The Vacation Rental Key with T and T

Episode 16: From Skepticism to Trust: How VRBO’s GM (Larry Plawsky) Is Redefining Quality and Growth Across the Marketplace

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Trust is the hinge that decides whether travelers hit “book” or bounce—and we wanted to know how a major platform plans to earn it. We sit down with Verbo’s general manager, Larry Plowski, for a straight-talking tour of what changes when a marketplace prioritizes standards over sheer volume, including the headline move to remove 100,000 underperforming listings and shift the Premier badge from host-level to listing-level. If you manage properties or market stays, this is a masterclass in aligning guest expectations, operational discipline, and platform signals that actually mean something at checkout.

Larry shares what he learned crossing from Ticketmaster and FTD into vacation rentals: perishable inventory requires urgency, fee-based models demand careful revenue management, and partner networks only thrive when the supplier experience is designed with the same rigor as the traveler journey. We dig into what “quality” really looks like in practice—cleanliness, maintenance, accuracy, and dependable support—and why it must hold at every price point, from $300 condos to $1,000 villas. He outlines a near-term rollout: 24/7 access to real people, easier support flows, product improvements that surface the right details, and a revamped Book with Confidence Guarantee reintroduced as VerboCare with broader eligibility and clearer marketing so trust is visible before you commit.

We also cover how these changes affect property managers day to day. Expect stricter criteria balanced with fair waivers for events outside your control, plus coaching tools and market benchmarking so you know where to improve. With peak booking season ahead, now is the time to scrub listings for accuracy, tighten cancellation policies, and address outliers that could cost you the badge at the listing level. Our goal is simple: help travelers feel confident booking vacation rentals for more trips, not just the big family week. Subscribe, share this with a fellow manager, and leave a review with the one trust signal you value most—we’ll feature our favorites next week.

SPEAKER_00:

You're listening to the Vacation Rental Key with TNT, the podcast for vacation rental managers, by vacation rental managers. I'm Tim Cafford, and I manage two companies. One in Virginia and one in North Carolina. I'm one of the two T's.

SPEAKER_02:

And I'm the other T, Tiffany Edwards, born and raised in a vacation rental business. I help manage our family businesses from Key West all the way to Kawaii.

SPEAKER_00:

In the next 30 minutes, we're going to give you our keys to success in the vacation rental business.

SPEAKER_03:

Welcome back, everyone. We are very excited today to have another keynote worthy speaker. Tim, you delivered.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I want to give a shout out to Stephanie Rodriguez, who actually delivered through Expedia Group and has brought us Larry Plowski, the general manager of Virbo. So welcome, sir.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Tell us about yourself and what does the general manager of Virgo do?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank you for the opportunity here. That's a pretty nice setup. That's the nicest setup I think I've ever had. So thank you very much. Yeah, I joined Verbo about a year ago as general manager, and the responsibilities are plentiful, but I work across and with a pretty large organization to make it happen. I'll work with Tim Rosolio, as you know, as we build our strategies for growing supply across our marketplace. I'll work with our product teams, and you've heard in the past from some of our product leaders like Eric Moore about the things that we're doing to improve user experience, whether that user is a traveler or a host. I work with across our marketing organizations to help build traffic and demand for vacation rentals and on and on and on. So basically working across all the functions to build our business, obviously to grow revenue and grow profit, but importantly to also improve the user experience. And again, whether that user is a host, a property manager, or a traveler.

SPEAKER_03:

And you are now celebrating one year as general manager. And I remember, I believe was it your first week, you came and were in our area in Walton County, Florida, and had dinner with us, and we bombarded you with a couple property managers at that point. It's been a year. What has changed from that point to now?

