve, you’ve gone, you’ve gone through this many times now with all the properties that you’ve kind of set up and kind of the guidance that you have there. So having that really structured thought in kind of how you break things down and how to make sure that the end quality product kind of meets that requirement or the quality bar that you’re looking for, um, you’ve kind of like really thought that through or, and really like when you’re coming up with.

Really some, each project we have, we have learnings about what we could have done better and what we, what we do. And if you can compartmentalize all those different areas, it helps you really figure out how do you want to scale that moving forward there. And one thing in particular that I, I, I liked was you mentioned staying in your property yourself.

Uh, I think that that’s actually a, a very important step. Um, and it’s often, sometimes even hard one. Uh, uh, you mentioned like if you can. Purchase a property that’s kind of near you. Um, for me that’s kind of challenging because I’m in California and California has kinda like outlawed a lot of short term rentals.

And same thing goes on the East Coast side on on New York. Um, but we do make it a chance to, when we build and launch new properties, we take a family vacation there. Like that’s, that’s our time to enjoy the property ourselves. And we’ve gotten to a point where we’re not staging it ourselves anymore. So we hire a designer.

To kind of help us through the design process and then we hire a stager, um, that will help us set it up because we’ve learned through setting up the first initial one. It’s a lot of work that we can’t really endure ourselves for, for very long, especially with two young kids. Um, but after the staging is done, we do make it a kind of a.

It’s our responsibility to be the first guest that stays there. Uh, and so we stay there ourselves and it’s actually kind of ice because then we do things like, we label all the drawers and we figure out like, what are the, but like where are all the light switches and kind of where they lead to and where do we need to like hint to our guests, like how to find things.

And you really gets to like acclimate yourself with the property, the surrounding area. The nuance things like where’s the parking or how things flow through and where the trash is. So like I, I think that that’s, it’s a step that’s easily missed, especially when you start to scale and you start to bring on more and more properties.

There, it’s, it’s harder because you’re, you’re, you’re probably turning through them. Um, but the folks that do spend the time, and I’ve seen folks that do the, do this. Every year, every quarter, they’ll stay at their property and it gives them kind of fresh perspective like, oh, this is actually starting to wear down quite a bit.

This is an area that I need to reinvest into it. Or we had this great idea of having this, this, this, uh, this loveseat here, but it’s actually like, it’s not conducive of really our family staying there. Um, so it’s, it’s a good reminder to like not just design stage the place and then launch it and, and hope things go well.

Uh, if you stay in the property, you have a lot more. Confidence that the initial launch is gonna go quite well.

Anastasia : Yeah, I really like what that you pointed out, that you have to stay in the property even after this initial launch. Uh, preferably every quarter if you can, maybe every six months or so, because you can find things, you can adjust, but you can also find. Other improvements. Maybe you’re missing some amenities.

Maybe there’s like this corner that you can have an idea when you are in the property of what you can do there. And it could be this moment that you create for guests that will, uh, improve their experience, but also can sell the property even further by creating this beautiful, um, amenity.

Gil : Yeah, this pasture has been really busy for us, but we still do our, our deep cleans. Um, about twice a year, uh, where our cleaners. We’ll, we’ll pay them double and they’ll go through and they’ll reach into the hard to reach areas that they don’t get to do between the turns, between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM So they’re spending a lot more time into it.

And what we started to do is actually treat that more of a staycation. So we will invite our cleaners to spend the night there. Um, and they, I’ll still pay them. I’ll still pay them the, the, the double rate. Um, but we invite them to stay overnight there. And a lot of the, a lot of our cleaners, they have families as well too.

So this ends up becoming a little mini staycation. And our properties are not vanilla. These are beds in, in a property there. A lot of them have certain amenities that are quite. Quite unique. We have mini golfs in, in some of them we have indoor swimming pools. In some of them we have rock climbing walls in none of them.

So a lot of times, especially for our cleaners that have kids, they really enjoy it because then they get to treat their family out to it. But on our side, we find that when we do this with our cleaners, they get to look at things not through the lens of like, okay, I need to clean every nook and cranny, and this is my checklist.

But they’re cooking dinner there, they’re spending time there. They’re figuring out, oh, I wanted to bake my kids cookies that night, but we didn’t have enough pans. Or the pans that we have are, are probably worn out. So when we do that, we find that the checklist of things that we need to follow up on, the things that they’re looking at are just so much higher quality.

Um, so that’s been one of like the more recent things that we’ve learned. Um, and actually was talking to like one of our larger property managers, he does the same thing. They have, one of our clients has like over a hundred properties, and they regularly do this where they have deep cleans and they invite their cleaners to, to do the same.

Um, and when I heard that and I put it into practice, it just, it makes so much sense. It, it makes sense for the cleaners to be able to enjoy the time. It makes sense from, from our side as a business owner, ourselves, from a guest experience side. The outcome of it is, is, is better. Um, so that’s been, that’s been a.

Something that I’m glad I, I learned out of all the conversations I’ve had,

Anastasia : Do you have some kind of like systemized way to collect that feedback? Do you have a form that maybe you provide or how do you like motivate them to really share that feedback? Because some people want to be maybe on nicer side because they don’t want to hurt your feelings. It’s your property.

Gil : uh, we have a pretty direct relationship with our cleaners, um, and we also have, uh, what do you call it? We have. Inspectors that come through a different company that comes through every, every period. Um, and so we already have pretty detailed reports on some of those things, but our cleaners, we find that if we’re upfront about them, of like, okay, if there’s a light bulb that needs to get changed out or if there’s something that need, needs to get changed, one, help me do it and bill me for it.

