Jen has now closed down her last property, The Fox House, Kyneton, due in most to the financial pressure of Melbourne's recent fourth Covid-19 related lockdown. In this short episode, she shares some of her plans for the Hosting With Heart community forward, including the creation of a new directory website for members. She's also looking forward to hosting the first in-person Hosting With Heart catch up in Melbourne in July.

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Jen Clark with a personal update after Melbourne lockdown #4

Lucy Scott is nothing short of a modern dynamo. Despite a background in remedial massage therapy, she wanted to try her hand at renovating - potentially even as a full time career - and after buying her first family home about 6 years ago, dipped her toe in the water. What followed was a period of years gradually renovating the house, including the establishment of a self-contained studio, which Lucy would ultimately list on the short-term rental market. This helped Lucy and her husband Daz pay off their mortgage way more efficiently, while at the same time exposing their three young daughters to a diverse range of people from different cultural backgrounds. Having pushed through the challenges of Covid, Lucy and Daz sold that same family home only a few days ago and Lucy is now at the beginning of an incredibly exciting new career chapter - one that will see her take on renovating homes professionally.

Lucy Scott on securing her family's financial success through renovating and hosting

Beth Cooper, along with her partner Rod, owns Silvermere Coastal Retreat in Culburra Beach, New South Wales. Following a number of years successfully buying, renovating and selling properties in New South Wales and Victoria, as well as going through a divorce, Beth, with her Dad in tow, finally came across the property that would soon be known as Silvermere in the midst of a search for a suitable fixer-upper in early 2020. Despite Rod's initial reservations, the couple have turned the house into an impeccably styled, warm and welcoming coastal escape, one that's been booked out solidly almost since the word go. And Beth has managed this all while holding down a demanding full-time job in Sydney.

29 - Beth Cooper on establishing a warm and welcoming coastal retreat in only 3 short months

ade Just is a highly experienced travel communications and marketing specialist, having spent over 12 years working for an impressive array of employers including Western Australia's Scoop Magazine and as a travel writer for Melbourne model, influencer and brand ambassador Bec Judd. Since 2019, she's performed the role of Communications Officer for St John of God Health Care, a role that, given the advent of Covid-19 in Australia in particular, has proven in equal parts enormously satisfying and challenging. To counter this, Jade is currently in the throes of renovating a beautiful, heritage-listed cottage in the southern Western Australian town of Quininup, known as Millars by the Lake. Millars is set to open in Spring, 2021, an event that Jade and her young family are hotly anticipating.

Jade Just on attracting the right people to stay in and promote your property.

Tara Larnach is the owner and manager of Simpson Cottage in Bundeena, a stunning coastal village approx 1 hour south of Sydney. Having stayed in the cottage with her family as guests in the late 2000's, a year or so later Tara became aware that the property they had all fallen in love with was for sale, and was fortunate enough to be able to purchase it, completely furnished, cleaner on board and ready to go. The rest, they say is history and in this value-packed episode, Tara shares a wealth of generous and honest insights into her journey as the host of one of the most unique historical holiday properties in Australia.

Tara Larnach on buying her dream holiday rental and what's she learned over 12 years of managing it.

Since Melbourne's hard lockdown ended in November, 2020, host Jen Clark's short-term accommodation management business Ranges Escapes has gone on a journey from being insanely busy and growing at a rate of knots, to in recent weeks winding down after she made the very tough - but necessary - decision to scale-back to managing only one property ongoing, The Fox House, Kyneton. In this episode, Jen candidly shares how the death of her beloved 8-year-old rescue greyhound George, combined with total mental and physical burnout, led her to make the decision to simplify her life and focus on being more present for her young son Max in his last year before primary school.

Jen Clark with an update after a crazy 3 months and making the decision to simplify her life and work.

Amanda Cochran is a Mum of three and lives in scenic Dunkeld, in Victoria's Grampians region, approx 3 hours west of Melbourne. In 2016, she established The Grampians Goods Co., with a simple mission – to elevate everyday moments into opportunities for nurturing & connection through consciously made and thoughtfully curated products & gifts, including body products, aromatherapy candles and wool blankets. After a few years running what has become an enormously successful business, in part through servicing the accommodation sector, Amanda set up her own short-term rental, Salt Creek Cottage, also in Dunkeld. Impeccably styled by Lynda Gardener and Belle Hemming-Bright of Inside Story, the cottage has been an almost overnight success, enjoying an array of publicity and huge guest demand.

Amanda Cochran on juggling a thriving small business, a stunning short-term rental property and a young family.

Peter Noble is an experienced entrepreneur, innovator, consultant, business and sales leader. Until about four years ago, Peter ran his own highly successful marketing agency, Citrus, which was established in the late 1990's. In 2016 however, like many who have been in business for themselves for some time, Peter felt the time had come for a permanent change in direction and, with great success, started managing his small portfolio of investment properties in Melbourne's inner southern suburbs on the short-term rental market. What followed was the search for and subsequent purchase of what is now known as Fingal House, a meticulously designed 7 bedroom luxury property located in the heart of Victoria's scenic Mornington Peninsula. Since opening to guests a few years ago, Fingal House was crowned the Best Family Friendly Holiday Home in Australia in the 2019 Stayz Awards.

Peter Noble on establishing one of Australia's most family-friendly holiday properties.

