Hosting With Heart

In 2017, Kathy Allen and her husband Adam Ryan were invited to take part in a new show on Australia's Seven Network called 'Instant Hotel', whereby 10 couples from around the country transformed their homes into short-term accommodation.

The couples then stayed together in each of the properties and scored each other according to various criteria, ultimately resulting in an overarching winner being hailed at the end of the series.

While Kathy and Adam unfortunately didn't emerge victorious, despite some incredibly positive feedback, the series put their Humpty Doo, Northern Territory holiday property, Tropical Oasis, firmly in the sights of prospective guests the world-over.

Since the show aired, they've been consistently booked out and have also added other properties to their short-term accommodation stable, all astutely managed by this very energetic duo.

Based in the small hamlet of Coolah in NSW, Kas Wren is a personal injury lawyer, photographer, writer and interior design enthusiast.

She is also a former accommodation host and passionate renovator, having opened the doors to two highly successful Blue Mountains-based short stays in the past 10 years.

More recently, her penchant for sharing refreshingly authentic photos capturing the very essence of life in regional Australia, always paired beautifully with eloquent, evocative prose, has garnered her an ever-growing legion of followers on Instagram.

In the past few years, Kas had gone through a personal metamorphosis of sorts and now finds herself cultivating a new, simpler life with a new partner and community in a town and neighbourhood previously unfamiliar to her.

She has a number of exciting projects in the works and on the horizon and it was an absolute pleasure to catch up with her recently.

Until her early forties, Leanne Watson was a typical, able-bodied, somewhat privileged wife and Mum to three kids.

However, in 2007, that all changed, when, after numerous attempts at having unusual symptoms explained, Leanne found a GP who took her seriously and discovered that she may have a form of muscular dystrophy. Two days later, after a muscle biopsy, her neurologist confirmed she did indeed have Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy (LGMD), a somewhat ambiguous form of muscular dystrophy that would progress in a relatively unpredictable way. She was told 'you won't die from LGMD but you'll die with it'.

Since then, Leanne's symptoms have advanced and she and her family have adjusted, compromised, sacrificed and fought hard to make living with a disability work for her.

Up until ten years ago, she could walk. Until six years ago, she could shower herself. Until five years ago, she could move from one seat to another. Until three years ago, she could turn in bed. Until two years ago, she could raise her arms.

She will never thank LGMD for the emotional and physical pain and limitations it has wrought on her. But she is grateful that these struggles have forced her to be part of a mix of impressive, tough, empathetic, resourceful, and intelligent individuals that are stakeholders of one of the largest marginalised groups.

In recent years, Leanne has cultivated a highly successful blog, Leanne's Wheel Life, about her journey as a disability advocate, with a particular emphasis on what everyone can do to make the world, including holiday accommodation, more accessible.

As someone who shares her passion for an accessible future, it was a real honour to chat with Leanne a few weeks back and I hope this episode inspires all who listen to it to make tangible, long-lasting changes to your properties to ensure everyone can enjoy them.

Bec Macdougall is one industrious woman. With a background in branding and marketing, she and her husband Angus moved from Melbourne to Molyullah in north-eastern regional Victoria back in 2018, after deciding the property they had originally purchased as a weekender, Dunmore Farm, would become their new permanent home. Since the move, Bec and Angus married on the property and welcomed a daughter, Emme, but they've also crafted a super productive life for themselves by way of their restored cottage, now a hugely successful luxury farm stay, have launched Dunmore Suppers - a series of collaborative long-table dining experiences hosted at the farm showcasing locally produced food and wine whilst also relocated their coffee business to the property including developing their own coffee brand Emme Mac Black.

If that wasn't enough to keep them busy, the farm is also running Angus cattle and Bec is soon launching Dunmore Shoppe amongst other things.

Sam Walter is the founder of Heads on Pillows, a Melbourne-based, specialist digital marketing agency aimed at helping the accommodation and tourism sector increase direct bookings.

Hailing from a Victorian family who run their own accommodation business, Sam has experienced first-hand the impact that a purposeful digital marketing strategy can have on - as his business name attests - getting more heads on pillows.

He's incredibly passionate about assisting short-term property managers and tourism business owners to increase their revenue via stepping away from the dominant OTAs charging often exorbitant commissions and encouraging guests to book direct.

Elise Croker is a self-professed dreamer and creative visionary. Outside of her demanding daily life as a mum of four and an emergency department nurse, she has an avid fascination with history and architecture; one which she has come to indulge via the restoration and transformation of older properties.

In recent years, she's opened two highly successful short-term holiday properties in New South Wales' Southern Tablelands; Eldorado, a Scandinavian-inspired, sustainably restored farmhouse which sits on the same property as Elise and her family live, and Mister Munro, a late-1800's built former tailor shop, located in the neighbouring hamlet of Crookwell.

Elise is a positive force of energy and ideas and I could've chatted with her for hours a few weeks back. No doubt, you'll love listening to our chat in this brilliant episode.

Now based in the tiny south-eastern Queensland town of Mount Glorious, Hannah Puechmarin's career had very humble beginnings. In the early stages of learning photography, she was drawn to telling the stories of homes and capturing people doing their 'thing'.

Currently, she works for an array of leading interior designers, travels broadly to capture the essence of Australia's most unique and characterful hosted homes and works with a diversity of Australian brands.

Her stunning work has been published far and wide, including the likes of Country Style magazine, The Design Files, Home Beautiful, Australian Traveller, Frankie magazine and more.

Melissa Hobbs is a force of energy to be reckoned with.

Based in northern NSW and having gone through a series of personal challenges in the years prior, she purchased a cabin in the small western Tasmanian town of Zeehan in early 2021, sight unseen.

In the year that followed, throughout the ups and downs of Covid and - more recently - the tumultuous floods, she travelled back and forth from her NSW home to the property that would become 'The Lazy Prospector', endeavouring to prepare it as best she could, with whatever resources she could summons, to ultimately open it up for guests to enjoy.

This process was certainly a character-building, somewhat unpredictable adventure but one that Melissa reflects on with great humour and humility.

Celeste Mitchell is a freelance travel writer based on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. Along with being a devoted Mum and partner, she is also one of three founders of the rapidly emerging platform Life Unhurried, a multifaceted travel blog and lovingly curated directory of slow and sustainable stays from around Australia.

As a giant nod to the incredible global appetite - further amplified by the advent of Covid - for slowing down and appreciating the little things in life, Life Unhurried was the brainchild of Celeste and co-founders photographer Krista Eppelstun and designer Katie Gannon.

With over 10,000 followers on Instagram and a growing collection of 70+ unique properties from each corner of the country, Celeste, Krista and Katie very excitingly have a book coming out later this year, along with grand plans for an expanded website, specialist travel guides and other new products.

Physiotherapist Shelley Kennedy and her engineer husband Tyrone have always liked to plan well.

In their early days together they got a foot into the Perth property market and worked like mad to get their mortgage paid down as quickly as they could.

This, in turn, paid off in spades, eventually enabling them and their two young daughters to secure and relocate to a rural farm in the picturesque coastal hamlet of Denmark, approx 5hrs south-east of Perth.

Since 2019, they've called the farm home and, after a brief but incredibly insightful apprenticeship managing another local holiday property, they went on to build their own architect-designed, sustainability-focused home and accompanying guest house, now known as Upland Farm.