On today’s episode, we sit down with Lauren Madewell, Operations Manager (Daughter, Sister, All-Around Badass) at Auntie Belham’s Cabin Rentals.

Thirty years ago Lauren’s Aunt bought a cabin in the Smoky Mountains, named it Afternoon Delight, and started renting cabins. Fast-forward 28 years and Lauren is now managing one of the oldest STR companies in arguably the hottest vacation rental destination in America.

Over the last few years, so much outside money has been flooding into Sevier County, bringing both pros and cons. Auntie Belham’s, being one of the original vacation rental property management companies in that market, has managed to maintain its focus on being affordable for lower and middle-class families as well as preserving and teaching the history of the region.

Auntie Belham’s Cabin Rentals is family-owned and operated. Their down-to-earth attitude with a focus on the guest experience is refreshing to all that visit. There’s a lot to be said about being able to make quick decisions without having to run it up the “investor flagpole.”

Lauren talks about her experience working with her family and how outside-the-box innovation in our industry can attract more visitors.

You don’t want to miss this episode!

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Family Is Our Greatest Strength With Lauren Madewell

Mateo, How are you?

I’m good. My wrist is healing up, and life is getting better. No worries. How are you? I’m fantastic as usual.

I am good. I’m busy. I got back from Streamline Summit. It was a fantastic show. They always do. Streamline is an amazing user conference. It’s enlightening and they go all out. I’ve been to quite a few user conferences. It is up there. If not top dog, it’s tied for top dog on the best user conferences out there.

If I was a user of Streamline, I would be enlightened, informed and energized. I would feel all those things. It’s not fluff. They dive deeper where you want to dive deep. Shout out to Streamline, for the great conference you put on. With that said, we are here in Season 3 Episode 11. We have an amazing guest. I met her dad in year one in this space, and he’s an awesome dude. I’ve gotten to know her more through conversations. Without further ado, I want to go ahead and introduce Lauren Madewell of Aunty Belham’s Cabins of Gatlinburg. Lauren, how are you?

I’m doing good. I’m happy to be here. I’m excited.

I want to get into your story. We were talking briefly before we started and I said, let’s stop. We’ll go ahead and get this on the show. I want to know the background to the name because there’s your Auntie Belham’s, and there is Aunt Bug’s in the same community. Why the Auntie?

It’s a quip. It’s a play on words, like Auntie Belham. It was a general store at that time. Shannon, my dad’s cousin, is the one who started the cabin rental business. Her mom, Patty, owned a little general souvenir store. It’s super cute in a little cabin in between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge Parkways which is now a liquor store.

I’ve been there. That’s where Mateo and I met.

FYI, John and I met at Pigeon Forge up in Gatlinburg. That’s where this whole thing started. It’s at a conference up there.

That’s neat. Do you know the liquor store I’m talking about, gentlemen?

No, I don’t but I know the drive between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. It’s dark and mysterious at night with the river running through it. It’s a cool road.

If you leave Gatlinburg and you’re heading towards Pigeon Forge, it’s on the right closer to the Gatlinburg side liquor store. If anybody is familiar with the area, they’d be like, “I know exactly where that’s at.” It was in there running that Auntie Belham’s general store when she started doing the vacation rentals. Her mom passed away and it all absorbed into the vacation rental company.

Is that a familial business? Give me a bit of context. When are we talking about in the store?

I call her my Aunt Shannon. She’s my dad’s cousin. My Aunt Shannon was 25 when she started Auntie Belham’s Cabin Rentals, and that was in 1994. We’ve been around a minute. The only company I know in town that’s older than we are, and I could be wrong, this is the only company I know, is Mount Laurel Chalets with Tom Goodwin. He’s an awesome dude. They celebrated their 50 years, so that’s awesome.

Is it 50 years in the VR space?