SPEAKER_01:

First of all, I I do appreciate that dinner. It was lovely and fantastic wine as well. And you also cracked open a bottle of bourbon at the end of the evening, too. So thank you. But in in the midst of all that haze from the wine and the bourbon, it was a very, very productive session. And I realized a few weeks in that I knew very little about the vacation rental space because I'm new to the industry. So I realized at that point that I had a lot of learning to do. So I'll talk to you about a few things that I've uncovered just as my personal journey about vacation rentals since I've started, and then where I've taken that journey or for Virgo since. So one thing is I did not realize how big a business this was. I didn't realize how big a business vacation rentals was or even how big Verbo was. And I also was not aware how professionally managed the businesses, too. So I just kudos to everyone who's building this business because you've really created something very special. I'm also, as I spent time in the industry, I and I and it should have been obvious, I guess, to me, but since you're in the travel and hospitality business, but you really are travel and hospitality experts. You're managing relationships with guests, you're managing relationships with and building businesses with homeowners, and you have to manage a lot of third-party service providers too, like house cleaning services. So it's pretty complex. And then when you throw in regulation, you throw in natural disasters. And I joined in September of last year, and then there were a bunch of hurricanes that occurred over those next few weeks. And you throw in changes in the housing market, it's really a very, very complex business, very dynamic business. Yet, despite all of those immediate challenges that I noted, it's also a great business. I'm very bullish about it, and I do believe that it is on trend. I saw from my previous work experiences, I had been a ticket master in live events. People want experiences, and for sure, they want experiences here too. They want to travel, they want to explore, and they want to create lasting memories with friends and family. So these were all great insights for me to develop over time with the help of a lot of property managers and teammates across Verbo who really introduced me to the space. One thing that was apparent as well to me, not immediately, but after doing some initial work, is that travelers said, hey, this is a great category, I like it, but there's a whole bunch of us travelers who are really skeptical about vacation rentals. They're skeptical about booking, they're skeptical about staying in them because they don't know if they're going to be able to access the property. They don't know if a host is going to cancel on them, they don't know if the property is going to look like the pictures. So they have some reservations. And I think it's incumbent upon us to build trust and confidence in the category because travelers are looking for quality, they're looking for reliability, and they're looking for consistency. So a lot of what I glean pretty early on is we at Verbo need to do a much better job helping to raise the standards and levels in the industry, and certainly for Virgo. And if we do that successfully, we'll get more travelers coming to vacation rentals, and everyone wins when that happens.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, dude, I was not invited to that dinner and held off my introduction to you for three months. But when we met in late December, you mentioned to me that you were still taking in a lot. You were learning. I I guess my question is what did you bring to the table that has impacted the last six months? You mentioned your previous experiences, obviously. Great resume, very humble guy. But what skills do you have that has really hit the road here the last six months?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I worked at a lot of two-sided marketplaces before I joined Expedia Group, before I joined Verbo. I was at a home services startup years ago, before I think they were even called Marketplaces. It was uh bringing together lawn care, pest control, made service, security systems, all the home service providers with busy homeowners. Then I went to a that was a startup, then I went to a much more established business at FTD, which is a flower and gifting delivery marketplace, where I was running the consumer division, and then I was at Ticketmaster more recently running the resale business and then the global marketplace. And they all seem like those are very disparate businesses, but they all have a lot of really important similarities that are relevant to vacation rentals. First, they were all fee-based businesses. So revenue management experiences important. They were all dependent on a network of local independent supply partners and often connectivity partners, and they all dealt with perishable inventory. So I had a lot of experience with revenue management. I've had a lot of experience not just in delivering on expectations for the consumers, but also for the supplier networks as well. I think a lot of people who come into businesses with only the consumer insight lose the understanding about how much work has to go into developing the right product and the right services for the supply network. And with perishable inventory too, I think I have a really great appreciation of the urgency of moving through inventory, whether it's flowers, whether it's tickets, or whether it's a calendar night. And it's all very important, especially in businesses that sometimes deal with really intense peaks and then very, very long quiet periods as well.

SPEAKER_03:

Speaking of that, we listened today, and Tim Rosolio, I think, made this comment, but that by 2034, vacation rentals will be a$476 billion industry. How much of that is driven, do you believe, on the demand or on a build of trust for people to feel confident to use vacation rentals? Or is it an increase of supply? What are you thinking that that increase will where will it come from?

