The Hotel Investor Playbook

A Masterclass In Experiential Hospitality With The Bolt Farm Treehouse Founders | Tori and Seth Bolt E40

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Instead of chasing bookings, the founders behind Bolt Farm Treehouse create an obsession amongst their guests, and they do it with love at the center of everything. Their hospitality business heals relationships, attracts top-tier employees, and doesn't require the use of OTAs

In this episode, Seth and Tori Bolt break their iconic hospitality business where luxury stays meet emotional transformation.

You’ll hear:

  • How to design experiences that emotionally move your guests
  • Why 100% of their bookings are direct, and how to do the same
  • How they built a performance-based team culture rooted in love
  • How they use AI to automate grunt work and scale high-touch moments
  • Why their recruiting funnel brings in 12,000+ applicants a year

This episode is your blueprint for turning a stay into a movement. 


About Seth & Tori

Bolt Farm Treehouse is a luxury adults-only mountaintop retreat founded by Seth and Tori Bolt, born from their honeymoon treehouse and built into an eight-figure hospitality brand. Nestled in Tennessee, the retreat offers high-end domes, mirror cabins, and treehouses designed for romance, reconnection, and escape into nature. Known for their viral marketing, soulful storytelling, and sustainable mission, Seth and Tori have created more than just a destination—they’ve crafted an experience that’s redefining luxury in the wild. Each stay supports tree-planting efforts and is packed with intentional design, curated moments, and heartfelt hospitality.

Connect with Seth & Tori

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-bolt-73061790/

Website: https://www.boltfarmtreehouse.com/

IG:  @toribolt & @boltfarmtreehouse

Connect with Michael on Instagram or LinkedIn.

Email Us at info@hotelinvestorplaybook.com

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Michael Russell

What if you could charge seventeen hundred dollars a night for a tree house? Not only that, stay fully booked, build a cult following, and do it without using Airbnb or OTAs. In today's episode, we're talking to Seth and Tori Bolt, founders of Bolt Farm Treehouse, one of the most visually stunning and emotionally compelling hospitality brands out there. They didn't come from hospitality. Seth was a touring musician. Tori was a TV news anchor, but they've built an eight-figure direct booking business by creating what they call the most romantic stay in America. This was a really enjoyable episode, and there's gold in here if you're dreaming big in hospitality. We cover their viral marketing playbook, how they scale culture and wow guests at $1,000 plus ADRs, and why unreasonable hospitality is their competitive edge. Let's go. Welcome to the Hotel Investor Playbook, your guide to building wealth and freedom through boutique hotel ownership, hosted by Mike and Nate. Get in the game, 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 in hospitality assets. And on today's episode, we would like to welcome Seth and Tori Bolt from the Bolt Farm Treehouse. Guys, welcome to the show.

Nathan St Cyr

Thank you. Excited for this conversation. Yeah, aloha. We're pumped to have you.

Michael Russell

Okay, so Seth, Tori, glad to have you with us. I mean, I've got to be honest. So before prepping for this interview, I had heard of Bolt Farm, but I hadn't really looked into it. And then I went to your website and holy heck, I mean, $1,000 to $1,700 a night for a tree house and booked solid. And I mean, these aren't just regular tree houses, these are one of the most visually stunning. You guys have created a brand that is the most visually stunning I've ever seen. And looking at these mirrored cabins, these domes, these treetop decks, I'm just thinking, okay, how the heck did you guys do this? Right. Like Seth, you were or are a musician, right? And how did you go from touring and recording albums to building something like this? Where you built the first one for yourself or your honeymoon, and that's not exactly like a do-it-yourself project. I mean, that's that's construction or whatnot. So can you take us back to that first build, the the honeymoon tree house? What were you thinking at the time? And how did how did all of this even come together?

Seth Bolt

Yeah. Well, I mean, isn't it wild how like life leads you along and you kind of say yes to things and you you you don't know how it's gonna end up? But it all informs like the next season and the next chapter of life. And for me, like I grew up on a farm, very humble beginnings in South Carolina. I mean, we grew our own food. We were it's just like very simple living, but like lots of hard work, all these great like values and experiences that that gave me. And so I guess from there, like the last thing you probably think was that like a farm kid's gonna be in a rock band that like tours the world and with Taylor Swift and has billions of downloads and streams and all that. So it's kind of wild. Like, I guess between Need to Breathe, the band I was in, and Bolt Farm Treehouse, like I've now successfully proven my high school guidance counselor wrong. So I mean, I'm living the dream, living the American dream here. But I would say to connecting those two worlds, like with touring, it's like a it's a feat of like creativity and engineering because like number one, the creativity part, how to create this really cool show and set and all that and and make it like a night where people are gonna like laugh, cry, and remember it for the rest of their lives. And also from an engineering side, like how are you gonna be able to build that set and take it down and go to another city and perform all within 24 hours? So there's a lot of interesting like limitations and demands on touring and being able to like take a show to different cities. I was always jealous of like the big shows in Vegas, Cirque du Soleil, that kind of thing where like that's that's that stage is stationary. They get to create, they get to dream with no limits because you don't have to tear it down and take it to the next town. So I saw a big opportunity with real estate and with what we're doing with Bolt Farm Treehouse to actually put all those dreams, all that intentionality into this a physical place that you can go and have a similar sort of experience that you do with music because I mean you probably know this too. Like you can be having a bad day or be going through something, and like sometimes like music has the power to do all kinds of things within us, and like in some cases, it's like it's given language to emotions that we don't know how to articulate ourselves, and you're like, that's what I've been feeling, and so it can have this really big impact on you as a person, and then also it's got the power to change the environment of your mind because you can go from like feeling bad, feeling some kind of way, put on that song that you know is gonna like get you out of that funk, and it literally transforms your thinking and and you and the way you feel. I wanted to do that with a physical location where you could go and also have this transformational experience. I mean, and that looks different for everybody, right? And that's like a really ambitious, lofty kind of term. But I think hospitality aims too low a lot of times. Hotels are just thinking like, how do we fill the rooms? How do we make sure we get a decent review or a good MPS score and make a profit? But this I think when done right, like having a world-class like location, like in this case, we're on top of a mountain in Tennessee, you can't step foot on bulk farm property and not be like, whoa. Like even the people who come here to build, I'd say here's when you know you've got a great location. When the people who show up just to like work on the electricity or the plumbing or whatever, like go to the edge and they're taking photos and they're like putting it out on the internet, just like, look where I'm working today, you found a great spot. So that's what I wanted to do, and that's how those two worlds tie together is like we wanted to create a place that's like the number one bucket list romantic getaway for people so that you can you can really go and disconnect from the noise of life and remember why you got together in the first place. I mean, so like we're we're we're adults-only location, and like everything is catered around being a a place for connection.