Yeah. The Smoky Mountains have been a tourism industry for knocking on 100 years now. Fifty years is incredible. She started it up in 1994 with one cabin. It was her cabin and it was named Afternoon Delight. I don’t know if you’re going to do it through noons, but that’s what I’ll buy. She had friends in the area, they got rental properties, put it on her program, and picked up speed with that. Years ago, and this is how my dad got into the business, she passed away and left 51% of the business to my dad and the will. The other 49% was chopped up amongst the family. He has since bought out the rest. He’s got 100% of the business now. He was working in Georgia at that time. I was in school in Georgia for Air Traffic Controlling.

That’s an interesting story too because I’ve met your sister who got out of doing air traffic controlling, correct?

She did.

It’s like you’re keeping air traffic control in the family too, which is weird and awesome.

He’s directing traffic at the end of the day.

It’s logistics.

Do you think it’s logistics? I have so many questions.

I feel the same way. I think that’s why I thrive off the high-intensity stuff with property management because I was built for that high-intensity stuff of air traffic management. I never went through with it. My dad started visiting Tennessee a lot and fell in love with the cabin rental space and the people. He wanted to see the business continue to succeed. He left his job and went full-time into that. My sister and I were both on scholarship in Georgia, so my mom had to stay and see us through that residency.

I was working summers at Auntie Belham’s. I loved being in the mountains and working with my dad. I loved the people, who are still with us. I told him, “I don’t think I can do this air traffic thing.” I came and joined him with the exception of a small sabbatical of bartending and doing nothing with my earnings for a year. I’ve been with Auntie Belham’s since I graduated college.

Where in Georgia were you?

It was 40 minutes South of Atlanta.  Griffin, Georgia is the town.

Random fact. My mom lives in Portland, Oregon, and one of her friends retired to Griffin, Georgia. She was like, “I heard it’s great down there. I’m going to think about moving to Griffin.” I was like, “Have you ever been there? Have you ever seen it? It’s the most random place in the world.” I’m in Atlanta. She’s been to Atlanta and Macon. My son goes to college in Columbus. She knows the area, but her friend randomly ended up in Griffin and she’s like, “I want to move there.” I was like, “I want to go visit. Make sure it’s your speed.”

It’s where the farmland begins when you start to leave Atlanta. It keeps you close, I get it, but I was excited to leave.

Whatever works, it’s not my job to judge. I know my mom. She’s a short Puerto Rican lady that likes to live in the city. She loves nature. She lives in Oregon and loves being outdoors. She loves those things. Anyways, I digress. She never made it. She went to visit and still lives in Portland. That’s how I broke my wrist. We’re moving there and she is still in Oregon.

This is what we do. You graduated college and you said, “No. It’s not for me.” You took a sabbatical, had a bit of drinking, and worked but not saving money. At this time, did you already know beforehand that you were taking a time off and you had it figured out that you’re going to be joining your dad in this family legacy here, or did you fall into it and be like, “That’s what I’m doing?” I don’t know what your mindset comes back then.

It was an evolution. I do need to say I did not lose money. I bartended, so I made a ton of money. I save money to take that year off and do my first backpacking trip in Europe. I took my time off to figure out my life, do my hobbies, do anything I was passionate about, and figure out, “Do I want to go back to Auntie Belham’s or do I want to spread my wings and do my own thing?” My dad was completely supportive of whatever I wanted to do. I was a little aimless. I was lost.

I did not know what to do with myself. Luckily, I woke up one morning and my subconscious grabbed me by the shoulders. It was like, “Your family owns an incredible business in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. You love working with your dad. You love everybody who works there. What are you doing? Ask him for a job back.” I did say, “I’ll never leave again if you take me back.” I thought he would be like, “Let me think about it,” but he was like, “Please, be my succession plan.”

Everyone that’s reading knows this, but the Smoky Mountains is the number one drive-to destination in the country. It will beat out destined. It will be like, “There’s no other place in the world.” I’m sure the stats are off the tip of your tongue. There’s no other place that draws from many different cities within a 5 to 6-hour driving range other than Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevier County, Tennessee.