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't read whatever summary that was. They got to$476 billion. So maybe I'm wrong, but I'll suggest this. First, it's a two-sided marketplace. So as demand rises, then there's a whole bunch of folks you're going to look at and say, ooh, I can make some money with supply here, and then they're going to go and invest in in new properties and they're going to try to rent out their homes or their second homes, et cetera. So I think that happens, then there'll be an increase in supply. Maybe the prices will moderate a little bit, and then people say, ah, this is really attractive, an attractive option to a conventional hotel. And so it'll probably grow in fits and starts that way. So in general, I think both supply and demand will ultimately be balanced and both contribute to the increases. But I think more than anything, there's just a pretty small percentage of the population that stays in hotels, for example, that stays in vacation rentals as well. And then there's a portion of the population which will stay in a vacation rental maybe for that big one trip, and then thinks of hotels for all of the other stays. And I think it's really incumbent upon all of us to help all of those travelers recognize, well, depending upon their particular circumstances, vacation rentals have a lot to offer. I think at any time you go with a group, whether it's a couple or just an immediate family or like a multi-generational trip, it seems to me that vacation rentals offer substantial benefits in space, in privacy, in special amenities. So my sense is as more travelers understand and appreciate the benefits, they'll get more comfortable booking a vacation rental, and that will grow the business. Having said that, there are doubts that people have. And I think we need to educate travelers, regardless of the country, regardless of the type of destination that they're interested in, that vacation rentals have standards, they have high standards, and they can be very confident that when they stay in a vacation rental, they'll have a great experience. As good as, maybe even better than the hotel that they traditionally stay in. But I think it really starts with educating them and then introducing them to vacation rentals.

SPEAKER_00:

Talk to me about the drivers of that. Changes are coming. What did you do to get your finger on the pulse of what needed changing?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we did an extensive amount of research of travelers, uh, not just in the US, we did it across many countries around the world to better understand what the most important needs were for travelers, and importantly, what the most important unmet needs were. By training, I started my career in consumer goods, I was at Proctor and Gamble, and we always built businesses around meeting consumer needs, and the best way to do it was to find out what are the most important needs in the category that aren't being met, and then you go out and meet them. And then you do you just are really focused and fanatical about delivering on those needs. And we did a fair amount of research here, and you know, I wasn't sure what it was going to tell us. But what it did tell us is that you know, despite the fact that this has already grown into a very significant business, vacation rentals is an enormous industry category, that travelers are not really satisfied with the level of standards in the category today. Sometimes they have phenomenal experiences, they have great experiences, but sometimes they'll stay in a vacation rental another time and it's not as good. Right? And they become a little more skeptical and they they doubt it. And so we saw that and said it isn't just that's not a verbal thing I'm talking about. I'm talking about a category issue. And it just seemed to me that wow, if we at Verbo could deliver a much better experience, one that travelers would come to rely on and say, hey, I want to book a vacation rental. Where should I go? Where am I gonna be confident that the group I'm planning for is gonna be really satisfied and pleased? We figured, hey, if we can go deliver on that gold standard experience, that would be a great place for us to play and that would help us grow our business. And I think if we do it successfully, it'll raise standards in other marketplaces too, because they'll need to compete. And that's gonna be better for travelers overall.

SPEAKER_03:

So I know that Verbo has removed 100,000 listings, really focused on the quality. What exactly is quality and how does that evolve?

