From Potato Hotels to Hobbit Inns: How She Built the World's Most Famous Airbnbs

Meet Kristie Wolfe — the entrepreneur and builder behind some of the world’s most famous Airbnbs including the Big Idaho Potato Hotel, The Big Island Treehouse, The Hobbit Inn, and several others. Growing up, Kristie always wanted to do her own thing – she convinced her parents to let her drop out of high school because she felt like she could learn more about business outside of the classroom. Kristie is a true creative — she gets an idea in her head and just has to execute it…even if, and arguably especially if, it doesn’t make sense to other people. In this conversation, Kristie and I discuss: Why she built her first unique Airbnb — long before anyone else was doing it How she forged an early partnership with Airbnb as the company started dreaming up would would eventually become “categories” How she creatively financed each of her builds Why she thinks what she builds resonates with folks  What she’s working on next And so much more Follow Kristie on Instagram  This episode is brought to you by our friends at Hostfully. Hostfully Digital Guidebooks are the easiest way to help your guests get to know your property and discover just how special the community that surrounds it is. Hostfully Guidebooks give you a dynamic place to store every bit of information you might want your guests to have — from the wifi password to how to work the hot tub to where to take the best selfies at golden hour. Hostfully empowers you with easy-to-use tools that help you feature a totally curated list of your favorite eateries, pubs, hiking trails, and more — OR Hostfully can automatically create a list of experiences through their Guidebook Wizard if you’ve got dozens of properties and just can’t afford to curate a custom set of recommendations for each one. Learn more here! About the Show Behind the Stays is brought to you twice a week by Sponstayneous — a free, biweekly newsletter that brings subscribers the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb. You can subscribe, for free, at www.sponstayneous.com. Behind the Stays is hosted by Zach Busekrus, co-founder of Sponstayneous, you can connect with him on Twitter at @zboozee

Om Podcasten

Welcome to Behind the Stays — a podcast that shares the stories behind your favorite boutique hotels, short-term rentals, and hospitality brands and the hosts, operators, and entrepreneurs who’ve brought them to life. Every Tuesday and Friday you’ll meet the military veterans, retired flight attendants, tech entrepreneurs, school teachers, single moms, hoteliers, and real estate investors who are all, in their unique ways, shaping the future of travel and hospitality. Discover how these visionaries — from all over the world — have built stunning landscape hotels in the mountains, designed bohemian bungalows on the beach, erected eclectic off-grid and nature-immersed escapes, and so much more. Behind the Stays is brought to you by Journey — a first-of-its-kind loyalty program that brings together an alliance of the world’s top independently owned and operated stays and allows travelers to earn points and perks on boutique hotels, vacation rentals, treehouses, ski chalets, glamping experiences and so much more. And I’m your host, Zach Busekrus, Head of the Journey Alliance. Alright friends, enjoy the show!