Nathan St Cyr

I'm just gonna take a second to say that I think out of any conversation we've ever had, that that was the most well-articulated answer to a question. I I every once in a while I'll have what I call a matrix moment where everything slows down and I can see all the connections to everything. And the way that you just described the emotional feeling that is intentionally created by musicians touring, and then how you took that, and really the reality is you're doing that same transform transformational, emotional feeling that you've now tied into your business. There's like realness to what you just said, and that there's art and there's emotion, there's human nature and all of that. And man, I am that was that was really impressive. You're the man.

Tori Bolt

That's as a renaissance man, and it makes no sense. But he's really good at all these things from different worlds.

Michael Russell

Got back from a trip. I was in Idaho. I'd never been to Idaho in my life. And the perception I had ahead of time was like, I don't know, like what the heck is there to do in Idaho? And I was blown away by some of the it's like this energy that you feel, it's not tangible. It it like words on a piece of paper don't transfer the energy the same way as being there in person when you hear like the flow of the waterfall into the lake and the way that the sun hits the lake at a certain time of day. Those like nuances and feeling and sentiment of like, wow, this is nature. This is like immersing myself in a quiet atmosphere where like I can just quiet all the noise of like day-to-day, just grinding it out. Those things are so hard to articulate. You did a nice job in kind of setting the stage. And that's like, I mean, literally, you you you you referenced setting the stage in Vegas. And this is the art of hospitality is placing people in an atmosphere they don't ordinarily get to experience. And you've really honed in the reference to music and how it makes you feel, although it's not visible, it's an energy that hits your body and causes emotion that applies in in many types of art. This is a physical manifestation of art that you guys have curated and you've done a knockout job. Take us back to like what the mindset was at the time when you built the first one and what you were thinking at the time. And then how did this come together to lead into actually being a business?

Seth Bolt

Well, you just described the way you felt in Idaho when you were just in nature, you're surrounded by beauty and the way that you feel, like what that does to your spirit. That is what I encountered at a time in my life when I've been like grinding really hard, just going city after city with the band, working through the night on music, just like not sleeping, just go, go, go. And every time I would get back into a setting like that where it's just like this beautiful nature setting, like I felt the stress go down. I felt my creativity and inspiration rise. And then and like it started to click. I was like, I need something like this so that I can have that exhale, and so that I can escape the noise and the business of life. And this was like 2013. I was like, man, the world's getting so crazy. It was 2013. When you think back, you're like, that was like Mayberry. Like the madness exists in the world right now. And I guess the noise that is just louder than ever that can keep you from from actually like living the life you want and accomplishing the the goals and dreams that you want. I mean, that for like that was what started the the the this thing for me where I was like, I have this problem I need to solve for myself, and it it means creating a space for me in nature that's inspiring. I always wanted a tree house when I was a kid, but it just wasn't in that was not on the menu for my for my family with our humble beginnings. So later in life, I was like, oh, this would be a really interesting thing to build. And then like it took me two years to convince my parents to build a treehouse on our farm that I grew up on because they were like, like, we live in the middle of nowhere and like no one comes here. Like there's no tourism industry here. How are you gonna create that demand? Who's who's gonna rent a tree house, Seth? Like, that's not a thing. But I was like, well, there's this like new platform called Airbnb. I think that could be a way that I could like that's that's how how I could sell it. And then there's also this new thing called Instagram. It's like I just got a hunch like if these things are gonna work and they're actually gonna come big mega companies, and it could really pay to have first mover advantage with both. To Pete Nelson's credit, like he inspired the world with this idea of creating a luxury treehouse kind of thing for adults. Um, but a lot of those were just privately owned and held, and they weren't rentals. And so he inspired me to want to build something. And then the real inspiration landed when I met Tori in the middle of building the first tree house with my dad by hand. And I was like, oh my gosh, I want to marry this girl and I want to knock her socks off. So, like, what if I made this treehouse worthy of our wedding in honeymoon? Fast forward, we got married on the family farm and honeymoon in the treehouse. During that time, like we both realized, like and felt the inspiration and I guess the clarity that can come when you do silence the noise and you just really lose track of time talking, thinking, dreaming about what you want the future to look like. So let it that was an opportunity where we uh we had no idea what it would all become, but we just started putting down like what we wanted life, our our life to look like together. Since this was like day one of marriage. We're like, okay, what are our goals for our life? What are we 25 years from the future? What does that look like? And started just dreaming about all that. And the clarity we got from it was so overwhelming. We and that we were like, wow, imagine if everyone had an opportunity to just receive the clarity that we just did, feel as inspired, have great goals articulated for their life, what that would do for the world. When so many people, if you're like, if you've got kids, if you're running a business, if you're leading a team, like there's just very little margin for those kind of things, but there's an incredible power, like when you zoom out and get the perspective that you get when when you're on a mountaintop and when you've got time like that, like you really know where to zoom back in. And the difference is like you don't waste your life on stupid stuff that you're gonna regret in a decade. Like, man, looking back 10 years, why did I spend all that time doing that thing? Like, well, you didn't stop and slow down enough to like make sure that you had full clarity on the next step and the next step.