SPEAKER_01:

It's hard to define quality. It's a pretty big word. I know people are like it's really ambiguous, you can drive a truck through it, right? So we try to define it a little bit better. On one hand, you know, a dimension might be consistency, right? So there are certain standards, and I expect to get that every time. Every time I walk into a specific restaurant, I have a certain expectation of standard level, and it delivers it because they have their processes down and can deliver a consistent process. So I would expect the same thing here for vacation rentals, a consistent experience with standards. That's kind of the minimum bar. I think the other part is you know reliability as well, which can mean different things to different people. But when we talk about reliability, it basically says that if I have an issue or if I have a challenge or if I have a problem, there's someone out there who's gonna help take care of it for me so that I can get back on track and enjoy my experience, enjoy my vacation with friends and family. So consistency and reliability are really important. And then the other thing too, when we talk about quality in general, can sometimes be about the intangibles, it can be about the surprise and the delight that you have. But more than anything, the way travelers define it, which is the way I I really should be defining it, is I want my experience to be stress-free. I don't want to have to think about all of these things. I want to think about the time with my friends, I want to think about the time with my family, I want to create special memories. I don't want anything to get in the way of that. And that to me is what quality is. As soon as I step into that property, it's what I expected. It looks like the pictures, the descriptions that characterize the property were spot on. And then I go about my day and I love my property. It's the foundation for a lot of the trip, but I don't have to worry about anything. And that to me ultimately is the way travelers think about quality and the way we want to define quality as well.

SPEAKER_00:

At some point, I had to make the decision that these houses are not cutting it, these properties are not cutting it. Was that a difficult decision, or was it more of a capstone moment where you can stand on and say this is what we stand for?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, look, I think if we hadn't had all of that consumer research, it would have been a very difficult decision. Because all you're saying is, hey, you're removing supply and we need more supply to grow our marketplace. That would be a very difficult decision. Having said that, we had all the research in place. We understood and we did a lot of research, not just on what consumers wanted, but then we developed these things called concepts, right? You take an idea back to travelers and you test it with them, and you modify the language and the benefits and all of these reasons to believe, and you say, if we did this for you, or if we did this for you, or if we did this for you instead, like what would resonate best? And when you do all of that work, you come up with a set of benefits and trust builders, and then you put them all together and you say, travelers say, Wow, I really, really like that. That's a marketplace that I want to work with. Well, one of those trust builders is knowing that they review the quality of all of their properties and their hosts and they remove the ones that are not performing well. Because in fact, it is a trust buster when a traveler stays at one of those properties and then they don't want to come back again. And the other part of the decision-making process was we have data on repeat rates. So we know if a traveler has a bad experience, then they're not gonna come back and they might not come back to vacation rentals at all. So once you started putting all of this consumer data together, you put all this historical data together on what our travelers do when they're dissatisfied, it became a lot easier to decide, hey, we're gonna remove these properties. You know, at the same time, we just can't say, let's remove properties and not add new properties. So the other part of our strategy, of course, is to look consistently for high-quality properties and bring them into our platform, whether they're managed by an individual homeowner or via property managers. So our work isn't complete when we remove the properties. We have to do a job, a really important job of adding more properties in the right destinations and make sure we're high quality and then onboarding them in such a way so that they can immediately provide a good experience to travelers.

SPEAKER_03:

I think you all have done a really great job of the diversification. And I know that you spoke about this just a few minutes ago, but not everyone wants the five-bedroom house on the beach and that being the ideal of what standard of quality is, but really in practice it's cleanliness, it's maintenance, it's a hospitality experience. But you've added more multi-units, condos, and that quality being as just as important. How are you continuing to navigate what a consumer what they're continuing to look for in those top locations focus?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so let me unpack that a little bit. So there's a because there's a few elements you brought in there that I think would be important to discuss. First of all, I think you're exactly right that there we want to provide quality at every price point, right? So quality isn't just for the best properties, for the highest performing properties, for the most expensive properties. It's it's anytime you as a traveler use Verbo, you should know you're gonna have a quality experience. Now, there's a difference though between what a$1,000 a night property is like and a$300 a night property. So I was staying recently visiting my parents or staying in a in a hotel for a couple nights. I stay in hotels as well as vacation rentals. But I buy them through, book them through Expedia. And I could have spent$700 a night. I didn't want to spend$700 a night, I wanted to spend$250 a night. And so what I got at a$250 a night hotel room is different than what I would get at a$700 a night hotel room. And that was okay. I was willing to make the trade-offs because I understood the differences. And that$250 a night property was still good, right? It still met my expectations, it still exceeded whatever standards that hotel chain had set for it. And so I view quality the same way here. We want to diversify properties and property types and price points, and we want our travelers to know about it. And part of it is because we want to deliver quality for everyone. But here's the other part of the story that's important. We have travelers who might spend$5,000,$10,000 a night for a week, a multi-generational trip. Big family trip, 12 people, and you have phenomenal properties, and they love staying with them. As soon as they would get back from their trip, we would email them a list of properties to say, stay here, you know, stay at this next property for your next vacation.$10,000 a week,$5,000 a week. The reality is most travelers can't do that. They don't do that. Right? They take other vacations with a smaller group, they take trips with their spouses, for example, and that might be a weekend trip. And on that trip, they might want to spend only$300 a night. And so we have to make sure that that traveler who spends$10,000 a week with us, when they go on a$300 a night trip, that we are prepared to deliver a quality experience for them. Because I could just as easily lose them to Verbo in a Verbo if I don't give them a good experience at another price point and another property type.

SPEAKER_03:

I personally appreciate that because I think that our ultimate goal is to drive demand. And so really having an understanding of the pulse, because there are multiple trips. In our portfolio, we have very diversified types of properties, but we have very similar individuals and just different types of trips. So I appreciate that you continue to keep your finger on the pulse and marketing to drive that additional demand.

SPEAKER_00:

I want to go to some of the news that's come out of Explore Connect. I guess my question for you is what can our listeners expect in terms of a rollout for this? When will we start seeing uh these impacts of what's being announced here today?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you'll start to see them very soon. They're not gonna all roll out on the same day. They'll roll out over several weeks and several months. Before I get into the detail and answer your questions, but we're not gonna be like, hey, we're done by January. Quality has now officially been complete. We'll move on to the next thing. We know this is like a marathon, not a sprint. So we're gonna be committed to this for the long haul. So you'll start to see more communication around our 24-7 service where you can access a real person. That's gonna be become more apparent pretty soon. And we're also gonna make it easier for travelers to tap into support than it is today. So those experienced improvements on our platform are coming very soon over the next few months. The book with a confidence guarantee that I had mentioned earlier, that's gonna be renamed. It's gonna be renamed to VerboCare. It's actually just starting to trickle out into our site at the moment, and that will continue to occur over the next several weeks. But we're gonna make eligibility for that guarantee much more expansive than it is today, and we're gonna market it in a much more significant way than we have in the past because from all the research we did, travelers said that's what I want. I want some confidence, and a guarantee gives me confidence. So those are gonna roll out soon. There's a series of product improvements that we're gonna be rolling out to make it easier for travelers to find the information they want to feel confident booking. And those are gonna roll out over the next six to eight weeks. So basically, all of these things are rolling out in advance of peak booking season. The premier host changes couldn't quite get those in immediately, but we'll be getting those in uh sometime like late January, most likely. So you'll see us cycling through marketing improvements, supply improvements, service improvements, all through the next several months.

SPEAKER_00:

Just to clarify, those who are listening who have a relationship with Verbo, you very likely have an account representative. Yep. They should be in touch with them if they haven't heard from them, I always say.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, our account representatives will be sharing probably not all of that detail, but a significant amount that affects hosts in particular. So we should have general communications going out to our entire supply network. And in addition to that, yes, people should be hearing from their account managers, and obviously if they haven't, they are more than welcome to reach out to them as well. And then beyond that, I think people will start to see certain exciting things just in the news, you know, in the media. So there'll be some surprise and delight that I think our hosts will see. Where verbo will be just much more present and visible in marketing quality and also marketing all the different trip types that we mentioned earlier.

