Turning Passion into Profit in Rural Hospitality | Dave Cook E38

What does it take to build a successful hospitality business in a small rural town, with no outside investors? Dave Cook, founder of Barn Door Hostel in Rumney, New Hampshire, walks us through his journey from hostel volunteer to hostel owner.

We dive into:

• How he used sweat equity and personal savings to convert an old chicken coop into a thriving hostel
• His research process on demand, shared economy trends, and local recreation patterns
• The hidden cost of rural hospitality: zoning, septic, ADA, fire codes, and more
• How he fills beds year-round in a seasonal market
• The emotional toll and personal sacrifices that come with being a first-time hospitality operator
• His long-term outlook on scaling, balance, and defining success on your terms

Whether you're dreaming of opening a hostel or just curious about rural hospitality investing, this one’s packed with hard-earned lessons.

About Dave

Dave is the founder of Barn Door Hostel in Rumney, New Hampshire—a community-driven basecamp for climbers and adventurers, built from the ground up (literally, from a chicken coop). With over a decade of experience in hospitality, climbing gyms, and youth programming, he brings heart and intention to every guest experience. He's also a passionate advocate for access and stewardship, serving as a board member for the Rumney Climbers Association and a Ski Kind ambassador. Follow along as we dig into the journey behind Barn Door and the spirit of adventure it inspires.

Connect with Dave

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davefrombarndoorhostel/

Website: https://www.barndoorhostel.com/

Instagram: @barndoorhostel

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Transcript

Michael Russell 0:03

Welcome to the Hotel Investor Playbook, your guide to building wealth and freedom through boutique hotel ownership, hosted by Mike and Nate.

Nathan St Cyr 0:12

Get in the game.

Michael Russell 0:20

Welcome to the Hotel Investor Playbook, where Mike and Nate, founders of Malama Capital, and your host. On this podcast, we talk story about everything you need to know to make money investing in hotels and hospitality assets. On today's show, we have Dave Cook. Dave is the founder and owner of Barn Door Hostel, located in Romney, New Hampshire, a couple hours outside of Boston. He's got a cool little operation there. Dave, welcome to the show.

Nathan St Cyr 0:46

Thank you very much. Pumped to have our peeps on. Let's go.

Michael Russell 0:51

Yeah, that's right. So this is the first time that we've hosted someone who has owns and operates a hostel. We got a lot of folks that own and operate alternative or lifestyle or experiential lodging types, but never a hostel. So we're talking to our people right now. We're excited. Yeah, I'm humped. So let's start here. You turned a chicken coop, a building that was operating at one point as a chicken coop. This is an old building. I think it date dates from the 1800s. Maybe it's changed categories over the years. I think at one time it was operating as an auto repair shop, but you have repurposed this building as a hostel. And I guess I want to know what made you think this was a good idea at the time.

Dave Cook 1:30

So I have a little bit of background in running hostels and even less in like renovating buildings. But I saw this place and I kind of felt something a little woo-ey, magical crystal, like this is the place. It's hard to pinpoint like how or why, or but I just felt it. It went through a lot of different changes over the years. It was a chicken coop. The people that we bought it from, they were operating an automotive garage out of it. We had to gut it completely and bring it all up to life safety code, handicap compliance, all that good stuff.

Nathan St Cyr 2:03

Wow. So were you on the hunt for a hospitality asset and you came across this? Or did you come across this and you're like, holy crap, every my past experience leads me to believe this is something special?

Dave Cook 2:18

Both of those things are exactly correct, Nathan. I was on the hunt for a place in Rumney, New Hampshire. We're a huge rock climbing destination here. We're right at the foot of the White Mountain National Forest, is the like most visited national land in the US, which is crazy to me because there's a million people around. But I was on the hunt specifically in Rumney because I was up here climbing and couldn't find an affordable non-camping place to stay. So I kind of convinced many people to go in on this business with me. And we were searching for a place that we could convert into a bunkhouse and a couple of private rooms. We found a place that was not this place. We got outbid in the acquisition process and had to kind of start over and go back to square one and find out what exactly we wanted. Do we want a campground? Do we want a hostel? Do we want to build something ourselves? Do we want to renovate something? And then we stumbled across this property. And yeah, every single path in my life had led me to that moment. And it was one of those aha, cool, this is definitely it moments. And yeah, here we are, seven years later.