Nathan St Cyr

So essentially the experience that you experienced was so profound that you're like, this isn't this isn't singular to just me. This is a need that exists for human beings. And therefore, there's something here that is beyond just us having a honeymoon experience that gave us clarity. It was like this was legitimate. It was like, okay, we can go and actually, you saw the light that we could go and build this for others.

Seth Bolt

This is our this is our purpose, this is our calling, this is what we were meant to do. And by in doing so, we're gonna have, I mean, there's situations where they're the impacts were generational, like where we've heard from our guests that like their kid, they their kids have said, You're different since staying at Bull Farm Treehouse, and they called it the treehouse effect. And for some couples, like coming into the vacation, like things were on the rocks and it was rough, and they had neglected investing into that bank account of the marriage, like they had just been withdrawing, and so they were sort of bankrupt as as a couple, and they've told us they're like, This probably but this state at Bull Farm probably had a 25 years to our marriage. Yeah, I rediscovered my best friend. I mean, that's the point. It's like we should all be having these experiences that remind you why you got together in the first place. And it it takes a special setting, a very thoughtfully curated environment to do that. It takes unreasonable hospitality, it takes all these things that are uncommon to sort of shock people out of being in a trance and just living a distracted life. So, I mean, sometimes it takes something that you really you really feel it to go back to your original thing, like what you just felt. You're like, whoa, like it's not something that's just structured. I'm very much an engineer, but like I I do think that there's a lot of credit to, I guess some people don't give their feelings enough credit, but the thing is, some some experiences are undeniable and they unlock the thing that you need.

Michael Russell

Yeah, there's this concept of thought interruption. You see it with a lot of motivational speakers, like to a to a small degree, like Tony Robbins, like he might like clap loudly, like really in your face, like shake you out of it, right? And in the same kind of train of thought, like going somewhere outside of what is normal and routine really brings people and forces them in nature in a quiet space to reconnect. I love that. It's clear that you guys were passionate about that. There's passion and then there's profits, right? It's like people can be so passionate about products, but you know, at the end of the day, if it can't sustain their lifestyle, then that passion can't really continue to move forward. So looking at this from a business model, you're like, okay, this is gonna change people's lives, it's gonna improve them. This is what we really want to provide to the world. But from a business perspective, like Seth, you're a musician. Tori, I from what I understand, you were you were like a newscaster, right? You are you were on TV. Like you're you're not an Airbnb or a hospitality professional. Like, how did you bridge that gap and have confidence to make the transition into this?

Tori Bolt

Yeah, I think we both are just naturally very confident and optimistic people. And knowing, like, hey, when we got married, like the multiplication effect happens to your power and your confidence. We would say this like little mantra like anything we want to do, we can do it. We just believe that. And we also know that we have incredibly strong work ethics and that and the grit to do what we set our minds to. And so when we felt like we had clarity about, okay, this is what we're supposed to do on our honeymoon, like, okay, let's figure it out. We have to learn very quickly. And so thankfully, like from our upbringings, you did have great parents that taught you about finances and business, and and mine taught me other skills as well that we got to really put into play. But also, we take this from the Jim Collins to fire bullets than cannonballs. And so instead of being like, oh, I have this idea, I'm gonna go all in and build 30 tree houses out the gate. We started with one and then we started with four, and you're experimenting and learning and reiterating. And as you start to rack up those wins, you can start to make bigger bets. And then the cannonball is like, okay, we've we've proven this out. Let's belong to cannonball. And so I think that was a very strategic decision as well.

Michael Russell

Yeah, so true. I mean, you've been at this for 10 years or more than 10 years. Like some people are are hooked on the the idea of like early success and boom, we can do it. But you've been plugging along steadily. And in our own experience, it's not always easy. You guys have presumably faced some hardships along the way, but you stuck through this. It's testament to that vision that you set early on to have that goal in mind and to take it one project at a time. I think that that's an important reminder that success isn't always overnight. Rarely is.

Nathan St Cyr

I want to actually dig into that a little bit. I just feel like looking back over when you reflect on yourself and we look back, it's like, man, there were some monumental challenges that we went through. But sometimes you kind of, as you're going and new positive things then occur, it's like you kind of forget what it was like to be in that space where the world felt like it was freaking over. We've hit those moments in our experience. And I heard you describe that out of these three projects, the first one was awesome. The second one was a little bit of what I maybe just described of holy crap, the world is coming to an end. And then the third one has been awesome. So, but I feel like the lessons and the growth of how to look for the next one, how you learn more about what you want out of the next one based on the challenges you face. Can you can you share with us a little bit about the that most challenging develop that that development that you guys faced?

