Casa-Cast

Speaker: It's the Casa-Cast.

We've got Orange Credo.

Speaker 2: The

Speaker: Casa-Cast.

Our company's neato.

The Casa-Cast.

Created by CosaGo.

It's time for the show.

Let's go!

Hey, welcome to Casa-Cast.

I'm your host, Steve Schwab.

And today I'm with Mike
Mears from Vacay My Way.

Hey Steve, it's good to see ya.

Hey, good to see you too.

Welcome to the show.

Yeah, glad to be here.

Mike, we've known each
other for a long time now.

You've been our rep with different
OTAs several times over the years.

, I'm really excited about this interview
because until yesterday, I wasn't

aware that you're one of the co
founders of this new OTA, Vacay My Way.

And It really makes my heart happy to see
that you're moving along and progressing.

It's really exciting for you.

Speaker 2: It really is, you
know, it's, it's been a, quite

a, an eye opening experience.

I would have never thought, you know,
five, even five, 10 years ago that I would

be coming back and doing something like
this, you know, the stars aligned and it

was the right fate and the right time.

And so, yeah, I feel very
fortunate and blessed to do this.

So cool.

Speaker: Now, you've been in the
industry for about 17 years, right?

Yeah.

And maybe you can share with us
a little bit about that journey.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

So, I mean, I started with the first
round of, uh, VRBO employees right at

the time when HomeAway actually was,
was brought out, it was about 2008.

At that point, there wasn't a property
manager program or anything like that.

It was really just, uh, get on
and list your one or two units.

And, and I was actually, uh, touring
in a band at the time and working

for Dell computers and a buddy of
mine got an internship at HomeAway

and said, Hey, you know what?

You should come over here and
hang out with me and make a

paycheck at the same time.

I wasn't married or had kids at the
time, so I said, sure, no problem.

So I went over there and quickly
realized that they were on to something.

You know, I had never thought
about the vacation space before.

And after starting to talk to people
on the phones, listening to their

passion, the fact that they were
buying secondary homes to set up their

retirements, and all this stuff that
seemed like it had some real passion

behind it, really lit a fire under me.

And then between myself and about two
other people, we started looking a little

bit broader with the product and going,
Hey, I bet you we can commercialize this.

I bet you that there's
businesses out there that could

use some benefit from this.

And so we started knocking on doors and we
started talking and interviewing property

managers that were out in the space that
we could find it in basically a phone

book or on Yahoo directory at the time.

And they all said the same thing.

They were like, we've been looking
for some other way to grow.

And so we kind of all held hands at that
time together and What was an 11 million

dollar company at that point grew to a 350
million dollar company three years later.

Yeah, you know it was Crazy experience.

Never been in a company that has grown
that fast in my life or been around one.

We did some amazing things.

The company, as a lot of you well
know, grew, they went public and then

eventually got bought by Expedia.

And I was there for a lot of that.

I always like to consider it a secondary
college education, really sitting up.

I used to sit right behind the founders,
Brian Sharples and Carl Shepard and

all those guys and listen to them.

You know, argue back and forth, figure out
how to refine the product, make it better.

You know, it was just a really awesome
opportunity to learn and, and still

have my fingers in the day to day.

Yeah.

I understand.

Sounds like a really great experience.

Speaker: It was.

So Mike, you mentioned that you were
with the band when you first started

working for VRBO, the Expedia group.

. You had an award that was a
pretty interesting experience

for you, didn't you?

Speaker 2: We did.

We were very fortunate.

The Austin music scene
was a great place for us.

It's where I still am
actually to this day.

Our band was signed and
touring at the time.

I mean, I was working for another company,
but it gave us an opportunity to get

in front of the John Lennon songwriting
contest, which is one of the more

prestigious ones in our industry space,
especially for up and coming artists.

And we got the opportunity
to compete and actually win.

That award in 2014 and it was amongst a
bunch of very big industry moguls, people

like slash and guitar virtuosos, like
Joe Satriani, Trisha Yearwood, um, really

spanned a lot of different places, but we
got real feedback and an award out of it.

And I still to this day consider that
one of the best experiences I ever had

when it came to knowing that people are
genuine, they're real people and they

like to talk to you like real people, you
know, it just kind of removed, I'd say

the curtain on human beings in general.

And so.

I always kind of considered that as my
first chance of realizing that you can be

whoever you want in this life, and you're
still human underneath, so it was cool.

What was the best piece of feedback

Speaker: you got from that experience?

Speaker 2: They said, you're one of the
more innovative writers we've ever heard.

There's a lot of different
styles that you push.

Into the same song.

It's okay to go ahead
and quit your day job.

And so we ran it for a little while and
we didn't quite make it because the market

changed and, and, and, and demand changed,
but we got to have those experiences

for a few years and it was really great.

That's really cool.