SPEAKER_03:

Aaron Powell And one of the most significant changes is that the fact that that badge will actually go with the property as opposed to the company. And I think that's really interesting. Tell me how you guys decided to change to that where it would go with a specific property.

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Powell We were thinking about all the different ways that we could ensure that we deliver a quality experience for travelers who wanted to make sure that we were building trust and not introducing any trustbusters. And you know, one of the real benefits of a premier host is that it tells a traveler that, hey, I have a lot of properties I'm taking a look at here. I have to make a decision on what property is the right one for me. I feel more confident if I'm staying with a premier host, right? So that is a real, real badge of quality that they count on. And the challenge is, you know, sometimes property managers have lots of great properties and they became premier hosts, but they had some bad apples in the bunch, and those bad apples were getting the premier host designation. A traveler would stand those properties and they'd be like, wow, if this is what a premier host is, I'm not that interested, right? I don't want to go do that again. So that was the genesis of the conversation. If we have to do a better job building trust for travelers, when we say a property is really good, it has to be really good. On the flip side, from having conversations with our supply partners, it was also clear that, hey, I'm a property manager, I've got a whole bunch of great properties, I do have a bunch of bad apples that have come along recently. Now I've just lost my premier host designation. Now I have to go back to all of my great properties and tell them they lost this great designation, which I marketed to them beforehand. That's not fair either. So we're bringing it down to the listing level. We think we're providing a better experience for our travelers, and we believe that we're providing a better experience for all of those hosts and those homeowners who deliver a great experience with their property managers.

SPEAKER_03:

Aaron Powell And to earn that badge is a gradual experience that qualifying measures that everyone has to meet. Five reviews, five stars. I won't go through all of them. Your account manager can go through some of those. I do know that since you have some time until January, I'd like to make a little plug to be premier partners instead of hosts. Just but I'll just I feel like I can't have this recorded on record without me saying that. Noted.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm even writing it down. Everyone at home on money is done right now. Very good.

SPEAKER_03:

But I do think that my main concern was the cancellation policy. And we have in several of our markets certain issues that arise of we had a roof that came up and we had to cancel some reservations, or we have acquired units and had to cancel and then move over. We're honoring those bookings, but moving over to us. And I was uh reassured today that the waiver process will will help and will be able to work with our account representative there. So I know that some people who are listening are concerned on that cancellation, but I was reassured to that today.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean I can talk a little bit about the criteria. They are more stringent than they have been in the past. And you know, we didn't create this program to a point where like no one can qualify. I mean, there are many, many properties, many, many hosts who already qualify at the new criteria. So that's how we knew that that level of quality can be delivered with you know very zero cancellation rates, et cetera, and the really high ratings and the really high acceptance rate. So we felt really, really good about that. And we're also providing coaching tools and insight tools so that hosts, property managers can have some visibility as to how they compare to their peers in the same markets. So we don't want anyone to think like, hey, no one wants me to qualify for it. We definitely want you to qualify for it, and we want to give you the tools to be able to get there. But yeah, there is a waiver process. There are circumstances that are outside of a host control, and we don't want to ding them for that. We've had a waiver process for a long time. It was also getting a little bit too liberal, I would say. And so we've managed that down to reasonable requests for waivers. We give them out to everybody. We're never going to see an improvement in quality, but we have a team that can adjudicate these things and do a much better job. It's a relatively manual process right now, but that's a good way for us to ensure that we are providing waivers whether needed and not providing waivers whether not.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Sounds like you're trying. That's all we've been asked. And so speaking of trying, we're going to try your patience. Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

What was your greatest perk show from being at Ticketmaster?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm more of a sports guy than a music guy. But I last year on the way out, a bit of a parting gift. I got to go to uh round three of the US Open and just spent 12 hours watching tennis. And so you said some of the best tennis players in the world. And then there'd be doubles matches where you could pretty much walk on next to the court like you're at a high school match and just watch for 12 hours. It was the coolest thing. I mean, I go to games and you're there for two hours, you're there for three hours, and then you leave. I had never had an experience that was quite like that before. And the crowd in New York is pretty raucous as well, so that was a lot of fun. That was probably the best experience I got as a result of my uh of my my time at Ticketmaster. And in fact, it was such a good experience that this year my wife and I went back with some friends to the open. So I think we're gonna try to make that an annual trip.