Nathan St Cyr 3:32

Of it. So I'm following you through this journey, and I'm thinking to myself, okay, you have this, you have this concept, then it's a like this this vision kind of gets ignited inside. You find this building, but at the same time, this is this is new for you. You've said you've convinced these people that it's a good idea, but how do you go from an idea to, okay, there's financial viability here? Because I think that that's a common theme that we constantly see is people will have these great ideas, or they'll have this like, this is what I want to do. They're maybe have a passion project for hospitality. But then it's like, okay, here's the vision. But in my mind, I'm like, well, how do you know that it's going to be financially viable? So walk me through how you convinced people and why you believed that there would be financial viability in this.

Dave Cook 4:24

Yeah. As I said, Rumney is a climbing town and I was working at a climbing gym. I was spending a lot of my time behind the desk at the climbing gym doing research, like hours and hours and hours of research about the most tangential things ever. Like, what's the popularity of an extreme sport? Not just climbing, but any extreme sport. Like, what are the Google trends of that? I like nitty-grittied my way through every single bit of research from the popularity of White Mountain National Forest, where we're located, to the popularity of rock climbing, to the shared economy and that growth in the aspect of the GDP of the US and all of this stuff. Not to mention all of the handicap compliance of like once I actually had the place, I did all of this research for hours and hours and hours, years, literally years, it took me between Googling and looking at like government documents, calling local offices and asking questions and just seeing is there a trend here? I know I want to be here. I know I want an affordable, affordable bed here, but do other people? And so I really had to sell myself on that first and then bring all of that relevant information to the people that I wanted to go in on this with, which are my parents, which is really cool.

Nathan St Cyr 5:48

First of all, I love this. This that was I did not expect that as an answer. That was that's legit in the research, but I want to go back to one of the things that you said because you said that as you were doing the research and you categorize things, one of the things was shared economy in the US. Yeah. Okay. So can we can we talk about that? Because Mike and I, obviously, we've gone down this path and we've seen a significant change. And we feel like the US is very behind the global marketplace, especially with the younger generations, the Gen Z and the millennials, specific to shared economy. So can you just walk us through some of your findings on anything that stood out as you researched shared economy in the US?

Dave Cook 6:34

My main finding, like the bread and butter of what I got was in ride sharing. At the time that I was doing this research, it was like 2016, 2017, and rideshare apps and companies were exploding. And you could literally Google rideshare, and you'll see three very well-known companies year over a year were exponentially growing. And things that all three of them gave were not only were you sharing a car with a stranger, essentially a glorified taxi, but all three of them also offered shared rides for the guests. So a person would enter into a taxi or a shared ride that was already occupied by somebody else. And it's the exact same thing in a hostel. You're already entering a hotel room that's already occupied by somebody. And you're both in this agreement of okay, I'm in this space, I feel safe, I'm comfortable, and I'm sharing this with somebody. Maybe this person's super cool. I'll be best friends with them, or maybe I don't want to talk to this person today. But that ride share growth really stuck with me and was like an obvious this is going to work.

Michael Russell 7:52

Yeah. So the question started with were how did you know that this was economic economically viable? And you explained that you spent hours researching, and one component of that is the shared economy. But specific to your location, because I think this is really important. Like I get the chasing a shiny ball syndrome, right? Where I'm like, oh, wouldn't it be great to have a property there? Or what about here? And then it feels overwhelming because you're like, well, all these places seem really cool, but how did you determine that where you were located? It was economically viable based on the research. And I'm talking about based on like your visitor demographic, based on supply and demand, things of that nature. Can you kind of walk us through that?

