On this week’s podcast we have Steph Weber, season marketer and brand strategist. She highlights the importance of building your brand to create a long term sustainable STR business. She steps through the steps to build your brand and attract more guest to find you and remember you. Podcast Summary In this podcast episode, Steph underscored the importance of establishing a robust brand presence and marketing strategy for vacation rental businesses. Instead of relying solely on OTA’s, Steph advocates for creating a personalized ecosystem encompassing a website, email list, and social media platforms to foster direct bookings. Central to this approach is identifying and targeting specific guest demographics, crafting compelling narratives that resonate emotionally, and curating engaging content that goes beyond mere property listings. Furthermore, Steph stresses the significance of leveraging social media as a tool for storytelling and community building rather than just showcasing listings. By sharing transformational stories, offering glimpses into unique experiences, and demonstrating innovation in the industry, hosts can captivate audiences and foster genuine connections. Collaborating with micro-influencers and local businesses aligned with the target audience can also enhance visibility and expand reach, while incentivizing guests to share their experiences fosters user-generated content and strengthens brand advocacy. Ultimately, Steph advocates for a long-term approach to marketing, viewing it as a means to cultivate enduring relationships and foster repeat business rather than focusing solely on transactional bookings. Embracing one’s vision wholeheartedly, honing existing skills, and remaining open to learning and seizing opportunities aligned with overarching goals are key tenets in building a sustainable and thriving vacation rental enterprise. Essential Highlights Here are a few key takeaways from the conversation: The core emphasis is on developing your own brand identity, messaging and marketing channels to drive direct bookings and build a sustainable vacation rental business not overly reliant on third-party platforms. Follow Steph on Instagram at @theweberco Transcription: The last handful of years, short term rental owners have been able to list a home on Airbnb and Vrbo and make really great money. And I think that the platform and the space has just shifted, right? As more investors have entered, it’s just changed. And so the need and regardless, again, I just go back to like, You have no ownership over Airbnb. So if they want to put you on page 12 tomorrow, guess what? They’re gonna do it if it’s in their best interest, right? That’s it. Hey folks. Welcome to direct booking simplified. I’m your host, Gil Chan, the founder of Catastase. And on today’s podcast, we have Steph Weber. She has over a decade of experience in marketing. She has her own portfolio of STRs, and she’s now getting into new builds. Today’s podcast. She’s going to break down how to get started in building your brand and build long lasting relationships with your guests. So without further ado, let’s bring in Steph. Hey Steph. Thanks for joining us today. How are you? I’m so excited to be here with you. Yeah. What we, I met you only more, more recently, but I really found that like what you’re doing on building a brand. I was like, Oh, I got to meet her. I got to get her in here as much as fast as possible. Yes. Well, I love it. And I love everything that you guys have going on with crafted stays and your entire short term rental journey. So I’m excited to dive into all the things today. Oh my God. It’s been, it’s been quite a journey. I never thought like when I got into short term rentals, it would turn into like pretty much like replacing my entire life in every aspect. and I, and I remember like chatting with you last week, it almost did the same thing into your career as well too. I guess maybe like to like dive right in. Do you mind giving, our guests, a little rundown of kind of who you are and where you came from and kind of like what your journey has been. Yeah. Yeah. I will, I will try to give you all the, short version of a very long story, but, my name is Steph Weber. I’m the CEO of the Weber co hosted by the Webers and. One of the partners in cabins on the Cumberland. So for the last 10 years, for the last decade, I have been supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses in their branding and organic marketing efforts. So anything, social media, influencer marketing, email marketing, et cetera. That has been my focus. I’ve had my own marketing agency. I’ve helped a number of different types of businesses from brick and mortar retail stores to. The chiropractic office up the street from me to the wellness center that just opened on the South side of our city to those in the online coaching industry. So, so many different businesses and entrepreneurs that I’ve had the opportunity to serve and work with over my decade long career in the branding and marketing space, which is crazy to say so many changes and so much opportunity. And that led me to building my own brand, which. started actually as a fashion, beauty and travel influencer. So this whole business started under the name trendy and Indy. And in that I was really partnering with small businesses to help them promote their clothing, their beauty products, their hotels. I had an opportunity to work with on Dawes on wall street and also in Napa Valley and 25 hours hotels over in Europe and the Lark hotel group, out on the East coast. So lots of different, amazing opportunities. And that though, Gil, what I was realizing, my, my purpose really felt like for those businesses was from a branding perspective and being able to tell their story that they were trying to leverage to target a specific audience. Right. And I also knew that there were so many businesses I was working with that were