The best way to do this is you should really have the core and foundation of your business is that direct booking model. You also actually need to maintain a presence within the OTAs… I actually think the best way to do it is you have to have all three legs of that stool.”
Building a hospitality business that generates 95% direct bookings sounds impossible—especially in a town with just 87 residents. But Blake Neitzke, a West Point graduate and former Special Forces officer, proved it’s not only possible but sustainable. In this episode of Booked Solid, Blake shares the direct booking strategies that transformed a distressed 7-room boutique hotel into a 15-key destination that books solid year-round, often 18 months in advance.
What makes Blake’s approach unique isn’t just his impressive conversion rates—it’s his balanced perspective on OTA management, which he maintains while remaining independent. His story provides a blueprint for operators seeking to establish enduring hospitality brands without compromising growth or guest reach.
Summary and Highlights
👨💼 Meet Blake Neitzke
Blake Neitzke is a 2012 West Point graduate who served 10 years in the Army, including time as an infantry officer and Special Forces officer with the 3rd Special Forces Group. In 2019, Blake and his family purchased a distressed boutique hotel property in Round Top, Texas—a town with a population of just 87 people that happens to host the country’s largest antique shows twice yearly.
Since then, Blake has expanded from 7 traditional hotel rooms to 15 keys across multiple properties, including renovated 1880s farmhouses, ground-up construction, and strategic acquisitions. His property serves everyone from University of Texas corporate retreats to intimate family reunions, maintaining occupancy rates that keep them booked solid through 2026.
🎯 Key Takeaways: The Foundation of 95% Direct Bookings
Starting with 100% Direct Bookings
Blake’s approach was unconventional from day one. When he purchased the property, there was no website, no property management software—just a landline and paper bookings. Instead of immediately rushing to OTAs, Blake built his direct booking foundation first:
- Set up a website with PMS integration
- Established Google Business presence with consistent information
- Created Instagram and TripAdvisor profiles
- Started collecting reviews across multiple platforms
This foundation-first approach gave Blake control over his brand narrative and guest relationships before introducing OTA dependencies.
The “Three-Legged Stool” Philosophy
Blake advocates for a balanced approach to booking channel management. While direct bookings form the foundation, he maintains a strategic OTA presence because “there are just some people who are comfortable with Airbnb. They like the additional layer of security.”
His channel distribution strategy focuses on:
- Direct bookings as the core (85-95% of revenue)
- Strategic OTA presence for guest acquisition and trust signals
- Consistent branding across all platforms
Social Media as a Non-Negotiable Trust Builder
Blake emphasizes that social media isn’t optional for modern hospitality businesses. Guests are conducting thorough research across multiple platforms to verify legitimacy:
“They go to Google and look at reviews, then they go to TripAdvisor, then they look at your website, then they’re gonna go to your social media… Once they’ve been able to vet you through multiple different mediums, it gives them confidence that they’re gonna have a good experience.”
This multi-platform verification process is why building trust on your direct booking site is essential for conversion success. This process is why consistent branding and active social presence are essential for direct booking success.
Cash Flow Management for Forward Bookings
One critical aspect Blake learned through experience is managing pre-paid reservations. With bookings extending to summer 2026, he’s managing over $100,000 in guest deposits—money that hasn’t been earned yet.
His approach includes:
- Taking 50% deposits at booking time
- Maintaining cash reserves for unexpected cancellations
- Understanding the difference between collected cash and earned revenue
- Having policies that prioritize guest relationships over strict enforcement
Asset Selection Strategy: The Sweet Spot
Blake’s portfolio evolution reveals a strategic preference for 1-2 bedroom standalone units over large single-family homes. This approach provides:
- Guaranteed occupancy flexibility for groups of varying sizes
- Higher utilization rates for smaller bookings
- Scalable inventory that groups can combine as needed
🏡 Building Relationships That Drive Repeat Business
Blake’s success stems from treating hospitality as a relationship business first. Many guests have stayed 14-18 times over six years, and some have become personal friends. This relationship-first approach creates powerful word-of-mouth marketing and eliminates acquisition costs for repeat bookings.
His guest retention strategies include:
- Personal follow-up for annual events and holidays
- Exclusive booking rights for loyal customers
- Understanding each guest’s specific needs and preferences
- Going above and beyond during challenging situations (like COVID cancellations)
💡 Rapid Fire Insights
Best Book Recommendation: “Five Years to Freedom” by Nick Rowe – A story about mindset during extreme challenges that applies to business resilience.
Mindset Advice: “No matter what you do, there’s going to be challenges and friction… Don’t shy away from the hardships and difficulties. Know and understand that it’s part of the process.”
Tactical Direct Booking Tip: “Get on the camera and increase your social media presence. Put a toggle on your property management software where people can put in where they found you from, and use it as a metric that you track.”
Connect with Blake:
- Instagram: @farmsteadroundtop
- Email: farmsteadroundtop@gmail.com
🔗 Start Building Your Direct Booking Foundation
Blake’s journey proves that sustainable direct booking success isn’t about choosing sides between OTAs and independence—it’s about building a strong foundation first, then strategically leveraging all available channels. His balanced approach, combined with relationship-focused hospitality, creates a business model that’s both profitable and personally fulfilling.
Ready to build your own direct booking foundation? Start your CraftedStays trial and create a website that converts visitors into direct bookings, just like Blake’s success in Round Top, Texas.
Transcription
Blake: I personally think actually the answer’s in the middle. And so the best way to do this is you should really have the core and foundation of your business is that direct booking model. And you need to be stewarding that at all possibility. You also actually need to maintain a presence within the OTAs, and the reason being is there’s just some people who are comfortable with Airbnb.
Blake: They like the additional layer of security and assuredness of the fact that the, there’s some vetting process in there, and so if you want to touch those customers. You have to have a presence on there. Same thing with Expedia. And so I actually think the best way to do it is you have to have all three legs of that stool.
Blake: You can’t rely on just one where you shouldn’t. Try to rely on just one.
Gil: Before we bring on my guest, I wanted to talk just a little bit about something that I’ve been hearing a lot from Host. I keep on hearing the same thing. I know my website isn’t converting, but I can’t afford $8,000 on an agency to rebuild it. Here’s the thing, you’re letting all these marketing strategies, you’re driving traffic and you’re putting it.
