"Real fraud that's aware of your loopholes will not come in looking sketchy."

That's the moment this episode shifts from guest screening 101 into something a lot more unsettling — and a lot more useful. On this episode of the Booked Solid Show, Gil sits down with Ela Mezhiborsky, Co-Founder and President of Autohost, to talk about guest fraud prevention in an age where AI can fabricate a convincing, sympathetic, entirely fake guest from scratch. Ela walks through how fraud has evolved from fake IDs to synthetic identities, why "gut feeling" is a liability instead of a filter, and why screening guests properly is what actually lets you say yes to direct bookings with confidence instead of fear.

Whether you're just getting your first direct booking site off the ground or you're managing a growing portfolio, this conversation reframes guest screening as the thing that protects your hospitality — not the thing that gets in its way.

🤝 Connect with Ela Mezhiborsky

Ela is most active on LinkedIn, where she shares insights on guest fraud prevention, identity verification, and the occasional parenting story.

"Resourcefulness is the ultimate resource." — Tim Bratz

What happens when a commercial real estate operator with 2,800+ apartment units starts converting a slice of that portfolio into short-term rentals — and generating two to three times the revenue on those units?

In this episode of the Booked Solid Show, Gil sits down with Tim Bratz, founder of Legacy Wealth Holdings and Smart Management. Tim walks through how he went from a 23-year-old with a maxed-out credit card buying his first $14,000 house, to building and shrinking a portfolio that's peaked at nearly 5,000 doors and is valued at over $350 million today.

But the real story here is what's happening right now: multifamily operators like Tim are quietly carving off a small percentage of their apartment units, furnishing them, and putting them on Airbnb and VRBO — and it's opening up a massive opportunity for short-term rental operators to partner directly with commercial real estate owners who are sitting on stressed portfolios and need help generating revenue without taking on debt.

If you've ever wondered how the STR world looks from the other side of the real estate spectrum — or you're looking for your next growth opportunity beyond just buying more doors — this conversation will change how you think about where direct booking expertise can go next.

🔗 Connect with Tim Bratz

• Instagram / X / Facebook: @timbratz
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timbratz
• Legacy Wealth Holdings: legacywealthholdings.com
• Smart Management: smartmanagement.com

🎙️ Why Your Marketing Is Working — But Guests Are Still Booking on Airbnb

"You have to build trust on that website. Just being cheaper is not enough." — Amber Knight

You're driving traffic. You're running ads. Guests are clicking. And then... they book on Airbnb anyway.

If that sounds familiar, this episode is exactly what you need to hear. In this conversation, Gil sits down with Amber Knight, General Manager at BookingsCloud, to pull apart the real reason so many direct booking strategies stall — not at the awareness stage, but at the moment of truth: the booking itself.

Amber brings a background most people in short-term rentals haven't encountered — data-driven advertising built inside a 100-year-old media company, refined through the automotive industry, and now applied specifically to vacation rental portfolios. What she shares in this episode reframes the entire conversation around ads, conversion, and what it actually takes to turn a qualified visitor into a confirmed direct booking.

Whether you're just getting started with direct bookings or you've been at it for a while and the numbers aren't moving the way you'd like, this one is worth your full attention.

🤝 Connect With Amber Knight

🔗 LinkedIn: Amber Knight📘 Facebook: BookingsCloud📸 Instagram: @bookingscloud

"The only differentiator between my property doing $254K and my neighbor doing $185K? Design — and the strategy behind it."

What if the gap between a good STR and a great one wasn't the location, the square footage, or even the amenities — but the intention behind every design decision?

In this episode of Booked Solid, Gil sits down with Courtney Petrovich, founder and principal designer of Denori Designs, to unpack why strategy always comes before the furniture. Courtney is both a data-driven investor and a hospitality designer who works across short-term rentals and boutique hotels — and she brings the best of both worlds to this conversation.