Dave Cook 8:33

Yeah, absolutely. All of those things were like top of my list when I was going through all of the documents that I was creating to give to people that wanted to be a part of this. And yeah, the things that I found most important were the demographics of the guests that I wanted to capture were the same demographics of the people that were coming up here to visit. So again, we're in White Mountain National Forest. It's the most visited national land in the US, more than Yosemite, more than Grand Canyon, all of that. And it's because there's a massive amount of US population right by us, but not by us so close that they can go home in the same day. Ah, but you said at the beginning, we're two hours from Boston, we're three hours, we're really about four hours from Hartford. So if you include all of Connecticut, all of New York, all of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, Upper New York, you know, the Albany, Syracuse area, all reaching into Canada, you have Quebec City, Montreal, all of these places are within six hours of us. And it's like equivalent to a third of the US population, give or take. So there's a ton of people that are coming here to do recreation activities. And we're in a recreation activity area, so it's obvious that we need to capture those people. I was up here doing recreation activities, hiking, climbing. There's rivers and lakes. You can go paddling, swimming, cliff jumping, all of these things. So all of the people that were coming to this place are exactly the people that we want to advertise to and to have stay here. So when I saw that line up, it was just like.

Michael Russell 10:24

Okay. Okay, so that's one half of the equation. What you identified is based on your geographic location, there's a huge population source for demand. And I really love that comment. It's so insightful. It's in hindsight so obvious, but I don't think anyone's ever really said it this way. That the reason why this is so critical is because it's far enough to where they can access it, but too far to where they're gonna be able to drive back in the same day. That is a nugget. So tremendous demand, but let's talk about supply. You're not the only lodging option in Rumney, I assume. So why do people choose barn door over, let's say, a budget motel or a vacation rental?

Dave Cook 11:03

People do choose those for sure. Rumney's Rumney is a bit of an anomaly because it's such a small town and it holds access to this huge area for recreation. So yeah, there are a dozen campgrounds in the area. There are at least two or three that I know of shared accommodation lodging establishments, there's Airbnbs, there's all of these glamping options. In my opinion, I think they choose us because there's a face. They know us, they see us, they see a human being, they see a smile, and they want that. As much as the world is going towards whatever AI and digital and blah, blah, blah. People want a human connection, especially people that are traveling to a hostel.

Nathan St Cyr 11:55

Okay, so when you said that there's other opportunities, and you named several, whether it's short-term rentals, whether it's campgrounds, what about other bunk houses, lodging, or hostels? Are there other hostels in town?

Dave Cook 12:09

There are other things that are like hostels. There are a couple of lodging establishments that have shared rooms, like a dorm room, but they're not entirely a hostel. So we may be the only game in town, but we may not be the only game in town, depending on how you look at it. We weren't the first, we won't be the last. People, I think, choose to be loyal because they feel welcome. They feel like it's their home. And a short-term rental is a short-term rental. Yeah, it's cute. You walk in, it's cute, it's clean. It's almost too clean. It's like sterile, right? You walk into us, it's a little like the corners are a little dark, but like you feel comfortable. Your shoulders relax, you're you just like sometimes literally let out a sigh. People are comfortable here. They think it's their home, they act like it's their home, and it is their home. We want it to be their home because we want them to come back time after time.

Michael Russell 13:09

Yeah. What I'm hearing you say is you're, I presume a big proportion of your business comes from repeat guests. So they might stay with you once, but instead of it just being a sterile, cheap place to stay, they reflect on their experience afterwards. And probably one of the more valuable components is to your point that it's run by real people. There's interaction, there's there's interaction with other guests, but there's also interaction with you as a person. And so that brings up a whole other slew of questions that I could go down, but just like, all right, well, how much of your success at Barn Door is about like understanding the guest and the guest experience versus just running a solid business where like anyone could do this?

Dave Cook 13:54

I think it's a 60-40. I think 60% is understanding the guest and what they want and everything like that. The other 40 is just being like, yeah, you can do it. Other people are doing it, they do do it, they are successful. If you look up a lodging establishment in Rumney, you're going to see other places other than us that are all four or five stars on whatever rating site that you want. We like to focus on the guest experience. And on our property management system, we use cloud beds, and there's a way to take notes. And we literally take notes on every single guess. Every guest that comes in. This person's super cool. They're really smiley, and they have a dog with them, and their dog is cute, and they just adopted them, like or something like that. Or this person comes up climbing every single weekend and they just had a shoulder injury. And so next time they come up, ask them how their shoulder injury is. Like there's all of these things that we use to better allow the guest to feel like it's their place.