I’d be happy to bill you for like, I’ll be happy to pay you for it. So they don’t feel like it’s a burden. But two for things that of our maintenance. They want to have good experiences too. They don’t want guests to complain and say, oh, the light bulb’s out, and they have to go run over there to do it. So they’re more proactive about it.

And it’s really like setting a culture with your team that like, this is the quality bar that I want to set. This is where I expect us to be. And if you’re clear with that, with your cleaners, they, they don’t mind doing some of those things. Um, it, they like to tell you that these sheets are worn out because they don’t wanna see that every single time.

That’s not the, they have pride in the work that they do too.

Anastasia : Yeah. They have skin and the game in

Gil : yeah, yeah. Exactly. If you, if you, if you bring ’em into like the story, I think that, that, that helps a whole lot there. Um, yeah, so I’m, I’m fortunate to. Find cleaners that have worked out really well for us. Um, and it wasn’t always like this.

We do have times where the cleanest, the cleans are not as clean as we want them to be. Or guests say that we haven’t dusted in certain areas, and that’s totally understandable. Um, but if you treat your cleaners whether or not they’re full-time to you or not, um, as teammates, it goes a long way in how they respond back to you.

Anastasia : I completely agree with you, and I think one important aspect of it, and it kind of ties back to our conversation about why. When you are hiring a new cleaner, a new team member, whether it is a VA or someone else, maybe a property manager, you want to communicate both your why, your standards and what makes this property, um, really special.

Because I think that helps. Your team members to feel a part more as a part of your team, but also help you to be on that same size side where you’re trying to improve the property. They’ll provide you better feedback, they’ll be more open with it, uh, and so on. And you definitely want to create this wonderful, atmosphere of sharing the knowledge.

Gil : Yeah. Anta, we, we covered a lot of topics on really your frameworks. We went to a lot of depth on kind of the, the why and the purpose and why that’s so important. Um, we usually end the show with three questions, so I’ll ask you the first one first. What’s a good book recommendation for me? I’m always looking for a good read.

Anastasia : Um, I’ll tell you the one that I recently finished, uh, is by Steve Turk, uh, hospitality Unlocked. That was a great read. Um, it.

Gil : I think that’s the first one on the show. I, I’ll have to check that one out. What’s the premise of it?

Anastasia : Uh, he interviewed many people in hospitality space and they’re sharing their advice, so it could be very helpful to check that book to understand different perspectives,

Gil : Got it. And I’m guessing it’s not specifically in the short term rental space, but hospitality more generally.

Anastasia : like more generally. Yeah, hospitality.

Gil : Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Um, second question, what’s one piece of mindset advice that you would give to someone that’s starting something completely new?

Or what’s, what’s, what’s one thing that you learned along the way? You’ve started, you’ve pivoted your career into something that was something that you deeply care about, um, and you took a bet on yourself. Like, what’s one of the things that you would pass on to your younger self about that? 

Anastasia : I think listening to your intuition uh, no matter what kind of advice you might be getting and tapping into it. To what you really care because even so, it might not seem sometimes logically from financial STA standpoint and like in my case, if I were to probably continue my data ana analytics career, uh, short term, it would be more beneficial.

And again, I’m thinking more financial perspective, but long term for me staying in hospitality, that’s something I deeply love and I love. It’s true all my life.

Gil : Yeah, I, I empathize with that quite a bit. Had I not started craft as estates to this point in my life, and maybe for the next few years, I would be in a financially much better position staying in tech and working inside tech, um, as an employee. Um, and I think maybe, I think the flip side of that, because, because I took a chance and kind of followed it, I. I’m happier, like I get to do the things that I want to do. I always wanted to start my own startup myself, my own company, myself. I’ve been at six other ones that I’ve learned a lot from, really phenomenal founders and, and I grew a lot as a person kind of going through that journey, and I knew that if I didn’t start K crafted stays, I would kick myself.

I would regret not taking that chance on myself. So like what you said about like going with your intuition, and sometimes it may not be in the short term, the right thing to do, but in the long term, both maybe financially and both spiritually, like there’s a big difference on like whether or not you follow your dream.

And sometimes you may make it on the first one, or sometimes you may take a couple chances until you do. But if you follow your vision, you follow kind of. Your, your goals, your aspirations, kind of where you wanna be. Those little small bets will end up paying off

Anastasia : Absolutely.

Gil : Ascia. Last question. We talked at length about many different topics around direct bookings. What’s one tactical advice that you would give to someone that is trying to either get started in direct bookings or trying to amplify their direct bookings? What’s something that they can put in practice today?

Anastasia : I think. Coming back to our conversation about our why. Make sure that your direct booking website has your story and, uh, it can truly represent you and your property in the way that will help your guests to connect with you. Don’t look at what others are doing. Try to really break down what values you have.

What, what? Values you’re trying to project through your property and I think you would have, uh, much more success than you will try to reverse engineer it from a different side.

Gil : Yeah, or look at, look at what other people are doing and mimicking their stories and their whys, and kind of their messaging, their messaging content. It, it will, it won’t come. That thread won’t come through when you start having your website, your content, your newsletters and all those things. Those things all kind of have to live.

Together. And I, I, I agree with you that that why that purpose, that story kind of essence there has to be authentic throughout all those channels.

Anastasia : Yes, absolutely.

Gil : Yeah. And it was a huge pleasure to have you on. Um, I’ll leave in our show notes where folks can find you and contact you if they, if they wanna reach out and kind of have you coach them or be part of your, um, your, your community.

Um, but it was a huge pleasure to have you on the show.

Anastasia : Thank you so much. My pleasure.

Gil : Okay, bye.

Anastasia : Bye.