It’s insane. If you’ve never been what I describe it as, think of a boardwalk or Myrtle Beach in the middle of the most beautiful place you’ve ever been. It’s a combination of two different worlds. It’s a national forest, and amazing hiking, moonshine, and debauchery. It’s weird and amazing all at the same time. It’s very unique. Please tell me, if you look at it differently because you live there, it’s a bit of everything. Mateo and I, and we said this a lot, we’ve seen some shit when we were in Gatlinburg. It’s like fist fights, guys with overalls, and bears. It’s meant insane.

Overalls, no shirt, no teeth. I get it.

It’s those men who helped build this tourism industry. It’s the hillbillies.

That’s the thing. There’s an authenticity and a mystique to the area. The fact that it’s almost magical with the fog and the way that everything happens in that area. It’s everything you think it is and it surprises you because it’s so much more. That night, I did see a bear stalking garbage cans in the street. I will not say if I shook my leg a bit, but I hightailed it to where I needed to go and was not interested in seeing any more of those things outside of a caged area.

You guys nailed it though. Seriously, this is such a weird, wonderful, magic area. I think about it every single day. I get to take a back road and see pastures, rolling hills, mountains, cows, buffalo, and beauty, or I can take the parkway and see King Kong hanging off of a mock Eiffel Tower. I can see the Titanic. It’s the moonshiners. It’s that shit over here and I love it. I’m trying to take it all in. I hope to write a book about it one day. Recently I’ve come to the third element, which is the history of the place. I’ve been buying up books about the history of the Smoky Mountains, how settlers got here, how tourism started, and where it all came from. It’s cool. Now there are three elements for me and there are many of the old names as you can read in the book the Ogles and the Reagans.

You can read these old historical names of the families that have been here for two centuries and you can reach out and touch their family businesses. You can go to the Glades Arts and Crafts district, the Ogles woodworking store and the broom-making store. I’ve started going and having conversations with them. I’m afraid that, with the property being brought up and all sorts of new businesses cropping up the road, it’s going to raise their property value and they might sell one day. They do and don’t realize how special they are, and what their name is. In my conversations with them, they are so in it and ingrained in the history of this place.

They hardly know their history. I was talking to one of the Ogles in their little store and they’ve been there for a few decades. I’m trying to pick their brain because I’m reading about their relatives and they don’t know anything. I thought that was fascinating. They’re not quite understanding how special they are. If it raises their property value, they think, “We could have a great nest egg for the kids. Maybe we can set up shops somewhere else.” I’m worried about the historical aspect of this community going away, which is part of what makes us special. The stuff that’s moving in is all a mockery of it.

Do the guests care? Do you do educational stuff for the guests or your guests? That’s fascinating. I would love to know those types of things. I’d love to know the historical businesses that are in there and the people that have been around forever. The industry could help preserve some of that if you build it into the culture of tourism and the people that are traveling there. Do you do anything special to ingrain that into the guest experience?

I am actively working on it. I’m so happy to hear you say that you would find that fascinating too.

That’s the shit that my family we’re like, “When I go, I want to learn about it.” It’s not everyone. I don’t want to pause you. I want you to answer Mateo’s question, but there are two types of travelers. I could see 2 maybe 3, but 2 types of travelers go to Pigeon Ford, Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountains. There is the one that cares about that, and the ones that want to go get wasted. Those are your two types of travelers and they’re both prevalent.

At night, there’s more of the other one. When you’re out and about. For me, and my family to go 100%, “Let’s learn about the history. Let’s dive in and soak all up this knowledge because that’s why I travel.” Being in the drive-to location, that’s easy for a lot of people to get to. That’s why you have two different draws to your location. Back to your question. I apologize.

This is all good for me to hear because I do want to educate the people. I’m drafting up something that I could potentially put into print. I thought I could put this in a few pages, put it in a binder, and put it up at the cabins. I’m quickly realizing this might be best served if I do self-publishing like a coffee table book where I’m writing my experience with the history. I’m interacting with the history and giving them places that they should go to see the old families in their stores and all the old spots and the old architecture that’s still here, the cabins and stuff. I am working on like a coffee table book. I’m also considering ways to make put it into videos. I don’t know if I can do it in 60 seconds or less.