Tori Bolt

Yeah, it was our development in Charleston. And so this is after we had the one tree house where we had our honeymoon, went very, very well. So we were like, okay, let's double down. We bought 35 acres on an island outside of Charleston. And we had plans to build many tree houses, but we started off with four in the first phase of development. I mean, it took everything just to get them built, our life savings. We're living on the land in a camper without utilities. And right as we're finishing construction, just getting to start running the business, the island adopted these anti-Airbnb regulations that basically shut us down, where we could only rent 72 nights a year total between, and you could only have like two rentals. And so we had two that were unusable, two that we could rent for 35 nights each. It's like you can't run a business like that. And so looking back, how did that happen? Where do we go wrong? Like we asked ourselves that so many times. And we didn't have mentors, we didn't have people in our corner, we didn't have a community of people who had already been there and done what we had wanted to do. We were just figuring it out on our own. And so we learned so many lessons, but it also meant millions of dollars in mistakes, years of wasted time, not a waste because you're learning, right? But it takes way longer to get there. And just crashing into walls. And we told ourselves back then, oh, well, we can't afford mentors or to be part of these mastermind groups. But like, I mean, as cliche as it sounds, looking Back, we couldn't afford not to. The cost that we paid in mistakes was tenfold. And so, like, those are some pretty painful lessons. And so when we had to restart in 2020 and look for land all over again, like full-on restart, like we had to sell that property and start over. We're like, okay, well, what's going to change? And so we're like, well, we're not going to do this alone. We're going to surround ourselves with people who have already done this. And gosh, the number of times that we were able to phone a friend and ask them a really difficult decision that we were facing. I mean, I'm so grateful for that. And that has really helped us fast track because yes, we've been at this for 10 years, but really everything you see online and everything that's here in Tennessee, it's been four. So it's like those first six years were like training camp and and like learning the lessons the hard way. And then we used to play smarter.

Nathan St Cyr

I love it. So what it really came down to was regulations and the zoning that you you had. You had something that probably could be used as a residence or what have you. And then the regulations came down. How has that impacted your decisions when looking for your property properties now? How have you mitigated that risk?

Seth Bolt

Yeah, ensuring that that we have full entitlement to build our dream and do what we want to do. And we're not beholden to anyone because that was the the linchpin in all that was that because these island people got this regulation passed, they they knew what they were doing. Like, and it pretty much just targeted us. Like we were we were the only business on the island. They didn't want any businesses on the island at all, which I think is pretty un-American and pretty selfish, because like they're like they built their thing, but no one else can build what they want to build. But I mean, that's a real risk to building in the great outdoors. It's like just if there's a neighborhood of typically old people around you, like they got nothing better to do than just like make your life hell. So I'm still a little bitter about it. It's just a word of a word of caution, because obviously there's a lot of interest in in outdoor hospitality and providing a luxury experience in nature and that kind of thing. But there's also a lot of people who move out to those parts to get away from everyone. So if you bring the world to them, you you may be in first surprise if you don't have full entitlement to do what you want to do. While the first one went really great, like success as a poor teacher. Yes. We learn more in that difficult season of like what we could have done better, what we would do differently next time, what we should be for. I mean, just pages of notes. The key thing, maybe uh something that made a big difference for us, is like we didn't just run from the pain to escape the way that felt. We actually sat in it long enough to make sure that before we left that pain, we had downloaded all of the lessons and what it was trying to teach us. Because it can be easy, especially in modern times when people are just used to like instant gratification and instant dopamine from the cell phone, to like just want to immediately distract yourself from from like the the friction you're feeling in life and growth with something that's just will take your mind away from it and like escape. But there's power in and not saying like, oh, why is this happening to me? But reframing that pain to be like, what's this trying to teach me? And like just sit in that until you really have codified, you know, what you're gonna do different next time, or else you're gonna repeat the same mistakes.

Michael Russell

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. Yeah, I I just want to repeat that that quote real quick. Success is a poor teacher. Dude, I'm just marinating on that, going, yeah, like how what does that mean? Like, and and it helped it makes me reflect on some of the people that we've had on previously. Like Adam Daly was a guest we had on um several episodes, and I I I highly respect him. I I text him every once in a while and I look at him as a mentor. One of the things that he said was when he looks to partner with people or invest with people, he looks for people that have kind of gotten kicked in the kicked in the shins a bit, people that have kind of gotten roughed up. Because until you've gone through that, like you don't really experience like that. Well, how do you recover from tough times? How do you work through those tough? How do you persevere? And if all you're doing is winning, then I think maybe you your lens might be a little bit too optimistic. And there's potential for pitfalls or for failure down the road that could be dramatically more because like you said, Tori, like you start with the what did you say, the bullets, not the higher bullets than cannonballs. Yeah. So as you scale, you take bigger risks. So it's better to make some mistakes early or to learn from others, as you've said, through masterminds and workshops and things, so that you can avoid those or otherwise learn what not to do early before you take those bigger gambles and then lose it all. So I just that success as a port teacher. Oh man, it hit home. Thank you.

Nathan St Cyr

Yeah, ditto.

Michael Russell

All right. So I want to shift gears a little bit here. Look, you guys have an awesome product. Okay. It's amazing. I want to stay there. It's a little bit far from Hawaii, but man, if we make it over, like I could see my wife and I loving staying there. It's an awesome product. But you can have the best product in the world. And if no one knows about it, it's not worth much in regards. So no one's no one's buying it. So let's talk a little bit about your marketing because I think storytelling is a big part of your success. Like the virality of your product on Instagram and elsewhere, like people are starting to recognize you. And I think Seth, or maybe it's you, Tori, but one of you said fame is the most efficient business model. How do you think about that from a marketing perspective? And how has it influenced how you promote Bolt Farm?

