We interview Megan Wester, Senior Director of Marketing at the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA), about their annual Entrepreneur of the Year Award, presented at ASTA's Global Convention in Puerto Rico in May.
The Award provides a great platform for entrepreneurs to be recognized in front of hundreds of travel professionals and suppliers in attendance at ASTA's Global Convention. This is a fantastic opportunity for the winner to make connections and build new relationships that will help support their continued success.
👉 Apply online at astaglobalconvention.org/EntrepreneurAward.cfm before March 20, 2023.
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What is the ASTA Entrepreneur of the Year Award?
This annual award, sponsored by the Dan and Gloria Bohan Foundation, celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit in the travel and hospitality industry by honoring innovators who are leading the way, whether it is creating a new product, introducing a new service or technology, or simply innovating in a complete...
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Hi everyone!
My name is Natalie and I've created LinkedLivin to travel freely.
Our story:
I live in Miami, but like to spend time in different cities as I mainly work from home. Airbnb didn't work for me because it's expensive and I didn't feel comfortable listing my place there. I found myself browsing through different Facebook groups and What's app chats to look for swaps or affordable short-term rentals, but then I was always afraid of scam or the type of people I engage with there. So I decided to create a website with only vetted and verified members, where you know exactly who you are interacting with. This gained traction and we now have close to 1k members on the platform. We soon realized that the type of people we gathered can actually benefit from knowing each other, so we also started organizing events and meet-ups for our community members. Some people even found job opportunities through our network.
In essence, LinkedLivin is about:
• Vetted community of professionals
• 2-3x lower prices vs. Airbnb
• High quality apartments in best locations
I'd be happy to see more Travel Massive members on our platform, saving thousands of dollars like our existing members.
👉 Learn more about us at www.linkedlivin.com/about/
Always open for your feedback and suggestions on how to improve the product! :)
Hi Natalie,
Thanks for sharing LinkedLivin with the Travel Massive community.
This is a fantastic initiative that demonstrates the real value of the “sharing economy” and the power of a trusted community!
A couple of questions:
1. Can non-US members join? I guess that most of the demand is US based. I live in Tasmania which might be a bit far away to swap! Would you add international swapping in the future or are you limited to the US?
2. What are the most in-demand cities for your members? And how do you manage to keep balance/parity in the network between more popular and less popular places? E.g someone lives in middle of nowhere so nobody swaps with them.
3. Have you seen any interesting trends in remote work through building your business?
Keep up the great work and it looks like you’ve created a wonderful travel community!
Thank you, Ian! Appreciate kind words. To answer your questions:
1. Our coverage in mainly US + major global travel hubs like London, Dubai, etc. We've never had a listing in Tasmania, but would be awesome to see it on our map! You never know what other members might be interested in exploring, and we do have some adventurous folks.
2. LinkedLivin is not limited to home swapping. Members can also rent out their places in exchange for money. There's a natural balance, as most of our members live in highly sought-after locations. We also feature some listings on social media for an extra boost, so we try to support our hosts as much as possible.
3. I haven't observed these trends long enough, as we just launched the platform in January. Most of our members are remote or hybrid and, for many of them, this arrangement was not in place before covid.
I hope that helps and would love to see you joining LinkedLivin community! :)