I posted my video and some people prefer to watch their information and not read it. I’m trying to figure out ways to put it into videos, which would be easy, and that way I can show where I’m talking about and who I’m talking about. Also, I’m creating a digital book about it all as well, make a QR code of it, and put it on the fridge with a magnet or something. I want to educate the guests. I know they love to know people who like to contribute to the area and be a part of the history of the area. Now when they go out and drink moonshine, they can feel they’re taking part in history.

The interesting thing with that too is using a digital guidebook in a mixed media type of thing or the mixed media coffee table book. It could almost be a guest experience tour where if you were to spend a day hitting these 5 or 6 different things. If you drive here, tell me exactly how to get there. They go and learn about this place. You already pre-workout a discount for a trinket or something at the Ogles or something and say, “I’m going to drive people to your location.” Now they’re invested in this as well, do it brings your community together in a tighter knit, fashion, which is the whole point for doing this to not forget the history of the Smoky Mountains, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg’s area.

You nailed it. That’s it. I have been focusing on the word community. What does that mean to me? What can I do for my community? Making sure I’m not leaving my community behind as our industry picks up and gains momentum. I’m glad to hear you guys get excited about it as I am. I’m loving it. I’m loving writing this stuff out.

That brings me to what John said. When we talk about that area, he mentioned something that, I don’t know how to say without it sounding wrong, but I’m going to say it the way I think. I feel the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge area is an accessible vacation destination. Regardless of your socioeconomic background, there’s something for you within that space. Knowing that and all of the exciting things that you are doing, what’s your idea for the future? What are you excited about for the generation now and the next generation of families and people who are coming to your area for whatever their vacation needs or vacation maybe? What do you envision the future of that experience being from your vantage point?

I would say that the area is well known for all the attractions and the gimmicks and stuff, but more companies are coming into town, building and creating outdoor experiences to make sure that the people are keeping the mountain views. There’s mountain biking now. There’s more horseback riding than ever. There’s ATV riding, more zip lining, outdoor obstacle courses, and more camping spots than ever.

Yurts and teepees are popping up. I’m not interested in buying a cabin myself, but I would buy a yurt or a camp dress. I’m excited for more outdoor activities. One of the things is that the gimmicks are fun and they draw people in. We give free tickets to a lot of these places. I’m excited for people to spend more time outside enjoying the Smoky Mountains, enjoying the very reason that we are here. By proxy, that can help preserve some of the lands that are quickly being bought up for development.

I like that answer. That’s interesting too because it’s almost like the vacation rental short-term rental limit is big, huge, and strong and has been for a long time. It’s not going anywhere. It’s expanding and growing. There’s a lot of outside investment coming to the area. If you could preserve some of this land for the natural beauty that it is for guests to use and explore.

Overall, don’t you have one of these amazing new skywalks? I wish I want to go next time I go there. That’s what’s on top of my list to go do. You’re right. You can’t go put another condo complex or another hotel there. Mateo hit it with the accessible. It’s the right choice of words because you have cabins that are rented for $2,500, $3,000, or $5,000 a night.

You also have condo hotels and hotels that you can come in and get a $7 or $9-a-night room in certain parts of Gatlinburg or up in Sevierville or wherever. In the overall county, there’s so much. You have Dolly Parton. Dollywood is there. You have these amazing draws, but if you could preserve the outdoor stuff as well, it’s great.

It’s important and it’s getting more important for people within our community. I feel that at some point, something is going to need to be done about it, so I’m trying to figure out ways to get more involved with the community. I started to go to more chamber events and meet people that way. I’ll work my way in, but something about the area needs to be protected and preserved at one point.

Tell us more about that. What’s fucked up with the mindset of your community now? In your opinion, who do you need to shake? What mindset do you need to shake out of people? I’m curious to know. We know where you’d like to see the community, but what’s stopping that progress from coming? What do you need to do to affect the minds to change them differently?

That’s a big question too, and something that I meditate on every single day. I would say luxury is spoiling the area a little bit. You were asking what we are excited about with the future of our company. One of the things I’m excited about is we are going to stay affordable. We are not trying to scale too quickly. We’re not specifically targeting luxury units. We’re not even trying to bring our current units up to any luxury status.

