19 Events, 1 Year, Tiny Team: The Logistics Breakdown - VR NATION BACKSTORY
episode
The Accommodation Show - Hospitality Success Series!
32 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 24 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the story behind the VR Nation rebrand and why did it happen?
Well, hello, everybody, and welcome back to another incredible episode of The Accommodation Show. This week, I am joined by the incredible Heidi Hendrickson. Welcome to the show.
Thank you, Bard. Thanks for getting my name right too. I appreciate it.
I was so scared. I was so scared. It's my number one biggest fear. If anyone knows me, what happens? I start recording and I get really nervous about the name because I can know someone that I've known for 10 years, 20 years. But as soon as I have to introduce them to someone else, I freeze up because I'm like, if I get this wrong, I'm in a lot of trouble. So I'm glad I nailed it the first time around.
Yeah.
Kudos to you. Thank you.
I feel excited to be here. Thank you so much.
Yeah, a real pleasure. One of those episodes that I've been wanting to do for a while because our relationship only started probably about a year and a half to two years ago. And it was around a conference in Boise. Idaho, and it was Northwest Vacation Rental, NBWRP. You see the name, it's been superseded by VR Nation, which they launched their conference a year and a half ago. And now Heidi is the person who's leading the helm and leading the charge. And the reason why I wanted to get you on the show is because what you're achieving on, I guess, a shoestring budget and as a solo person is incredibly impressive and incredibly important. So I want everyone to hear your story, your journey, and what's happening at VR Nation.
So first off, congrats, and how are you?
I'm I'm excited. There is so much happening this year. I don't even know where to begin. I'm just trying to keep my head on straight. But I certainly can't take all the credit. It's not just me. We do have a crew of people. We have a ton of volunteers. And so it takes a village is what I keep coming back to. And that's how we're making everything happen that we we've got on online for this year. So.
Yeah, amazing. Look, there's roadshows happening all over the place. We just talked about them. I believe there's 18 stops across the country. You've got your national conference coming up in April. And then there's the whole rebrand, there's websites, there's memberships. It's a real big complex puzzle. And I think that the volunteer memberships side of it is something I'm going to come back to and talk to you about because I really want to teach other organizations how they can why it's important what they do, but how they can leverage their community to really drive change and progress and that sort of thing. But let's rewind a step or two, a bit of an intro into Heidi and also the formation of VR Nation and where it's, why it came to be.
Yeah, how about you? So I've actually been in the industry for about 26 years now. I started as a host when I was in aviation and I rented properties to my clients that were coming in for flight training for two weeks at a time because I live in a small town in Oregon and hotel options were just few and far between. And so it just kind of opened the doorway to short-term rentals, even pre-Airbnb. And I think Verbo was just starting to make a name for themselves. So I found a really lovely industry and continued forward through it and various different aspects on the vendor side, on the property management side. And then during COVID, I co-founded a nonprofit called Astra. And so that's the Association for Short-Term Rental Homeowners.
and kind of a well-known association for those self-managing hosts that didn't have anywhere to go for resources or networking or to connect and really learn best practices from each other. So that's where the nonprofit side of my career path came into play. And the whole rebrand that happened with NWVRP, you almost had the acronym, right?
I was there as well a few years ago. But it's interesting how a name can change so quickly, right? It wasn't because I didn't care about the old name. It's just the new ones superseded it so strongly.
Sure. And they did a fantastic job. They actually pulled the industry for that name when they did the rebrand. But our roots go back to 2011.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the story behind the VR Nation rebrand and why did it happen?
0:12–4:39
2
How did VR Nation decide to go national and what’s the strategy behind expanding to 18 cities?
4:39–8:19
3
What is the “Village” model and how does VR Nation manage 40+ volunteers?
8:19–10:17
4
Why does VR Nation have five advisory boards and why are they operators‑only?
10:17–13:05
5
How does competitive collaboration solve the advocacy crisis in short‑term rentals?
13:05–17:10
6
What are the logistics of the “Tour Bus” roadshow that visits 18 cities?
17:10–22:25
7
How does VR Nation build culture with events like the Housekeeping Olympics and Golden Toilets?
22:25–25:13
8
What are the future plans for the VR Nation Pro Academy and its rollout schedule?
25:13–31:58
Speakers
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