You'll hear how she took an eight-bedroom beach duplex from $120K to $254K in annual revenue, why boutique hotels consistently outperform on direct bookings, and the one free thing every host can do today to make guests feel genuinely connected to where they're staying.

🤝 Connect with Courtney Petrovich

Courtney and the Denori Designs team work with STR hosts and boutique hotel owners across the country. Whether you're wondering if it's time for a full redesign or just a refresh, they offer initial consultations to help you figure out what makes the most sense for your ROI.

• 🌐 Website: denoridesigns.com
• 📸 Instagram: @denoridesigns
• 👥 Facebook: facebook.com/denoridesigns
• 💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Petrovich

"You can have a perfect property, listed perfectly, with perfect reviews — but if it's not priced right, people just won't book it." — Tim Hubbard

What does it actually look like to run a short-term rental business from thousands of miles away, across 40+ cities, in multiple countries, and still deliver a five-star guest experience consistently?

That's not a hypothetical. That's what Tim Hubbard has built.

In this episode of the Booked Solid Show, Gil sits down with Tim, founder and CEO of Corzly, a remote-first hospitality company managing 220+ properties across dozens of markets. Tim is also the host of the Short Term Rental Riches podcast, and he brings more than 11 years of STR experience to this conversation — from his first lightbulb moment comparing Airbnb rental returns to those of traditional long-term properties, to building a white-label operations model that gives owners back their brand without sacrificing operational control.

You'll hear Tim's perspective on why the property management model is changing, how AI is reshaping guest communications, what every host needs to have in place before chasing direct bookings, and the one tactic he recommends for anyone looking to grow their direct booking rate starting today.

If you're a host trying to scale without losing the personal connection to your property — or a property manager rethinking how your operations are structured — this one is for you.

🤝 Connect With Tim Hubbard

🌐 Corzly: www.corzly.com🎙️ Short Term Rental Riches Podcast: www.strriches.com📘 Facebook: facebook.com/corzly💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tim-hubbard-str

What would it look like if your property management software started working for you — not the other way around?

In this episode of the Booked Solid Show, Gil sits down with Pierre-Camille Hamana, the founder and CEO of Hospitable, to unpack one of the most ambitious product months in short-term rental software history. Pierre breaks down a $0 subscription PMS plan, an MCP server that lets you talk to your own property data in plain English, a property manager marketplace, and a brand-new sister insurance company — all launched in April 2025.

This isn't a product announcement show. It's a rare look inside the strategic mind of a founder who believes the STR software market is still wildly underserved — and is doing something about it.

🔗 Connect with Pierre-Camille Hamana

🌐 Hospitable.com💼 LinkedIn: @pchamana

What does it actually take to scale to 93 properties in a single market — without losing the five-star experience that got you there in the first place?

In this episode of the Booked Solid Show, Steve Resnick, Cofounder and CEO of HeavenlyRez Vacation Rentals, opens up about the journey that took him from a single beach house in Ocean City, New Jersey, to running the #1-ranked property management company in his market (per AirDNA 2025). Steve shares the personal tragedies that shaped his mindset, the poster board that keeps his vision in focus every morning, and the operational decisions behind a brand that holds the most five-star reviews in a town dominated by century-old competitors.

You'll hear how Steve built a centralized hospitality hub to eliminate inconsistencies in his cleaning operation, why he treats every single property as its own warehouse problem, and the AI-powered tech stack that lets a lean team operate at a level most operators can only dream of. If you've ever wondered what the "next level" of short-term rental operations actually looks like, this conversation gives you the blueprint.

🤝 Connect With Steve

You can follow Steve and HeavenlyRez through his Linktree: https://linktr.ee/heavenlyrez

For everything HeavenlyRez (website, social, listings, reviews): HeavenlyRez.com

He's also active in the STR Secrets Mastermind community and is happy to connect with fellow operators looking to compare notes on operations, tech, and scale.

