117 - Sal Bellanger on building an accommodation business underpinned by a rich family history and a love of nature in Western Australia's stunning south

Tiffany Falzon has worn her fair share of hats in her almost 37 years. With a professional background in accounting, Tiff was in Sydney when she first donned her hosting crown, opening a glamping tent on a block of land owned by her Dad in her home town of Marion Bay on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula and opting to manage it from afar. After the incredible initial success of the tent, Tiff eventually decided to move home and manage the tent herself and - once again with her industrious and resourceful Dad in tow - build from scratch property number 2, a tiny home. In the years following, Tiff went on to meet her now partner Luke and welcome a son, Tasman, with Luke stepping in to help with the business through the challenging initial years of Covid and beyond. Most recently, Tiff, Luke and their extended team have opened property number 3, a sprawling retreat of warm timbers, enticing outdoor nooks and calming indoor zones they very appropriately named 'The Sanctuary'. Now known as Bayside Glamping & Co, Tiff has over the past 8 years created something very special that draws on the richness of her local community with a great deal of pride. Please enjoy this terrific conversation about her journey today.   For more information about Hosting With Heart and to access our archive of over 100 episodes, visit the HWH website at www.hostingwithheart.net.au or follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hostingwithheart Join our private Facebook group of 1300+ hosts from around Australia at https://www.facebook.com/groups/hostingwithheart/ Sign up and list your property on Heartful now at https://heartful.travel/host

Louise Warren is a great believer in common sense, thoughtfulness and empathy. It's these driving forces that have closely informed the way she and her partner Anthony have for the past 10 years managed their multi-award winning accommodation business, Mt Hay Retreat in Berry, New South Wales. Comprising only a handful of individual private suites built on a family-owned property purchased in the mid 1980's, Louise and Anthony opened the doors to Mt Hay Retreat in 2015, and have since been on a mission to ensure each and every guest departs their stay feeling both restored and inspired. In recent years, Louise and Anthony have won an impressive array of awards for their ongoing commitment to true hospitality, sustainability and inclusion, including taking out gold at the 2024 New South Wales Tourism Awards and Silver at the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards. Louise has been someone I've long admired and wanted to chat with for a few years now and this conversation certainly didn't disappoint. Please enjoy. For more information about Hosting With Heart and to access our archive of over 100 episodes, visit the HWH website at www.hostingwithheart.net.au or follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hostingwithheart Join our private Facebook group of 1300+ hosts from around Australia at https://www.facebook.com/groups/hostingwithheart/ Sign up and list your property on Heartful now at https://heartful.travel/host

As a former marketer for the likes of Kip&Co, Milligram, Flexicar and wishlist.com.au, Kimberly Palmer has a toolbox of skills that most hosts could only dream of. Having set up Harper's Cottage in 2019, her first short-term rental in the small yet charming hamlet of Malmsbury, about an hours' drive north-west of Melbourne, Kimberly completed an apprenticeship of sorts in hosting, learning the in's and out's of what it took to host a property that not only attracted incredible guest reviews but was also financially sustainable. More recently, Kimberly, her dog Harper and her now partner Darren closed the doors on Harper's Cottage, and have focused their attention on their exciting, newer joint project, The Botanist's Retreat in Castlemaine. A little larger than Harper's Cottage, The Botanist's Retreat has enabled Kimberly to build on her previous experience as a host and a marketer to create a truly unique offering underpinned by creativity, empathy and a desire to leave her guests feeling truly inspired and restored. And with the added bonus of being located in a town with a growing guest demand thanks to its vibrant arts, cultural and food landscape. I had an absolute blast chatting with Kimberly a short while ago and I'm sure you, too, will love this chat today. For more information about Hosting With Heart and to access our archive of over 100 episodes, visit the HWH website at www.hostingwithheart.net.au or follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hostingwithheart Join our private Facebook group of 1300+ hosts from around Australia at https://www.facebook.com/groups/hostingwithheart/ Sign up and list your property on Heartful now at https://heartful.travel/host

Behind every great host, there's often an even greater back-room support team and Monica Orrego and her team at Thriving Tasmania are just that. Following her bold, brave move from Colombia to Australia in 2012, Monica has worn many hats in the hospitality sector including housekeeper, host and, building on her original career in accounting and finance, administration and strategy extraordinaire. In recent times, she's been lapping up life in Tasmania, including setting up her own 'back-room' operations business supporting hospitality and tourism professionals, Thriving Tasmania, and recently joining the Short Term Accommodation Association of Australia as one of their two Tasmanian committee members. Please enjoy what turned out to be a very warm and refreshing chat. For more information about Hosting With Heart and to access our archive of over 100 episodes, visit the HWH website at www.hostingwithheart.net.au or follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hostingwithheart Join our private Facebook group of 1300+ hosts from around Australia at https://www.facebook.com/groups/hostingwithheart/ Sign up and list your property on Heartful now at https://heartful.travel/host

With her background as a travel writer and having consulted in PR, Sheriden Rhodes, my first return guest on Hosting With Heart, was more than well-equipped to embark on her hosting journey three and half years ago during the height of Covid. More recently, however, with an array of achievements under her belt as a result of the incredible success she's had hosting her own property, The River Haus in Morpeth, New South Wales, she's somewhat unexpectedly taken on the role of co-host for another property, Mister Brooks on Brown in neighbouring Newcastle. Only a month into this newfound foray, Sheriden has discovered first-hand how enjoyable and rewarding the role of being a co-host is, especially given the immense professional knowledge and practical experience she's been able to bring to the table. And not only has it been rewarding for her, but having such a personal touch is thus far leading to a happier, more confident and more financially successful property owner and, most importantly, delivering a more consistent, high quality experience for guests. Please enjoy this value-packed episode today. For more information about Hosting With Heart and to access our archive of over 100 episodes, visit the HWH website at www.hostingwithheart.net.au or follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hostingwithheart Join our private Facebook group of 1300+ hosts from around Australia at https://www.facebook.com/groups/hostingwithheart/ Sign up and list your property on Heartful now at https://heartful.travel/host

