Transcript: Episode 145: Chamber of Commerce
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[00:00:00] Susan Barry: This is Top Floor episode 145. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/145.
[00:00:13] Narrator: Welcome to Top Floor with Susan Barry. This weekly podcast ride up to the top floor features tangible tips and excellent stories from the experts and characters who elevate hospitality. And now your host and elevator operator, Susan Barry.
[00:00:32] Susan Barry: Welcome to the show. Whimstay is to short term and vacation rentals. What hotel tonight is to hotel rooms, a way for hosts to offer unsold inventory at a discount at the last minute. Founded in 2018 by Head of Growth, Alex Alioto and Executive Chairman Ben Jamshahi. Whimstay prides itself on complimenting rather than competing with bigger fish like Airbnb. Today, I'm talking to Noel Russell, Chief Marketing Officer, and Alex Aliotto, Founder and Head of Growth, about traveling on a whim. Before we jump in, we need to answer the call button.
Call button rings
[00:01:32] Susan Barry: The emergency call button is our hotline for hospitality professionals who have burning questions. If you would like to submit a question, you can call or text me at 850-404-9630. Today's question was submitted by Harrison. He asks to get the best deal, is it better to book in advance or wait until the last minute? This, my friends, is a controversial question, yet perfectly suited for the two of you. What do you think?
[00:01:58] Alex Alioto: Well, I mean, I would say wait until the last minute because it's expiring inventory and the way that our platform works and other platforms work and particularly as you - and I can I can only really speak for the short term rental industry - dynamic pricing generally makes it so that some of these prices as we get closer to the expiration date are going to be better value. So, that would be my answer to that. Noel, do you have a piggyback on that?
[00:02:25] Noel Russell: That's my answer too.
[00:02:25] Alex Alioto: Yeah.
[00:02:27] Susan Barry: So it's interesting to hear that dynamic pricing would make it less expensive as you get closer to the date. I mean, I think that's true, but for many, many, many years, and I think still to this day. The hotel industry offered a best rate guarantee so that that wouldn't happen so that I wouldn't book 30 days in advance and then you book two days in advance and get a better price. Do you see that as something coming around the bend for STRs?
[00:02:57] Alex Alioto: Good question. I don't, I don't see that as something coming around the bend. Um, uh, because if I look at, if I look at hotel pricing now, it seems to me that there is better value closer in, but I could be wrong, uh, because I haven't been doing a ton of hotel shopping recently, uh, but I, I don't know, you know, in parody is something that's a little bit more common in hotel than it is in short term rental right now too.
[00:03:20] Noel Russell: I think it's also there's there's generational evolutions of like travel behavior, right? So, um, that that pricing model works really well for planners. Um, it helps, I think, bridge the gap to what benefits the person planning six months out. What benefits the person planning, you know, two weeks out. What we see is kind of the zeitgeist changing. People are booking more spontaneously. They're booking closer into their check in date on the regular, and because of that, I'm not so sure that that model is going to translate necessarily to at least the demographic that we are targeting, because we might just start shifting our pricing models to target more compressed windows.
[00:04:04] Susan Barry: The question is, have we trained consumers to wait till the last minute? Is it really a generational difference or have we trained people to sit on their hands and wait to book? Only time will tell. Noel, you are a longtime marketer with tons of experience across verticals. You have also published a book you co-wrote and were an early proponent of #vanlife. In a culture that I think is finally accepting digital nomads as like real adults rather than hobos with, you know, a stick and a handkerchief. Can you talk a little bit about your van life experience? I think people are fascinated by that. I certainly am.
[00:04:49] Noel Russell: Sure. Yeah. I, I think that the van life experience and the, and popular cultures embrace of it is really exciting because it's helped, um, bring in new narratives to what travel looks like. The beauty of nomadism, um, is this evolving experience of living. Um, and I get, I'm, I'm really thrilled that, um, generally speaking, we're starting to see that as something that's aspirational because it is more accessible as well. Living in a van is not for everyone. Some people might not find that -
[00:05:21] Susan Barry: It is not for me, FYI.