Tori Bolt

Yeah. I think your brand is your most valuable asset. I mean, if you look on online, there are dozens of places with domes and treehouses. Not many with this view, I'll say. Or maybe not many with heated marble floors in the bathroom. But like what sets you apart? It's your brand. Like it's Bolt Farm is more than a place. It's it's a feeling, it's a meaning, like it, it's something meaningful. You you come with high expectations, knowing that you know, something special is gonna happen while you're there and you're gonna leave different with a more connected relationship. And so it's like it's really cool to see it taking on this life bigger than bigger than ourselves. I mean, now we'll travel and like I will frequently meet someone on an airplane who's like on their way to Bolt Farm or knows of Bolt Farm. I'm like, this is crazy. And so I think your brand is something you you really need to invest in and take it seriously. It's like, what sets you apart? Why should anybody care? What is the value that you are offering to the world and specifically to your guests? And I think one of the things that has served us very well is being very laser focused in who we are and who we serve. It started with our honeymoon. And so we're like, well, we want to help couples. Okay. It's it's adults only. It's basically just designed for couples. Sure, we host some solo travelers or like mother-daughter, friends trip, whatever. 90% of our guests are couples. And so we're able to have very laser-focused marketing, storytelling where they can read what we post on the online and they're like, yes, that's me, versus companies who try to be everything to everyone and they're like, Yeah, bring your family or your spouse or your pet and have a relaxing time or an adventurous time or whatever. And it's just not clear. And so maybe there will be people who come to our website and they're like, hey, that's not for me. I'm single, I'll come here someday or whatever. But like the people who we are there for, who we are a fit with, they're just like, yes, you're speaking my language, and that's all we need.

Michael Russell

Yeah. That's really good. I said something like this, and I got laughed at on this show. Someone was laughing at me, but I was like, the opposite. I want to go places where the kids are. Like, can there be someone who sets up like just like a kid resort where like the parents can go and sit by like the lounge chairs and just let the kids run wild so that like they can get a break, right? Can we do the opposite of what you guys have, but make it like I can get a massage and I know that the kids are playing with other munchkins? I don't know how realistic from a marketing perspective. That's what I that's what I need right now.

Seth Bolt

Whoever whoever does that, and the trick is like I've heard this. If you win the kids, you win the parents. Like if we gotta go back there because you you focus all the programming on making it just amazing for kids. I love that. I would love that also in like a fun outdoor setting so kids could fall in love with nature. Like we were when we opened the Tennessee location, that sort of desire like led us to be like, well, we've always been adults only, but like let's let's expand our total addressable market and like welcome families. But uh, we just didn't get good feedback on it because we are on top of a mountain on the side of a cliff and the moms were like, I'm nervous, I'm stressed the whole time. I think we'll come back without the kids. And like other people are like, we actually came here to get away from kids. So we just listened to our customers and and they they told us that's not what they want.

Nathan St Cyr

Yeah, and I think that that's critical, right? With especially with an experiential stay where you're creating an experience, you can become a real expert in how do I really create the feeling, drill it all down to that feeling for this specific person, and then it all works together. If you're gonna be driving $1,850 to $1,700 ADRs, well, you've executed something at the highest level for a very specific avatar. And I think that that's a really good lesson for just for any of us in hospitality.

Seth Bolt

Two of the biggest ROIs for brand, one is that we sell 100% direct to customer without any OTAs, no online travel agencies. Crazy. And like I didn't realize how unique or special that was until I started really kind of talking to other people in the hospitality industry, and they're like, holy crap, like pretty much all hotels are beholden to the to the online travel agencies, and they take 15 to 20 percent of your revenue. So some people, I mean, if you think about it, really like social media is a great replacement for OTAs because it's where people are spending their time. Now, yes, if someone's like, I want to book a trip, let me go to one of those websites and maybe I'll I'll find it that way or find it cheaper or whatever. Like, that's just I don't think that's our customer. And also the inspiration for travel happens on social media. So, like, just go upstream from like that decision and show people what you've got to offer. In our case, it's like you can have you're gonna have views of three states. We've got like a whole wellness haven area, that's like a multi-acre spa experience that's built specifically for couples to be like the best couples experience in America. It's just so much easier to start to build trust as a brand through just storytelling and sharing, sharing why you do what you do and who it's for and that kind of thing. And the second big return on on brand is recruiting. We like in the past 12 months, we've had almost almost 12,000 applications to work at Bolt Farm. Like we're we're a family company, it's a it's a relatively small team. So like we're literally getting to choose from the the top 1% of hospitality talent. Like that's who's working with us. That's part of what makes the experience so magical, is that we get our pick of of the best people. And a lot of times it's not uh it's not like seasoned hospitality people who have just been like in the hospitality industry their whole life. It's people who have done something that's adjacent, but like they really have a heart for hospitality and they really want to, they see hospitality as the vehicle that it can be to like to be a conduit for love. Like I spoke at high tech, like it's a hospitality technology conference, and they I was talking about how the system that we're building is I I would put it up against like I is better than the technology experience you can get anywhere else. And what I mean by that is like we're we're taking away the grunt work from hospitality talent because like you've been to a hotel and you checked in, they're like frowning and looking at the computer, and like it's just a very inhospitable thing. Like when the technology is bad, like the experience is bad for the guest and for the employee. And we've gone through this just like season for decades now where it's like like bad sass in the hotel world. And you I've always been curious. I'm like, what's taking so long over there? And I like kind of peek around the corner to see what I'm like, holy crap, that's from the 90s. Like, what is this? And even some of the new stuff, technology-wise, is just not good. So I was like, we're gonna revolutionize hospitality by like reprogramming it and automating all the all of that grunt work so that AI runs the logistics so that humans can run the love. That's a whole point of hospitality and why you want to be in it, is like you get to make people stay, you get to make people cheer, you get to like show up and surprise them and like make them feel known and make them feel like they're at home and help them have an unforgettable experience. So that's the the exciting work that we get to do, and it's attracting people from a lot of really incredible luxury brands who like they just realize, man, this former like icon of luxury, the writs of the world, that kind of thing. Like they've been bought by private equity and like the revenue managers have just squeezed out all of the magic that the founders put there initially. So I think in the hospitality world and the hotel world, like it's a big difference. Like when you've got a founder-led company that's like, I'm in this for the long haul. I'm not in this to sell this quickly and make money. Like, there's an actual mission and reason and purpose for why we do what we do. They're like, I want to do that. I want to be on that team because oh, like who wants to work for private equity? You just get through the meat grinder and or what? Like, they're like, no, no, no, you're wasting too much time talking to guests. Make sure you're doing this, that, and filling out this report.

