Discover the many benefits and resources that IAHSP has to offer through our Discovery Call. Schedule a free call with us to learn about our organization, our mission, and how we can help you grow your business. We’ll answer any questions you may have and provide you with all the information you need.

We are excited to be hosting ANOTHER Regional Summit - this time in Fort Lauderdale, Florida! Our Denver event was a big success with excellent speakers teaching on timely topics to ensure longevity and growth! You do NOT have to be an IAHSP member to attend! Get ready to be inspired, challenged, motivated, and educated! Tickets are on sale NOW - and space is limited! Early bird tickets are $125 and team members can come along for only $99 per ticket! Ticket prices go UP Aug 31st. EDUCATIONAL TOPICS BEING PRESENTED: Social Media Strategies Training AI to Find YOU in Searches Using AI to Streamline Business Processes Marketing and Branding Strategies Lead Generation Strategies Pricing Strategies for Consultations, Occupied and Vacant Properties REALTOR Panel - What agents Want/Need/Expect from Stagers STAGER Panel - Regional Stagers share their Business Models Team Building and Logistics Staging and Design Trends for 2026 and Beyond ALL IAHSP MEMBER Attendees will receive our 7 Industry Guides: Guide to Occupied Home Staging Guide to Warehousing Guide to Staging Industry Guide to Staging Vacant Properties Industry Statistics Marketing and Business Strategies for Growth Strategic Business Plan NOT an IAHSP Member yet? What are you waiting for? JOIN NOW and start reaping the benefits of membership! Register for the Home Staging Summit and get $300 in resources at NO added investment. REGISTER EARLY to secure your seat and ensure best prices! Do you want to be a SPEAKER at this event? Do you know of someone who would be a great addition? Fill out our Speaker Application for consideration! TOP 10 REASONS TO ATTEND a HOME STAGING SUMMIT! About IAHSP® IAHSP® - The International Association of Home Staging Professionals® - is the global leader in home staging with members in 38+ countries. Founded in 1999, it is the original industry trade association based on the three pillars of Excellence Education and Ethics. IAHSP® sets the standard for those who qualify as a professional home stager and is the ONLY industry association that requires education from a qualified educational provider to join. This elevates our members to a higher level than other groups who do not require education and increases the professionalism of our industry. IAHSP® provides resources, education, events, and community. IAHSP establishes partnerships with industry products and service providers offering savings for our members who own and operate businesses serving home sellers, real estate agents, builders and property investors. To learn more, go to www.iahsp.com

One Is a Coffee. One Is an Investment in Your Business. Most of us have a favourite coffee stop. It may be part of the morning routine, a reward after a long installation day, or the small break that gets us through a busy afternoon. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is worth looking at the numbers from a different perspective. A few specialty coffees each month can easily add up to more than the monthly equivalent of an IAHSP membership. One is an enjoyable purchase in the moment. The other is an investment in the business you are building, the credibility you bring to the table, the education available to you, and the connections that can help move your business forward. For home stagers, designers, vacation rental professionals, and real estate industry professionals, membership should not be looked at as another expense. It should be viewed as part of the foundation of a professional business. The right association gives you access to tools, knowledge, visibility, and a community of people who understand the work you do and the challenges that come with running a business in this industry. Membership Should Give You Something You Can Use A membership is only worthwhile when it provides practical value. That value may show up in different ways depending on where you are in your business. A newer stager may need access to education, business documents, pricing guidance, and a professional community. An established business owner may be looking for referrals, better systems, visibility, professional development, and opportunities to grow beyond the same familiar circle. IAHSP membership is designed to support professionals across those stages. Members have access to business tools, templates, industry guides, downloadable policies and procedures, marketing resources, graphics, calculators, and information that can help reduce the amount of time spent trying to create everything from scratch. Having access to a resource is one thing; having access to one that has been developed with the home staging, design, and real estate industries in mind is another. For many business owners, the time saved by using one useful template, document, calculator, or resource can be worth more than the cost of membership on its own. Explore IAHSP Member Benefits Your Professional Profile Helps Reinforce Your Credibility Clients, agents, builders, investors, and vacation rental owners want to know they are working with someone who takes their profession seriously. They may not understand every detail of staging, design, or property presentation, but they do recognize professionalism, credentials, association membership, education, and a visible business presence. An IAHSP member profile and inclusion in the Find a Pro directory give professionals another way to reinforce credibility. It provides a place where potential clients and referral partners can learn more about the business, understand the services offered, and see that the professional is connected to an established international trade association. Your website, social media, portfolio, and referrals all play a role in how people evaluate your business. Association membership adds another layer of confidence, particularly when you are speaking with a new agent, meeting a prospective client, expanding into a new market, or looking to differentiate your business from someone who simply decided to offer staging services without investing in professional growth. Education Helps You Avoid Learning Every Lesson the Hard Way There is no shortage of information available online, but not all of it is useful, current, or specific to the work home stagers and designers actually do. It is easy to spend hours watching