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STR Global Unlocked with Simon Lehmann: Unfiltered knowledge for the short term rental industry
The short-term rental industry is evolving fast, and Simon Lehmann isn’t afraid to say what others won’t.
STR Global Unlocked is where property managers, STR tech founders, vacation rental investors, and hospitality leaders get real about the business. Each episode breaks down what’s working, what’s broken, and what’s coming next: property management operations, direct bookings, vacation rental software, pricing strategies, mergers and acquisitions in real estate, professional host challenges, and the future of automation, AI, and tech stacks.
Hosted by Simon Lehmann, CEO of AJL Atelier and one of the most trusted voices in the global STR space, the show delivers unfiltered conversations with the people shaping the industry. Simon has decades of experience in vacation rentals, travel tech, and hospitality, including leadership roles at Vacasa Europe, PhocusWright and HomeAway.
If you’re scaling a property management company, building short-term rental technology, investing in vacation rentals, or entering this fast-moving market, this podcast is your seat at the table.
Episodes
32 episodes
031: Beyond STR and Hotels: How Numa's Third Model Uses 100+ Automations to Rewrite Urban Hospitality | Christian Gaiser
Short-term rentals and hotels are converging into a single operating model.The real shift is not about category. It is about who can deliver better economics, better experience, and better scalability in urban markets.In this epis...
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030: No Phone, No OTAs, No VC Time Horizons: Can Unplugged's Digital Detox Cabins Actually Scale? | Hector Hughes
In this episode, Simon Lehmann sits down with Hector Hughes, Co-Founder & CEO of Unplugged, a UK-based cabin brand built entirely around one conviction: that spending three days offline in nature changes people.Founded in 2020, Unplu...
029: What Marriott Really Thinks About Short-Term Rentals: Chris Stephenson on Loyalty, Quality Standards, and the Future of Alternative Accommodations
How did short-term rentals become a strategic priority for one of the world’s largest hotel companies?Short-term rentals now represent more than 14% of global lodging supply. When one of the world's largest hotel companies builds a platf...
028: $200M Raised, 50x Growth: Johannes Siebers of Holidu on Local Trust, Agentic Workflows and the Supply Nobody Else Was Counting
European vacation rental is not short on platforms. It is short on platforms that have survived every cycle and kept building anyway.Johannes Siebers is the Co-Founder and CEO of Holidu, a vacation rental technology company he co-founded...
027: What Institutional Capital Really Thinks About STR Right Now | Chris Hemmeter, Thayer Ventures
Venture capital is not ignoring travel tech. It is underwriting to a different standard. And most founders building in hospitality right now do not fully understand what that standard is.In this episode of STR Global Unlocked, Simon Lehm...
026: What AI-Native Actually Means: Arbio's Bet on the AI Operating System for Short-Term Rentals
Nobody calls a property manager "a software company." Arbio is replacing the traditional tech stack with a single AI system designed to run operations end to end.Constantin Schröder is the Co-Founder and CEO of Arbio, one of Europe's fas...
025: Guests Aren't Googling Anymore: AI, OTAs & the Future of STR Distribution | Shaun Stewart
The biggest disruption coming to short-term rentals is not regulation, supply growth, or capital compression. It is distribution itself.In this episode of STR Global Unlocked, Simon Lehmann sits down with Shaun Stewart, VP of Op...
024: Curation Over Volume: How Landfolk Is Redefining Growth in Short-Term Rentals with Christian Schwarz Lausten
Is short-term rental growth a volume game, or is quality becoming the real competitive advantage?In a market flooded with inventory, inconsistent standards, and increasing AI-driven discovery, Christian Schwarz Lausten argues that the fu...
023: Dependability vs Consistency: How Airbnb Redefined Hospitality Standards with Chip Conley
Short-term rentals disrupted hospitality by challenging one of its core assumptions: that consistency is the ultimate brand promise.But as Airbnb scaled globally, the real shift was not about standardization. It was about redefining what...
022: Why STR Leaders Crack Under Pressure | CEO Coach Gary Cohen
As short-term rental moves from rapid expansion into a more disciplined phase, leadership quality becomes the differentiator.In fast-scaling STR businesses, execution rarely breaks because of strategy. It breaks under pressure, idea over...
021: Is Luxury Short-Term Rental Really Resilient? - Luxury STR Roundtable with Emerald Stay, Le Collectionist, The Luxe Nomad and Nocturne Luxury Villas
Luxury short-term rental has long been viewed as the most resilient segment of the STR industry.But resilience does not mean immunity.Rising interest rates, tighter capital, geopolitical instability, regulatory scrutiny, and growi...