Nathan St Cyr

And I love what you just said though, that really hit home to me when building performance-based teams to operate at your highest and best. How do you take someone's strengths and then you keep them there, right? Keep them in their zone of genius. And if we're offering hospitality, well, is admin and data entry, does that really align with the person that is outward facing, that is like creating that connection that's like there for you? And those things, they're not in alignment, but yet we hire that position as okay, you we expect you to be this unbelievable, hospitable person that that's your strength, but now we're gonna put you in front of the computer and have you do something that you're probably not good at and that you probably don't like. That does that's not in alignment. And so just that bringing recognition to that was I think really strong.

Seth Bolt

And I think the point of of me talking about high tech was that I talked about love and people came to me and they were like, I can't believe you talked about love. And I'm like, what do you mean? Like this is hospitality, and they're like, nobody talks about love. And I was like, well, then you call off the clot because like added hospitality, that is like arguably the best reason to get into a service business is that like you have a heart for people and you want to see people live their best lives, and and it it brings you joy to serve others. Like, I mean, I think a love is the most is the strongest force in the universe. It can over it's like the one thing that can overcome hate. You know what I mean? Like, that's our superpower. I tell our team, like, love is our superpower, and and that's how that's how we show up.

Michael Russell

To go back, what you described from a marketing perspective is you're you're selling this sensational experience, like an artistic, like if you were to be putting on a performance or a show, there's a trailer to it, and people are hooked in and then they want to go watch the show. But then you got to perform, then you got to deliver. And so you said there's really, I'm kind of paraphrasing, but there's two facets to this there's the marketing side, and then there's the operations. And the operations can't, it has to be congruent with what you're selling. And you guys are equally focused on both of those simultaneously. So I want to dig into like some of the tactical things of your marketing, like what works when it comes to turning like attention into actual bookings.

Tori Bolt

First, it's just being in the right places, like putting your content out there where your target audience is actually watching. So, for example, like there was a season of time that we were like investing a lot of effort into TikTok. And then we realized, oh, we're getting popular, people are viewing, but they're not spending the money. It's a younger demographic. Surprisingly, Facebook is where it's at for people wanting to spend eight, nine thousand dollars a night. And so just getting smart about okay, where are you investing your effort? Who's actually reading this and and yeah, consuming it? That kind of translates into influencer strategy. And that's something that we invest heavily in. Like our goal is to host an influencer a week. And if if you told me this like three years ago, I'd be like, that's crazy. We'll host one a quarter, one a month. We can't afford to give up that occupancy for a free stay. But it is a huge magnifier if you can align with the right influencer. So you're not just looking for following size, it's about the quality. And so I love some of those micro influencers who are maybe like regional or like their audience really cares. And you can tell by like what they post about. Levi Kelly, he's got a big following on YouTube and his Instagram is growing too, but he doesn't have millions and millions of followers. But the quality of his followers, they really care. And so when he comes to stay, it's like boom, we're gonna just like have a huge bookings spike. And so I would say, like, yeah, get get really detailed in in who you want to collaborate with and have stay, and then be generous to those influencers. Like, roll out the red carpet. Don't just give them the least, like have them experience everything you have to offer. So for us, we want them to have the food and the spa and the wellness haven because what they experience, they're gonna put out there. And and people are they're they're trying to make quick decisions. So they're just gonna be like, what do they do? I want to do the same thing. So gosh, I mean, turning turning lookers into bookers, I think it's yeah, it's it's where you're posting, who you're linking arms with. And then also, like, we've we kind of learned this from the hard way. Like, it's not just about having a compelling CTA and telling people to book now. Like they don't want to be shouted out and like told that same thing. It's like, how can you just be so inspiring and add a lot of value, but they're just compelled to do it. Yes, make that easy and clear, eliminate all depression from the point of when they're seeing that first picture on Instagram to what's your booking process like, what's your website like? I mean, we tear that apart on a very frequent basis to say how can it be even better and easier? So I think it's just like very value-led content and then a very smooth, frictionless booking process.

Michael Russell

That's an amazing explanation of like a marketing tactic is influencers play a big role, knowing your audience. And then so I brought up like, okay, there's the marketing and then there's the delivering of the product. I have heard you guys mention that you've created a role within your organization. Uh I think you called them like a guest experience ambassador or supervisor or something. We we have a similar role in our organization or a title. Can you describe like how does that person shape the guest stay? What is their role?

Tori Bolt

Yeah. So the role is the dream weavers. That was inspired by Will Gadera's book, Unreasonable Hospitality. And the Dreamweaver, the whole mission of their role is to surprise and delight. So they are researching the guests, they are listening and looking for opportunities to like where they can learn something about what the guest likes or what matters to them, and like finding these little moments to wow them. And so we have a goal of wowing every guest multiple times during their stay. We we high we created the first Dreamweaver role years ago after. After reading unreasonable hospitality, now we have a department full of many. And so tying it back into what Seth was sharing about using AI, the goal is that AI can run all the logistics so that we can just basically have a team of dreamweavers so that everyone on the team is just focused on surprising and delighting the guests.

