You may not even know something’s wrong

Is this your routine?

You opened your phone this morning and saw 14 unread messages. Three guests asking for directions you’ve already sent. Two wanting the WiFi password that’s in the welcome email. One angry because they didn’t know about the gate code you definitely mentioned twice.

And it’s only 8 AM.

By noon, you’ll have typed the same seven sentences you typed yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that.

You’re not running a lodge anymore.

You’re a customer service call center attendant.

And you may believe — that’s just part of the lifestyle.

Paying all those costs is not even keeping you up at night:

You may even not know this is fixable.

Because every time you hear about AI or “automation,” you hit a wall:

So you keep doing it manually.

And every season, you get a little more tired.

I’ve spent years watching this happen, but back then, it was normal. 

I’ve been building websites for lodge owners who were brilliant operators… and I didn’t realize how much time they spent sending the same messages over and over again — getting crushed under an avalanche of repetitive questions.

It was a vague awareness to me, but in the early days, the solution was always more complicated and more costly than the well-proven manual process of paper, pencil and telephone.

Until recently — After I spent two years working with Artificial Intelligence, content automation and writing code with AI… 

I build the solution to this problem. 

Only after building, using and speaking with clients, did I start to realize what an important financial multiplier this is.

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Let’s talk about what’s actually happening in your business.

The average lodge owner spends 2–3 hours per day just managing messages.

Not marketing. Not bookings. Not improvements.

Just… rewriting the same information over and over.

Multiply that across a season:

That’s four full months of 40-hour work weeks.

Spent typing things you’ve already typed.

But here’s where it gets worse.

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Every time you’re stuck answering the same question for the 47th time, three things are happening:

Guests are sharing pictures while they are on their trip - word of mouth connection opportunities pass by because you are just too busy.

Guest checks out Saturday morning.

By Sunday night, they’re home and into routine.

By Friday, they’re thinking about other trips.

By next week, your competitors are in their inbox with early-bird pricing.

You finally send a “thanks for staying” email at the end of the month.

Too late. The moment’s gone.

When booking confirmation and date selection becomes a game of email and text tag someone asks a question, it gets more difficult to coordinate with extra people.

The friction and confusion during booking decision time kills the group expansion.

Instead of 8 people, you get 4.

Instead of a full cabin, you end up with 50% capacity.

Same amount of effort and base cost for you - but it’s not adding to the bottom line.

Because Airbnb’s automated messages actually arrive on time. Their system sends the gate code. Their platform handles the questions.

So next year, the guest books there.

Not because they like it more.

Because it was easier.

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I finally built the system I’d been thinking about for years.

And when I plugged it into real lodge operations, the Profit Capacity Report numbers were… uncomfortable.

Not because they were bad.

Because they made it impossible to ignore how much money was sitting on the table.

Here’s what automation actually does:

Pre-trip reminders? Automatic.

Check-in instructions? Automatic.

Welcome pack? Automatic.

Post-stay thank you? Automatic.

Review request? Automatic.

“Book early for next year” offer? Automatic.

Annual time savings: 400–600 hours

At $20/hour, that’s $8,000-$12,000 in labor costs.

But labor cost is the smallest part of this.

 – – -

I ran the math on two identical lodges over five years.

Lodge A: Manual Communication

Lodge B: Automated Communication

Same cabins.

Same location.

Same seasons.

Same pricing.

Difference: $2.1 million

That’s not a typo.

The only variable that changed was whether follow-up messages got sent consistently.

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Automation doesn’t work because it’s fast.

It works because humans are bad at consistent follow-up.

Not because we’re lazy.

Because we’re busy.

You mean to send that thank-you email.

You mean to ask for a review.

You mean to offer the early-bird discount.

But actually, you totally hate spending time at the computer and you’ve been avoiding it because - there’s a guest at the door.

And a maintenance issue.

And a phone call about a booking question.

And by the time you get to the follow ups… it’s been weeks (or months) and the moment and the emotion has grown cold.

The guest checks out at 11 AM.

By 2 PM, they’ve got a thank-you message.

The next day, they’ve booked the same week next year with the early-bird offer.

By Tuesday, they’ve left a review.

Not because you remembered to do it.

Because the system doesn’t forget to send the follow ups that you created.

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This is not a technical upgrade - it is a financial multiplier

Automating your pre-trip and Post-trip messages might be the most profitable business change you’ve made in years.

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Booking Day: You and the group leader see the same calendar. When the dates are set, a booking confirmation with ‘verify email’ link is sent to every member in the group.

Group name is immediately visible on the website Cabin Availability Calendar so all the group members can verify their dates.

But then it gets better:

What happens under the hood of the advanced Booking Communication Suite - is where all the time saving and follow-up value begin:

Day -14: Automatic pre-trip reminder with travel tips

Day -7: Automatic check-in instructions + digital welcome pack. 

Day -2: Automatic “you’re checked in” confirmation

Day +1: Automatic “how’s everything going?” check-in

Day +2: Automatic checkout reminder + thank you

Day +3: Automatic review request

Day +14: Automatic “book next year” offer with early-bird pricing

Your involvement: Zero.

Unless someone replies. Then you handle the exception.

But the routine? It runs while you give your current guests your full attention.

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I’m a long time SEO and content marketing developer who spent two decades watching brilliant lodge owners manage inbox, text messages, Facebook messages, Trip Advisor bookings, telephone calls to manage a paper calendar booking system 

— all the while knowing I didn’t have the simple tools to fix it.

Now I do.

And the math is too clear to ignore:

If you have a resort with, six cabins running at 60% capacity, and you are paying staff to do bookings, pre-trip communication and post-trip follow ups manually, you’re leaving $300,000-$400,000 on the table over the next five years.

Not because you’re bad at your job.

Because you’re good at it… and busy.

And busy people miss follow-ups.

And missed follow-ups kill repeat bookings.

And repeat bookings, bookings over your 60% capacity range are where lodge businesses actually make the most profit — and my booking calendar and full booking communication suite will show you the math.

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You have two options:

Option 1: Keep doing it manually.

Keep answering the same questions.

Keep meaning to send that follow-up email.

Keep watching your competitors somehow have time for a holiday while you’re stuck at the sport shows and checking the inbox.

Option 2: Let the system handle the routine.

Free up 10–15 hours per week.

Stop missing follow-ups.

Watch repeat bookings climb.

If you want help building this – or want me to install the exact system I use – just reach out.

Once you see the objective business numbers about what’s possible when communication stops being the bottleneck in your business — doing things the old way stands out like a sore thumb.

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The inbox will still be there tomorrow.

The question is whether you’ll still be drowning in it.