[00:05:24] Noel Russell: But it is accessible. Being able to convert a vehicle into something that you can sleep in and then be able to experience a life that maybe you hadn't been able to otherwise.
[00:05:32] Susan Barry: Alex, you were an actor before becoming a salesperson at Yelp. How did those two careers inform your work as Head of Growth for Whimstay?
[00:05:45] Alex Alioto: That's a really cool question. I would say, um, failure, right? Um, it's true. I mean, you know, in sales, if you've got a 30% close ratio, uh, then, then you're a rock star, right? So that means 70% of the time you're being told no, um, our, our close ratios are a little better at Whimstay, but those are kind of the initial ones. So being an actor is a lot of, a lot of no’s. And so I think the ability to, um, to take failure to, to, um, and then to, I think, motivate yourself from it, right? How many times can you get up? That's really the most important thing. And then the other thing that is really specific, I would say to theater, um, which is what I did is the ability to listen. And so it's, it's paramount that you're when you're on stage, that you're hearing and consuming what's coming at you and then replying based on, on that, like a, as naturally as you possibly can.
[00:06:41] And that's really what makes a good actor. Uh, that has been massive for sales. In my opinion. Um, I, I've taken on a sort of a, uh, listen 70%, talk 30%. Uh, and that's something I always teach to all my salespeople. So I would say, uh, being able to get up from failure a lot really important in a startup because you're, it's just this, it's up and down and up and down and up and down. And that's the life. Um, and then the ability to listen too. Those are the two.
[00:07:08] Susan Barry: Got it. Although Whimstay is built for shorter booking windows within 30 days, I saw on your website that users can also book up to 330 days out. Why both? Like, are you, positioning at the company to be a new OTA. Or I just I was very unclear about that. Can you walk me through it?
[00:07:33] Noel Russell: The reasoning behind that is we are winning over travelers that are looking for the best deals on last minute vacation rentals. Sure. Some of them also want to poke around to see what's available two, three months out. We didn't want to limit them and their ability to do so. Whimstay offers great deals year round. We partner with property managers who are open to being able to give people compelling prices at times outside of the 30 day window, but you're always going to find the best deal within that 30 day window. So our mantra is “Compliment, not don't compete.” We're not trying to compete with Airbnb and VRBO. We are, we want to be the first place that you come when you're trying to find a deal within the next 30 days. But if you happen to also want to poke around and see what's available, you know, this fall, you can do that too.
[00:08:19] Susan Barry: So then how are you offering better rates than OTAs,I don't understand that.
[00:08:26] Alex Alioto: So we offer a discount from 29 days in. So our last minute window is for day 29 to day zero. And for those 29 to day zero, uh, we do offer a, a very specific and special Whimstay discount that is agreed upon by the property manager from day 30 onwards, there is no discount at all.
[00:08:47] Susan Barry: Ah, I got it. Got it. Got it. You have mentioned working with property management companies, and I think I know the answer to this must have something to do with the tech stack, but can you talk me through why you only work with professional property managers versus like individual hosts like me?
[00:09:07] Alex Alioto: Yeah, I mean, I, I think actually that decision was made before the tech stack. So it's kind of very, it's, it's probably a little, uh, um, a little stupider than it might sound really, is it one phone call gets you a hundred properties versus one call gets you one property. I mean, that was the initial idea, uh, behind it. So we've kind of grown out of that and, and, and that's sort of, that's blossomed a little bit into other reasons why, um, now all of that being said, while we do uh, focus just on on professionally managed property managers right now. We are opening our platform up, um, uh, eventually to, to all to RBOs as well to to individual hosts. But starting off with just the, uh, the individual property managers just made more sense from a sales perspective.
[00:09:53] Susan Barry: I got it. And do you think that the quality control will be impacted when you open it up more broadly?