Michael Russell 15:01

I have a lot of ideas spitting at the same time. But I think what I'm what I'm recognizing is like, look, you've got this niche business model, and there's always going to be people that want to go and they have a commodity experience. They want something clean, safe, budget friendly, and they'll just go and stay at a at an Airbnb or a hotel, and that will accomplish what they're looking for. But what you're describing is the nuances of really understanding your guests and providing that guest experience possible. And so my next kind of chain of thought is like, great, for one location for you, Dave Cook, running this, pouring your passion into this, this is feasible. But from an investment perspective, like if you were to scale this, is it possible to scale what you're doing to where others now can incorporate this passion and deliver it to the same degree so that you are successful at more than just one location?

Nathan St Cyr 15:52

Yeah. So I want to follow up with that because what what I'm wondering is a little bit more specific to what you're doing, right? Your vision, your brand. If I take Dave out of this specific hospitality business, how does it run? How does it function? And is it financially viable? Or is Dave a main because we find this many times in the hostel industry is that the hostel industry a lot of times is built off of somebody that that does this because it's a passion. They fell in love with it. They were hosteling. And so then they go and that's their that's their mission. They're like, okay, this is what I'm gonna do. And so they build a business, but they're building the business around themselves versus the business being sustainable without them in it. So when when we're talking about you and your specific barn door vision, is that model scalable? Your model?

Dave Cook 16:49

You hit the nail on the head because that's such an existential question that I deal with all the time. Can I remove myself? Is it gonna function the same? Is is it gonna make any money at all? Like, who knows? But the answer is yes. Like, I've been stepping away for the past seven years. At one point, did start it as a passion and said, Yeah, this is amazing. Everything all in all the time. No friends, no phone calls, nothing, just a hundred percent business. Is that sustainable for anybody? No. Do you need to take a step back? Yes. And I have been, and my model of these rural areas and recreation-based shared affordable accommodation is totally, totally scalable and feasible and everything. I mean, I'm not the first to do this, even just in New Hampshire, the Appalachian Mountain Club already has hostels. They're three, four thousand feet elevation in the mountains and they run totally off grid. And so they face completely different challenges. Is my place here in Rumney scalable in Rumney? Probably not, but is it scalable in another rural location? Are hostels in general viable in rural locations? Yeah, totally. As long as there is that demand that Michael was saying earlier. So are the people traveling to there to do something? And is there a supply of shared accommodation there?

Michael Russell 18:29

Hey guys, quick heads up. Malama Capital, our investment arm, is full steam ahead on finding our next hotel acquisition this quarter. If you know of a deal or you're working on something yourself and want to partner up, we'd love to hear about it. We offer a generous finders fee, or if it's a fit, we can bring you into the deal for a slice of the equity and give you a front row seat to the whole process from A to Z. There's a short form linked in the show notes. Just drop your name and a few quick details. And if it looks like a fit, we'll be in touch. Now, back to the show.

Nathan St Cyr 19:02

Yeah, because this is what we wrestle with, right? For what we recognize is that with the hostel model, it's great because you can increase density by having more beds in a room than if you just rented the room. So it's kind of a simple concept from a financial standpoint. However, with that, you need to have the people to go in that bed. So if you just increase density, it does not necessarily mean that it's viable if you don't have enough traveler demand. And so that is always what we wrestle with when we look at expanding in some of these areas that are not urban or are not really high barrier to entry places like Hawaii is okay, what's the actual financial viability? If one more place opens in Rumney, what happens to you? Like that's our thought of okay, if we go there, you know, what what what ends up happening?

Dave Cook 19:54

My short answer to that is w is is good because I need the pressure. I need the pressure. the competition to to force myself to grow because right now, like we're almost the only game in town. And we need that pressure to better ourselves, to strive and focus and narrow in on what truly matters and get that better.

