Join Madeleine for a crucial episode on her personal and professional practice of reflection and vision casting—the cornerstone of her career and personal success. This is a companion episode to two essential free resources designed to guide you through a thorough 2025 business audit and strategic 2026 vision planning.

Madeleine emphasizes a shift from emotionally reacting to data to interpreting it strategically to set yourself up for a bold and successful year.

Free Companion Resources (Get Them Now!)

Madeleine has created two free resources to accompany this episode. Pause the podcast and download them to work through your audit and vision casting:

Audit and Vision Workbooks – https://www.madeleineraifordholland.com/audit-and-vision-workbooks

Key Areas of the 2025 STR Business Audit

Madeleine walks through the specific data points and questions she reviews for her own portfolio, encouraging listeners to approach the numbers as information, not judgment.

Revenue & Occupancy:

• Monthly revenue and occupancy rate, best/underperforming months, and pattern shifts.
• Average booking window (how far in advance guests book).

Pricing Strategy:

• Highest/lowest Average Daily Rate (ADR) and nightly rate charged.
• Percentage of nights discounted.
• Identifying where you underpriced or overpriced based on 2025 data.

Guest Experience & Reviews:

• Common positive and negative mentions (in public or private feedback).
• Where guests are finding your listing (reliance on OTAs vs. direct/other sources).

Team & Operations:

• Identifying MVP team members.
• Pinpointing problem areas (staff, vendors, property issues).
• Defining your Zone of Genius and roles you need to delegate.
• The first process or SOP to systematize in Q1 2026.

Tech Stack & Automation:

• Reviewing all tools used (PMS, pricing, AI, etc.) – what worked, what to drop, and how to negotiate better contracts in Q1.
• Identifying new automations for 2026.

Listing Photos, Copy, & SEO:

• Checking for outdated photos and optimizing titles/captions for keywords.
• Reviewing listing performance data (views, saves, conversions).

End-of-Year Tax Preparation:

• Reconciling income/expenses and collecting 1099s.
• Reviewing deductions (travel, mileage).
• Identifying capital vs. regular expenditures and confirming property classification (material participation, real estate professional status).
• Considering a cost segregation study if a property was purchased or put into service in 2025.

Strategic Reflection: Ask yourself: “What actually made me money? What just kept me busy? And what do I want to feel like running my STR in 2026?”

Creating Your 2026 Vision & Action Plan

Use the insights from your audit to strategically plan your next year with the Vision Planner.

• Revenue & Occupancy Strategy: Use if-then statements to guide your focus (e.g., If strong occupancy but low profit, then focus on raising ADR and auditing expenses).
• Pricing & Profit Strategy: Set clear minimum night stay targets for peak and slow seasons, and define your core pricing rules.
• Guest Experience: Turn guest feedback into a concrete plan for a guest-facing upgrade.
• Team & Time Freedom: Focus on getting the “right people on the bus and the right people in the right seats.” Identify your bottlenecks and commit to building your first key SOP using tools like Loom (https://www.loom.com/) and Scribe(https://scribe.com/)
• Listing Optimization: Create a plan for updating photos, title, and captions.
• Marketing & Visibility: Define your top focus channel for 2026 and one “visibility habit” to commit to.
• Tax & Financial Strategy:Review all revenue and expenses monthly, not just in April. Schedule a Tax Planning Call (not just a Tax Prep Panic call) and confirm your short-term rental classification with your CPA.
• Madeleine closes with a negotiation script for reducing expenses on your current tools, encouraging you to be bold and save money in the new year.