Back to Basics: What Really Makes a Great Short-Term Rental Host with Jodie Odlin

There’s no shortage of information about short-term rentals.

Podcasts. YouTube videos. Facebook groups. AI. Courses. Conferences. Tools. Software.

In fact, sometimes there’s so much information that figuring out what you actually need to do next becomes the hard part.

And if you’re a newer host, it can leave you wondering whether you’re really ready to do this at all.

In this episode, I’m sitting down with my friend Jodie Odlin, short-term rental host, hospitality professional, and creator of the Hospitable Hosts book series, to talk about what actually makes someone a great host — and spoiler alert: it isn’t having every piece of technology, every fancy amenity, or every system perfectly dialed in.

Sometimes, you need to get back to basics.

We talk about the difference between simply owning a short-term rental and truly understanding hospitality, why more information doesn’t necessarily create better hosts, and how to turn what you’re learning into action instead of allowing it to become another source of overwhelm.

Jodie also shares one of the biggest mistakes she made in her own STR business — waiting years to collect guest email addresses — and why building relationships with your guests beyond the OTAs matters.

And because this is a conversation between Jodie and me, we somehow take a rather unexpected detour into… beekeeping. 🐝

Yes. Beekeeping.

But even that conversation brings us right back to one of the biggest themes of this episode: you don’t have to know everything before you begin. You learn. You ask questions. You find people who are ahead of you. And then you take action.

We also talk about the power of being in the room with other hosts, the upcoming STR Hospitality Summit, burnout in our industry, and the advice Jodie carries with her when business — or life — feels particularly hard.