Speaker: So today we're going to
be talking about Vacay My Way,

your new startup that you're
getting going and you're growing.

And we're going to speak about four things
that I didn't know about Vacay My Way.

So number one is what
became my way does to change

Speaker 2: the narrative for sure.

So one of the major reasons why
I decided to jump back into this

and actually captain a ship,
especially with the OTA industry as

it is, is that it's all grown up.

And I'd like to say that it's grown a
little too far up and not necessarily

from any kind of negative way.

It's just that companies get big, they get
expensive, you know, and, and they have

to offset those costs to keep in business.

Um, I saw that happening.

And I saw a lot of property
managers having to offset their

costs to offset that cost.

Right.

And so now we started to
see a pricing game happen.

You know, markets that were at one
rate, we're now 20 percent higher

than they were the year after that.

And nobody could really figure
out what the magic potion was

to continue to stay consistent.

You know, and then we started to see
an interest from the hotels coming

in and actually taking a little bit
of that real estate or that, that

traveler real estate away from us.

And you know, it just
really lit a fire under me.

At the time I was working actually
funny enough for inhabit, I was doing

commercial contracts with them and
I had met Jim who is our CEO at this

point and we had kind of started playing
with this model because it represented

the old model that we started where
we grew from 11 to 350 million in

Verbo, but it had modern touches.

And it became really clear that
that type of product doesn't

exist in the space right now.

Curiously, you know, our job here
is not really to reinvent the wheel.

It's just to go back and learn from
our mistakes and create a greatest hits

record of a product that focuses on the
things that need to be focused on with

trimming all the fat off the other things.

And that's really where vacay my way
has really come into its own is that.

You find without having to pay host fees.

First of all, you don't have to do that.

The travelers also don't have a
postage service fee as well, so that

helps us market it pretty easily.

There's just a little bit of a wholesale
on the nightly, which also covers

your credit card processing fees, and
also gives you guest screening as well

and gives the travelers liability.

All of those little pieces together.

Wrap up and allow all three sides
to win at the end of the day.

And that was the most important piece
to me was that the user yourself wins.

We win and the traveler wins at the end
of the day, we've made a created for

ourselves to saying that like anytime
that we build a product, uh, we can't

build it unless all three sides win.

And so from a narrative perspective,
we're trying to let people know

that, Hey, it's okay to price your
units the way you want to price them.

You don't have to add the extra
ambiguous booking fee or whatever it

is to try and offset costs with us.

You know, we want you to be able to
price accurately, be competitive in

your own way and run your own business.

You know, and that to me is what
I feel like has gotten a little

bit distance tier, especially from
a marketing partner perspective.

And we're looking to re disrupt that.

That's really

Speaker: cool.

Yeah.

Going back to the old ways.

Yeah.

I'll say this, that when the OTS
changed their business model.

I don't think it's been good
for the industry as a whole

Speaker 2: at all.

Yeah, it's, it's been really difficult.

I mean, you fight two things.

I mean, some people think it's pure
greed, but at the other side of it,

I really believe it's just growth.

I mean, when you make decisions to
go public, now you're in a completely

different arena of politics, and then you
get purchased by an even bigger giant in

the industry, and they have a complete
mantra and way of doing things that they

want you to adhere to, you know, and
that's, that's tough to do, especially

when the products are black and white.

And so there's a lot of growth there.

There's of work.

So for number two, like you said,
compartmentalizing marketing

Speaker: is crucial.

Speaker 2: It really is.

So one of the things we learned
growing up in the OTA space is not

to put all your eggs in one basket.

And we did that for a few years.

We hired one big giant marketing
firm to kind of really handle

our, our stuff, doing Super Bowl
ads and all that kind of stuff.

And we found that they
didn't budget us correctly.

We'd run out of money and then we'd
have to spend time raising more money

or getting more bookings before we
could retarget and be effective again.

And part of that was the reason, I mean,
I was at VRBO as an example, but that's

part of the reason why Airbnb was able
to surpass us really quickly within about

the 14th or 15th year, uh, 2014, 2015.

That's because we ran out of money
and they had marketing steam and

they ran right past us and we were
playing catch up ever since on that.

And that was something I learned
really quickly that you can't let

one person dictate your entire
journey from a marketing perspective.

perspective.

So with us, we have four
different firms that we work with.

They all do different things.

And then we also have an internal team,
which is our gorilla marketing team.

They get to have the fun.

They actually market
your brand specifically.

And then the external team works on
doing the destination work, the feeder

markets and how we drive travelers.

So we love being able to
have both pieces of it.

It's, you know, it's not just about
the destination, although I feel like

that's one thing that's also missing
and we can talk about that later.

But the second piece is actually
showing your brand connecting

the market to your brand.

Those three pieces in a
line should, should exist.

And to me, that's a travel
confidence builder and itself that

is missing in the industry right now.