Gil: All to work, but if your site isn’t really built to convert, you’re basically lighting your energy and money on fire. And even if you could afford an agency build, every time you want to test something or make a change, you’re having to pay them again. You can’t iterate, you can’t test, and you really can’t improve on things.
Gil: You don’t need a custom $10,000 website to get the conversion rates that really matter. You just need the right platform. That’s why at Build Craft Estates, it’s purpose built for short term rentals and designed from the ground up to help you drive more direct bookings. You can finally turn that traffic into bookings and you can keep on testing and improving.
Gil: As you learn, you can make changes all on the platform. You don’t need to learn something new. So if you need some help or you wanna get started, go ahead and go to Craft to stay.co and start your free trial. Now let’s bring on our guests and dive deep into hospitality and marketing.
Gil: Hey folks. Gil Chan here. Welcome back to the Booked Solid Show, the show where we bring in top operators to discuss digital marketing, revenue management, and direct bookings. Today’s show is jam packed. I have Blake Neitzke veteran that turned boutique hotel owner who’s built a hospitality business in a town of just 87 people.
Gil: He turned it into one of the country’s sought after weekend destination. And what we’re gonna dive into is really how he was able to launch with a hundred percent direct bookings from day one, and how he’s still able to maintain over 85 to 95 direct bookings today. His asset strategy behind how he buys boutique hotels, massive houses, and how, and why he’s favoring small one bedroom homes in favor of some of those bigger ones.
Gil: Why he believes in social media is a non-negotiable for building trust brand and long-term direct bookings. His take on OTAs and how to use them without losing control or margin, what most operators overlook about cashflow management and forward looking bookings. And how his guests have become lifelong friends and why relationship based hospitality still wins today.
Gil: This episode isn’t about theory. Blake is in the trenches building, managing, and scaling, direct booking machine without choosing vanity metrics or growth hacks. So if you’re serious about building your brand and really having guests come back to you year after year, this is the show for you. So let’s dive right in.
Gil: Welcome Blake to the show.
Blake: Hey, thanks for having me.
Gil: Yeah. Blake, we, uh, we met a little while back. Um, you were exploring different options of, um, direct bookings or kind of revamping your website. We had a get chance to get, just know each other. Um, and I had a chance to learn a bit about your business and kind of what you’ve been able to do over the last five years.
Gil: I definitely wanted to have you on the show and kind of talk through some of that. So kind of like kick us off, like who are you? Blake.
Blake: Yeah. Yeah. So my backstory, so I, I actually was in the Army for 10 years. I was. Uh, 2012 West Point grad. I was an infantry officer, and then I was a Special Forces officer in third Special Forces group. But, um, towards my tail end of the Army, I, we ended up, uh, me and my wife and my in-laws ended up buying a property that was near where they live in a little town called Round Top.
Blake: And so at the time it was just a, it was a small distressed boutique hotel. You know, typical story Adrian owners. We bought it and, and, uh, Reno did an initial round of renovation on it and then had been growing it ever since.
Gil: Yeah. Um, and how many, how many keys or doors are within this boutique hotel?
Blake: Yeah. So I think it would probably count as like a 15 key hotel, but, so essentially we have two cornerstone houses. They’re really cool. They’re 1880s farmhouses, and those have the seven traditional hotel rooms. And so. We renovated those in 2019 and got operational around September, 2019 and then renovated two more houses that were already existing on the property that are just distressed and, and not actually used for short term rental at, at the time.
Blake: Then we built three more small houses, uh, and then we bought, uh, two more in 2023 houses that are at our offsite location. And then right now we’re finishing up, uh, ground up development of. Two, uh, more small rental houses. So one’s a two bed, two bath, one’s a one bed, one bath.
Gil: And are these are on different plots of land or are they on the
Blake: so the kind of the core of our business is on the same five acres.
Blake: And then the property that we bought in 2023 is, is 1.9 miles down the road. Um, but it’s on a separate two acre piece of property.
Gil: Nice. Nice. What led you down the path of deciding to buy a boutique hotel? Like what, what, what kind of like triggered that thought in your head?
Blake: Uh, I mean, none of us had any interest in running a boutique hotel. When we went and bought it, it was, we had, it was around Christmas time in 2019. We had family members. I, we, me and my wife were in town. We had family members that were staying in town. This place was just down the road from where my in-laws live and like.
Blake: We just needed, people needed a place to stay for the holidays. We ended up renting this place. There was a sign out front that said, for sale, and obviously we know, we know the town. We know the area. Um, and there’s the, the, the town is, the population is 87 people. Um, I know, it’s crazy. Yeah. So it’s 87 people, but it hosts twice a year.
Blake: The country’s largest antique show. And so kind of an interesting stat on it. We didn’t know this at the time, but in 2021, Airbnb released, uh, a list of the 10 most popular small weekend destinations in the US and round top Texas is the number four most popular small weekend destination. And so we knew that there was demand there.
Blake: We knew really it came down to we wanted to own the real estate less than we wanted to, to have the operating business. Since then, we’ve got it going, we’ve got it operational, and we’ve really. Kind of fallen in love with it. Um, and it’s, it’s a pet project more than it is anything else. Um, and, and so was there one thing that said, Hey, yeah, we want to get into this business?
Blake: No, it wasn’t, it was, it was a lot of just circumstance and a lot of luck in
Gil: Serendipity.
Blake: Yeah, it is. But you know, since making that decision and jumping in, you know, we’ve gone from, you know, seven traditional hotel rooms up to now. Uh, 11 houses and, and event space. We’ve built a pool and a pool cabana. We’ve added a sauna and a coal plunge.
Blake: Uh, there’s a lot of opportunities for us to kind of take our foot off the, the gas and, uh, just enjoy kind of what we’ve built. And every time we get the opportunity to do that, we just, we just can’t. Um, because we, we love the business. Like we love the guests that have really become like family to us. Um.
Blake: And so it’s just, it’s just a, uh, a, a labor of love at this point that we kind of keep just pouring into.