"Don't give up. People give up too early — and it usually doesn't make sense to." — Suzanne Hacker Robinson 🌴

What if the quiet, unsexy part of hosting — the checklists, the naming, the tiny intentional touches — is actually what separates a one-and-done guest from one who books direct every year? In this episode of the Booked Solid Show, Gil sits down with Suzanne Hacker Robinson, founder of Welcoming Wow and a former 25-year banking executive who now manages 25 vacation rental properties in Florida. Suzanne shares why operations quietly run the whole show, how a single ping on her smartwatch reshaped her entire hosting philosophy, and the simple, direct booking moves any host can start this week — no agency build required. 🏡✨

This one's for anyone who keeps waiting for their portfolio to be "big enough" before investing in direct bookings. Suzanne makes a humble, grounded case for just starting — and keeping it simple.

🔗 Connect With Suzanne

• 🌐 Website: www.welcomingwow.com
• 📸 Instagram: @welcomingwow
• 🔗 Linktree (free resources, including 12 Steps to an Autism-Friendly Rental): linktr.ee/SuzRobinson
• 📧 [email protected]

"You have to really get under the cover of knowing who it is you're trying to attract. If you don't know that, you are not going to succeed." — Suzy Turnbull

How does a single-property host in Panama grow from 10% to 80% direct bookings in just over two years? In this episode of Booked Solid, Gil sits down with Suzy Turnbull, author of 5-Star Hosting Made Simple and a former marketing executive who turned her Buenaventura villa into a thriving direct booking business. Suzy shares the exact year-by-year progression of her direct-booking growth, the infrastructure she wishes she'd built sooner, how a single conversation with Canadian birdwatchers reshaped her entire guest experience, and why hospitality — not just tactics — is the real engine behind repeat bookings. If you're a host or property manager who wants to move beyond OTA dependency but doesn't know where to start, this one's for you.

🎁 Free Gift from Suzy: Get exclusive access to her HostGenius™ Guest Review Analyzer — a custom AI tool to help you decode what guests are really saying about your property. → https://5starhostingmadesimple.com/guest-review-analyzer-crafted-stays-podcast/

🔗 Connect With Suzy

• Website: ⁠5starhostingmadesimple.com⁠
• Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠
• LinkedIn: ⁠linkedin.com/in/suzyturnbull⁠
• Instagram: ⁠@5starhostingmadesimple⁠
• Facebook: ⁠Suzy Turnbull on Facebook⁠

Catch Suzy in London at the Short Stay Summit and Host Planet Roadshow, where she'll be signing copies of 5-Star Hosting Made Simple.

Most hosts launch a direct booking site and then wait. They post occasionally. They hope something goes viral. And when bookings don't come, they quietly go back to Airbnb.

Emily Lethgo built something different — and she did it in the Smoky Mountains, one of the most competitive short-term rental markets in the country. Starting with a single cabin and a marketing background, she spotted a gap that most operators still haven't filled: the space between having a great property and actually getting people to discover it.

In this episode of the Booked Solid Show, Emily shares how she went from a Facebook post offering to photograph 10 cabins for free, to building Matchpoint Socials — a boutique, full-service marketing agency working exclusively with short-term rental brands. She opens up about what consistency really looks like in practice, why a viral post is actually the worst thing to chase, how she structures her team so every client gets five specialists instead of one overloaded generalist, and what she tells hosts who are wondering whether social media is actually worth the effort.

If you've ever felt like you're doing all the right things but not seeing traction — this one's for you.

🤝 Connect With Emily

Emily and the Matchpoint Socials team work with short-term rental operators who are ready to stop doing marketing alone. If you're investing in a direct booking setup and want a team that handles the visibility side for you — from organic content to ads to influencer partnerships — they offer a 30-Day Agency Pilot so you can experience it before committing long-term.

🔗 Instagram: @emilylethgo | @matchpointsocials🌐 Website: www.matchpointsocials.com