Steve V2: So for number three,
you said future proofing

your company the right way.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Our CEO, Jim is from Southwest
airlines and he was part of the

team that built the original reward
system back in the late two thousands

that everybody loves so much.

You know, you could buy three
flights and get a free one out of it.

It was like the business travelers, like,
Love dream basically, you know, they were

able to take their families on vacation
for free, you know on flights and all

that And we basically kind of re injected
that same kind of reward system where you

immediately save with us even starting
from scratch So, you know a traveler

comes in our reward system allows us to
ebb and flow and how much savings they

get Which allows us to play with the
market depending on what's going on As

an example a traveler saves 100 on us
on their first booking No matter what.

And it was important to us, we
were talking about all three

sides winning earlier, about
being able to give before we get.

And that is something that also doesn't
exist in marketing partnerships.

You've got to sign up and commit
yourself before we'll commit to you.

And that to me is backwards.

And so we found a way to build a
product where we had enough margin to

where we could play with the numbers
like this to give travelers an essence

of feeling like they're getting
something for their money immediately.

And then they get points
for every state too.

Speaker: Really

Speaker 2: cool.

So,

Speaker: so for number four, you said.

Creating a mindset change on
merchandising listings on channels.

Speaker 2: Yeah, so this was kind of going
back to what we were talking about earlier

is, you know, everybody's kind of been
merchandising and pricing their units kind

of based on a bit of a fear model, really,
which is, I have to make my nut, you know,

I have to make this much money this year.

This is where I've got to be.

So I'm going to price accordingly to that,
whether it's market correct or it's not.

And not being able to determine
your own path to me is a big no, no.

You know, and for us, we challenge
ourselves every day to find ways

to get on the phone, interview more
property managers, showing the value

of what we're doing to where they can
remove that booking fee or they can

remove that credit card processing
fee because we cover it or remove that

liability fee because we cover it.

You know, that's can be anywhere
from a hundred to 150 in fees that

will absolutely drive a traveler
over the mark to book again.

It's all about value

Speaker: so Mike, you mentioned
that pricing your own way and making

sure that the fees, the OTE fees
aren't pushing things over to the

edge of making the unit unrentable.

Can you talk a little bit about what your
fees are or maybe we'll share that here?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah,

Speaker 2: absolutely.

We are very, very basic when it comes
to fees and it's a wholesale fee.

That's all it is.

So what that means is that we take
nine and a half percent of the nightly.

And we mark that up on our site.

So, give you an example.

If you've got a 200 a night place, it's
going to show up on our site for 219.

50 as an example.

And that's the only thing that we charge.

There's no posted service fee
and there's no host fees to you.

And that 19 bucks again covers your
credit card fees, ID screening and then

liability for the traveler as well.

Speaker: And are you able to
determine your own cancellation fees?

Speaker 2: We have four
right now that we use.

They are based on length of stay.

Which is a little bit different than
what everybody else does, but we found

that 98 percent of people are happy
with picking one of those four options.

We do adhere to your closest
policy and streamline as far as

for the integration standpoint.

But another piece that we do mention
as well is that you do have a posted

a rental agreement if you have one.

In our booking feed, whenever
you make the booking.

So the traveler can actually see
if there's any nuances that you

need to put in there and whatnot.

We do find a lot of times that property
managers want to call them back at a

credit card on file for all different
reasons, whether it's their own

accidental stuff or they want to upsell
them on local things that are going on.

Speaker: Really cool.

And are you able to speak to,
like, what's your strategy for

like growing your, your demand, you
know, your traffic on the website?

Do you have a novel way of doing it
or are you going traditional SEO or?

Speaker 2: Oh, that's a great question.

I think all of those things are played.

But I think the biggest piece
is reverse marketing to me.

And that is really focusing as
heavily as you can on the feeder.

positioning of marketing instead of
the actual destinations because it will

take you to the destinations, right?

It's a two step process.

So if we, if we know that as an
example, Boston, New York, and

Chicago are 35 percent of the
beach market destination, right?

Now we're going to hit that like crazy.

You know, we're going to spend 30, 40, 50,
000 a month like marketing those areas.

We'll put PR on it.

We'll run USA Today giveaway ads,
all these things to bring the brand

out to drive the travelers to there.

And then as soon as we know that we're
getting that traffic, we retarget the

traffic with our boots on the ground team.

And then we start introducing the
property managers that are in the area.

So it's a twofold process, right?

So you create confidence by
saying, okay, you're this person.

brand.

You're posted everywhere.

I should probably check you out.

But then by the time you get in there,
you start realizing, Oh, there's a

living, breathing ecosystem there of
people that manage businesses and there's

professionals and it just has a little
bit more of a, you knocked on the door

and met the person face to face feel
without having that physical experience.

Right.

Speaker: Really cool.

And so you allow the property
managers to speak directly to.