[00:10:00] Alex Alioto: That's a great question. I, you know, we, we have a lot of safeguards, uh, that we are implementing for that to make sure that that's not the case. And Noel, I would love it if you could chime in more on that, because that is a little bit something that, that I think might be in, in your alley a little bit more, but yeah.
[00:10:16] Noel Russell: Yeah. I mean, we are building, Alex mentioned, we're building up, uh, we're doing a lot of legwork ahead of time to ensure that that same quality of experience is going to extend to our individual rental units that are managed by individual hosts. Um, so I would say so I'm going to say, absolutely, they're going to experience the same, same security and safety and quality and consistency of care that they've had with us and our property managers.
[00:10:41] Alex Alioto: And you know, we find individual hosts, they, you know, they do an incredible job. I mean, they, they provide a lot of value. They provide, they're very localized in a way, you know, where, where they'll do little touches here and there that are, that are just so, I think really, really special. So, you know, individual hosts take a lot of care in what they're doing as well as property managers. They both do. So I think it's about really finding and seeing and being able to identify those ones and making sure that those are the ones that are on our platform. And that's, that's, that's, uh, really important for us as we move into that sector.
[00:11:16] Susan Barry: Gotcha. Noel, you recently announced a partnership with Booking.com. Can you talk a little bit about that partnership? How does it benefit Whimstay users, investors, and how does it differentiate other short term rental OTAs?
[00:11:34] Noel Russell: Yeah. So Booking.com approached us seeing the value of being able to have an outlet to help leverage their efforts to fill last minute occupancy cancellations, gap nights. Um, they, like many other booking, big booking platforms, experience those slumps and we are here to fill it. And so being able to partner with them and offer that inventory to people coming to our site that are specifically looking for the best deals on vacation rentals within 30 days is a win win. It benefits Booking because they're able to move their inventory. They're able to market effectively to a very unique audience looking for a very specific thing, and it benefits us and our users because we're able to offer more diversity and options for that last minute window.
[00:12:19] Susan Barry: So does it include hotel stays too or are we, is it still a short term rentals?
[00:12:25] Noel Russell: Just short term rentals.
[00:12:26] Susan Barry: Got it. Got it. Okay. Excellent.
Elevator bell rings
[00:12:29] Susan Barry: Top Floor is sponsored in part by HITECH, the world's largest, longest running hospitality technology event. HITECH 2024 takes place June 24th through 27th at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. For more information, visit HITECH.org. That's H I T E C.org. Okay, back to the show.
Elevator bell rings
[00:12:57] Susan Barry: We like to make sure that our listeners come away from every episode of Top Floor with a couple of really specific, tangible tips and ideas for their businesses and their lives. This one's going to focus on lives because we're going to talk about travel tips. Alex, what are some of your best travel tips from a lifetime of travel?
[00:13:20] Alex Alioto: Oh, um, I would say staying local, right? I would say experience as much - so if I were to go to San Francisco, which is where I live, and I have never been here before, um, there are a lot of different things that you could do. I think that a lot of people are going to focus on and maybe you get the Berlitz. I don't know. Does Berlitz still exist? I don't know if that's a thing anymore. But, um, whatever those those sort of old travel books used to tell you, I think there's so many options to be able to see how locals live, and it's so much more interesting when it comes to food and when it comes to, um, sort of daily activities and all that kind of stuff.
[00:13:56] And so I would say, be as local as you possibly can, because there's so much that a city and a region can offer you. Day trips, right? How often are people going to be able to take a day trip if they're in a place? If they're in a city, for example, there's so many gems that are 45 minutes an hour, hour and a half away from San Francisco, Bodega Bay or something that people aren't generally, you know, maybe they'll go to Napa. But so I would say check in with locals, find the local flavor and experience that as much as you possibly can.
[00:14:26] Susan Barry: Noel, anything you'd add?
[00:14:28] Noel Russell: My favorite tip is lead with curiosity. It's easy to be disappointed by things that don't go the way that you want them to or, um, you know, weather, things that are out of your control, but if you're curious and, and you're interested, I think you can turn any trip that maybe isn't going as planned into something that you can discover new things about yourself or the space around you.
