Okay, welcome to the Boothley podcast. This is the podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the trainings, and most importantly, the confidence on how you can go out there and get more direct bookings today.

We're going to be talking about the smokies in the USA. We're going to be talking about what to do when considering investing, owning cabins and generally short term rental.

So certainly one if you're one of our American listeners and just if you're based anywhere else in the world, there'll be tips and tricks on what you can do as a short term rental host.

So this is the behind the host podcast and today we're going behind the host with Leslie and Morris, Leslie and Morris owns portfolio of companies and today we're talking about Josh's cabin, which is the kind of management and short term rental side of a business.

She is in hospitable hosts and for those of you who don't know what hospitable hosts is go to Amazon, punch in hospitable hosts to and you can purchase the book, which was released within the last 24 hours.

And it's a major shout out to one of team Boothley members, which is Jodie sterling. So as I record this, we're actually going live on Facebook. If you're listening to this on the podcast,

the book will have been out for a little while by the time you hear this, but do go and check it out. It's got stories from amazing hosts all over the world. And we're going to be talking about that today. So welcome along Leslie. Thank you for being here.

Thanks for having me excited to be here.

So first question is, would you mind giving yourself an introduction to yourself, your companies and anything else you'd like to share?

Sure. Well, I'm here based in Tennessee. I'm in Nashville today in my black and white condo.

But yeah, I am the owner and founder of Josh's cabins. It's a company located in eastern Tennessee, all in the Smoky mountains, severeable pigeon forge Gatlinburg.

I also own invest in the Smoky mountains, which is property acquisition. We can help you buy or sell a cabin and then we can manage it for you.

That's the businesses. But it just all grew out of my own portfolio. I was buying cabins when I was working in commercial banking.

I was living in Los Angeles and I just kind of was over the grind. And so I thought, what else is out there? What more can I do? And there's a lot more to the story.

I had clients in banking that had done something similar that kind of coached and mentored me and I got to a point where I felt financially ready to start buying real estate.

So I built this portfolio. I think it was when I got to five cabins, all in the Smoky mountains, and it was just going gangbusters and it was really demanding of my time. And so I said, what can I do here? I want to, you know, I don't really want to hire a property management company.

I love hosting. I want to stay involved in this. So what does that look like for me? And out of that thought, all of these companies were built.

Amazing. And do you know what is something which we see time and time again that people kind of fall into hospitality. But you mentioned something there, which is quite interesting. And for people listening that will resonate with them, which is, I didn't want to hire a property management company.

What was the reason behind that? And why did you go, do you know what I'm going to do it myself instead? Because as you mentioned there, you've got, or we mentioned just before we went live, you've got 11 units and you're looking after 17 doors overall.

What was it that attracted you to the management side of things and why, why do it yourself?

Well, I'm like, I'm writing a book on passive investing in short terminals. So I'm really a big proponent of do not self manage because it's so much work and you might end up creating a company to just disclaimer. But I felt like I heard so many bad things about the property management industry.

So many bad things about local companies that they, you know, they don't understand real estate ownership. They don't understand investor mindset. They're literally just trying to get bodies and beds and you lose that connection with the guest.

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