020: Trust, Reviews, and AI: How Experience Intelligence Is Shaping Hospitality and STR with Ben Jost of TrustYou
Reviews are everywhere in hospitality, yet most operators still misunderstand what they actually represent. In this episode of STR Global Unlocked, Simon Lehmann sits down with Ben Jost, CEO of TrustYou, to unpack why guest feedback...
019: Travel Marketplaces That Endure: Lessons from HomeAway to RVshare with Jon Gray
Some platforms optimize for growth. Others optimize for survival. Very few manage both.In this episode of STR Global Unlocked, Simon Lehmann sits down with Jon Gray, CEO of RVshare and former executive at HomeAway (now VRBO), for a groun...
018: Where Real Estate Models Are Converging: Lavanda CEO Fred Lerche-Lerchenborg on Flexible Living, STR, and Multifamily
In this episode of STR Global Unlocked, Simon Lehmann speaks with Fred Lerche-Lerchenborg, CEO of Lavanda, about how short-term rentals, mid-term stays, and multifamily are converging inside the same assets.This is not a tech pitch. It i...
017: Decisions, Not Forecasts: How Professional STR Operators Win in 2026 with Simon Lehmann
The short-term rental industry is entering a more demanding phase. In 2026, performance will be defined by execution, discipline, and decision-making under pressure.In this solo episode, Simon Lehmann outlines what professional operators...
016: Flexible Living Is Reshaping STR: An Institutional Capital Perspective with Jaja Jackson of ICONIQ Capital
Short-term rentals, flexible living, and multifamily are no longer separate conversations. For institutional capital, they are converging into a single question around risk, yield, and long-term durability.In this episode, Simon Lehmann ...
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015: Is Raising Capital Like Ecommerce the Answer to Real Estate’s Funding Problem? Insights From DealMaker Co-Founder and CEO Rebecca Kacaba
In this episode of STR Global Unlocked, Rebecca Kacaba, Co-Founder and CEO of DealMaker, joins Simon Lehmann for a candid conversation on why traditional capital raising no longer works for most founders and what a modern alternative looks like...
014: From Road to Air: How Drone Delivery Is Reshaping Last-Mile Economics and Guest Experience
In this episode of STR Global Unlocked, Bobby Healy, Founder and CEO of Manna Drone Delivery, joins Simon Lehmann for a grounded discussion on why last-mile delivery is structurally broken and how autonomous aerial delivery could reshape logist...
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013: 2025 Holiday Special - A Year That Changed the STR Conversation
2025 marked a turning point for the short-term rental industry.Not a year of hype or breakout growth, but a year of recalibration.In this Holiday Special of STR Global Unlocked, Simon Lehmann reflects on the conversations, t...
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012: Europe's STR Growth Challenge: Fragmentation, Regulation, and Execution - Panel with GuestReady, COCOONR, and Happy.Rentals
Europe is often discussed as a single market. This panel makes clear why it is not.In this panel, Simon Lehmann brings together three leaders navigating growth across Europe’s most fragmented markets: Alexander Limpert (GuestReady and Re...
011: What VCs Really Look For in STR Tech: Insights from TCV’s Woody Marshall
Woody Marshall is a General Partner at TCV, one of the most influential investment firms in global technology and a long-standing backer of travel companies including Expedia, Airbnb, HomeAway and TripAdvisor. With more than two decades of expe...
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010: The Midterm Rental Shift with Furnished Finder’s Jeff Hurst and Cami Narino
Cami Narino, Chief Operating Officer, and Jeff Hurst, Chief Executive Officer at Furnished Finder, join Simon Lehmann to analyze one of the most important shifts happening in housing and hospitality today: the rise of midterm rentals. Over the ...
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009: Booking Holdings President and CEO Glenn Fogel on AI and Why STR Is the Next Big Travel Shift
Glenn Fogel is the President and CEO of Booking Holdings, the parent company of Booking.com, Priceline, Kayak and other global brands that shape how the world travels. With more than two decades at the forefront of online travel, he has guided ...
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008: Hospitality or Tech? A Closer Look at AvantStay’s Approach to STR with its Founder and CEO, Sean Breuner
Sean Breuner is the Founder and CEO of AvantStay, one of the most ambitious hospitality brands in the short-term rental industry. Since launching in 2017, AvantStay has raised significant capital, expanded across the United States, and set out ...
007: What Really Happened at Vacasa? Cliff Johnson, Co-Founder and Former COO, Shares Lessons for STR Founders
Cliff Johnson is the former Co-Founder of Vacasa, one of the largest short-term rental management companies in the United States, and now serves as President of PadSplit, a fast-growing affordable housing marketplace. His journey from startup f...
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