Gil: That’s, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. And, and so you bought the original boutique hotel and you started buying single families. Like in terms of like where you’re thinking about investments in you growing your portfolio, do you have an affinity towards one asset
Blake: Yeah. So it is funny, I, this, I, we are lucky enough to have been able to see just a little bit. Prior to COVID and a little bit post COVID and so, or obviously everything post COVID, sorry. And so I kind of have crafted this, this narrative in my mind that there’s been a structural shift within the way that people want to do.
Blake: Uh, short term rentals or even book a traditional hotel. But in COVID, people really realized how much they did not want to have a shared wall. They wanted to have space separated from other people. And so they, that’s why I think Airbnb and short term rentals really took off in those post COVID years.
Blake: Years. Well, since then, I think you’ve seen two different things. Um, and one of those is I think people with. That we’re using. Airbnb’s have had tons of great experiences, but there’s those one or two outlier experiences that have kind of soured some people away from the model. Um, the other thing is we’ve resumed a little bit more traditional travel, so you’re not able to go and still work from home and stay somewhere for three or four weeks at a time.
Blake: You can do four or five days at a time or do a longer weekend stay. And so those two structural changes within things I think have done. Two different things for like the industry. One, I think people are looking for brands now when they go to stay at a short term rental because that brand gives them some type of credibility to where they’re staying.
Blake: They know there’s gonna be consistency within the product. The other thing, um, to answer your specific question, what do we like, you know, larger single family homes or something that’s more of the traditional hotel. The answer is always in the middle. And so what we actually like is. A one bed, one bath, or a two bed, two bath with a really small, uh, kitchen and living area.
Blake: And the reason for that is I can, you know, I can guarantee occupancy a lot more if I have that smaller unit because if it’s a group of 10 people that need to come out from Houston or Austin or Dallas or San Antonio, I’ve got optionality for them to book for 10 people to have their own room or for five couples to share, or a larger house where they can share the house.
Blake: At the same time, that small weekend, uh, travel that you’re getting a one bed, one bath is what a lot of them are looking for. And so it’s, the answer’s actually in the middle. We, we like, we like something smaller, standalone home, no, no shared walls with the optionality that then people can, can add on additional homes, um, as they have larger groups.
Gil: Help me imagine what the, the boutique hotel’s like, what, what’s, do you have any additional amenities that kind of go along with it? Do you have any communal space along with it?
Blake: Yeah. So
Gil: like, yeah.
Blake: yeah, we have, I mean, we’re, we’re really lucky when we bought the property, it actually had an event space on it, and so the event space has. Uh, seating for 42 guests, a full kitchen with a gas range and ice maker and everything you need in order to host events for the weekend. And then we also have, um, you know, what I think are just kind of like typical amenities for the market now at this point.
Blake: So, you know, a swimming pool, a uh, a pool cabana that opens out onto the pool. So you have air condit, you know, heated and cooled. Uh, fully insulated gas fireplace inside. Uh, and then we just added a, a sauna and coal plunge onto the property. And, um, I don’t know, give us 12 or 24 months. I have no idea what we’re gonna have at that point, but at, at this point, at, at the speed of which we’ve grown, um, I, I just don’t know.
Blake: We know quite how to take the foot off the gas quite
Gil: Yeah, it sounds like there’s a lot of excitement and we, we caught up a little bit right before the show and um, to my surprise, you actually have not just families that are staying at your place, but you, there’s actually a different, like more like a B2B type of market that’s staying at your place. And maybe before we kind of go there, can you talk to us a little bit about.
Gil: How much kind of weight direct bookings has had on your business and kind of where it is now and maybe where it started off, uh, five years back.
Blake: Yeah. I, I. I should go pull the metrics on this to, to have an idea. ’cause I think it’s important, but, um, we probably did everything totally backwards in, in the sense that we started, uh, out of the gate, a hundred percent direct bookings. So we set up our website, we got integrated in with our PMS and I didn’t get us established on to any of the OTAs until 2021.
Blake: Um, and so I guess you could say where we were initially, we were initially a hundred percent direct bookings, and then we started to use the OTAs. Uh, I got on the, because we started with just direct bookings, getting onto the OTAs. There’s a lot of things that obviously I didn’t enjoy about them. I think they, they give you a lot of benefit and a lot of, uh, reach that you otherwise wouldn’t have.
Blake: Um, so probably in 21 and 22, we were more leaning into making sure we were up and running on the OTAs. And then I think I made a mistake, so I realized, I, I took a look at, at, um, you know, some of the operational expenses and you could really start to see the effect that the OTAs are having on your bi, your bottom line.
Blake: And so I really started to back off. I wasn’t maintaining, um. The, the OTAs very well. I wasn’t, I wasn’t, you know, making sure that our, our listings look good. And I was just really strictly focused on, on the, uh, direct booking side of things very recently. I’ve kind of come full circle and so I think back to kind of your, your initial question of whether we like single family homes or we like a traditional hotel room.
Blake: I personally think actually the answer’s in the middle. And so the best way to do this is you should really have the core and foundation of your business is that direct booking model. And you need to be stewarding that, uh, at all possibility. You also actually need to maintain a, a presence within the OTAs.
Blake: And the reason being is there’s just some people who are comfortable with Airbnb. They like the additional layer of security and, and assuredness of the fact that the, there’s some vetting process in there. And so if you want to touch those customers. You have to be, have a presence on there. Same thing with Expedia.
Blake: And so I, I actually think the best way to do it is, is you have to have all three legs of that stool. You can’t, you can’t rely on just one, or you shouldn’t, you shouldn’t try to rely on just one. Um, so.
Gil: Yeah. Well, I I didn’t know that you start off 100% or, or pretty much primarily on the direct booking side. Like how did you launch that boutique hotel or relaunch actually in this case, that particular hotel and, and have such high successes at direct bookings. Did you end up taking over their website and, and their marketing like.
Blake: No, so, so when we, when we bought the property, there was no website. There was no, um. Property management software. There was a landline phone and there were paper bookings. And so the owners were, were essentially just, um, taking, taking bookings on a piece of paper. And when we bought it, we were basically handed a stack of future reservations.
Blake: Um, and so. In a way, it, it was good because we had, you know, some type of future revenue that was coming in. And then also we had the, that antique show, that first antique show in 2019. That was six months after we kind of, uh, bought the property. And so we had, we had, we knew that we were gonna have some income from there.