Michael Russell 20:20

Well, I want to press into that because look, we're talking a lot about scale and vision. And that partly is just coming from our perspective. Our perspective is to grow. We want to grow this huge company. But not everybody that gets in hospitality is aligned with that. A lot of folks want to get involved with something because it's a passion-led project first. So they want to pursue something that brings them joy and happiness. And if it makes them enough money to live, then they're satisfied. And so like this goal of like we got to improve or these words, I feel like I just want to take time out and say, well, depending on one's perspective, you might be in the perfect spot right now. You might not have to change anything. But when Nathan said, well what happens if another business opens up in the town are is it still financially viable? That's the part that I'm like constantly having like would keep me up at night the sinking feeling of like, okay, well, supply and demand. You've got the demand. What about supply and not just other hostile operators, but the next new shiny property that opens up that maybe provides competition like that's where I feel like you got to kind of hedge your bet a little bit. If you do have more than one location, then if one starts to go down a little bit, you can lean into the others. And so there's a little bit of protection there. We're asking questions of like Dave, are you going to scale? Are you going to grow? You might not want to, right? But you do got to be protected. And that's just something I guess how do you assure that this is financially viable for the long term that you're not just next year going to be petering out.

Dave Cook 21:49

Yeah. Yeah that's that's kind of business not 101 but maybe the the next class after that is like are you comfortable doing this business just to live the life that you want to live right now? Or do you want to build this empire and and define empire whatever way you want to build define it. So for for Barnor and for me personally, I think at most I would only ever want to scale up one other thing to one other location. I'm a big guy of balance I love to surf and snowboard and climbing is all about balance and so I'm a big guy of balance and and having two locations that are like sister places would be good. Fredor's a rock climbing town and we're surf themed, which is sounds weird on the surface but all of the climbing or most of the climbing in Romney is surf themed. So I'd love to go to a surf town and build a a rock climbing styled hostel and just have that balance there and have my seasoned here and snowboard here and just work comfortably enough for me personally. For any aspiring business person that might not be the case exactly like you said Michael like if you just want to make enough money to buy groceries a six pack of beer and and be able to afford a a nice car to drive around town then cool like one is enough for sure but like does one want to scale does one want to grow or are you comfortable and happy in this space?

Nathan St Cyr 23:33

Yeah so defining that is obviously a critical piece and is going to be unique to each each individual. But can we break down a little bit like what your configuration is and your seasonality and just occupancy and revenue yeah we're on nine acres and it's mostly open field.

Dave Cook 23:53

We're kind of like bordered by some natural stuff in a triangle shape. Our land is in the triangle shape. So our buildings are right in the middle of the triangle we have the office which I'm sitting in which is where everybody checks in. We've got a beer tap behind us this is our check-in desk right here. So people come in they check into either the hostel or the campgrounds the camping is the majority of that nine acres and the hostel is one of the two other buildings and the other building being my personal residence. So I live on the property and then that other building is the hostel it has 26 beds in it 26 rentable beds plus a six bed dorm for staff. And those 26 beds that are rentable are a mix between private rooms and bunk rooms. We went big on the bunk room numbers so we have a 10 bed dorm and an eight bed dorm. I know the trend nowadays is maybe six maximum but when we were coming in we kind of said climbers are our dirt bags and they don't mind piling up on one another and 10 to a room is totally fine. And the room is big enough. So yeah our hostel sleeps 26 and the rest is essentially all camping there's no external structures on our campground there's no like pavilion or anything like that. But in the future we would love one but not right now.

Nathan St Cyr 25:19

Yeah. So on the camping side how many people can are are they campsites or are they designated to go somewhere can they just go and be like all right head to the woods head to the field whatever it is like that's that's the option.

Dave Cook 25:33

Yeah. So because we're on cloud beds our easiest method for our property management system was just to have one room with 200 beds if it's those the campground is a per person per night rate just like a dorm bed room is. So yes it's all communal it kind of leans into the hostel side of things we have I think there's 17 fire pits and picnic cables down there and we encourage people to go and make friends and camp close to a stranger. Go hike that with them like we know that you're you're hiking.

