About This Episode

Meet Whitney Hansen, the creator of The Flower Pot, a truly spectacular, one-of-a-kind experiential stay in Burley, Idaho.

Whitney has always been entrepreneurial — she owns her own consulting business, she hosts a podcast on investing and financial freedom called The Money Nerds, and is now also a hospitality entrepreneur.

After building one of Idaho's only geodesic domes and seeing it perform remarkably well on Airbnb, Whitney began dreaming of what her next build might look like — would it be an A-Frame?  A Treehouse?  A Pirate Ship?

And then she had a crazy idea…her family owned some farm land in Burley and her mother nurtured a beautiful flower garden on the plot.  What if, she thought to herself, what if we created a giant flower pot that folks could stay in?

And while the idea sounded totally crazy at the time it didn’t sound that crazy to Airbnb. That’s right, Whitney wound up being a winner of Airbnb’s OMG fund and got $100,000 from the company to help her bring the project to life.

In this conversation Whitney and I discuss: 

  • How she heard about and ultimately won Airbnb’s OMG contest
  • What it cost to bring this unique stay to life
  • Some of the hardest aspects of owning and operating unique stays that not enough people talk about
  • How the Flower Pot has performed as an investment so far
  • Ideas she’s cooking up for her next build
  • And so much more

Book The Flower Pot

Follow The Flower Pot on Instagram 

This episode is brought to you by our friends at Turno. 

Turno is the smartest way to schedule, pay, and find vacation rental cleaners — think of Turno as an Uber or Task Rabbit for STR hosts. 

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Turno offers simple, affordable pricing for STR hosts of any size. Single property accounts and Marketplace users get access to all the platform’s tools and features for FREE. And they make working with your existing teams easy too, with plans as low as just $6/month per property.

Learn more and earn a $150 Amazon Gift Card after you complete your first cleaning. 

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About the Show

Behind the Stays is brought to you twice a week by Sponstayneous — a free, biweekly newsletter that brings subscribers the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb.  

You can subscribe, for free, at www.sponstayneous.com. 

Behind the Stays is hosted by Zach Busekrus, co-founder of Sponstayneous, you can connect with him on Twitter at @zboozee.

About the Host

Zach Busekrus

Co-Founder of Sponstayneous

Zach is the Co-Founder of Sponstayneous, a weekly newsletter that brings subscribers the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb. When COVID hit, he and his wife Gabby broke out of the lease on their 750-square foot apartment in Washington, DC to beta test the digital nomad lifestyle. Zach and Gabby have spent the past year living full-time on Airbnb — they've stayed in 50+ homes to date! 

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