Blake: Uh, and so, yeah, I mean, we, we didn’t have much, we didn’t take over a website. I didn’t even know what property management software was, to be honest with you. When I, you know, I was, I was very actively in the army at the time that we were doing all of this. Um, and so we, we really built it from the ground up, um, on nights and weekends without anybody truly working in the business full time.
Gil: Yeah. That’s, that’s amazing. So how, how, when you were building out that first marketing engine, what were some of the, so you, obviously you got the PMS in place, so you, you’re able to take reservations almost automatically or some system to kind of house all those bookings rather than a stack of papers.
Gil: But what was the next piece of the puzzle that you start to invest in from a marketing perspective?
Blake: so then I think it was, um, getting an Instagram up and running and having some type of presence on there. Um. Okay, then it’s getting on Google and making sure you have a good, uh, Google My Business page. I don’t think it’s called my business anymore, but, um, you know, making sure that you have a presence there.
Blake: The information is accurate and it’s, it’s consistent. Uh, now your Instagram is consistent with your Google account, which is consistent with your website. Um, getting on TripAdvisor, making sure that we had a TripAdvisor presence and we could start collecting reviews there. Um, and then I think a lot of it is just once you have those established, it’s just as you have guests and you’re interacting with them and having a good experience, it’s, it’s asking, you know, for them to leave a review and to let them know that, uh, your business really relies on, on their, their reviews in order to help attract.
Blake: Great guests. Um, and so it’s, it’s then kind of growing the business from there. Um, and then also too, because it is such a, a popular small weekend destination that we’re in, um, you know, we’re blessed. This is just, it’s, it’s kind of luck in the sense of Hu Houston I think is like the second or third most, um.
Blake: Populous city in the United States. Austin’s the 13th, San Antonio is the seventh, Dallas is the fourth. We get to draw on all of those MSAs. Um, and so just getting out, you know, we, we advertise in some of the local, uh, magazines that are, uh, big in round top, uh, and big out into Houston. And so you’re able to.
Blake: To pull a lot of direct booking traffic from those, I know it’s, it’s really old school and antiquated, but, um, it, it’s worked and it’s helped our business. And then they also too, by advertising in some of those print magazines, they’re gonna put you onto their websites. And so by getting on their websites, um, it gives the back link to your website, but it also is just one more place for people to find you.
Gil: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So how, how much has, how has that grown since now? Like what are some of the tactics that you use to, uh, maintain that pretty high level of direct bookings now?
Blake: Yeah, I mean, I mean, it’s kind of like I was, I was telling you, uh, before we hopped on this call, but I, I do think a lot of it is, is just strictly like a compounding machine to where those guests that we had that were direct book. Uh, you know, five years ago, they’re still driving traffic to our business.
Blake: Plus the people, the traffic that they’ve driven there is, they’re also driving traffic to our business. Um, I think some of the things that we’re able to do is, you know, we’re a larger property. We have an event space, we have amenities that people want to control exclusively. So a large portion of our business is people who book out our entire property for.
Blake: You know, longer periods of time, like I told you before we hopped on, we have a contract with the University of Texas who books our property, uh, exclusively for six, six weeks every summer. And so we’ve had, you know, university of Texas, we had, um, an ag agency from Houston, uh, black Sheep, a agency Shell, Royal Dutch Shell, their marketing department has booked us.
Blake: And so, uh, and then we have tons of families who. Either do reunions, small weddings, um, or just other corporate retreats. But once you get that business and they do it once and they’ve had a great experience, uh, you, it’s simple. You reach back out to them and say, Hey, you know, we’d love to have you again.
Blake: Or, um, if, you know, a family booked your entire property for Thanksgiving last year and they had a great experience, I reached out to them. Uh. You know, two months ago and said, Hey, we’d, we’d love to have you guys stay at Farmstead again. You guys have exclusive right to to Thanksgiving on the property until you guys tell us otherwise.
Blake: Would you like to book again? And they said, yeah. And so I think it’s just once you’ve already kind of established your, your book of business, you need to do a good job of taking care of and, and stewarding that book of business.
Gil: Yeah, it sounds like a lot of it has to do with one, making sure that you deliver a really high class experience there where people really wanna come back. Two, you try to nurture the leads that you do get, even if it’s having a conversation with them, understanding who’s booking and like really trying to make sure that they know to come back to you if they, if they’re ever visiting the area.
Gil: Um, and three, it sounds like also you’re not just leveraging. Folks that are staying there for the weekend, but they’re, because of the way that your property is situated, you’re able to really stand out in the market and have a place where folks can have corporate retreats or events and bring things together where that same product doesn’t exist very easily elsewhere.
Blake: Yeah. No, I, yeah, I mean, that’s absolutely right and I think it boils, it boils down to what the core essence of this business is. It’s it’s relationship and its experience. And like the relationship and experience. It doesn’t start the second that somebody steps on your property. It starts well before, from the first time that they contact you.
Blake: And so how you engage with that them, and how you understand what it is they’re looking for and what they’re trying to get from their stay at your property or the weekend or what they’re putting on, and then finding small ways that you can help them make that experience just a little bit better. Um, I think that’s what you’re.
Blake: Trying to accomplish, and that’s why people are coming to these small properties as opposed to going and staying in Houston or in Austin or in Dallas, where they could stay at a, you know, a Four Seasons in, or the, you know, a really nice hotel in Austin. They’re a number there where at your property, like their, their experience, their weekend matters, and they wanna be a part of whatever it is that you’re building at your property.
Blake: Uh, and so having that connection to them I think is, is super, super important to, to this business and what we’re doing.
Gil: Yeah. And now that you’ve kind of solidified, you got into a good place where. Are things are really stabilized and it sounds like you’re also doing a bit of growth in terms of figuring out like what are some of the new assets that you’re looking to purchase and expand on the business from a marketing perspective, what are some of the things that you, you’ve obviously gotten a lot of successes, but like what are some of the things that you want to invest and learn more about and put into practice?
Blake: I, I think one thing that I’ve realized recently and we’ve, we’ve really started to, to focus in on this, is social media. Um, we, none of us are, are particularly, um. Good or, or interested in being too engaged on social media, but it matters. And so, um, you know, we have somebody who’s come on recently that’s been helping us run social media and is helping us with posts and, and I think that’s huge.