[00:14:50] Alex Alioto: I like that one.
[00:14:54] Susan Barry: I do too. This next question, I really thought about your van experience, Noel. What are some under-appreciated travel destinations that our listeners should consider?
[00:15:10] Noel Russell: So as someone who spent a lot of time driving across the US, I'm a big proponent of domestic travel. Um, but I'm also a major foodie and I love wine. And so one of my favorite things to do is to share with people about some underrated or hidden gem wine regions that they might not be discovering, or everyone thinks about Napa, Napa is fine, but, um, there are places like Luden County, Virginia, which has an amazing, amazing wine region. There's a Fredericksburg, Texas. Which also has, Texas wine is fantastic.
[00:15:43] Susan Barry: I'm making a horrified face that does not sound accurate to me. I lived in Northern Virginia and we spent a lot of time in Virginia wine country, but I have not ventured into Texas wine country is awesome.
[00:15:56] Alex Alioto: Hill country is awesome.
[00:15:59] Noel Russell: Southern, Southern New Mexico. Yeah. And Northern, um, Southern New Mexico, Northern Arizona, and then also Amador County in California. I think that these are some of the best wine regions and there you can still taste for $10 and really, really enjoy. Uh, a really local cultural experience of, of wine and food in those regions.
[00:16:20] Susan Barry: No, that's awesome. I'm going to add all of those to the list, maybe except for Texas. Okay. Well, we have reached the fortune telling portion of the show. So now is the time to predict the future so that we can come back later, see if you were right. What is a prediction that you have about the future of lodging?
[00:16:40] Alex Alioto: I would say hospitality's biggest, strongest tailwind at this point, um, and just how the, the next gen traveler and that's Gen Z, Gen Y millennial traveler travels. There's some very cool things out there. Uh, it's the micro vacation versus the 1 week long vacation. Right? Uh, so they're taking 6, 7 multiple vacations, uh, a year. And in my opinion, and I don't know if the stats bear this out. It's some, it's, it's so experience based, right? And so in my opinion, lodging short term rentals have, short term rental growth is about 10 percent year over year, uh, on the demand side, supply side growth is also pretty high 12 to 15%, right? So, but that there's a nice steady growth on the demand side. Our strongest tailwind is, is these generations that are coming and how much they love travel.
[00:17:33] Susan Barry: When you talk about multi-generational travel, it reminds me of a conversation I had with Oliver Winter, who is the founder and CEO of A&O Hostels. That is the largest hostel company in Europe. And one of the things that he's working on right now is to get to carbon neutrality by 2025. So in a very short amount of time, because he has an insider prediction that generations after hours are going to experience travel shame about the carbon impact of their desire to travel and be digital nomads. How do you think that fits into the short term rental industry specifically?
[00:18:21] Noel Russell: The interesting thing about travel from Whimstay because we're last minute, we see a lot of close-cations. So folks are traveling within two, three hours of home. They're not jumping. They are jumping on a plane, some of them, but many of them are staying closer to home. That, uh, that definitely reduces footprint. Um, I also think shared spaces, the sharing economy is going to continue to help reduce some of the footprints that we have when we need anything or use anything. Um, and so I do get really hopeful about where Short term rentals can can help that movement by offering accommodations that already exist.
[00:19:00] We don't have to build new hotels We don't have to you know, build new buildings and you don't have to go far to to have an experience that's memorable. Um, and and especially at the last minuteI i's a little hard to do that anyways. So from our perspective, we very much care about the impact of travel on the world around us. And we see our value proposition is something that bolsters, um, a lower impact version of, of experiencing travel as, as a lifestyle.
[00:19:31] Alex Alioto: And there's also a God bless Oliver. And I love that he said that stuff. Um, and, and there's also a movement within our industry, uh, folks like Bob Garner and Vanessa de Souza. She, they, they, they're making a really concerted effort um, to make sure that that, you know, is it is it eco-friendly badges right that are going to be going on on listing. So there is a real, um, there's a concerted effort from some very important folks within the industry to ensure that that, um, that we are compliant to this because it's really important.
