Latest / STR Unpacked / Who Really Shapes the STR Industry? Inside TruVisionaries
Transcript
- Ben: Hi and welcome back to Short Term Rentals Unpacked. the last episode we looked at regulation and what's changing across the UK and the EU. ⁓ today we're shifting gears a bit because beyond regulation and supply growth there's something else happening in short term rentals. ⁓ is evolving. Who gets heard, who shapes narrative and who sets the tone. ⁓ that's what we're unpacking today. So it is a pleasure to be joined by Humphrey Bowles, founder and CEO of Truvi, to talk about Truvisionaries. what it is, why it exists, and what it says about where the industry is right now. Humphrey, it's ⁓ a pleasure to have you come on podcast. I just wanted to ask, just before kind of get into the main questions I've prepared you, ⁓ this must have been a pretty big week for you, right? How's it actually felt from your Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: ⁓ Ben, well, look, it's a pleasure to be here and it's been phenomenal. Like, the, the best thing about this project is how much fun it's been to put together. Like, you know, there's work and there's work and this is something that I have positively look forward to every day to jump out of bed, discuss it with the team, execute little bits and pieces of the projects. And I just love the breadth that has been brought into it. Like, you know, from Ben: Yeah. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: getting the family involved, to interviewing Steve Schwab, to kind of seeing Leo, who actually has some real acting pedigree come through. Like the whole thing has been a joy to put together from start to finish. Ben: Hahaha Amazing. Well, I've really enjoyed watching it like to kind of build up to and then to actually being released. I think it's been amazing to watch and you guys have been so creative about how you've gone about doing it, which I think has been a real breath of fresh air. But yes, so shall we get into it? For anyone for anyone who hasn't actually seen it and somehow has just been off social for the last week or so, what is true vision race? Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: Let's do it. So look, it's kind of the top-ish 50 voices of some of the most influential, authentic, and most importantly, under-recognised people shaping conversations in short-term rentals. It's not about being the loudest, not about being the most followed, it's about being the most genuinely valuable. So you know, the people who's... thinking actually moves the industry forward even when the algorithm doesn't reward them for it. Ben: Nice, nice, I love that. And kind of when you set out to create the true visionaries, has it turned out pretty much the same as what you originally thought it would, or has it kind of changed a bit along the way? Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: I, I think it's changed a little bit. Look, we created it a little bit out of frustration, frustration that the same handful of names kept appearing on panels, in podcasts, in the press, while hundreds of people are just doing extraordinary work, but remaining invisible to the wider industry. And Ben: Okay. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: You know, social media platforms, much like the booking platforms, you know, they tend to amplify whoever already has an audience, not necessarily whoever has the most to say. So we wanted to try and cut through that. what I guess, Ben, what I was trying to create was threefold. Okay. First, I really wanted a genuine, useful resource, a list that someone knew to the industry. Ben: Mm-hmm. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: or a seasoned operator looking to expand their thinking could actually find voices worth following. Second, I wanted a moment of recognition for people who rarely receive it. So I know in my own experience how sustaining it can be when someone says what you're doing matters. And I also know how like absolutely rare that is. And then third, Ben: Okay. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: I wanted a statement about the kind of company Truvia is because we're not here to extract value from this industry. We're here to invest in it. And this was our way of being able to give back and raise up the people who we think are really worth listening to in the short term rental industry. Ben: Nice, fantastic. So once it went live, obviously there was quite a reaction. I think it's fair to say. What has that response told you about where the short term rental industry is right now? Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: honestly, like it's kind of told me that the industry is hungry for something. It hasn't quite being able to name yet. Like I don't think the reaction, it wasn't just positive. Okay. It was, it was really quite emotional. So people who were included, it doesn't just say, thank you. They said things like, I needed this and I didn't realise anyone was paying attention. Like Ben: Yeah. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: That's just not the response you get when someone wins a revenue award or gets a platform integration announcement. Like that's the response of people who've been working hard in relative isolation, sort of wondering whether they're actually doing anything that matters beyond anyone, you know, with their own portfolio. Now look, there's two things, okay, about what I think this says to us about where the industry is right now. First, Ben: Yeah. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: There's an enormous amount of genuine talent and expertise that is going unrecognized and therefore underutilized. And the SDR industry has professionalized faster than its recognition infrastructure has kept up. The operators, educators and commentators doing the most important work are often the least visible. And that's a problem because it means the loudest voices aren't always the most valuable ones. Second, and probably more importantly, it's told me that the industry is ready to look inward. So for years, the conversation in short term rentals has been dominated by the platforms, their algorithm changes, their policy updates, their fee structures. The reaction to the top 50, like it just suggests that operators and industry participants are increasingly interested in building something that belongs to them. A community, a canyon of knowledge, like a sense of shared identity that doesn't depend on being an Airbnb super host or their next announcement to feel relevant. And that is so exciting for the industry. Like the response to this list felt like confirmation that the industry Ben: Yeah. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: is starting to feel that they are ready to start taking ownership of their industry rather than simply borrowing it from Airbnb. Ben: Yeah, and I'd love it if we could see that happen, right? I love it in 2026, obviously other than true visionaries, the main conversation I think has not been AI. It has been, how do we get more direct bookings? How do we not circumvent, but drive more traffic to our direct booking websites rather than through Airbnbbooking.com or any kind of third party OTA. And I think this list is an incredible list of people who seem to be cracking that code. And from looking at the list, were there names on there or people that you personally hadn't heard of? Is there anyone on that list where you thought, this person's gonna be one of the next big kind of movers and shakers in the short-term rental world? Or anyone kind of stand out to you in that respect? Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: Yeah, totally. Like I, I'd certainly heard of the majority, but there was a really significant minority who I'd never come across before. Like this project has been an education piece for me, you know, for sure. And I guess that the thing which is so exciting is that being able to help give these people the spotlight that they deserve has really contributed to Ben: Yeah. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: our understanding of how the industry works as well. And it's by rolling up the sleeves and doing some of the work that you really understand how many amazing people are there and the types of work that they're doing. Ben: Yeah, completely, completely. I've always thought that about our industry. So I love that you've done this personally. So I guess if you step back from it, how does this project reflect on your own journey building Truvy? Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: Um, do you know what the, the, the, the, I can say the word honest again, you have to edit that out. Um, the honest thing is that it probably in more ways than I initially realized when we launched it. So you know what it's like starting a business, like building Truvy has required an almost stubborn belief that the work matters, even when the external signals weren't always confirming that. So we rebranded from Super Hog to Truvy whilst Ben: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: simultaneously restructuring the business and navigating the loss of Andrew, my co-founder. There were long stretches when we were doing genuinely important work, trying to build better risk management infrastructure for operators without much fanfare. And you learn in those moments that conviction Ben: Yeah. Yeah. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: has to be self-sustaining because the recognition isn't always coming. And the top 50 voices came pretty directly from that experience. I knew there were hundreds of people in this industry in that position who do important work, valuable industry-shaping work without a stage or an audience, know, proportionate to their contribution. So we wanted to build the list I wished I had and you know that list that had existed during our hardest periods. The kind of you know external signals that says what you're doing is seen and it matters. And I think there's probably a deeper parallel when you when you think about it because Truvy was built on the belief that operators deserve independence. That the people doing the real work in short-term rentals shouldn't be structurally dependent on platforms. that don't have their interests at heart. And the top 50 voices, you know, it's the same arguments that apply to recognition. Why should visibility in this industry be determined by an algorithm built by a platform with its own commercial interests? Why should the most followed automatically be the most influential? So we wanted to build something that returned the power to the community itself. So in that sense, I guess like, The project isn't separate from TrueV, it's kind of like an expression of it. Same values with a slightly different medium. Ben: Nice, I absolutely love that. I mean, I totally agree. And I think the other thing as well that you've done ⁓ is I'm excited for a short stay summit as well, because I feel like what you've done is connected a load of people that wouldn't have been connected before. And realistically, the next time all these people are going to meet in person will probably be the short stay summit, right? So I think that's also a really exciting thing that you've done. ⁓ Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: I thought you were going to mention the calendar there, Ben, and whether or not there would be a ⁓ True Visionaries calendar available. Ben: Well, maybe, who knows, right? But I guess, kind of on that, if we fast forward a little bit to maybe a few years in the future, is this an annual thing that we'll see happening every year? Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: I would love it to be. mean, look, you know, one year in the short-term rental industry is a long time. It is way long enough for the next wave of professionalization to be underway and long enough for the platform dependency conversation to have reached a genuine tipping point. And, you know, my prediction is that actually the next cohort of important voices Ben: Yeah. Yeah. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: you know, won't primarily be talking about optimizing within the existing platform ecosystem. They'll be the people who figured out how to build genuinely independent businesses, you know, so operators with a strong direct booking engines and property managers with their own brand equity, the educators who build communities rather than just audiences. And, you know, we can already see the conversation is shifting in that direction. And, you know, Ben: Yeah, definitely. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: The thing I love about the true visionaries is it's about the unsung heroes and therefore it'd be, you're always going to be introducing a new cohort of individuals to the industry. And therefore that is just going to show you the depth and the talent. And I think, look, I would put my hand up. I got a couple of messages, obviously from people around and about the industry and some of them gave some pretty constructive feedback. around the lack of geographical diversity on the list and part of that is probably our fault but it's also we decided that people had to be nominated so we didn't need to find a way to get into these new markets whether it is Latin America or Southeast Asia or the Middle East like you know or we Ben: Yeah. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: We also need the community to help us step up, the project to step up, to reach where the disruption, where the professionalization is happening in order to create as brilliant and relevant a list as possible. Ben: Yeah, I know think that makes total sense, you know, because presumably your geographical locations was based on where your client base is and your knowledge is, right? Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: We're kind of like where our current reach is. But look, what's not going to change is what makes a true voice worth following. So generosity with knowledge, willingness to say difficult things, a genuine commitment to making the industry better rather than just making themselves more visible. You know, the media might evolve whatever comes after LinkedIn and podcasts, but the substance ⁓ Ben: Yeah. Humphrey Bowles - Truvi: that matters, that's going to stay the same. Ben: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's such a perfect point to kind of wrap this up on. So look, Humphrey, really appreciate you coming on. Thank you so much for your time. And I just think it's fascinating just to see how the short term mental industry is shifting and generally who's shaping the next phase of the industry and where that might go. And I think obviously you guys are at the leading edge of that, is amazing. And if you've enjoyed this episode of Short Term Mental Dunplacked, please make sure subscribe wherever you're listening and I will see you next time. Thank you for watching. Bye bye.