We want affordable properties so that we can continue to offer vacations to middle and lower-middle-class America, which has always been our bread and butter and my favorite clientele. The big luxury units homeowner is worrying about keeping up with the luxury units, all the various attractions and stuff, and getting more expensive. It’s harder for little families with multiple kids to afford it.

It’s interesting when you say that and I could see that being when you think of gentrification, you think of cities, you think of urban areas, you think of what that is doing. In a sense, this is the same thing. You throw a shit ton of money in investments and you’re building these purpose-built properties, which are these amazing overlooks. They’re not even cabins but mansions that look like cabins.

They’re the luxury and you’re bringing in that clientele. They’re seeing an ROI on it. It’s proven not from a business standpoint. It makes sense. What is that doing to the fabric of this community? What is it doing overall, not only the community that you are but the guests you’re drawing in? I can see that it’s hard to navigate.

It’s sticky. The bigger and nicer your cabin is, the more money you’re making on it. For the people out there building these properties and investing in them, good for you. You’re doing the American Dream. Those luxury properties are bringing in people from the rest of the country who may not have known about the Smoky Mountains before, or there wasn’t a property big enough for what they had in mind. Those luxury properties are bringing more and more people to the area, which is a wonderful thing. It’s sticky because, to a degree, it spoils something about the area. I love having wooden homes and log cabins on the program.

There’s history to that too. That’s what was being built here when the settlers were here. They were chopping down those trees and building their homes. Those are the original settlements and properties of the area. When you’re staying in a cabin, it’s not just cute, but a part of history. These luxury homes are mansions and you could see them in any state or city. There are two sides to every coin. If anything was making me nervous, it would be luxury in the area.

This is a dilemma that goes our vacation communities are a reflection of our broader society at a lot of different levels. One of the things I love hearing you talk about is the part about being involved and letting your local community define what and who you are in that space. Understanding the nature of the special place that you are and the broad-reaching you because if you focus on luxury, then you’re going to limit yourself.

The more you have a diverse economic base, which has luxury. I’m sure if you run the data from the numbers, the majority of the people that come through that area are not wealthy. They’re families, this is their vacation. They hop in the car. It’s that experience of all the kids fighting in the back, driving from Indiana or wherever they’re coming from to come to have this experience in those cabins in that place because that’s the mystique of the area. Local communities sometimes forget that they do have that control and get to define who and what they are if they put themselves in positions.

It’s easy to lose that power if you sell it out for money or whatever to developers and others who want to make it what they want to make it. Keeping local control is important, but also understanding balance, who you want to be, and what you want your narrative to be. What you’re doing now is how that will change your community.

I know sometimes those impacts are far-reaching and down the line. The key word is deliberate. You want to deliberately do these things with the intent that you want. This is not a Sevierville or Pigeon Forge. That’s a question that a lot of our communities are going to be asking themselves. We know luxury pays. When you look at the broader numbers of who can afford luxury and who’s going on vacation, it’s a question to be had. Kudos to you for wanting to maintain that and being willing to do the work to make sure that it’s sustained.

I am willing and I’m excited about the future, my future, company, community future, industries, area, and everybody. I’m very excited about it. It is all about balance and that’s what I’m careful with. I don’t want ever want to leave one thing behind in pursuit of the other. We try to maintain an old-school vibe. You were talking about putting the kids in the car, the kids arguing, pushing each other and driving. Coming to their old-school cabin, we’re all about that. As far as branding, swag, and merchandise, we try to keep things vintage and old-school. We’re trying to stay attached to the history of the place.

Let’s talk about the resilience of your community too. We mentioned a lot that Mateo and I met in Gatlinburg and it was right after the forest fire. A few weeks, some roads had trees down over where we had to go around. What was that in 2018 or 2017?

2018.

That was the first time that we had been together. For those that are reading that don’t know the devastation that came through and ravaged the community, it was insane. Do you know the numbers of how many cabins were lost? It was thousands of cabins. Homes and lives are lost in the fire. Shout out to Amy via Mintel. She went forward with the conference there in Gatlinburg.