[00:20:06] Susan Barry: If you could wave a magic wand and create a new product or service for hospitality other than the one that you already have, okay, what would it be?
[00:20:17] Noel Russell: Mine would be an AI concierge. I love when I go to vacation rentals or even some small boutique hotels. They have a guidebook. They have like a curated itinerary for you. I love talking to locals. I like going to the burrito shop, buying a burrito and asking like, where should I get X, Y, or Z? Um, the cool thing about the internet is it's all out there. Someone said something sometime on a blog, on a social media post. I love using new AI models like ChatGPT to ha to, to, to do discovery about new regions, learn where to go get that taco, learn where to go hike on that trail that's less busy with my dogs. I wish I could bring I spend a lot of time talking to ChatGPT because now they have an audio part of the model.
[00:21:03] I wish that that could be part of an experience in a vacation rental immediately where instead of having to flip through a guidebook, um, you can have, uh, an AI, you know, module that has ingested all this information, maybe from previous travelers, maybe from the web, you know, hive mind approach to giving you the best tips about what works for you, where you should go, what you should do, things to remember about your vacation rental in and of itself. I don't think that that's going to be a magic wand thing. I think that's going to happen. I just wish it happened today.
[00:21:35] Susan Barry: And you want to be able to talk to it. Is that right? Like, so rather than a chatbot that you're typing to, you want it to be voice activated.
[00:21:42] Noel Russell: I want to walk into a house and I want to be welcomed and I want to be able to have a discussion about what I should do with my day.
[00:21:46] Susan Barry: Interesting.
[00:21:49] Alex Alioto: It's not a, it's not a magic wand to want sort of convenience because that's really the direction that everything is going in, particularly as it pertains to AI and, and how to sort of experience your, your stay in a different place that matches really what you want, right? It sort of goes back to that “How do you be as local as you can possibly be?” element to it. And so how does that happen? And can it happen in a way that fits your personality? And can it happen in a way, and this is where it gets weird, right? But also matches with things that you've done in the past, which My guess is AI can know and figure out, uh, and really—
[00:22:26] Susan Barry: I think there's some people working on that right now. I know a couple of people who are making some stuff.
[00:22:28] Alex Alioto: I am sure and tailor your trip to something that you or your partner or your kids would love, uh, but is also not sort of the norm. Uh, so that now people are really experiencing things and experiencing smaller businesses. Right? I'm really bullish on small business. And so to be able to experience these small businesses that are doing such cool things in these local spots, um, and give them a little bit of love, you know, instead of maybe the big chain restaurant and in Fisherman's Wharf. So, you know, all love to them too. My, you know, my family has one of those, so I'm allowed to say that.
[00:23:06] Noel Russell: But I also think that those efforts, localized travel, immersing yourself in regional culture helps bolster sustainability efforts because it keeps it, it keeps ideally you're keeping the money in the community that you're in. And I, and I love that vacation rentals can be a part of, of helping that happen.
[00:23:24] Susan Barry: That makes a lot of sense. What is next for you and what's next for your company?
[00:23:30] Alex Alioto: Well, next for me personally is is Whimstay. There is no other next.
[00:23:35] Susan Barry: I know I need to quit asking that. I asked that question every time and I need to rephrase it because it's always the same.
[00:23:42] Alex Alioto: Well, sometimes someone's going to be like, get me the hell out of here. So, um, no, but what's next for our company? And I don't know if I'm jumping questions or anything like that. We are, uh, we feel like we were in a really nice spot. Um, and we have got a team that is very dedicated and focused because we know our timing is really good right now. Uh, we've got a great product. Our timing is really good. Uh, and we've got really great people. That's a pretty lethal combination. Uh, and so what's next for us? Um, uh, ubiquity, um, becoming, um, from my perspective, when I focus on the supply side, um, to have every property manager will have three OTAs in their quiver.
