STR Academy Launch: What 400 advisory hours taught
Podcast Summary
Twenty years ago, Simon Lehmann took over a 24,000-property vacation rental company with no manual, no course and no one to call. What followed was two decades inside the short-term rental industry: running Interhome, serving on the HomeAway board through its scale to Expedia, chairing Make Comfy through exit, and advising more than 50 management teams across 20 countries and five continents.
In this solo episode of STR Global Unlocked, Simon explains the diagnosis behind that career: most property managers do not have a growth problem, they have a numbers problem, and adding more units often hides it rather than solving it. That diagnosis is what became the Simon Lehmann STR Academy, 20 years of expensive lessons rebuilt with AI. The episode walks through what those lessons actually are.
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Resources mentioned in the show:
The Simon Lehmann STR Academy opened on 5 October 2026.
Twenty places at the opening terms, until Tuesday 13 October 2026. After that it moves to the standard price.
Every buyer also joins Simon for a live session about a month in.
Guest Appearing in this Episode
Simon Lehmann
Simon Lehmann is the CEO of AJL Atelier, a strategic advisory firm for the global short-term rental industry. He has decades of experience in vacation rentals, travel tech, and hospitality, and has advised hundreds of operators, startups, and investors across EMEA, North America, APAC, and LATAM. He’s also a frequent speaker and moderator at global events like VRMA, Phocuswright, and Skift, covering STR tech, market consolidation, and professional hosting. Simon was Co-Founder & Chairman of Vacasa Europe, President of PhocusWright, and a Board Member of HomeAway. He also held executive roles at Interhome, Hotelplan Group, and Swissport.
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