The 2021 Vacation Rental Women's Summit: Different Is Better Than Better

Having just spent the past two days at what was an absolutely extraordinary conference, and at the risk of mansplaining as I do so, I wanted to share my thoughts on VRM Intel/Amy Hinote’s most recent Vacation Rental Women’s Summit.

Why have it?

The question that seems to always arise around an event that’s very title is gender specific is “why do we need it?” The next question, for some at least, is “how would you feel if we had a men’s summit?” Please allow me to tackle these in reverse order.

How would I feel if we had a men’s summit? Well, as a man and having attended and absolutely loved the Women’s Summit, I would say my take is that every single conference I have ever been to has been a men’s summit. In an industry, that according to the most recent data from Rent Responsibly is close to 60% female, this may seem an odd statement to make. Let me explain myself.

It's not that other conferences don’t invite or allow women to come (no more than the Women’s Summit failed to invite and welcome men, quite the opposite). Rather, it is that a man’s perspective, and almost inevitably a white man’s perspective, is the default perspective in planning, coordinating, and running our industry’s events, and most industries for that matter. I am not saying this to lob bombs at anyone, but instead pointing it out because we all lose something in this scenario. Something that many of us, myself included, did not even realize we were missing until Amy and her team stepped up and created what I sincerely hope, and will continue to support however I can in order to make it a reality, becomes an annual staple for all of us.

In my mind, the above also answers the first question: why do we need it? We need this because we all benefit from a more diverse perspective. This is true for individual companies (see, e.g., a Credit Suisse report that found companies with at least one woman on their Board of Directors saw “3.5 percentage points in Excess Compound Returns per year” as compared to those with no women on their Board), and it is true for our industry as a whole.

Yes, a Women’s Summit, and especially this Women’s Summit, is different than what else is out there, and that is the point. As Amber Hurdle shared with us just as the event got underway, “different is better than better.” Having spent two days experiencing what that different looks like, I couldn’t agree more.

“One big pep rally” 

As with other conferences, this year’s Vacation Rental Women’s Summit was the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, as well as to meet some people in person for the very first time, even if we have known each other on the interwebs for years. I was reminded of this when I sat down at my table for the very first session, and Patricia Moore, with whom I interact with regularly online, introduced herself.

Getting to know Patricia in person was an absolute pleasure. Hearing her sum up what was to come definitely got me in the right mindset. With music playing, the table working together to come up with our joint theme song, energy palpable around the room, and smiles across the board, Patricia described the Summit as “one big pep rally.” I had to agree.

Why a pep rally? Because so much of the conference was about building the attendees up. It was about building each other up. It was about all of us getting stronger by all working together, not just for ourselves, but for each other.

Why is this important, particularly for women? Because, as Amber Hurdle shared with us in her opening presentation, women handicap themselves far more than men do. I will not get the stats exactly right, but there were examples of how women on average ask for raises that are ~20% less than what men ask for in the same situation. There was the fact that women are likely to put themselves up for a promotion or new position only once they feel they meet all of the criteria, or even all of it and then some, versus men who feel confident “stretching” for it when they only meet a fraction of the same.

For anyone who thinks this doesn’t have pernicious effects, I personally experienced the how harmful this can be less than twenty-four hours later when speaking with the amazing Christina Naes of Southern Vacation Rentals. The pep rally was clearly working on her, and as she described her “cup as full” thanks to all the motivational messages being shared I encouraged her to put herself up to speak at the next event so others could learn from her. Christina demurred. “I don’t think I have enough experience in my area quite yet,” she humbly asserted. “Christina! This is exactly what Amber warned us about yesterday. A man with years less experience than you would be throwing his hat in the ring already! You can do this.” And indeed she can, and she will. After this week, I am confident she won’t be the only one.

A different kind of inclusivity

When you have an event with “women” in the title, some take this to mean it is intended to exclude people who do not identify as women. This was definitely not the case. I never felt anything but welcomed with open arms (quite literally!), and every man I spoke with at the conference said they felt and experienced the same.

But, perhaps surprisingly, the Women’s Summit went beyond just not being exclusionary. What I found was that it was actually inclusionary in an entirely new way. The aforementioned Christina was just one of many attendees I spoke with for whom this was their first industry conference. Not the first of 2021, or the first since COVID. This was their first industry conference ever!

Take a moment to process that. For many of us who basically live on the road in the fourth quarter each year attending the various industry conferences, these women never before were able to, and/or chose to attend an event until this one. I imagine each had her own reasons, but I also think it is safe to say that part of it, if not the main part of it, was that they felt welcomed, and indeed included, in a way that they never felt before.

Different is better than better, y’all.

A different kind of content

This was the “Vacation Rental” Women’s Summit, and there was a lot about vacation rentals. From industry trends, to pricing and revenue management, to homeowner relations, guest marketing, and more, there was a lot of specific and tactical content over the two days, as you might expect.

As you might not expect, but as I came to appreciate, because it was the Women’s Summit, and because Amy and her team are so thoughtful in how they put it together, it had so much more than that. My favorite sessions were only tangentially related to our specific industry.

From the incredibly entertaining tips on how to complete the stress cycle from Emily and Amelia Nagoski, to tips on career growth from Hostfully’s Margot Lee Schmorak, to a DEI workshop led by Carole Sharoff, Michelle Williams, and April Burns, to a session on hypnosis from the Cottage Blogger herself, Heather Bayer, to a session on spotting and stopping sex trafficking from TRACK’s Michelle Marquis, to the incredibly personal and brave session on domestic violence from Vanessa de Souza Lage, Sue Jones, and Tammi Sims, to the epic closing keynote on overcoming adversity from Rented’s own Karen Fleck, the Women’s Summit tackled topics rarely if ever addressed elsewhere in our industry.

As I attended these sessions, took notes, and found immediate applications in my own life, both work and personal, I realized that this was actually two conferences. There was one conference that was the “vacation rental” part of it. The other was the “Women’s” part of it. But this is where I may lose some of you. Yes, most of the attendees were women, but I would argue the topics above are not women’s topics. They are human topics and issues.

And this is where, for me at least, it comes full circle, back to Amber Hurdle’s comment on that first day that “different is better than better.” By being a “Women’s Summit,” this was a different kind of vacation rental conference than any other. It was in its differences that it was able to look at our industry, and all of the attendees, from a new perspective, and allow us to do the same for ourselves.

“We’ve all been the only one in the room,” Jen Ford noted in one session. As I gazed at the sea of amazing women around me, I thought, “no longer,” and instead thought back to what another first time conference attendee had told me earlier that same day: “Hands down this is awesome. To be surrounded by your people, to feel you can be so open and honest about your industry knowing there’s enough to go around, it’s really something special.”

It was, and it is. Thank you, Amy, for letting me be a small part of such a big event. I absolutely loved it.