We had the community firefighters and stuff that were presenting talking about these numbers, and it was heart-wrenching. As a community, you came together and focused on the important things. You rebuilt it in a way that the communities would be like, “We can go ahead and reinvent because this devastated our community. Now we’re going to come in and do this quickly because we want to get as many people back here as possible.”

Overall, it’s community. Can I say that thoughtfully and methodically? The fact that we are open for business as soon as you possibly could because you know that this is where the money comes. This is how you put food on the table. You’re a tourist town. You didn’t start that way, but now this is what you are. This is how you, as a community, thrive. It was heart-wrenching and heartwarming all at the same time. Can you talk about the resilience of the community a little bit? I know I went on this insane monologue. I apologize.

Look how passionate you are about our area. It was something to behold. That is for sure. Nobody skipped a beat. There was not a moment where any part of the community was down on themselves or woe was me.  Everybody was there for everybody else. The people who lost their homes in the fire were there for other people who lost their homes in the fire. People from around the country flooded into the area for volunteer work to help at the shelters and build up shelters.

Many resources poured into the area to the point where one of the shelters that my mom was working at had to start turning away resources because they had such an abundance of them. There are storage areas where there are those water bottles and various things like clothes, toothpaste, and all that stuff. It’s still being stored up, which is great because another fire came through in April 2022 and the response was quick. They had a cell phone alert system this time keeping us up to date, almost hourly, about the direction of the fire, what it was doing, where it was going, and where we should be evacuating our guests. It was incredible. They built that as a response to these 2018 fires. The slogan that went around during that time was Smoky Strong.

That’s true in Southern hospitality. We didn’t skip a beat. Everybody took care of everybody. Much love and comfort were being given freely. That was the Southern hospitality of the area and very Southern. We didn’t reinvent anything. Let’s build back better. It was scary. Honestly, it’s hard to even put myself in that mindset to think about it again. It was incredible. It was a thing to behold as I said. It’s hard to say that one of the blessings was that this fire happened about a week after Thanksgiving. We almost had nobody in the house. If that had happened one week earlier, it’s scary to even think about.

You said this happened a week after Thanksgiving so the first week in December. We were there in February so it was two months after. The stories that I heard going around and talking to property managers. There are heroic stories I heard of people going, driving over, and moving burning logs out of the road. I’m like, “Holy shit.”

Before we get out of here, I want to talk about Auntie Belham’s and where you’re going, if those of you reading are not aware, there are a gazillion options when you’re going to the Smoky Mountains and where you could stay. It’s the second longest tenure of property management companies that are offering short-term rentals, which is fantastic. These are great people but what’s a differentiator? I know there are many, but what stands you apart from your “competition?” My guess, looking at what you do is you’re focused on the guest experience. That’s a huge part of your differentiator. What else? Dive into guest experience stuff.

Our biggest strength is that we are family owned and operated. There is no board of directors I have to report to. My dad and I don’t have some boss that we have to report to or get permission from. We can do absolutely anything. If I’m realizing a pattern of complaints operationally, I can fix it, however I need to. If I am recognizing a pattern of preference, I can accommodate it. We can do anything. That video I posted, I send it off to my guests on their check-in day.

I can make it however I want it and brand it however I want. “Dad, are you good with this?” “That’s cute. I’m good with that.” I’m working with a graphic designer and the thought is to create some adorable chipmunk logos to throw on merchandise. I can do that. I can change systems, processes, and people. Being family owned and operated, we only report to ourselves. We take care of ourselves. There are no investors, no foreign interests. No, nothing. That’s what we’re going to capitalize on. Where do we go from here? Anywhere I want to go and anything we think of. If anybody in the office has a good idea, we can put it into action. We can be exactly who we want to be and what we want to be.

When you said, “My dad got 51% of the company and the rest of the family got 49%,” I envisioned this big mafia table where everyone is sitting around the table making decisions on how to run the business moving forward. It’s a gesture your dad got the remaining shares and that you guys are operating it. I was like, “How’s that going to work?”