[00:24:28] Yeah, VRBO for 180 to 90 days out, Airbnb for 19 to 30 days out, Whimstay for 30 days and under you have that sort of element in there. That's a really kind of a nice well suited diverse distribution strategy when, you know, us as a default for that 30 days. And then that to me is that that's where we become ubiquitous. And then on the traveler side, and Noel, do you want to speak to the ubiquity on the traveler side? Because that is your component?
[00:24:54] Noel Russell: Yeah, I think it's the same thing on the travel side. I'd love for, uh, people that are shopping for travel for their first inclination is to go see what deals they can find on Whimstay, uh, sooner than later before they go and shop elsewhere. I was telling Alex before this call, like, if you have a bathing suit, if you need a bathing suit for a beach party this weekend, you're probably going to go run by Ross. or T.J. Max first before you go to a big department store. Um, but if you're going to plan something for your cruise this summer, you're likely going to go run to Nordstrom maybe first. So I, I am eager for travelers to be able to have this as part of just their integrated behavior when they go to plan that next trip.
[00:25:31] Susan Barry: I love that idea of categorizing businesses by time frame that you use them. That's like a really interesting thing to think about. And I bet it applies more places than travel and bathing suits. Okay, folks, before we tell Noel and Alex goodbye, we are going to head down to the loading dock where all of the best stories get told.
Elevator rings and announces, “Going down.”
[00:25:57] Susan Barry: Alex, what is a story you would only tell me on the loading dock?
[00:26:06] Alex Alioto: Okay. Uh, my very first day at Whimstay. Um, let's be really, let's sort of set what the picture looked like. Uh, a tiny office, a little table, me, Ben and Jim, the three of us. And so I remember I walk in for my very first day of work and I'm so excited, you know, we've got this great thing and, and I'm really excited to see where this thing goes and, and, oh my God, I'm starting a company. And, um, and I sat down at my desk. And I open up my laptop, and Ben's over there, and Jim's over there, and I open up my laptop and I open up my email and zero inbox. And all of a sudden a just a paralyzing fear washes over me because I am I have I know nothing about this industry absolutely nothing I uh here's where I I don't I preferred hotels at the time, so I didn't really stay at short term rentals ever.
[00:27:02] Uh, so I didn't really know anything. And all of a sudden, it occurs to me. What in the heck did I just do? I just left a really well paying job. I've got a new girlfriend who's now my wife and now I'm I'm stuck in this in this little job and I have no idea what to do next. Oh, my God. And so my next move was really interesting to me and something that is now kind of a life lesson. I am sitting there and this paralyzing fear just washes over me. Um, and so I did something really interesting and different. I didn't resist it. I just kind of let the fear wash over me entirely and completely. Um, I even closed my eyes for a second. I must've looked odd to those two. Um, and so I did that and I let it wash over me and then something really interesting and strange happened. There was something and I can't explain if it was a voice. If I look back on it, it feels like it was a voice or some sort of mental image or something. But the words popped up into my head “Call the North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce.”
[00:28:08] Susan Barry: What? You were going to say something super deep and you're like calling it Chamber of Commerce. What in the world? All right, carry on.
[00:28:15] Alex Alioto: And I had never even, I don't even know. I, I don't even, I barely even knew what a Chamber of Commerce was. I had never, certainly never thought of a Chamber of Commerce. So it wasn't anything that was sort of in the back of my head. It was just this piece of information that was downloaded to me. And I immediately understood it to, for some reason, be the right piece of information. So I immediately went to Google. I googled it. There happened to be a phone number, which is kind of odd nowadays. I called that phone number. A woman answered and said North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce. So there was no sort of long extended answering service. Dial six for this. I straight up asked her out of nowhere. Uh, do you know of a list of people that run vacation rentals? And she goes, yeah, sure. And I said, can you send those to me? She goes, yeah, sure. And, and, uh, and I thought, okay, this is, this is working. And, and then all of a sudden, five minutes later, boom, inbox zero is now inbox one.
