In a past life, Megan McCrea was a rising star in the corporate media world. At 15, she worked as an intern and columnist at a local newspaper in Brevard County, FL. During this time, the newspaper was purchased by Gannett. Despite her dreams of being a journalist, she made the move into advertising sales at 19. She quickly rose through the ranks, eventually being recruited by the corporate team and managing the digital advertising revenue for 34 of the company’s markets at just 27 years old.
After two and a half years of extensive travel, she opted to transfer with the company and her husband, Richard, to Nashville, the only other place that had come to feel like home to her. But eight months into her new role, she received a message most people dread: Gannett, like many others in media, was forced to make cuts, and Megan’s job was on the chopping block.
She ultimately landed on her feet, taking a role with another media company that allowed her to travel the world and work remotely from Nashville. But the shock of the layoff made her realize she had focused so much on her media career that she never thought of a different path. They decided they needed a Plan B.
During this time, they continued to fall more in love with Nashville and enjoyed hosting their friends and family who wanted to experience it, too. So, it was at that crossroads that they decided to purchase an East Nashville home with a guest house and rent them out to visitors.
It would be a fun hobby that would help cover the mortgage, and because there were two homes on the property, they could always move into one of the houses and rent the other if they needed to – their Plan B.
The start of something new
In an Unlocked podcast episode with Matt Landau, Megan recounted telling her husband, “I love hosting. I’ve seen all these people do it right, I’ve seen all these people do it wrong, and I think I can really make people feel special.” She was right. Today, what started as a safety net has grown into Nashville Vacation Homes, a small collection of properties – and a new flourishing chapter in Megan’s career she never could have imagined.
Megan, Richard, and their French bulldog, June, are hands-on with every stay. They estimate they’ll welcome more than 1,000 guests this year, not including those to be hosted in their recently purchased property that they remodeled late last year. The original home, The Country Cottage, hosts primarily families with grandparents and young kids in tow. The Little House is an extended stay that provides a home base for business travelers and potential future residents who want to get a feel for the city. Their studios in the Melrose neighborhood draw couples and small groups, most of whom are parents visiting kids at the area’s 20+ universities or millennials exploring the popular destination.
Megan looks strategically for properties with charm and uniqueness that truly represent Music City and sets them apart from the cookie-cutter new homes in the area. She also picks homes that match her personality. “I love being eclectic and vintage and fun, so I always look for that character,” she said.
Megan’s knack for the business and exemplary hospitality haven’t gone unnoticed in Nashville. A few months into hosting, she became involved in the Nashville Area Short Term Rental Association (NASTRA), a local association that educates hosts and combats restrictive local legislation. Megan began volunteering her journalism and marketing roots to help with background tasks and eventually took on the role of president in November 2017.
While the organization has spent a great deal of the last few years fighting regulatory battles at the local and state level, Megan and her fellow board members have also been working to ensure NASTRA is equally as invested in its members themselves by providing education and other resources. They have developed partnerships with industry vendors like Touch Stay to funnel guests to local businesses, brought in expert speakers like Durk Johnson of Vacation Rental Housekeeping Professionals to lead educational seminars, and implemented monthly meetups with the sole purpose of networking and socializing with fellow hosts.
Taking it national past Nashville’s short term rentals
Megan’s advocacy doesn’t end at Nashville’s city limits. In 2018, she sat on an advocacy panel at the Vacation Rental Success Summit in San Antonio, and while the other sessions were packed with attendees, hers wasn’t. “I remember thinking, ‘Do they not realize how important this is? Everyone is cramming these rooms for how to market [and other things], but if the rights change tomorrow, none of that matters,’” she said.
At the same time, she had been receiving requests for guidance from other budding grassroots associations, and she realized the work she and NASTRA were already doing could – and should – benefit communities around the country at scale through a national, centralized effort. She reached out to Rent Responsibly’s founder, David Krauss, and together they began creating just that. She now advises the organization on resources for members and presents together with David at industry events.
“Megan was the first person out of all the folks I’ve met through STR advocacy to step up,” David said. “She juggles numerous jobs but found the time to collaborate on products for Rent Responsibly.” He credits her as volunteer number one and a catalyst for the organization’s second chapter, taking it from a roadshow to the incarnation it is today.
Though her advocacy roles are all volunteer, they are a full-time commitment. She’s been able to give so much time back to the Nashville community and industry as a whole because of the financial freedom and flexibility afforded to her by short-term rentals, not just her own but the entire economic ecosystem they create. Part of that ecosystem is The Hospitality Creator, an extension of Megan’s entrepreneurial drive and love for hosting. Her consulting service helps fellow Nashville hosts start or update their properties, optimize their operations, and stock everything from furniture and décor to linens and toilet paper.
All of her insight comes from lessons she learned the hard way. “I wish I had had a me when I started,” she said. “I didn’t think to have multiple sets of linens, I didn’t know bed skirts were a bad idea, that sort of thing.” Her services are so in demand, she works with as many as four homes a month.
But even though the multiple streams of income and property assets do provide the safety net she was originally looking for, that’s not why Megan does what she does. “Making people feel connected to other people is hands down the most important thing anybody can do,” she said.
“From a hosting perspective, it’s the guests,” she said. “I just love doing handwritten cards for every guest and asking people why they’re coming to town.” She asks them what they’re most excited to see and will then tag them on Instagram or send them a message with personalized recommendations. “I’ve got that in me, I just like to make people happy.”
The same goes for NASTRA. “These are people who really care, and they want to do the same thing for our city that I’m doing,” she said. “They may not do it in the same way, which is great because we’re all so unique in our approach, and it attracts a whole diversity [of travelers] … It helps diversify and it helps people feel welcome, and that’s something I’ve always felt strongly about.”
That feeling may be due in large part to the very job at Gannett whose elimination put Megan on this path. There, she traveled around the US for four to six days a week for up to 50 weeks a year. In her role with Adtaxi after Gannett, she traveled internationally for up to months at a time. It was in these places that she found a warm welcome in short-term rentals and the locals she met along the way.
“I think that travel is so important to open your eyes to things,” she said. “Seeing the differences in people and learning more about those, the more understanding you are. It makes everybody feel a little closer and the world feel a little bit smaller than it really is.”