Tim Clark is the owner and core practitioner at Time & Space Therapies, a counselling, psychotherapy and remedial massage business based in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs. Full disclosure: he's also Jen's brother. Tim is passionate about helping others maintain optimal mental and physical health through the spectrum of services he offers. It is his wish that both massage therapy and psychotherapy will someday be viewed as commonplace treatments for depression and anxiety, and equally worthy of respect from the general public, the medical establishment and insurers, especially as the efficacy of both modalities is supported by empirical research. Since Covid-19 became rife in Australia earlier this year, Tim has been proactively supporting his local community from afar by publishing relaxation and meditation exercises to his social media channels, and sharing a range of insights into how we can push through this challenging time with gentle acceptance, kindness and self-care.

23 - Tim Clark on strategies for maintaining optimal mental and physical health during and after Covid-19

Zoe Martyn is a community artist based in Western Australia and holds a Bachelor of Arts and Visual Arts from Monash University and a Graduate Certificate in Community Development from Murdoch University. In 2017, Zoe made the move to the regional West Australian town of Nannup with her then partner to embark on the renovation of two dilapidated but richly historic properties, one of which housed the former local bootmaker's shopfront. Sadly, just before the renovations were complete, the relationship ended and Zoe subsequently took up a career opportunity some distance away at Martumili, an indigenous art collective based in the Pilbara. She then decided to open what is now known as The Bootmakers House as accommodation, managing it with huge success from afar by utilising a skilled group of Nannup locals to support her with day to day operations.

Zoe Martyn on converting a dilapidated former bootmaker's shop and residence into one of WA's most successful short-term rentals.

Mother of four Michelle Bishop has achieved more than most could dream of before the age of 40. Along with qualifications in interior design and business administration, she not long ago qualified as a licensed estate agent in preparation for the long-awaited opening of her and her builder husband Tom's most ambitious property development project to date, the stunning Bangalay Luxury Villas and Restaurant in New South Wales' Shoalhaven Heads. Now almost two years into overseeing the day to day management of Bangalay, she's widely viewed as one of the most successful short-term accommodation operators in the country, having attracted a spectrum of print and digital PR since opening Bangalay from the likes of Gourmet Traveller, Vogue Magazine and Urban List. But it hasn't all been smooth sailing for Michelle. The devastating loss of her Mum 5 years ago necessitated the shelving of her life and career plans for a year, where she took some much-needed time out to travel around Australia with her family and reaffirm her priorities. A journey that ultimately cemented in her mind the importance of staying true to yourself.

21 - Michelle Bishop on the unpredictable but incredibly satisfying road to remarkable short-term accommodation management success

Tony Blanch has over 30 years' international experience in innovation, marketing and a vast range of sophisticated and high-tech textiles and design. His passion for developing a benchmark range of healthy, comfortable and unique bedding, using his vast knowledge, has ensured the success of his business microCloud bedding, a collaboration with Robert Weil in Melbourne in 2004. By maintaining a focus on delighting and spoiling guests and closely involving the all-important hotel and short-term accommodation market, the pursuit of excellence in this field remains Tony's number one passion and priority. His and Robert’s dedication has made microCloud – both the brand and product range – highly respected and sought after by clients all over Australasia.

Tony Blanch from microCloud Bedding on the importance of high quality, durable bedding for short-term accommodation.

Nicole Haddow is a Melbourne-based freelance writer, blogger and the author of 'Smashed Avocado, the story of how she cracked the Aussie property market (and how you can too)', published in 2019 by Black Inc Books. Following a stark wake-up call not long after she turned 30, the process of buying her first home led Nicole to become passionate about helping people enter the property market. In this episode, Jen talks in detail with Nicole about the various strategies anyone looking to get on top of debt and get their foot in the door of the Aussie property market could potentially employ, and what converting that property into a short-term rental might involve.

Nicole Haddow on finding your feet in the Australian property market.

Jen has been off the airwaves for a few weeks due to a bit of burnout following a super busy autumn, but is back with an update on all things - personal and professional - that have been happening with her, including the surprise purchase of two properties and the re-launch of the website for her accommodation business, Ranges Escapes.

Jen Clark with a quick update after an unexpected break.

Christina Koullas is the Managing Director of Melbourne-based PR consultancy CK PR. She has worked extensively across lifestyle, travel, tourism and event brands in both communications and marketing roles. Before setting up CK PR in 2011, Christina's career included roles with the Spirit of Tasmania, the City of Melbourne, OM DMC in Cyprus and Croatia and the Melbourne Convention Bureau. She is passionate about working with individuals and small businesses in the Australian accommodation and travel sector and enjoys nothing more than being able to share their stories far and wide via carefully crafted, results-driven PR strategies.

Christina Koullas on effective PR strategies for accommodation hosts.

In 2017, there were over 180,000 individual Australian properties listed on Airbnb. Not even taking into account the many other sites and accommodation providers that exist, that's a LOT of people hosting! But is being an STR (short term accommodation) host everything it's cracked up to be and is it REALLY for you? Hosting with Heart is a new podcast for aspiring and existing short-term accommodation hosts and property managers in Australia. Your host (pun intended), short-term accommodation business owner and self-confessed first year hosting apprentice Jen Clark aims to explore every nook and cranny of what it means to be a successful host in Australia in the 2020's and beyond.

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Hosting With Heart

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