[00:29:12] Um, and there was a list. And so I, I downloaded that list and I looked at it and it was a list of, I would say 200 property managers in North Lake Tahoe, Truckee, their phone numbers and their emails. And so I started by dialing down. Now still understand we're not an app, we're not a website. Our name at the time, by the way, was, was Whimastay, which was a, a play on Namaste. We overthought that one. Okay. And so, so, uh, so we had a weird name. Uh, we had, uh, we had, we had no app. We had no, but we were an idea. I will say that. Um, and so I think about 190 calls of either voicemails or, or don't ever call me again. And I got to 190 or 191 at about 6 PM that night. And a woman, I answered the phone. Her name is Dana Mararu. Uh, we will never forget Dana. She is our angel. She picked up the phone and the first thing she said was, “Oh, well, that's a cute name.” So that was good.
[00:30:11] Susan Barry: Okay! So, we know she has a bad taste in names. I’m just kidding!
[00:30:16] Alex Alioto: She then, uh, she then, um, proceeded to, Give me a list of everything that I had to do next. Uh, and the main one was, uh, to go find, to go to this conference, um, and, uh, to do, to look into this software. And so we went to that conference and from that conference, we found, uh, uh, the, the right software companies to integrate with. And from there we were kind of off and running. So I guess it all just sort of came from, I know it all kind of came from, allowing the fear to wash over me and then letting whatever needed to be downloaded to be downloaded and following the breadcrumbs from there.
[00:30:53] Susan Barry: Quit making it sound like this is something normal. Like what in the world? Why did this come into your head? I have chills all over my arms. Like Dana was just waiting at the end of that list for you. That's wild. Okay. So just because I am insufferable, what were you trying to accomplish with these phone calls? Cause you had nothing to sell, right?
[00:31:19] Alex Alioto: It's a great question. I don't even, I think back on it. I'm like, God, the gumption that I must've had. I mean, it's like, you know, you know, when you start us, when you start a startup, you kind of are a little naive to how hard it is, right? You're just kind of excited about whatever you're doing. If you look, if we go back, I mean, how far we have come, right? And if we are able to look back on it. I think I must have just been like, “Hey man, so like” - I don't even know if I knew what an OTA was - “We're doing this thing where we're like basically like hotel tonight, but in the short term rentals. And are you excited?” I don't know what the heck I said!
[00:31:54] Susan Barry: Are you excited about it? Yes or no?
[00:31:57] Alex Alioto: Yeah. Do you wanna do it? Okay, great. So we don't have anything yet, so uh, I'll call you in a year. I dont know.
[00:32:03] Susan Barry: Oh my gosh. That is so funny. But I mean, you ended up finding what you needed. So it all worked out. That is an unbelievable story. I love that that happened. Holy mackerel.
[00:32:15] Alex Alioto: There’s a lot to be said about, um, allowing life to show you the breadcrumbs and then following those breadcrumbs, right? Because if it's meant to happen, then it'll happen the way it's supposed to happen. So.
[00:32:25] Susan Barry: Absolutely. So now are you like buying property in Tahoe? Is that your lucky charm? Are you going to have a kid and name it Tahoe?
[00:32:32] Alex Alioto: Totally. Totally. Tahoe's signature properties.
[00:32:36] Susan Barry: Nice! Oh, amazing. Noel Russell and Alex Alioto, thank you so much for being here. I know that our listeners loved learning about your product and I really appreciate you riding up to the top floor.
[00:32:50] Alex Alioto: Thank you, Susan. That was fun.
[00:32:51] Noel Russell: Thank you so much.
[00:32:53] Susan Barry: Thanks so much for listening. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/145. Jonathan Albano is our editor, producer, and all around genius. He even wrote and performed our theme song with vocals by Cameron Albano. You can subscribe to Top Floor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen. And your rating or review will go a long way in helping us give you more of what you like.
[00:33:29] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Top Floor Podcast at www.topfloorpodcast.com. Have a hospitality marketing question? Reach us at 850-404-9630 to be featured in a future episode.