random videos, reading conflicting advice, or trying to piece together a process that someone else has already refined through years of experience. Education gives professionals a more direct path. It helps strengthen business skills, staging knowledge, client communication, pricing confidence, marketing, inventory decisions, and the ability to work effectively with real estate professionals. It also creates opportunities to learn from people who understand the realities of this industry rather than offering generic business advice that does not account for the work, logistics, client expectations, and financial pressures behind a staging business. IAHSP offers access to on-demand learning opportunities that allow members and professionals to continue building skills at a pace that works for their business. Whether you are looking to strengthen an area where you feel less confident or add a new service to your business, ongoing education is one of the best ways to protect your future growth. Explore On-Demand Courses Partner Offers and Buying Power Matter More Than People Realize Running a staging or design business comes with expenses. Inventory, storage, transportation, software, payment processing, marketing, furniture, accessories, services, and business tools all add up. Even small savings can become meaningful when they are applied across the year. This is where professional association partnerships can make a real difference. IAHSP works to provide members with access to special offers, preferred pricing, exclusive discounts, business-related benefits, and vendor opportunities that may not be available to the general public. The value is not simply in receiving a discount. It is in having access to resources and services that support the business while helping members make smarter spending decisions. For some members, a single offer, vendor savings opportunity, payment processing option, or business tool can offset a significant portion of the membership cost. For others, the value may be found in a service that helps them present their business more professionally, streamline a process, save time, or offer something additional to their own clients. The strongest businesses pay attention to where their money is going. They do not cut costs blindly, but they do look for ways to gain more value from the expenses they already have. Community Is Not a Nice Extra It can be easy to underestimate the importance of professional community until you need it. Home staging and design businesses are often run by one person or a small team. You may have friends and family who support you, but they may not understand why a delayed listing photo affects your schedule, why a last-minute destage creates a logistical problem, why pricing conversations can be difficult, or why a referral relationship with the right agent can change the direction of your business. Being part of a professional community gives you access to people who understand. It creates opportunities to ask questions, share ideas, learn from others, build referral relationships, and find encouragement during the times when business ownership feels heavier than expected. IAHSP brings together professionals from home staging, design, real estate, and related industries. That range of experience matters because the strongest ideas often come from conversations outside your immediate market. You may learn how another stager handles consultations, how a designer has added a service line, how a real estate professional explains staging to clients, or how another business owner has created a process that saves time and improves profitability. Regional Summits Bring the Learning to You The recent Denver Regional Summit was a strong reminder of what happens when professionals come together in person. The day included education, conversations, vendor connections, practical ideas, and the kind of energy that comes from being surrounded by people who understand the industry and are invested in moving it forward. Regional Summits are not simply events to attend and then forget. They are opportunities to step away from the daily demands of the business, hear new perspectives, learn from experienced professionals, connect with potential referral partners, and return home with ideas that can be put into action. There is value in learning online, and there is also value in being in the room. The conversations between sessions, the questions raised by other professionals, the introductions that lead to future connections, and the chance to see what others are doing can all become part of the return on investment. The success of Denver has created real momentum, and IAHSP is looking forward to bringing future Regional Summits to more communities. The Question Is Not Whether You Can Afford Membership The better question is whether you can afford to keep building your business without the resources, education, credibility, savings opportunities, and community that can help support it. Every business owner makes choices about where to invest. Some investments are easy to see immediately, while others build value over time. Membership is one of those investments that becomes more valuable when you use it. Review the resources. Attend the events. Explore the education. Take advantage of the partner offers. Build your profile. Connect with people. Ask questions. Use the documents and tools that can save you time. The value is there, but like any business resource, it works best when it becomes part of how you operate. Your daily coffee may still be worth it. It may even be essential on a busy staging day. But when you look at the monthly cost of an IAHSP membership, it is worth remembering that one purchase gives you a moment, while the other can help build the business you want to have for years to come. Discover the Benefits of IAHSP Membership IAHSP® - The International Association of Home Staging Professionals® - is the global industry association serving members from around the world. It is the oldest industry trade association founded on the three pillars of Excellence Education and Ethics. IAHSP® set the standard for those who qualify as a professional home stager and is the ONLY industry association that requires education from a qualified source in order to join. IAHSP® provides resources, education, events, partnerships with vendors for savings on business services and products for professionals who own and operate businesses serving home sellers, real estate agents, builders and property investors. Click here for more information about our history.