Michael Russell

That's incredible. I want to know as you scale, right? How do you continue to train for that? And how do you hold the bar to the same level to a high degree as you grow? Because when you're not intimately involved in what everyone's doing in micromanaging, managing the experience, how do you assure that that quality doesn't drop as you scale?

Tori Bolt

I think it's all in the culture. Like culture is what the your team will do when you are not there because of them holding everybody else accountable and knowing like this is the bulk form leave, this is who we are. We don't finish until the job is done. You don't know how fast anything. And so, like building that culture and is everything. And for us, that looks like talking about our core values a lot, getting the team together to bring them around the vision and the why. And then also like not letting complacency live there. Like people on our team, everyone's really hard and they're carrying their weight. They're they're doing the most. If they spot someone who's trying to like cut corners and slide and do the least, like it's gonna be the team being like, get that out of here. Or like this is not the place for that. And so that team is continuing to raise that bar of excellence. And so our goal is that every new hire raises that bar. And that's how we can continue to grow and scale, increase our ADR while having every guest say it was absolutely worth every penny. That's what I'm most proud of, honestly. When you rewind and you say, okay, day one, what were your prices? We were on Airbnb for $111 a night. It's just crazy. And to be able to have 10X that over 10 years and guests still saying, like, oh my gosh, it was such an incredible value to what I paid. Like, that's how you know you're like continuing to level up the operations and the experience.

Seth Bolt

When someone's paying you a thousand dollars a night and they're like, Thank you for making this. I like we should be thanking you because like you're the reason why we're getting to pursue our dreams and and live, live truly like the the American dream to like really feel this like deep gratitude is because we're we're not selling rooms, we're not it, we're selling experiences, we're giving people the the opportunity to make memories. The business of life is the acquisition of memories. You go forget the money you made, you're gonna forget the noise and the news. But like the memories that you make with the people that you love are are the the moments that that matter most. And so focusing on that is is what our team is doing day in and day out. They're like, like here's an example indeed. What does a dream weaver do practically? We found out like on one of the on one of the calls from a guest who was coming, they were like, I think we we asked, they were like, is there anything that your husband loves? This is his birthday, and she's like, Oh, he loves hot sauce. We're like, oh, okay. And that's probably the last they thought about. But, you know, our team went out and got a hot sauce buffet for them so that when they arrived, and like he he just couldn't believe it. He's like, Oh my god, like what is this place? It's like perfect for me because this is exactly what I would want and something that I would never in a million years expect they would actually go out and do and buy from me and and have for me so that the whole time I'm here, I'm in hot sauce heaven.

Nathan St Cyr

I love that. So can I go back to one of the tactical things that I've heard you talk about before when when building culture? Because I think that if you create a culture where talent wants to live, and that ultimately that's what you've said, you've had 12,000 applicants and ultimately talent wants to wants to live there. Typically, talented people that execute at the highest level, they have different makeups, and and executing at the highest level is part of that. And I heard you talk about when when Seth got stuck on a on a his favorite Charlie Munger quote, Tori, you jumped in and and you you shared the incentivize one. Right. And so do your dream, so do your dream weavers, and maybe you can share a little bit about that philosophy of incentivizing with your team. Cause I would assume that talented people that are working for you, having the opportunity to excel and then being incentivized for it creates a really unbelievable culture. Can you just tap into that a little bit?

Tori Bolt

Yeah, it's the thing that we do that I don't think a lot of companies at all are doing this. And it's everyone on the team has performance-based pay. Now there's a hybrid, right? So like 70% of their total compensation is their base for showing up, right? But then the 30% is directly tied to their performance. And that's common in sales roles, but I mean, I'm talking, we're doing this with dreamweavers, housekeepers, everybody on the team, so that whether it's how many rooms you're cleaning or what are your NPS scores, like there's more pride and ownership in your work and there's more payout too. And so they know people know, like, yes, I'm gonna work harder at Bolt Farm than I might at the business down the street, but not only is it gonna be fulfilling and I'm gonna grow a lot, like I'm gonna make more money because there's not a ceiling to what I can earn. If I keep showing up and pouring out, like I'll be rewarded for that.

Nathan St Cyr

Just love that philosophy. Awesome.

Tori Bolt

Yeah.

Seth Bolt

Yeah, it's also sharing the sharing the wealth and sharing the success. If you help us accomplish our goals, you're gonna make more. And if you help us accomplish our stretch goals, you know, like you're not gonna have to worry about money again. Like that that is something that is uncommon. Why is it uncommon? Probably because it just it requires a lot more tracking and a lot more data. But like that's why we have, I mean, what small family business has like a full-time tech team, we do, because we know that's the future and we've been building it. Like the more things that you can measure, the more things that you can improve. So it it it's been a that was a process because I mean we are in rural America. So like being like, we're an AI first company, like initially they were like, What? But I mean, we've we've we've put that message out there and and attracted people who think that way, who like see, okay, in history, where's this inflection point where AI, superintelligence will will radically transform lots of industries and hospitality, hotel world is one of them. And so, like, which side of history do you want to be on? The old guard or the side of the technologist that is actually going to fully leverage it to enhance both the employee experience and the guest experience.

Michael Russell

Well, I want to talk money a little bit here. So Bull Farm reportedly has a $32 million valuation, right? And is that based on cash flow? Is that asset value or is that something else?

Seth Bolt

Yeah, combination of asset value here and and also cap rate on on net profit.

Michael Russell

Okay. How have you funded your growth? I mean, are you doing this through traditional financing? Are there investors that you're raising capital from, or are you just reinvesting the the cash flow and the profits right back into the business?