Michael Russell 26:22

So I've seen on your website you've got you've got activities posted right are there additional revenue sources from selling activities as well no we're yeah we offer them just free of charge.

Dave Cook 26:37

The only one that we get a small commission from would be the zip lining tours we pre-purchase wholesale the zip lining tickets and then resell them for a little couple extra bucks each it's all free to anybody that's staying overnight. Love it.

Michael Russell 26:52

Yeah so what I'm trying to do is dig into the viability here financially. So we're walking through okay how many beds do you have these beds sell for 40 50 bucks a night you've got private rooms and then you've got camping so can you kind of break us down like like ultimately what I'm going to do is I'm going to drill drill down and be like well how much does this thing make right so rough ballpark like what does it cost you to run this place each season and what kind of annual revenue are you hitting now?

Dave Cook 27:18

Sure. Between all of the the classic bills insurance heating things of that nature payroll is a massive one so that chunks out to about a third of our annual income which our annual income can range between 150 to 2000 a year almost all directly invested back into the space. So we talked earlier about scaling and expanding and all that stuff. I'm a big proponent right now of just always bettering the place I don't need to scale or need to expand. I want to just better the place I want to offer more amenities. I want to offer adventures and activities for folks I want to offer all that stuff free and how do we do that? Sure we'll raise our prices a dollar or two a year. So all of that expenditure that goes that that gets captured by the end of the month or week or year or whatever goes right back into building this business.

Michael Russell 28:25

Yeah you're bootstrapping I mean that's what we did right so but is this thing open seasonally it's it's only open like what May through September?

Dave Cook 28:33

We are open seasonally on our campground from April all the way until the end of November which sounds crazy for New England state. And our accommodations are our sorry our amenities change a little bit over that season. I mean April we don't have water in November we don't have water but for the most part the campground is open April through November our hostel is open year round. So those 26 bookable beds that's year round in the wintertime we kind of shift gears from the rock climbing and hiking and water sports folks over to the winter hiking and the the skiing and snowboarding and the we actually reach out into kind of we do a bunch of group bookings over the wintertime college retreats and bachelor parties and things of that nature we often do in the wintertime.

Michael Russell 29:23

Gotcha you want to shift gears and talk a little bit about like okay you mentioned in the very beginning that you were searching for something you're doing all this research you didn't necessarily know exactly what you're going to build but you you identify that there was this building you could convert into a hostel right and you didn't have an experience in architecture construction or permitting or zoning so can you walk us through like that endeavor of going from concept to construction to being complete can we start with this how much did you buy this place for the property itself was 350 000.

Dave Cook 30:00

So it was back in 2018 we moved in 2018 May and so yeah nine acres three buildings it had very good electric and very good water we're on a we're on a a well and a septic system we're in a very rural area but had a very good well and a pretty strong electric wiring system already installed because of the automotive garage that was here before us. So we bought it for 350 in 2018. Now I have no idea what it would be valued at I haven't looked and I don't really have an interest in looking. But from a zoning standpoint what was it zoned as such a great question Nathan we really hit the lotto and there is no zoning in Cumney got it yeah we're one of like three or four towns in the entire state of New Hampshire live free or die that has no zoning I shouldn't say no zoning. There's extremely minimal zoning ordinances so we before even purchasing the property emailed a bunch of town offices asking and saying hey we're planning on doing this what do we need to do and nine times out of 10 that their response was whatever the state tells you to do because there isn't any sort of ordinance the town is very small. It's 1400 people there's more established climbing routes in the town than there are residents in the town. So we really hit the lotto there's no zoning so I mean if I had the capital to do it I could build a 40 story hotel if I really wanted to and the state allowed me to the town doesn't really have any say okay so zoning checked out purchase it you do your research you purchase it for 3500 what did you have to put financially into it to get it to the place where it is now like now today or now when we opened let's go to open and then we'll we'll transition to now. Sure. So to open about 2500 extra so between renovations and breaking down renovations to labor to dumpster rentals to materials all of that between renovations between building it back up with all of the supplies making it all up to code fire code life safety code handicap compliance all of these things cost money to do so having our our biggest expense or two expenses was having a septic system that was capable of handling the guests that we wanted in the hostel as well as putting in a sprinkler system a fire suppression system for the hostel.