IAHSP Members can join HOSTGPO at 50% of the annual investment to use their platform. Not an IAHSP Member? We have an EXCLUSIVE partnership with HOSTGPO - so all you need to do is JOIN IAHSP - and select the combination membership of GOLD ANNUAL + HOST GPO. https://www.hostgpo.com/blog/design-that-pays-how-intentional-vacation-rental-design-increases-bookings-rates-and-reviews (Shared with Permission from Author) photo courtesy of Johnathan H. Miller. One of the most persistent mistakes in the vacation rental space is treating design as a finishing touch rather than what it actually is: a performance tool. Guest blog by Johnathan H. Miller. Published: May 8, 2026 ‍ In short-term rentals, occupancy gets celebrated as though it tells the whole story. A full calendar looks impressive. A booked weekend feels like momentum. And for many hosts, the logic seems straightforward: if the property is occupied, it must be working. Not necessarily. One of the most persistent mistakes in the vacation rental space is treating design as a finishing touch rather than what it actually is: a performance tool. Owners spend heavily to acquire a property, then rush through furnishing and styling, trim the design budget, and wonder why the listing struggles to command strong rates. The issue is rarely the market. It is the product. In short-term rentals, design does far more than make a space look appealing. It shapes perceived value, influences booking behavior, supports review quality, and gives hosts the leverage to charge more. That is what design that pays looks like. A full calendar can still hide a weak business model Consider two hypothetical vacation rental properties operating in the same market. Property One invests in thoughtful, elevated, well-executed design. It earns $300 per night at 98% occupancy. Property Two furnishes quickly and cheaply. It earns $99 per night at 94% occupancy. At first glance, some hosts might argue both properties are performing well. Both are booked. Property Two is only a few occupancy points behind. But occupancy alone is one of the most misleading metrics in this business. Over a 30-night month, Property One produces $8,820 in gross revenue. Property Two produces $2,791.80. That is a gap exceeding $6,000 per month — despite nearly identical occupancy. Property Two is still absorbing the full workload of hosting: guest communication, utilities, cleaning coordination, maintenance, turnovers, and ongoing wear and tear — without the revenue to justify it. That is not efficiency. That is underperformance with a full calendar. The hidden cost of cheap design Many owners convince themselves that a low-rate booking is better than no booking at all. On the surface, that sounds pragmatic. In practice, that mindset frequently creates the very problem it is meant to avoid. When a property is poorly designed — under-furnished, under-lit, or visually forgettable — it becomes difficult to justify a premium nightly rate. The photography weakens. The listing loses energy. Perceived value declines. And the host begins competing primarily on price. Once that dynamic takes hold, the calendar may still fill, but the business begins relying on discounting rather than desirability. That is a fragile operating model. Cheap design does not simply reduce upfront cost. More often, it diminishes the earning power of the asset — the very thing the investment was made to build. Design creates pricing power When hosts hear the phrase "high-end design," many assume it means spending extravagantly to project luxury. That is not the objective. Intentional design is a strategic discipline. It is about the right layout. The right scale. The right lighting. The right visual cohesion. The right details that cause a prospective guest to stop scrolling and begin imagining themselves in the space. Executed well, strong design works twice. First, it improves listing performance — helping the property stand out in search results, strengthening photography, and generating confidence at the moment of booking. Then it works again on arrival. When a guest steps into a property that feels polished, considered, and consistent with what they saw in the listing, the experience is validated rather than merely met. That validation produces stronger reviews. And stronger reviews sustain stronger rates. Reviews begin before check-in Many hosts believe reviews are built after the guest arrives. In practice, reviews begin with expectation. A listing that appears intentional and well-resolved communicates value before a guest reads a single line of copy. It signals care. It signals quality. It signals that the space was designed — not simply assembled. When the stay then matches that expectation, the review language reflects it: "Beautiful space. Looked even better in person. Felt high-end. Would absolutely return." Those reactions are not accidental. They are the direct result of design supporting the guest journey — from first impression through final review. Cheap usually becomes expensive Owners who furnish quickly and cheaply often believe they are protecting their budget. What typically follows is a different outcome: they purchase pieces that do not photograph well, skip the styling details that create warmth and distinction, neglect layered lighting, and arrive at a property that feels generic rather than memorable. Months later, they are reshooting the listing, replacing furniture, discounting rates, and attempting to reverse a performance problem that originated in poor positioning. They did not save money. They deferred cost while surrendering revenue. That is among the most expensive miscalculations in this business. Operations tell the