The People

Built Boostly around one stubborn message: hosts can do their own marketing. Training, website builds and one of the most active host communities anywhere, all pointed at direct bookings.

Runs the Book Direct Show, the conference where this movement actually meets in person. Has spent years quietly connecting hosts, property managers and vendors around a single idea.

Hosts the Direct Booking Success podcast and an annual online summit. A steady, practical voice on marketing your own property without burning your evenings.

Long-running podcast and coaching for short-term rental hosts. Direct bookings and running hospitality like a real business are constant themes.

Decades in the industry, including years running a large rental agency, now shared generously through the Vacation Rental Formula podcast and school.

Weekly hosting advice on the Thanks for Visiting podcast, with a strong line in professionalising your operation and owning the guest relationship.

Decades deep in holiday rentals, from running an agency to co-founding industry tech. One of the sector's most prolific writers on distribution, OTAs and owning your own demand.

Founder of Luxury Cottages and the Stay Direct community, built on the view that too many good operators sit on platforms they don't control. Practical, founder-led and free to join.

CEO of Truvi (formerly Superhog), the guest screening and damage protection people. Coined "digital sharecropping" for what platform dependency does to a hosting business, and argues loudly against it.

Founded BedandBreakfast.com back in 1995 and co-founded TurnKey. Now runs Savvy (formerly bnbfinder), a no-fee book-direct marketplace taking the argument straight to the OTAs.

Chartered marketer teaching cottage, glamping and boutique hosts to fill their own calendars. Practises what she preaches: her treehouse runs at 100% direct.

North Yorkshire cottage owner turned coach, helping UK holiday let owners treat their property as a proper business, with direct bookings at the centre of it.

Founder of I-PRAC, the approval and verification scheme built to answer the question that kills direct bookings: "can I trust this website with my money?"

Co-founder of Touch Stay, the digital guidebook used by thousands of hosts. A regular, generous voice on guest experience as the engine of repeat direct bookings.

Yorkshire host and founder of Host Planet (formerly Holiday Cottage Handbook): podcast, newsletter and guides for UK hosts, with direct bookings a running theme.

Executive chair of the Professional Association of Self-Caterers, the trade body fighting the corner of independent UK holiday let owners, in Westminster and beyond.

Founder of Rental Tonic, coaching hosts and small agencies on brand, content and guest relationships that bring bookings to their own door rather than the platforms'.

Ran her own B&B in Champagne for two decades, now coaches B&B and guest house owners worldwide on earning more while relying less on the booking sites.

Probably the closest thing the independent host movement has to a founding writer. VRMB and its Inner Circle shaped how a generation of owners think about limited edition hospitality.

Builds direct booking websites at iBooked and hosts The Accommodation Show, interviewing operators about what actually moves bookings off the platforms. Australian, but we'll allow it.