About the Authors

Kimberly Smith is an entrepreneur and businesswoman with nearly 20 years’ experience in the real estate and corporate housing industries. In 1999, Kimberly and her husband and business partner, Eric, started AvenueWest Corporate Housing, Inc. Now a multimillion-dollar company providing furnished corporate housing and property management services to upscale business travelers, it was awarded CHPA’s 2010 Provider Company of the Year Award and listed on Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 list of the country’s fastest-growing businesses for 3 consecutive years. In 2006, the duo launched CorporateHousingbyOwner.com (CHBO), an online portal that connects furnished rentals and the traveling public. In 2013, CHBO was recognized by CHPA as Associate Company of the Year. In 2009, the pair founded AvenueWest Global Franchise and expanded AvenueWest Managed Corporate Housing throughout the United States. Today they have offices in San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, Denver, and Colorado Springs.

Kimberly served as the 2011 chairman of the board of directors for CHPA. She is frequently featured in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post, and US News & World Report, as well as on MSNBC.com, CNBC, and SmartMoney.com. She was awarded the 2013 Denver Business Journal’s Outstanding Women in Business award for real estate, small business finalist in 2010, and finalist in the “Power Book” section of The Denver Business Journal as real estate agent of the year. In 2009, she was selected to join The Denver Business Journal’s class of 40 under 40, and in 2010, she was recognized by ColoradoBiz Magazine as a top 5 GenXYZ leader. In 2012, she was a finalist for the NBC 9News Leader of the Year Award.

A graduate of the DMCC Leadership Denver Program 2002, Legacy Denver 2010, and Colorado Experience 2011, Kimberly serves on the founders committee for the entrepreneurship center at Denver University’s Women’s College, ABLE for Women; serves as a board member for Clinica Verde, a health and community center in Nicaragua; and supports an annual fundraiser for Dhaka Weaves, a women’s enterprise program in Nepal.

Lisa Iannucci is a seasoned journalist and author specializing in lifestyle and real estate topics. Co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Success as a Property Manager and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Building and Remodeling, among other nonfiction books, she also writes regularly for The Cooperator, New England Condominium magazine, Multi-Housing News, and the real estate sections of several newspapers and magazines.