Rachel Alday

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508 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2026 last heard 4 Aug

Rachel Alday’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.

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STR Global Unlocked with Simon Lehmann · 042: Why Your Rental Business Is Easy to Replace | Rachel Alday · 4 Aug 2026 podcast

Also, because we started in 08, I mean, like Airbnb started in 08, but not in a way that like we had any knowledge that even Airbnb existed.

So when we started, it was just VRBO that existed.

VRBO was like Craigslist.

It did not feel as oppressive.

Not that these OTAs are oppressive, in my opinion, actually.

I totally respect the OTAs and I don't feel like negative toward it.

But okay, we started getting going before there was a lot of OTAs.

We were able, and I think part of this is because our price point is high and because we are in these ski markets that are fairly insular, we were always able to garner a decent amount of direct bookings.

um because of those factors that i just said but we did always we still have always booked also through the ota so we're over 60 direct today part of that is because we've been around for so long um i will say though like airbnb and their increase in the percentage you know i think we saw that coming you know from when we started and these percentages were smaller we knew that hotels were paying more and we knew

there was going to be pressure on vacation rentals to increase those percentages that we paid to the OTA.

So we always were on the precipice of being worried about how that would hurt us.

And I would say, again, because our clientele is less price sensitive, we've been able to raise our... My Airbnb listings are inflated to basically cover that cost.

So people book on Airbnb, they're sort of paying...

for their own like they're paying that themselves okay so to me that's something that um people should do when they can i also know in the middle of the market that's a lot harder because there's a lot more price sensitivity um so i it's it's a catch-22 like we're talking about it's like you want to have a brand so that you aren't dependent on the otas but then how do you have a brand when there's no real brands that you know so it's it's like a whole cycle of um difficulty i think

I think providing excellent service, no matter what level you're at.

So even if you were a Hampton Inn level, not you're not a Hampton Inn because you're vacation, but if you, even if you were at the level where you were at like a lower mid price point and you're selling something that's like a little more commoditized, I think there's still the ability to offer very consistent, clean service.

you know, really nicely kept properties with the kind of service that might not be as hands-on but feels very attentive and caring, even if it is automated, that I think you can create that loyalty that will help you bring people through repeat bookings or through referrals through friends that they're coming directly

to you.

And I also think there's plenty of ways to handle your listings on the OTAs.

Kind of like what I said with naming convention or, you know, carefully place staging items where people can find you.

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