Updated on September 28, 2023
Rolf Blizzard grew up on a hog farm in the eastern part of North Carolina. Days on the farm started early, were filled with hard manual labor, and provided a clear idea of the basic effort it took to produce a stable, sustainable, and affordable meal – one of life’s most basic needs. He also learned the importance of community and the need to add to the “community woodpile” in answering a call to servant leadership.
But taking over the family farm wasn’t where he’d answer that call. He left the farm for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to get a bachelor’s degree in business administration and then a master’s degree in public administration, and he’s been civic- and advocacy-minded ever since.
He began his career in the mid-1990s as a staffer in the North Carolina Senate, where his upbringing came in handy.
“In the late 90s, the swine industry was going through an evolution in the state,” Rolf said. “My background on the farm qualified me as an “expert” on how various policy decisions and requirements would impact a farmer in their day-to-day operations. Given an understanding of what issue the policy was trying to address, I could recommend alternatives that would indeed pinpoint the concern being raised as opposed to simply shutting down the farm altogether.”
He worked in the Senate for a total of 10 years in the office of longtime Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight, starting as an intern and finishing as Chief of Staff. He then did a one-year stint as chief lobbyist for the North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry (the state Chamber of Commerce) before finding his way to vacation rentals.
From legislative work to property investment
Rolf first became involved in vacation rentals several years after he took a position as vice president of Turnpike Properties in 2006. In time, Turnpike acquired a vacation rental property management company, called Atlantic Realty of the Outer Banks, and added Turnpike’s second-home investments to the portfolio.
“We already had a hospitality mindset with a focus on guest experience,” Rolf said. “We felt that there was an opportunity to bring that mindset to rental homes.”
At that point, Rolf decided to become a partner in the business because he believed in what they were doing.
“We bring joy to people’s lives. Folks want to come stay at our properties, and they willingly pay us to do so,” he said. “The opportunity to provide some happiness and some joy in life appealed to me. When I think back on my own vacation experiences, those are probably some of the happier times from life when you get to spend time with family and friends and create memories.”
Atlantic Realty of the Outer Banks now manages over 100 vacation rentals in the area and represents clients buying and selling properties.
Vacation rental policy advocate
Upon joining Turnpike, he became involved in multiple hospitality and tourism organizations and associations. But the acquisition of Atlantic Realty of Outer Banks was a catalyst for Rolf’s shift into vacation rental advocacy.
His friend Scott Leggat, currently the Director of Government Affairs and Advocacy at Inhabit, encouraged him to get involved in the Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA).
“Scott is one of those luminaries in the industry and he’s doing advocacy full-time now. He spoke to me a lot, and he said, ‘You know your background is tailor-made for this; you ought to really get involved.”
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In 2020, he joined VRMA’s Government Relations Committee and is currently serving as co-chair along with Scott. The Government Relations Committee is charged with monitoring government regulatory matters, developing policy recommendations, and supporting initiatives to promote the common interests of vacation rental managers, according to its charter.
In addition to his role at VRMA, he is chair of the North Carolina Travel & Tourism Coalition, which promotes public policies that support the growth and development of the tourism industry; a member of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina Board of Directors; chairman of the North Carolina Travel and Tourism Board; and member of the North Carolina Hospitality Alliance board.
Among his many accomplishments, he cites his greatest work as bringing divergent parties together, such as his work at the North Carolina Travel and Tourism Coalition.
The coalition’s members come from different sectors of the hospitality industry inside North Carolina including professional sports teams, hoteliers, and the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association (NCRLA).
One time, NCRLA sought to require vacation rentals to abide by the same rules as hotels, a concept known as regulatory “parity.”
“I agree 100% that we should be doing our part of paying occupancy taxes,” he said. He has seen the benefit of occupancy tax revenue on local communities. In Currituck County, North Carolina, for example, occupancy tax revenue from vacation rentals is a critical part of supporting local services because there’s only a handful of hotels in the county, Rolf said.
While Rolf supports occupancy tax parity, he opposes regulatory parity. Regulatory parity typically means requiring vacation rentals to follow commercial building code and operations.
“To tell my residential owners that because a hotel has a pool lift in it, that now all of a sudden, we’re required to have a pool lift, or we’re required to have a certain height railing or we’re required to build these properties as commercial building structures, then, no,” he said. “They’re different business models.”
Rolf worked to educate members about the unique differences in the business models of vacation rentals and traditional hotels and the need for a different set of regulations for each.
“As a result of these efforts, NCRLA advocacy for regulatory changes has been more tempered than in other locations,” he said.
The Seven Cs (Seas) of Advocacy
Rolf credits the legislative success in NC to his “Seven Cs of Advocacy,” guiding principles that he developed from his deep experience in governmental affairs and advocacy. (The name is a play on the Seven Seas because he loves being on the water off the coast of North Carolina, especially fishing off Roanoke Island.)
“I take a very practical approach to advocacy. It’s not hard; anybody can do it. But there are just some things that you need to kind of remember as you do that, and that’s where I came up with the Seven Cs that I tell people,” he said.
1 and 2: Conscious commitment
The first two Cs are conscious commitment, making a conscious decision to commit your time, talent, and treasure to advocacy and making it part of your business. Set a budget for the time you spend on advocacy and commit to that time.
“I tell people, you need to have a seat at the table, or you’re going to likely be on the menu,” Rolf said.
3 and 4: Credible communication
As a vacation rental host or manager, you are the “expert witness,” so to speak. Regulators need to hear your perspective, but when you take a policy position, provide third-party data to back up that position. Otherwise, you might come across as self-serving.
“Between your expert ability and your independent third-party data, you can create a credible communication, but it needs to be concise,” Rolf said. “It needs to be an elevator speech, because when you’re dealing with members of the General Assembly or the legislators, a lot of times all you get to work through something with them is the amount of time you might spend on that elevator. So you need to be prepared with a concise message that is credible and effectively communicated when you have an opportunity to be with them.”
5: Coalition
As one of Rolf’s favorite quotes by English writer John Heywood goes, “Many hands make for light work.” In advocacy, you can be most effective as part of a coalition, Rolf said. To form a coalition, find allies in your industry and in the larger hospitality and tourism industry. Look for commonalities instead of differences. For instance, don’t rule out allying with hoteliers if you can find a common goal.
6: Courtship
Courtship is something Rolf learned intimately in the North Carolina General Assembly (state legislature). A lawmaker is more likely to listen to someone whom they already know. Build a relationship with your legislator or local council person before you need them to listen to you.
“In advocacy, we just can’t be fair weather friends that show up when everything’s great or when we have a need; we need to be there on a consistent basis,” Rolf said. “We need to build a relationship, and building a relationship takes time.”
7: Chess (not Checkers)
Rolf compares advocacy to a game of chess and not checkers. “By that, I mean, checkers is really more of a reactive game,” he said. “It requires less strategy than chess. With chess, you have to think two moves ahead. And so from an advocacy standpoint, you need to kind of focus on the war and not the battle, because there’s gonna be battles that you lose, but there’s a longer-term war out there that you’re trying to win.”
The C of last resort: Court
There’s actually an eighth C, but Rolf doesn’t mention it until all other options are exhausted. It’s Court. If advocacy fails, you or your coalition might have to sue in a court of law to protect your rights.
“We try to avoid court at all costs, but I do think sometimes there is a point where that’s unavoidable.”
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