Women in Short-Term Rentals with Lisa Roads. A woman on a mission!

If you’ve ever felt isolated in your business, wondered whether you’re the only one juggling quite this much, or noticed that the people on the big industry stages rarely look like you, this episode is for you.

Lisa Roads has spent over 25 years in short-term rentals, starting with buy-to-lets at 19, building a holiday portfolio in Cyprus from the UK, and eventually running a fully managed property management business of 225 luxury coastal villas and apartments across three locations on the island, all operated remotely. She sold that business in 2021 and has since moved into consulting, coaching and speaking and more recently, into building something the industry was sorely missing.

Women in Short Term Rentals started in December 2024, born out of Lisa’s frustration at attending major industry events and consistently not seeing women on the stages or at the tables shaping the sector’s direction, despite the fact that 70% of hospitality employees are women, and that data consistently shows 82% of travel decisions are made by women. The community now has over 500 members, a Facebook group, WhatsApp and LinkedIn groups, and has become a delivery partner for the Host Planet Roadshow, taking industry education on the road to make it accessible to women who can’t always get to the big conferences.

In this conversation, Lisa and Sarah talk candidly about what women in the industry actually struggle with: imposter syndrome that strikes even after landing a £300,000 contract, the sandwich generation reality of juggling aging parents, children still at home, a relationship and a business, and the under-discussed impact of the menopause on women running businesses they simply can’t pause.

Lisa is refreshingly honest: her desk, she says, has seen everything from complete joy to floods of tears over 20-something years and she wants the community to be the place where that honesty is normal and welcome.

They also get into Lisa’s biggest business lessons from scaling to 225 units: why she always put systems and processes in place before growing, and why the best hiring decision she ever made was to recruit for aptitude rather than experience: a principle she borrowed from Richard Branson.

Whether you have one property or a portfolio, whether you’re just starting out or well into your hosting journey: if you’re a woman in short-term rentals, this community exists for you.

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Key Takeaways

82% of travel decisions are made by women, which means women running hospitality b