Blake: Um, ’cause it goes back to the same theme of what I was, I was just kind of talking about where it’s, people have tons of options when it comes to, to booking short-term rentals. And one of the things that’s gonna tip things in your favor is if they can understand the history of a property and they know where it was and they know when you bought it, and they know the effort that you’ve put into it.
Blake: And they want to know the owners and they want to know who manages it. Like they want to know that that property is stewarded well and it’s taken care of. And it, it’s, I think again, herein lies like another structural change within, you know, it’s a post. COVID structural change, but it’s, um, people are much more interested in, in connection.
Blake: Um, and, and short weekends stays. And so having the connection to the owners of the property, it, it matters to them. And I think they, they book and I think they continue to rebook. And so, uh, I, I think this also too kind of answers your question on some of the direct booking stuff, but you know, we’re, we have some guests who probably have stayed with us.
Blake: 14, 16, 18 times at this point over the course of six years. And it’s a, it’s quite a large number that we have that, um, come back several times a year. Um, and so I, I just think, uh, I, I think your question specifically was like, what are you looking to pour into? I think it’s, it’s social media, but why is it social media?
Blake: It is social media because it’s a better way to. Tell our story and to explain what we’re doing with the property and for people to feel some type of connection to it so that they can figure out how they fit in to the story of that property for that weekend at a, at a time. Um, I, I, I think it matters. I think there’s also a little bit of a, um, practicality aspect of things too.
Blake: Um. If people know who the owners are, they know how the property is cared for. It’s a, it’s a vetting mechanism for them to ensure, Hey, I get one weekend where I can go on a four day weekend this quarter. I wanna make sure that my experience is good. I wanna make sure that the property is clean, the amenities are, are, are nice and taken care of.
Blake: Um, the grounds are, are well maintained. Um, I wanna make sure it’s a good weekend having a connection to whoever it is that’s, that’s managing that property and overseeing things. It’s just one additional way that they’ve, they’ve at the property and so they go to Google and they look at the Google reviews and, but everybody’s skeptical, right?
Blake: So then they go to TripAdvisor and they make sure that your TripAdvisor reviews are saying the same thing. Then they look at your website and they make sure that your website syncs with everything that they’re reading from the reviews. Then they’re gonna go to your social media, and then they’re gonna see if your social media is also synced with all of this.
Blake: And once they’ve been able to vet you through multiple different mediums, I think it gives them an a little bit of a, a. Uh, confidence that when they book with your property that they’re gonna have a good experience.
Gil: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. Where. I think one you have to deliver that a good experience, but two, like what you’re telling me is really around like the trust signals. It, it’s often a lot easier for folks to know that if they book on Airbnb that they’ll be covered because Airbnb is such just a ubiquitous name and there’s a lot of trust around there.
Gil: Um, but when you’re booking Direct Act, that guest doesn’t know whether or not this is legitimate business. Um. And they’re often looking at not just your website, but they’re looking at other things. They may even compare you on Airbnb and see how your Airbnb ratings are, but you’re absolutely right and I, I think like you played it really well where you’re leveraging those Google business reviews, um, which. I, I don’t hear as often as I, I used to. I, I, in the very beginning, maybe like two, three years back, a lot of people were putting a lot of weight into Google’s business reviews, and that has changed a little bit where Google has made it harder for short-term rental operators. It may be different for boutique hotels, but I know for short-term rentals, they almost like discourage people to do it and therefore people just abandon really getting reviews out there.
Blake: Yeah, well, I, I guess I, I can’t speak on, on that piece ’cause I wasn’t aware of that. The only thing I can think of is, is, you know, just because you can’t do a guru review doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be looking to find some other place to have reviews for your property. Um. Because the customer base, they’re smart and they’re savvy.
Blake: Like they’re gonna find ways in order to vet your property that you can’t even think of. And so just ’cause you can’t get on Google doesn’t mean that maybe you can’t have a Facebook page where you’re, there’s reviews or you could post some of your reviews on your Instagram, um, and have some of those front and center so that people can, can vet you that way.
Blake: Um, but yeah, I wasn’t aware about that with, with Google for short term rentals. But I mean, it makes sense. Um, but as long as you’re maintaining your, your Airbnb status and, and making sure that you have good reviews on there and, and, uh, I don’t know, could you do, uh, all the Expedia v rbo booking.com, could you do those reviews as a short term rental?
Blake: Yeah. So as long
Gil: Yeah, you can, you can. Yeah. And I, I, I see a lot of folks will pull their Airbnb reviews onto their direct booking sites and, and cross pollinate, and that’s. That’s very common, uh, even though Airbnb doesn’t like folks doing that. It is, it is very, very common, uh, now, nowadays at least.
Gil: Yeah. And ev even the PMSs that we work with, a lot of them expose APIs for us to be able to pull those reviews dynamically so that we can show it on the website almost instantly. So if you get a review that’s posted on Airbnb, it almost automatically gets posted on your website the same time.
Blake: yeah.
Gil: Yeah. Um. Awesome. Any, any last tips that you want to share with our audience and really like, like helping them get to that 80, 90% direct booking rate?
Blake: Um, I think really it’s, it’s a, it’s a staying power game and it’s, like I said, like it’s, it’s a compounding machine and so you can’t expect to see the full extent of your efforts in the first year or two. You’re gonna see them in year five and year six and year seven and, um, and so I think it’s just about understanding that that hard work.
Blake: Is going to pay off. And sometimes that, that is just a longer term payoff on things, but it’s not a, it’s not a get rich quick game. Um, you know, hospitality for the real estate world is, is a very traditionally like CapEx heavy, um, side of the business. And so you need to understand that in the sense of it’s not just the cash flow that from the business.
Blake: That is a metric that you need to be tracking in order to see. How well you’re doing, but you also need to have an understanding of how you’re forcing appreciation of that asset by either building or buying or, you know, putting improvements into it. Like you, I don’t want to get into the tax side of things ’cause I’m not a CPA, but, um, everybody needs to probably have a good sit down with their CPA and make sure that they understand what bonus depreciation is and, um, especially with this new tax bill that’s gonna be coming out.