same story The comparison between these two properties reveals something beyond design: the strength — or fragility — of the operating model behind each one. In this example, Property One carries a $150 cleaning cost per turnover. Has a consistent housekeeping team. Property Two operates at $35 per turnover and struggles to retain reliable cleaning service. That distinction matters considerably. In short-term rentals, cleaning is not a peripheral concern. It is a component of the guest experience and an expression of brand promise. When turnovers are inconsistent, the property becomes vulnerable to rushed resets, missed preparation, weakened presentation, and predictably negative reviews. When a host underinvests in both design and operations simultaneously, the outcome is not hard to project: a weaker listing online and a compromised experience on-site. That is not disciplined cost management. That is compounding fragility. Better design often attracts better-fit guests Not all bookings are created equal. Properties with stronger design and clearer positioning tend to attract guests who are booking for reasons beyond the lowest available rate. They are responding to experience, comfort, quality, and identity. They understand the value of what they are selecting before they arrive. That creates a healthier alignment between expectation and experience — one that reinforces itself through reviews, repeat visits, and referrals. Properties competing primarily on price, by contrast, tend to attract guests who are shopping on cost first. That pattern makes the business harder to stabilize, harder to elevate, and harder to scale. A well-designed property does not simply command a higher rate. It earns a better-fit booking. The better question for hosts Too many investors ask: How cheaply can I furnish this property? That is the wrong question. The more productive question is: How do I design this property to maximize return? That reframe changes the entire calculus. Design is no longer an optional aesthetic layer applied at the end of the process. It becomes part of the revenue strategy — part of review protection, long-term positioning, and the foundational work that allows the asset to perform at its ceiling. The goal is not simply to produce a rental that looks nice. The goal is to create a property that photographs compellingly, books with confidence, commands a premium, reviews consistently, and performs sustainably over time. That is the business case for design. Which property is actually winning? Property One is winning. Not because it is more luxurious for the sake of appearances — but because it is better positioned to earn. It carries pricing power. It generates stronger revenue. It is more likely to sustain superior reviews and durable profitability. Property Two may appear busy on paper. But busy is not the goal. Profit is the goal. Performance is the goal. Longevity is the goal. In short-term rentals, smart design is not merely about how a property looks. It is about what the property can do. And the properties built to perform are the ones that pay. For hosts looking to elevate both performance and presentation, the right design decisions do not stop at layout and styling. Sourcing matters too. From furnishings and finish layers to the details that shape guest perception, having access to trusted hospitality-minded vendors can make the design process more efficient and more strategic. That is where partners like HostGPO can be especially valuable. They help hosts source with greater confidence while creating rental properties that feel elevated, cohesive, and built to perform. ______________________________________________________________________- About the author: ‍ ‍Johnathan H. Miller is an author, award-winning interior designer, and vacation rental design strategist based in Virginia. As the author of Why Underpricing Kills Design, he helps property owners create intentional spaces that support stronger rates, better reviews, and long-term performance. IAHSP Members can join HOSTGPO at 50% of the annual investment to use their platform. Not an IAHSP Member? We have an EXCLUSIVE partnership with HOSTGPO - so all you need to do is JOIN IAHSP - and select the combination membership of GOLD ANNUAL + HOST GPO.

Explore our curated selection of Books on Amazon, perfect for home stager, real estate and design professionals. Get Your Copy today! BOOKS ON AMAZON Stacey Shelby NEW RELEASE The Home Staging Business Startup Start a successful Home Staging business without owning any inventory View More Buy Today Jennie Norris NEW RELEASE Marketing Made Simple The Key to Succeeding in the Home Staging Industry View More Buy Now June Carter NEW ON AMAZON The Home Stager Coach's Guide to Powerful Pricing Strategies for Profit View More Add to Cart Jennie Norris NEW RELEASE True Confessions of a Stagerpreneur 25 Revelations, Reflections, and Reflections of a Pro-Home Stager View More Get It Today Amy Powers BEST SELLER Eco-Friendly Design Practices for Environmentally Conscious Short-Term Rentals View More Buy Now

Travel / Airports Dallas Love Field Airport Airport Code: DAL Distance to event 4.1 Airlines >> Dallas Fort Worth International Airport Airport Code: DFW Distance to event 16.2 Airlines >>

Giving Back Matters In this series, we feature people and businesses that are giving back. Get featured on Giving Back Matters Articles Clark Test Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image 1/4 XYX Consulting Read Article Sponsored Sign Up Now Sponsored Learn More Sponsored Shop Now Sponsored Get Trained Sponsored Shop Now Sponsored Share Your Thoughts Sponsored Shop Now Sponsored Shop Now Sponsored Shop Now