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Ben Wolff bootstrapped funding and borrowed money to build his own treehouse hotel and rent out luxury rooms down in Texas. The crazy part though? His short term hotel staying experience is so popular that his first ever treehouse hotel alone is generating an upwards of $170K in revenue every month. And now he has a second location that recently opened to the public in September and a third one on the way.
Ben originally went to college for business/entrepreneurship and landed a job straight after graduating. Soon after though, he was eager to venture out on his own and started his first business in New York doing lease arbitrage.
While the business was originally thriving, the slow business period during COVID made it run to a screeching halt. This eventually led Ben to take up a new job working with and learning from his now co-founder about Airbnb rentals and short term stays.
In this episode, learn how Ben has aced content and digital marketing to scale his rental and resort business, the importance of hiring slow and firing fast, and how transparent communication can be crucial when running your own company. He also discusses how connecting customers with the team and the process of opening new luxury stays through social media has produced a loyal following of the business.
Resources:
Gain Access to the UpFlip Academy: https://bit.ly/3UqcUt6
Connect With Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wolff/
Timestamps:
00:00 - Start
00:54 - A paradise… in Texas?!
01:46 - Personal background
02:44 - Education
03:29 - Design inspiration
04:50 - Pool area tour
05:34 - Pricing and profits
06:18 - Profitable seasons
06:35 - Success on the first listing
08:19 - Financing a costly venture
09:30 - From 8 to 200 properties (in 18 months!)
10:50 - Sobriety journey
11:19 - Fan blitz
14:17 - “Spyglass” cabin tour
14:37 - Managing 11 units
15:31 - Fostering a healthy competitive workspace
16:48 - “Monarch” cabin tour
17:20 - Mastering a new industry
18:12 - Boosting organic traffic
19:04 - Top-notch customer service
20:12 - Ongoing construction tour
20:52 - Attracting new customers & launching a new service
21:49 - Buildout costs
23:05 - Revenue numbers behind Oasi
24:45 - Turning viewers into customers (even marketers!)
25:15 - Juggling multiple responsibilities
26:49 - Lessons from early mistakes
28:01 - An investment for Onera
28:26 - Balancing stress across two ventures
29:19 - The “Greenhouse”
29:57 - Navigating risks while scaling
31:49 - Unlocking the “winning mindset”
32:26 - Pushing limits and imagination
33:37 - Power of storytelling
35:26 - Instagram marketing
36:08 - Standing out from competition
37:27 - The most exciting unit (yet!)
38:22 - Overcoming self-doubt
39:10 - Blueprint to success
41:02 - Book recommendation
41:51 - (Overlooked) metrics of success
43:20 - Advice to fellow entrepreneurs
43:56 - Launching on a shoestring budget
44:50 - Outro
#airbnb #airbnbbusiness #airbnbhostingforbeginners