Blake: It’s, are we gonna get four more years of, um, a hundred percent accelerated depreciation? That’s gonna change, uh, the calculus for if people should be out there buying additional properties here or not. Um, so understand that. Understand and keep an eye on, on, um, how you’re, you’re building equity within your business from your, um, monthly, you know, debt service.
Blake: I’m sure everybody has in this space. They have amortizing debt and so. Understand that, keep an eye on that. Make sure that you, you see, and, and track that because it’s on those days that are hard and you’re, or you’re, you know, something breaks and you’re fixing it and it’s Saturday night and you don’t wanna be doing it.
Blake: Um, you know, it’s, it’s important to, to have an idea of those metrics, um, so that you truly can, can track and understand the business that you’re in.
Gil: Yeah, I like your, I like your take of both, like starting off really strong on the hospitality side and really making sure that you have a, you have a good stay and you’re delivering on that, but also there’s almost this, like this other side where you’re talking about is really on like the investment side, and there’s ways that you can do it and you do it well.
Gil: That operationally kind of helps you scale more effectively as you grow.
Blake: Yeah, I think I, I mean, I think it’s important, um. I think both of those are important from two things, they’re, those matter to me in their front of mind because I’ve seen, you know, we, we’ve been in this business since 2019. I’ve seen several properties, um, great properties come onto the market and operate for a year or two, and then they get sold because the owners are not able to.
Blake: Operate them in a way that they, that meets their pro forma where it just isn’t covering the cost or for whatever reason. And so having a grasp and understanding where you’re building wealth, um, more than just the month to month cash flow that hits your, your pocket, it matters and it helps you, you stay.
Blake: Um, I did want to add one thing, ’cause I, I had heard somebody mention this, and I don’t on a couple of podcasts when it comes to short term rental stuff, but. Uh, and you do need to, to put it into context of the fact that we got going right before COVID and we were, you know, direct booking, um, in, in COVID.
Blake: But cashflow management is extremely important. Uh, especially if you’re direct booking. You know, we have reservations out to the summer of 2026, and so when we take those bookings, we take 50% a lot of times at the, at the, the time of the booking. And so it’s, you know, at this, at this point, you can be.
Blake: Handling, you know, a co over a hundred thousand dollars of other people’s money that you haven’t earned. And so obviously I don’t think we’re gonna have another COVID, but in my mind at this point, because I did um, have to go through that experience, is you need to understand that a lot of that money, how you’re gonna manage it.
Blake: You don’t want to do it in a way that you have a cash drag on the business so that you’re just sitting and, and not employing some of this money. But you also need to, to. To be prepared for and to understand if, if for something reason your, your home, you know, is no longer able to rent and you have bookings on it 18 months out, or, um, either you have insurance that’s gonna help cover that, uh, or you’re, you have a cash flow management process in place that’s gonna be able to get you through whatever storm, um, comes.
Blake: And so I, I do think that is important to think
Gil: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That’s a really good point. Especially folks that are either on V-R-B-O-A-P-I connected. Or using direct bookings. two, I think those, those are the primary ones. Those you’re either able to take full stay amount. Like for me, I, I take the full stay amount during bookings. You take 50%.
Gil: Um, but nonetheless, we’re taking a significant amount of cash that we haven’t yet earned that we have to render services before we can actually collect into our books and say it’s ours and we can spend it the way we want to. But you’re right, that like you also want to figure out like. Do you put that money into some other investment account in the meantime?
Gil: Because you could be sitting on six figures of cash that could be getting at market rate, uh, of return, um, that you wanna utilize and not just sit on and let it let like depreciate.
Blake: yeah, yeah. So it’s, it, it’s something, it’s something that you need to think through. Don’t, don’t, you know. I overly focus on it to where it’s gonna prevent you from taking action. But it’s just one thing that I’ve learned and I’ve become hyperfocused on after COVID. ’cause, you know, we were a brand new business and, and, uh, and, uh, you know, we had, we were basically faced with a choice when, you know, it was the antique show was coming in March of.
Blake: 2020 and then it all got shut down and canceled. And so technically, according to our policies, it’s a 30 day cancellation policy. We could keep that money, but we were, there was absolutely no way we were gonna keep any of that money. And so we, we sent it all back to the people. Um, we, we actually tried to send it back to everybody.
Blake: It was, it was funny. We, I wrote like this big, long. Emailed back and I gave people three choices and I was, like I said, we could either roll your reservation to a future reservation, um, we can refund the money a hundred percent in, in full, um, or you can maintain your reservation and come out and just enjoy the property without the fact that the antique show is gonna be going on.
Blake: And some people just came out and stayed. Um, anyway, uh, a lot of people ended up taking a, a full refund and then, um. Of those people that we sent ’em a full refund, some people just tore up the checks, they didn’t even deposit them. Um, and I think it’s because they, they felt appreciative of the fact that although our policies stated one thing, we were going to make sure that we took care of our guests and our customers.
Blake: Um, and a lot of those people are still customers of our property and come out three times a year. Um, and so, yeah, I mean, ca cashflow management is extremely important. Um, and just thinking through that, having a plan and then. And, and just making sure you don’t put yourself into a position, um, that you’re not gonna be able to do what’s right and by, by your guests.
Gil: Yeah, that’s a really good point. Awesome. But that’s. I like, I like your, your approach towards business. It’s not all like we talked about investments, but there’s also like this humbling side of you as well too, that like you wanna take care of your guests and you want them to, to be lifelong advocates of, of your place as well too.
Blake: Yeah. Uh, I mean, it’s one of the perks, right? It’s one of the perks of the business that we’re in is, is that you do. A lot of the people, they show up and you really don’t know them and you don’t, um, you’ve never talked to ’em before. You, you know, very small communication through emails or on the phone. And, um, they come out and stay at property and they become your friends and then they become part of your family.
Blake: And we’ve gone on vacation with several groups of people that we’ve met through, uh, owning and running our business. And, um, you know, we’ve been out to California for 50th birthdays. We’ve gone to. France and stayed at one of the people who stayed with US House. Um, and so it’s, yeah, I mean they, they really do.
Blake: I think if you have that mindset now, it’s not, it’s not right for everybody. Some people, uh, we also have guests that we have absolutely zero interaction with. ’cause they’re just, they’re used to the Airbnb model and they don’t want some of that interaction. And that’s, that’s okay too. Like it’s not right for them.