As someone who has spent a great deal of time travelling across Australia in recent years, Charlie Douty knows first-hand what it's like to experience discrimination as a member of the LGBTIQ+ community. In response, he's made it his mission to do something positive to address this and in February of this year launched Welcome With Pride, an inclusion, training and accreditation program for tourism and hospitality businesses of all shapes and sizes in Australia. Developed through community research in conjunction with over 1000 LGBTIQ+ travellers, Welcome With Pride’s programs directly reflect the voices and real-world needs of this diverse community. To date, Charlie has delivered inclusivity training to thousands of businesses in partnership with industry leaders such as ATEC, Hilton, Destination New South Wales and Tourism Western Australia. He firmly believes LGBTIQ+ people should have the freedom to express themselves authentically and feel that powerful feeling of belonging when they're on holiday. It was my great pleasure to chat with Charlie recently about all he's achieved to date and his many exciting plans for the future and I've no doubt you'll get as much value out of listening to this conversation as I did having it. For more information about Hosting With Heart and to access our archive of over 100 episodes, visit the HWH website at www.hostingwithheart.net.au or follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hostingwithheart Join our private Facebook group of 1300+ hosts from around Australia at https://www.facebook.com/groups/hostingwithheart/ Sign up and list your property on Heartful now at https://heartful.travel/host

In this short mid-season episode, Jen Clark talks all things Heartful, the new short-term accommodation booking platform she founded and launched in October, 2024. Some of the incredibly exciting happenings at Heartful include welcoming our new dedicated team in June, 2025, which will enable us to ship new and refined features on the platform much faster, a host (pardon the pun) of new site features for single and multi-property hosts and a potential partnership with Coastrek, a major walking event occurring across Australia to raise funds for Beyond Blue. If you’ve not yet listed your property with Heartful, now is the time. Visit https://heartful.travel/host to sign-up and list your property today. ............. For more information about Hosting With Heart and to access our archive of over 100 episodes, visit the HWH website at www.hostingwithheart.net.au or follow us on Instagram at Instagram (@hostingwithheart) Join our private Facebook group of 1300+ hosts from around Australia at Hosting with Heart Community Group | Facebook Sign up and list your property on Heartful now at Host with Us | Heartful Travel

Kirstie-Lee Smith always knew she wanted to be a photographer, she just had to unearth what kind. Starting off, as many photographers do, shooting weddings, she soon moved into real estate photography, which despite her initial misgivings, she ended up absolutely loving. This subsequently morphed into a passion for photographing short-term accommodation, ultimately leading her to formally establishing her own practice based on Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula, about 3 years ago in the midst of Covid. Since then and in part spurred on by listening to this very podcast, Kirstie-Lee made her foray into photographing accessible accommodation, voraciously learning about what sort of photos prove most meaningful to guests with diverse access needs in the process. This chat was a really enjoyable one which I know you'll get some terrific value from. ............. For more information about Hosting With Heart and to access our archive of over 100 episodes, visit the HWH website at www.hostingwithheart.net.au or follow us on Instagram at Instagram (@hostingwithheart) Join our private Facebook group of 1300+ hosts from around Australia at Hosting with Heart Community Group | Facebook Sign up and list your property on Heartful now at Host with Us | Heartful Travel

While many hosts focus on the material details of the stays they manage, Sal Bellanger's approach to running her accommodation business, Sanctuary South Stays, is refreshingly unpretentious. Having taken ownership of the former family home of her husband Justin, now known as Nornalup Homestead, in 2018, Sal has since turned this into a haven for lovers of both nature and history. This is a property with a rich familial backstory, encouraging guests to reconnect with one another and with the surrounding landscape in a meaningful way. More recently, Sal and Justin have on the same property opened Sanctuary Train, a considerately equipped tiny home that aims to provide a similar experience for singles and couples, also extending the capacity of Nornalup Homestead if larger families and groups wish to getaway together. Sal is a formidable human with a big heart who exemplifies what it means to live and work in accordance with your values. It was such a pleasure chatting with her and I'm sure you'll get a lot out of this episode today.

Like many of us, Benj Bailey-Webb has had his fair share of trials and tribulations over the past 5 or so years. The owner-builder of the now widely lauded permanent tiny house in Victoria's majestic Grampians region, Nook On The Hill, started off wanting to design and build a small footprint, sustainable home for himself and his then-partner, Holly. As the process played out, however, and also through a global pandemic, significant bushfires in the local region and his father being seriously ill, Benj's objectives evolved and changed and ultimately, the decision was reached to open the property up to guests. Benj's story is one that is resoundingly human and one that many of us in the short-term accommodation sector will fiercely identify with. It was such a pleasure chatting with him a few weeks ago and I'm sure you'll get a lot out of this episode today. A quick content warning too that this episode does include discussion of terminal cancer. ............. For more information about Hosting With Heart and to access our archive of over 100 episodes, visit the HWH website at www.hostingwithheart.net.au or follow us on Instagram at Instagram (@hostingwithheart) Join our private Facebook group of 1300+ hosts from around Australia at Hosting with Heart Community Group | Facebook Sign up and list your property on Heartful now at Host with Us | Heartful Travel