Yes,

Speaker 2: sir.

We do.

Having unfiltered communication is key.

I mean, just to be completely
transparent, we realize that that's

a risk that gives you an opportunity
to take it off site if you need to.

But quite frankly, if we're doing our
job, unless there's a problem, most people

stay loyal to it because they're making
the same money at the end of the day.

Like I said, I mean, we realize
that this is your business.

And so if you've got a grumpy
traveler that you just cannot

satiate, do what you need to do.

Right.

You know, there's no reason for us to sit
here and gripe over one booking, you know,

Speaker: I think that, uh, there are some
actors out there in the industry as a

whole, who will always look to, you know,
take advantage of something like that.

But I think our industry as a
whole, and especially the Costco

ecosystem, we're really here to
do the right things by people.

And if you've got a good booking
that's come through, we're So

everybody understands that OT is
going to make the money to, to

continue to drive traffic to you.

So there's a lot of good actors in
this, you know, in this industry and

those are the people we count on.

Speaker 2: I agree.

You know, it's been really awesome.

As crazy as it is.

And as long as I've been around, I
have never been to a Casa con and

I got to say, uh, meeting a lot of
the different property managers and

franchisees and just watching everybody
really relay on each other and be open

about their strengths and weaknesses.

That is the way you grow.

That's how you grow an industry.

You know, if you want traveler
confidence, you need to show that the

businesses have confidence in each other.

Yeah.

Huge.

Yeah.

I think so.

Great job, Steve.

Speaker: Thank

Speaker 2: you.

Speaker: It's, it's the people.

If I'm able to see far, it's because I
stand on the shoulders of giants, right?

Like I

Speaker 2: agree.

Speaker: These are beautiful people here.

All unified together by, you know, a credo
and a belief and contractually by a, uh,

territories that are, are non competing.

So it just builds an environment
of trust and sharing and good

information back and forth.

I'm really excited about it.

So thank you for that.

Speaker 2: I agree.

Speaker: So Mike, as we're starting
to wind down, tell me, what's

your favorite It's the first
letter from the Orange Credo.

Speaker 2: You know, I had to look through
this because I was like, Orange Credo.

I kind of freaked out.

We're a relatively new
partner, just so that you know.

So I had to go look up, and
I was like, What's Credo?

Okay.

And so I realized it's an acronym.

So, for me, actually reading through
all of it, I think E, for excellence,

was probably my favorite one.

Because I think it's, It's a
pretty broad term that explains

what we're trying to do.

Um, in order to be best in class, you
have to think outside of yourself first.

And it's create excellence is to create
excellence and others before yourself.

And to me, that is where we are always
going to lead with this product is, you

know, we're going to say lean and mean
focus on the things that matter, but

making sure that at the end of the day, if
you're going to use this, you're going to,

you're going to make money if it produces,
you know, and that's the whole goal here

is to, you know, Keep you in business, let
you enjoy this industry that you love so

much and feed your kids and, and retire
when you're ready to retire, you know,

we want to be part of that experience

Speaker: really great.

. Have you learned anything or
how do you really Like big

takeaways from Casa Con so far?

Speaker 2: You know, there's some
very smart business people here that

are smarter than me, which is great.

One of the things that was mentioned
this morning, because we're scaling

right now, was saying , focus on your
boots on the ground, and focus on the

things that need to be done and handled.

Because that'll attract better
leaders, basically, once you have that.

And that would really open my eyes because
I've been so focused on leadership,

growing a company as fast as we have.

And so I love just the
experience that's here.

There's a lot of property managers
that have been around for a long time.

They may have sold the business
and then come back into the space.

So there's a lot of knowledge here and
I feel like I learned something here.

And to me, to learn something at
a trade show, being around for

17 years, that's gold for me,

Speaker: like

Speaker 2: walking away
with something, you know?

So,

Speaker: Mike, congratulations
on VacayMyWay and your ascension

to being a co founder, I know
you're going to do well with it.

And we're looking forward to working
with you, and if any of our partners

are interested in signing up with
you, how do they get a hold of you?

Speaker 2: So you can go
straight to vacaymyway.

com.

We also have a knowledge portal
at the very bottom of our

webpage that is like a wiki.

So, if you want to know how
to connect to us, All the

instructions are there, ready to go.

We are a self service Premier Partner
with Streamline, so you can get in and

do it yourself if you have any problems.

There's support buttons everywhere,
or you can call 888 VACAYMYWAY.

You can get a hold of us.

Perfect.

Thanks again, Mike.

Always good to see you, Steve.

You too, pal.

Yep.

Speaker: It's the CasaCast Cast.

We're so luxurious.

The Cossack Cast.

They all want to be us.

The Cossack Cast.

Just don't call it an Airbnb.

Okay?

It's the Cossack Cast.

We've got orange credo.

The Cossack

Cast.

Our company's NATO.