SPEAKER_00:

So you fly a lot. Yes. Give us some tips. Pisle, window, check a bag, no bag. What did the go-to?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's funny, that's changed over time. I definitely don't like to check bags because I know that could be a problem, a serious problem. And even if I have an air tag and I know my bag isn't lost, if it's still 30 minutes away, it's still 30 minutes away. So if I can carry on, I carry on. I used to be a window guy. I used to put my head against the window and then fall asleep, and it would be great. But as I've gotten older, I get more dehydrated, and then I drink a lot of water, and then I drink a lot of water. So now I'm a guy who definitely sits on the aisle.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, what is a form of AI that you use every single day? Cannot live without.

SPEAKER_01:

You try to put your head together and you're like, ah, it's the evening, I've worked all day. Like that's great. So anything I do for volunteer work in general, I just put it through AI. And what's the best way to send a letter here asking for money? What's the better best way to send an email over here asking for someone for some extra support and help?

SPEAKER_03:

Asking for more money.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So now everyone knows that I'm asking them for help and assistance. Uh I use that. So really it's to it's a lot of it is to craft and compose. So that's what I'll do. And at work, one of the real values that I have at work too is AI summary. So we get it's a big company, we get long emails, we get PowerPoint decks, like dozens and dozens of pages to be able to go in and say, hey, can you summarize this for you? Can you give me the important content? Or if I missed a Zoom call, then I can get an AI, it's a summary of that. It's an enormous time saver, and it makes me realize how verbose I am when I take a look at a summary of something that I was actually on, and I'm like, oh, I could have said that in a lot fewer words.

SPEAKER_00:

A skill or talent that you do not currently possess that you wish you had.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, if you would ask my family, they'd like me to figure out how to use the remote control in the house.

SPEAKER_03:

That's so that's a quality standard in all of our homes. It is like it's depending now.

SPEAKER_01:

And there's four of them. Yeah. Well, that's where I travel with my wife, because she figures how to use all the I'm not joking, by the way. That is a skill that I wish I had.

SPEAKER_03:

What was the greatest misconception about our industry that you have found over the last year?

SPEAKER_01:

About the industry. Well, that is interesting. You know, when I talk to people about what I do right now, a lot Of the assumptions, so these are just lay people on the industry. Not all of them, but I would say most of them say, Oh, like when you stay with the person, like is the host in the home and is the host staying with you? So I get a lot of those questions still premier partner. Yeah, verme Robot doesn't like we don't know, hosts stay with us, they're not shared spaces. But I don't think people really know and appreciate how professional an engine is and how extensive the property management network is for vacation workers. I don't think that's something people are familiar with, and I think frankly, if they were, some of them would be a lot more comfortable, knowing that a lot of the stands are made with builds created and maintained by professional property managers.

SPEAKER_00:

I've had the pleasure of meeting your family. When you go on a family vacation, who's the decision maker?

SPEAKER_01:

Not me. So I'm in last out of fourth place. I think my wife is generally the big trip planner. She's the one who likes to put the itineraries together. The kids have veto power on just about everything they generally drive where we eat as well. And so basically, for me, the conversation is just about like beach or pool. That's about as extensive as my responsibilities usually are. No one really trusts me to do much more than that.

SPEAKER_04:

You're wise, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we thank you for playing this little game with us. As usual, you meant nothing. Our undying uh gratitude for playing along.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it was a pleasure being here, and it's great to have you as partners. And I'm looking forward to seeing you both soon too.

SPEAKER_00:

He's the general manager of Verbo. That will do it for this episode.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, thanks for listening, everyone.

SPEAKER_00:

So long, everybody.