Was John blindsided by that? Was he like, “Someday, I’d love to be a part of what you’re doing?” Was it like, “We’re reading the will. It looks like we own a vacation rental company?”

Yes, it was that completely. He had no idea. He called me and I remember I was leaving a class. He told me the sad news of her passing. The next thing I know, he’s telling me, “She left 51% of her business to me.” I was excited immediately. I was like, “You mean we can move to the mountains now?” I was close to her. I thought about working with her in high school and stuff, and I’d visited her. I knew I love the area and she set my family up for success. That 51% was 100% trust in my dad. She knew he would take care of her people, take care of the business, and potentially take it to new heights. He has done wonders with it. Anybody here will tell you. I’m so impressed with him all the time.

I’m lucky I get to learn from him and work with him. I’m grateful for her. We all think about her every single day. She created something wonderful and gave my family a new beautiful life. We’re all here now. Other families come to visit all the time because they love the area. We’ve got cabins that we can put them up in. My family bought an extra big house. It’s been wonderful in keeping the family together but blindsided completely.

Speaking of family, I got to know Malory. She was at DARM and we were chatting ahead of time about some business stuff. Anyway, we’ve been on some calls ahead of time, but that’s a recent addition into the fold. As we talked about earlier, she went to Air Traffic Control school as well, and she was an actual air traffic controller for a time. Now she’s joined the family business. She’s day-to-day with you as well, correct?

Yes. We are side by side and I am happy to have her. We think alike. I don’t always have to finish my sentences with her. She’s one step ahead of me when I need her to be or motivating me and encouraging me in my pursuits when I need her to be. She’s more of a number person, which I’m incredibly grateful for. I don’t love diving into the data and numbers so she serves it to me on a nice platter and then I can run with it creatively, whatever that means. We make quite the team and I am pumped for it.

We’re pumped for you. I’m excited about where you’re going. We’ll always have a connection, Teo and I, to Gatlinburg and the Smoky because that’s where this show started. With us having conversations, we are like, “This is an amazing industry. What the fuck with all these different things.” It’s great to talk with you. I’m going to be excited for the next time we’re down there, which I don’t know when, but it’ll be sometime soon, I’m sure.

I want to put you guys up.

I’ll definitely come up. John already knows I’m going to be ringing your bell about at ease our platform. I’m talking to you about that offline. We will be coming up that way. I love it up there. It’s beautiful. It’s interesting. I grew up on the West Coast. I’m a West Coast kid. I grew up between Oregon and California. I love being outdoors. It’s very different out there. It’s a different world, but it’s also a very welcoming world. I’ve never felt I didn’t belong out there. I never felt I can’t be at peace out there. I would love to vacation and go there, sit on that deck, look at those mountains, and be in that fog.

It doesn’t get old.

For those who have not been there, there is a Swiss?

The Alpine Lodge at the hill.

There’s a ski resort in the middle of Gatlinburg. It’s Swiss-themed and ice skating. It’s close to everything.

Go down that mountain, but it’s an experience. It’s fun. I love going up there.

They do an Octoberfest. That’ll be happening soon. They get the good beer and the later hosting. I’ve got later hosting.

I’m going to say this now because it’s going to make it happen. We have to go back to Pigeon Forge and do an episode from there.

Lauren, thank you so much for joining us. If you’re liking this show and you haven’t given us a like and five stars on the Apple Podcasts and written out a review, please do so. That helps us out exponentially. You have no idea. It’s in there on YouTube. Hit the notification button. Lauren, we appreciate you. This has been great. Thank you.

I appreciate you guys so much. I surprised myself. I can’t believe I didn’t drop an F-bomb. I’m going to say I fucking love you guys. Thank you.

Important Links

• Streamline Summit
• Aunty Belham’s Cabin of Gatlinburg
• Mount Laurel Chalets
• Apple Podcasts – The No BS Short-Term Rental Podcast
• YouTube – The No BS Short-Term Rental Podcast
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