Blake: And it’s. It’s not right for everybody the same way that our property is not right for everybody. Um, but I think if you lead with that and you lead with the, the hospitality side of things first, um, that is, that’s the differentiator that’s gonna make your business successful. Um, ’cause there’s plenty of big corporations that are gonna be able to make it, build a hotel or build short term rentals that are significantly better than anything we can do with our own.
Blake: You know, friends and family capital. Um, but the thing that they’re never gonna be able to beat any of us on is, is that connection. It’s, it’s the, it’s the hospitality. It’s, it’s, um, it, it’s why people come to stay at your property.
Gil: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Well, Blake, we usually end the show with three questions. Um, first question, what’s a good book recommendation that you have for me? What’s, what’s one thing that you’ve, you’ve picked up a book on and that’s changed the way that you looked at things or that, how you applied it to life?
Blake: So I, uh, actually, ’cause something that you had said to me before was about mindset and how you really see as mindset being something that’s important. Um, so I thought about that and I thought a couple books for you. So, um, two of ’em that are similar, it’s Victor Frankl’s, man, search For Meaning. And then, uh, a lady named Edith Iger, her book The Choice.
Blake: So, um, they were both in the Holocaust. Um, and anyway, they, they came out of there and wrote these books and it was fantastic about like mindset and how you could see people who were so positive and they had something that they were thinking through and they, they were able to work through whatever.
Blake: Challenging situation they’d face today. And they kept a mindset. And then if you see them slip for a second and those people could pass the next day just because they allowed their mindset to change, um, that book or those two books, then obviously I was an Army guy, so, um, there’s a book called Five Years to Freedom, and it was written by.
Blake: Um, Nick Rowe. So Nick Rowe was Special Forces Officer. Vietnam had been captured and held by the Vietcong for five years. And it’s the, the theme and the message is the exact same thing as what, um, Viktor Frankl and Youth Iger, um, talk about in their books. And then the last one was The Obstacle is the Way, um, by, I think it’s Ryan Holiday, but those are four books all very different times.
Blake: That the books are being written, um, very obviously the, the farthest extremes of situations to just, you know, uh, the last one is just writing a book, uh, here recently, but the themes remain the same, where it’s people find themselves in situations and they’re confronted with things that, um. You know, feel insurmountable.
Blake: And it’s the way that we choose to look at them. It’s the way that we, we choose to interact with that situation is going to what truly impacts the outcome. Uh, so those are a couple books for you.
Gil: Awesome. Which one would you start with first?
Blake: I think five years. Yeah, probably five Years of Freedom. Um, I think Nick Rowe, I think that could be a little bit lighter and better way to delve into it than.
Blake: Um, you know, two books written by people who survived, uh, the situation that they did. So, um, yeah, yeah, he, and, and he’s a great guy. Um, there’s some, there’s a really great story about a guy in there in the book. His name is Rocky Versace, I think. Um, he won the medal of the medal of honor for actions that he took within, um, the POW camp that he was in with.
Blake: Uh, Nick Rose. So it’s just a cool way to read a book and, and to honor somebody’s story and sacrifices that made for the country. Um, so I, I would start with that one first, and then if you’re ready for it, then, then jump into probably Viktor Frankl’s book.
Gil: Okay. All right. I, uh, I typically find myself on Audible or Kindle right after getting off one of these, uh, recordings and like either bookmarking or snagging the book
Blake: man. Do you have a Spotify? Uh, do you have a Spotify subscription?
Gil: I do, yeah.
Blake: Hey, I mean, you need to just hop on Spotify at this point. Nine times outta 10 when I look for a book to listen to on tape. It’s free with your Spotify
Gil: I didn’t know
Blake: yeah, yeah. So the last, last, quite a few books that I’ve, I’ve looked to listen to.
Blake: They’ve all been on Spotify.
Gil: I did not know that.
Blake: Yeah. Yeah.
Gil: All right. I’m getting a lot of value outta this conversation.
Blake: well, I mean, I, I hope so. I mean, I, this is the first time I’ve ever done a podcast. I don’t, I’m not particularly. Um, eager to do a podcast or want to do a podcast, but, um, when I was talking to my wife about it and I told her my reservation, she’s like, she basically said to me, she goes, do you get a lot of value out of the podcast that you listen to?
Blake: And like, do you benefit and is your business better? And I was like, yeah. And she’s like, well, why, why don’t you want to give the same ability to other people that you’re, you’re pulling from them. So I do hope that is my hope, is that somebody pulls something from it, or it helps in some way.
Gil: Right. I’m sure they did. I did for sure.
Blake: We good? Good.
Gil: two more questions.
Blake: Okay.
Gil: Um, what’s one piece of mindset advice that you would give to someone that’s starting something completely new?
Blake: I mean, I think it is, I guess in the vein of the four books I just re recommended, it’s. It, no matter what you do, it’s, it’s going to be challenges and there’s gonna be friction and it’s, it’s going to be series of setback separated by series of setback with moments of, you know, happiness and calm in the middle.
Blake: And so the. The experience that you’re trying to gain from it and, and the lesson that you’re trying to learn. It’s not, it’s not whatever the, the end state of it is, but it’s, it’s the friction that’s in there that, that is able to make you happy and it is able to, it, it’s what the endeavor is all about.
Blake: And so, um, don’t shy away from the hardships and, and the difficulties and the struggles that are associated with this business. Um, you know, don’t, don’t get discouraged by the large CapEx expenditure that you weren’t. Uh, anticipating for this year, um, it’s, it’s part of the process. Know and understand that it’s part of the process.
Blake: Like, know and understand that this business is not a new business. It’s the hospitality business. The hospitality business requires a lot of capital, um, upfront and to maintain it. Um, you know, despite that, uh, we get rewarded, um, for it. And the returns on this can be extremely good in the good times. Um, but just know that you’re.
Blake: You’re setting your business up for long-term sustainability. Uh, and that means that there’s, there’s a lot of challenges and difficulties and setbacks that are gonna come and, and, um, you’re not doing anything wrong. You didn’t an not anticipate something. Um, these are simply just aspects of the business.