Michael Russell 32:41

Well what's so incredible though what you're describing like you look Dave you were a volunteer at a hostel who became a manager who got this passion for operating a hostel that moved to this climbing town in outside of in rural New Hampshire and now all of a sudden you're navigating the install process of sprinklers zoning which you got a clearance on the septic system like how does one go and learn the skill sets to be able to apply all this when that's not your background that's not your experience if someone wants to fulfill their dream how do you go and and and make this happen yeah such a good question because because my background is in like this is cheesy but like making people smile.

Dave Cook 33:23

Like I worked at a YMCA for 20 years. Like I was a camp director and and a lifeguard and like all of these silly things that didn't really have anything to do with navigating any of the stuff that you just listed Michael. And so doing that and switching gears into that was a slow and tedious process. And it wasn't like overnight like one day I'm lifeguarding some aquasize class and one day I'm researching how to navigate ADA compliance like that was not the case at all. It was it was a little bit out of time and over a really long course of time. So it was very difficult literally internet searching was was my my biggest friend. When I was working at that climbing gym I would search anything and everything I would make a huge list of questions that I had but I had no idea anything about anything like I'm I'm such a detail oriented person. I want to know all of the nuances of everything the people that the people that are in hosteling as a passion they love the juggling show right they see somebody juggling and they're like wow that's super cool I want to do that. What they don't do is put themselves in the shoes of that person juggling and realizing that they're juggling 45 other things behind their back that the audience can't ever see. Looking and researching all of these things is all of that juggling behind the back. Anybody listening or watching this podcast will see the surface and see Dave's cool he's successful not to toot my own horn but like they don't see the hours and days and and literal crying nights and frustrations and breakups and all of the dirt all of the tears all of the hard effing work that it took the hours and hours and hours to get to here right now so it's it's not an easy path but if you want it bad enough you can totally do it you just have to keep slogging on you got to keep going that's the part that very few really are willing to endure frankly yep yeah several relationships several questions of am I gonna have enough money to buy groceries literally countless crying nights just like so stressed so unsure of the future is this true and that's why going back to what we said earlier I had to prove it to myself first before I ever proved it to anybody else. And so like yeah on the surface sure I I did all the research and I proved everything to myself was I aware that that fence was there that I needed to climb maybe was I ready to climb it absolutely freaking not did I climb it?

Michael Russell 36:22

Yeah totally you're describing as look it's incredibly difficult and no one you can say that to someone a million times but until they're in it they really never know. So I want to know I mean are there any like applicable hard lessons that you've learned that you could share that would help someone if they're operating a lien operation in a rural market like what you have that they could take away from this and and they can apply it like looking back on your experience maybe is there anything you would have done differently I think that it's really existential.

Dave Cook 36:54

My life has changed so much in the let's let's just round it up to 10 between researching this place and running this place. So 10 years my life has drastically changed so would I have done anything different? Sure. A hundred things different a million things different can I change that now but a a word of advice to those that are about to step onto that path and are facing that fence in the future use your friends but value your friends too I've lost a lot of friends through this process and I've underappreciated a lot of my friends through the process as well. This place would not exist at all if I didn't have my friends. And whether it be something simple like a monetary support or just a shoulder to cry on or they're coming here to weed whack the hillside or they're just sending you a weekly text saying keep on keeping on dude I know that this is going to work like something is of value in having those people and appreciate that value. Sorry I'm getting a little emotional.

