Hey ya'll!
This weekend, our family gathered for our grandson’s baptism.
People drove. People flew. Plans were made. All to be together to celebrate one adorable little guy. Could we have FaceTimed? Sure. Could we have shared pictures and videos afterward? Of course. Would it have been the same?
Not even close.
There’s something about being in the room. Hugging people you haven’t seen in a while. Catching up over a meal. Having conversations you never would have scheduled a Zoom call to have. And, most importantly this weekend, sharing the joy of celebrating together.
If you’ve ever met me in person, you probably already know: I LOVE in-person!
And I think face-to-face interaction is especially important for those of us in the STR world.
My Top 5 Reasons STR Owners Need to Get Out From Behind the Screen
#5 — You learn things you didn’t know you needed to know.
Online, we search for answers to questions we already have.
In person, someone casually says, “Have you heard about…?” and suddenly you’re learning about a regulation, vendor, strategy, problem or opportunity that wasn’t even on your radar.
Those accidental conversations can be incredibly valuable.
#4 — You find out you’re not the only one.
Running an STR can be surprisingly isolating.
Then you start talking with another owner and discover they’re struggling with the same cleaner issue, township frustration, difficult guest, pricing question or HOA headache you are.
Sometimes the most valuable sentence you can hear is: “Yep. Me too.”
#3 — Relationships make business easier.
Need a plumber on a Saturday? A backup cleaner? A realtor who actually understands STRs? A property manager? Someone who has dealt with the township you’re having trouble with?
It helps tremendously when the person on the other end of the phone isn’t a stranger.
Your STR network becomes part of your business infrastructure.
#2 — We’re stronger when we actually know each other.
This one matters enormously when it comes to advocacy.
It’s easy to ignore “STR owners” as an anonymous group.
It’s much harder to ignore Mary, who owns one cabin and is saving for retirement. Or Joe, who employs six local people. Or the property manager responsible for 50 homes and dozens of jobs.
Relationships turn a category into people.
And people standing together have a much stronger voice than individuals shouting from behind their keyboards.
Which brings me to…
#1 — Community doesn’t happen by accident.
You have to show up.
That’s true for families. It’s true for neighborhoods. And it’s true for our STR community.
Our family could have celebrated a baptism through pictures, texts and FaceTime this weekend.
Instead, people got on airplanes and into cars because being together mattered.
I think our STR community deserves some of that same effort.
So here are two opportunities to get out from behind the screen and INTO THE ROOM:
Our NY/NJ Meetup is coming up in just a few weeks. If you live in New York or New Jersey but own, operate, manage, sell or support vacation rentals in the Poconos, this one is especially for you. Come meet the people you’ve been seeing in emails, Facebook groups and Zoom squares. Swap ideas. Make connections. Build your STR circle.
And on September 17, we’ll gather at Camelback Resort for our STR Advocacy Summit: Find Your Voice — Advocate. Communicate. Lead.
If there were ever a time when being in the room mattered, it’s now.
Regulations affecting our businesses and properties are being discussed in township buildings, HOA meetings and government offices across our region and state. Advocacy works better when we know one another, learn from one another and understand how to speak with a coordinated, credible voice.
You can learn a LOT from an email.
Trust me… I send plenty of them. 
But relationships?
Those happen when we show up.
See you IN PERSON!
Rebecca
P.S. If you’ve been reading these Monday Musings for months but we’ve never actually met, let’s fix that. Come introduce yourself at the NY/NJ Meetup or the Advocacy Summit. Or reply to this email and let's meet up!!!