Seth Bolt

OBM. I had a great mentor as like when I was in high school, and he just encouraged me to uh uh hold hold on tightly to your cash reserves. And so there were some deals where they were like, you could pay for this, like why why do you want the money from us? And I was like, you know, I this business is never going to die because we have a great cash strategy, and so I'll happily pay you for your money and to use it, and we'll have our money for black swan events, we'll have our money for for down to emergencies, whatever it might be. And like we've like there's been times where like the the market pressure on our business, like the the demand has just overwhelmed the supply. It takes time to build houses, uh to build tree houses. And so it's yeah, we've been in a position where we're like, okay, we're gonna fund our growth, and we're also gonna roll that into the next development loan and get that cash back to just have it on the sidelines for a rainy day.

Michael Russell

Well, also for yourselves. Look, we were experiencing that. Like we maybe did a different approach. We self-funded by just using money from the cash flows of the business and reinvested, reinvested, reinvested. But then you get to pour like, hey, I want to pay myself a little bit here. And so then you got to go raise money, you got to get other people's money once you've proven out the concept. Because yeah, you got to pay yourself for all that hard work. So I can appreciate that. And you clearly have a sustainable business model. So from an investor's perspective, it makes a lot of sense. I I want to know what's the long-term vision with your company? Like, would you sell this for the right number? Or are you just planning on holding on to this forever?

Seth Bolt

For me, the goal is like build a business that has such a great return that like I wouldn't want to put my money anywhere else. We can't get a better return for our money. That the stack of poker chips is just remaining all in. We know this is working incredibly well, and we're gonna continue to invest in it, and we can make the product and the experience better at such a more rapid rate because we've we haven't taken a penny from like the SpaceX or Tesla of hospitality, and that like we're attracting the people that are like, we're going to Mars. So, like, I and I'm here for that, and this is what I want to spend all my time doing. And for that reason, it's it's it's almost terrifying to think about selling the business because I would I would have to have something else to to to put all this passion towards. And I just think we found it. And too many people have experienced situations where like they're working for a great company, but then the owners are ultimately in it just to sell it. And then as soon as it's owned by private equity or something else, like it changes. The culture changes, the experience changes, they radically start stripping away things that like the founder put there intentionally just because they knew they could make it look more profitable and then pump and dump it, sell it to somebody else.

Michael Russell

I want to jump in here because you said, What would I do if if I were to sell this? Like, where do I dump that passion? Okay, so I'm I'm gonna pivot back to an earlier quote because I love it. Say it again. Success is a poor teacher, but in kind of the same train of thought, teaching is a great teacher, right? And I've noticed recently you guys now are pouring into teaching others how to do what you've been doing. And that is for me, when I teach others, that there it rivals the level of fulfillment when someone has a great experience from a stay at one of our properties. Teaching other people how to do it is equally fulfilling. And I just I wanted to get an idea from you guys like, okay, I'm not to suggest you're gonna sell your business, but the idea was what would I do? And now you're leaning into this teaching, you're offering workshops and things, programs where people can learn how to replicate your model. Like, like, what is the vision? Like, what do what are you guys doing? Walk us through where you're at with that part of your the iteration of of that as part of your business model.

Tori Bolt

Yeah, so it's really twofold. One is what everything you just shared. It is so fulfilling to be able to help others and watch them win. And knowing, like, if we had had that in our lives from day one, we would be so much further along. And so we really want to pay it forward and be that for others. But it also plays into our big picture vision of scaling, which is we want to go multi-site in some of the most beautiful places across the country. And I think we will do that with some stick-built, ground up construction like we've done in the past. But also we're really interested in growing through acquisitions and maybe partnerships, the right ones. And so that's something that we would take very seriously. Like we've always said no to it at this point, up until now. But we thought, hey, these workshops are a great way where we can teach and give back to others, and we can be kind of like courting these companies, seeing what they're like to work with, seeing who's got it what it takes, who's actually implementing and executing what we teach, and seeing if there's an opportunity to work together. And so that's really what it is. It's twofold. So, with that, we're really selective about who's there at the workshops. It's an intimate group, like no more than 30 people are coming here to Bolt Farm for a very immersive two days. And they're really special. Like, I think that one of my favorite things from it is the community that you lead with. Like, yes, there's a ton of knowledge that you gain, but the community that people can walk alongside you as you're growing and developing. And so that's what we're building. And we actually have one coming up in August. Yeah.

Michael Russell

Oh, like right around the corner.

Tori Bolt

Yeah, right around the corner, August 6th, 6 and 7.

Michael Russell

Cool. Okay. Well, yeah, I think you're spot on, painter forward, giving people the ability to learn from you guys. But man, that sense of community too, but that is so invaluable. We've we've benefited from that. You mentioned earlier the idea was you can't afford a mastermind or a workshop, but you really can't afford not to. There is so much value. I I speak that sincerely, genuinely, that it has been tremendous for us. So I can't recommend it enough. I think we should wrap this up here. But if if our listeners want to follow your journey, they want to maybe book a stay at Bolt Farm or otherwise learn about the workshop that you guys are going to be hosting, how can they get in touch with you?

Tori Bolt

Yeah, our website is really the one stop to offer everything for the skills, for the push-ups, and it's boltfarmtreehouse.com. But we're on all the social platforms, the most active on Instagram, and that's Bolt Farm Treehouse.

Michael Russell

Okay.

Tori Bolt

Yeah.

Michael Russell

So we, Nathan, anything before we wrap this up?

Nathan St Cyr

No, thanks, guys. This has been an awesome conversation. And I would love to learn and grow from you guys if I was in that space for sure. So really, really inspirational.

Michael Russell

Yeah, this has been great. Let's definitely stay connected. Might have to have you on for round two. There's a lot more to learn here. So thanks so much for being on. We are Mike and Nate. They are Seth and Tori Bolt. And this is another episode of the Hotel Investor Playbook. 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.