Michael Russell 38:15

No man I I you're striking a chord with us look the the reality is Nathan and I we're working our tails off right we have been working so hard for over six years now to build this business. We've poured everything into it and you're talking about sacrificing time with the people you care about whether it's friends or family time with your children like this is what true story this is what real talk this is what it takes. You have to sacrifice so much and what you're saying is look in those moments of sacrifice take a couple minutes and reach out to someone that you care about. Or if it's your spouse find time once a week to go on a date or if it's your kids find a little balance and be present when you're having dinner or on the weekend when you're throwing the baseball or whatever it is you're doing because time flies 10 years flies with you in this this situation. And we're experiencing that not just the the hardships of this but also like the the reflection that like okay what what are we what are we ultimately trying to get out of what we're doing and what do we value most and sometimes we get so hung up on the work that we're doing and we value the success but when you reflect back on well why am I doing this that is an important thing to keep in mind not just at the end but during the process and to take time to step away just even if it's little bits at a time to press into the things that you love most not just the people you care about but also the passions you like surfing you like snowboarding you got to continue to do those things. You can't just be pedal to the metal because that's not the point of this when you start you don't start this to say hey My goal is to work as hard as I can for the sake of working hard. It's my goal is because I want to enjoy freedom and joy and happiness. Well, if you don't continue to do those things, then you're just working unnecessarily for I don't know what.

Dave Cook 40:13

Let me ask you guys a question.

Nathan St Cyr 40:15

Where are you are you from Hawaii? I've been here since I've been 19. I'm turning 50 this year. So I've spent my entire adult life here in the islands, here on Maui. I was not born and raised here, but my entire life has been based here.

Dave Cook 40:29

You've got you've got a big cooler there. Yeah. And it's exactly what you said, Michael. Like it's sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees because you're you're in this paradise, right? You do this thing because you love this place and the people and the experience, but you're just working so freaking hard that you miss out on all of that.

Nathan St Cyr 40:53

Well, the irony of a hostile owner, like when I'm when I'm hearing your story, Dave, the the irony of it is, you know, you fell in love with that experience when you were traveling, when you were in the heart of your freedom volunteering so you could stay longer and so you could have that experience. And so the irony of, oh, I'm going to be a hospitality owner when most of us are driven by this passion to provide hospitality because we value it so damn much. But then to excel at it and execute the sacrifice it takes to be successful, I think that you've brought up a really good point is that we need to make sure to stay grounded along the way. We need to know why we're doing what we're doing and put the focus into those relationships because at the end of the day, it's the relationships and time that that matters. And let's not lose track of that. So I think that that's to me a really good point to good positive point to end on. Yeah. Yeah.

Michael Russell 41:49

Yeah. Uh all of what you've been saying, it really hits home. I know we sometimes we feature guests where we're really getting into the nitty-gritty of like their business and stuff. And this one kind of took a turn to like, like you said, more esoteric, but I think that's good. I'm glad we talked about this stuff. I've I appreciate your commentary on that. This has been for me a little bit like you got to recharge your battery sometimes when you connect with people that are kind of in the same condition as you. And you're a people, Dave. You're a hostel operator, it's like us. You know what we're going through, we know what you're going through. So, hey, this has been a really great conversation. And I appreciate you being on. I want to give you the opportunity to share if our listeners want to get in touch with you or they want to visit your location, where can they get a hold of you?

Dave Cook 42:34

Yeah, totally. So, Barndor Hostel, we're in Rumney, New Hampshire. It's right at the foothills of the Wipeout National Forest, barndorhostel.com. If you like to climb, to swim, ski and snowboard, literally anything outdoors, ride a bike, go for a run. There's a hundred million things for you to do right here, and we're the cheapest, coolest place to stay.

Michael Russell 42:59

Awesome. Okay, well, we'll put all your information in the show notes and we'll end there. Great. All right. Well, this has been another episode of the Hotel Investor Playbook. We are Mike and Nate, he is Dave Cook, and we will catch you again next week. Aloha. Thanks for hanging out with us today on the Hotel Investor Playbook. If you got even one good nugget of wisdom about hotel investing, do us a favor, hit that subscribe button and leave us a five-star review. And hey, if you're feeling extra generous, drop a quick line in the review section. Something like Mike and Nate are the go-to hotel investing guys, or best podcast for anyone looking to crush it in hospitality. Or, you know, whatever feels right. Those little shout-outs go a long way in helping more people find the show. And they pretty much make our day. All right, appreciate you guys. Catch you next time.