Blake: And so just your job is just to work through them problems, problem at a time. Um, and you, you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s part of it.
Gil: Yeah, I love that. Um. Last question. For those that are looking to either get started in direct bookings or amplify their direct bookings, what’s one piece of tactical advice that you would want them to walk away from today’s episode with?
Blake: Yeah. Well, I mean, I, I, I consider myself to be still learning this as well. Right. Um, but I, I do think the social media thing is, is really important. Um, and so having a presence, making sure that the presence is consistent, um, making sure that you’re leading with a, a personality within that I think is important.
Blake: Um, like my, so we own, so me and my wife owned the business and then my mother-in-law and father-in-law, and, um. Uh, my mother-in-law sh she’s great. I, I genuinely think that she, when you call on the phone and you talk to her, um, I think she’s in the top 1% of people who are in the hospitality space when it comes to making people feel comfortable and understand the property.
Blake: Um, but we try to push her and, and, and, and, and we want her to be out front and kind of be the face of the business. I think there’s, there’s a majority of people who are in this space who are probably very similar to us and similar to her in the sense of. We don’t want to be out there on social media.
Blake: Like we don’t want to talk to the camera or, or to, but it matters. So do it. Um, your business needs it. Uh, and, and the people who want to stay at your property need it. Uh, they, they’re asking for it. And so put yourself out there like get on. On the camera and, and, and increase your, your social media presence.
Blake: Um, and I think that that’s gonna lead to direct bookings. Put put a toggle on your, um, property management software to where people can put in there where they found you from. Uh, and use it as a metric that you track. And if you start your social media and you start. You know, next month in, in July, and you really start, um, working hard on it.
Blake: And then in come September you start seeing that people are saying that they found you on Instagram. Then they know then, you know, your efforts are, are worthwhile. Um, but, but track it and, and, and do it.
Gil: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can even get a, if you get really good at it, you can even get a Google Analytics that’s tracked for you if you, if you, if you get really good and you pipe your, your direct booking site correctly.
Blake: Yeah.
Gil: You can, you can have that first source attribution to this referral source. So like, um, but I think like for a lot of folks that have like disconnected websites where you have maybe a Squarespace website and then you have your direct booking website elsewhere, like for folks that are like not using crafted days or have separate ones, it’s a little bit harder for them where they need to, when they’re taking the booking to actually get it from some sort of field where you ask them like, how’d you hear about us?
Blake: Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, I mean I, I, I, I understand that and like you probably couldn’t do that, but if there’s some, if there’s some way to have just a conversation with guests after their stay on the weekend, I think it’s important, um, because I think the more metrics that you’re able to, to. To track and monitor the more that you know where you need to focus your effort on things.
Gil: A hundred percent agree. Awesome. Blake, I appreciate you kind of walking us through kind of how you’ve grown your portfolio over the, the last five, five plus years now. I think, uh, actually yeah. Coming on your fifth year. Yeah.
Blake: put the offer in in 2018 and we closed in March of 2019, and then it’s just been, it’s been full speed since then. So.
Gil: Yeah, you just five years and like three months. Yeah. Congrats. Um, on, on growing that portfolio, and it sounds like you’re, you’re, you’re interested in growing into other asset classes as well too, and um, just seeing just all the successes that you’ve gone and it sounds like it actually wasn’t just this one thing that you’ve done really well or that helped you get to this high rate of direct bookings.
Gil: And I think. First and foremost, like your business is very, very stable, where you’re not dependent on anyone. You control all the marketing yourselves, and it’s almost to a point where a lot, it sounds like a lot of your marketing is not paid marketing. You’re not paying marketing dollars on a monthly basis to get the revenues that you’re getting.
Gil: It’s actually a lot of organic stuff, so.
Blake: Yeah, sorry. We, I mean, we have done it in at times, but I think that everything needs to be you. If you’re gonna do it, you need to track it. And so we’ve, we have had times where we’ve paid for Google ads and we’ve throttled it up really high and then worked it down at lower times. Um. But yeah, exactly.
Blake: There was one more thing I was gonna tell you. This is something I’ve learned, uh, recently. Um, something for people who are trying to get more direct bookings, but, um, just this year I started in that I started to use dynamic pricing models a little bit in order to, um, I just wanted to see what it would do to the business.
Blake: Um, and so I used the dynamic pricing models and I was able to see immediately like an increase. Um, traffic to the website. Um, and it, it made me realize that it’s, it’s, it has nothing to do with the property. It has nothing to do with whether people wanna come, say it or not. It’s, it’s how you get incentivized by the algorithms or how the algorithms are gonna place you within, within the trick, within their, um, within their rankings.
Blake: And so I think that’s one big thing too, is just making sure that you’re always, the, the lesson there is not go do dynamic pricing. That’s not the lesson I’m trying to. So what I’m trying to say is that just ’cause you haven’t done it for the last five years and you’ve been successful and you’re able to get the drive, the direct bookings, doesn’t mean that you don’t need to be incrementally looking for the, the next little thing in order to make the business better.
Blake: Um, and so whether it’s something as simple as dynamic pricing or, or trying Google ads for a four month period of time, just do those little things, experiment, track, and then that way, you know, if you need to maintain it or, or, or just, um, you know, shelve it for now.
Gil: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good tips. Really, really good tips. I, I appreciate Blake, uh, you sharing all that with us,
Blake: Yeah, of course.
Gil: I can’t wait to check back with you in a little bit and see kind of how things have grown for you since it sounds like things aren’t slowing down whatsoever for you.
Blake: Well, we, I mean, we’ve, every single year we’ve always talked about it. We’ve said, all right, this is the year that we’re gonna take a break and not try to grow. And, um,
Gil: And then you buy three more
Blake: find a way not to. We’re building two houses right now. Uh, the plan for, for 26 is to, to take the foot off the gas a little bit, um, and not, not try to grow, but you know, if the right property comes on the market or a neighbor wants to sell, I mean, it’s, it’s gonna be hard to say no.
Blake: So you, you always, you have to stay dynamic within the way that you’re looking at things.
Gil: Yeah. Awesome. Well, Blake, it’s uh, good catching up and I can’t wait for us to catch up again next time.
Blake: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Gil.
Gil: All right. Bye.
Blake: Bye.