Image unavailable
Real pricing
The price the guest sees is the price they book.
Case study: Montana Luxury Escapes
From a new brand to $5.5M+ in direct bookings.
SOL helped build Montana Luxury Escapes from the ground up, then built the marketing system around it: brand identity, website, Meta and Google ads, email, organic content and eventually a direct booking experience designed to convert the demand we had created.
$5.5M+
Direct bookings generated across the hospitality work behind this case study
863K
Views across the seven best-performing MLE Reels since July 2026
10K+
Instagram followers built around a premium vacation-rental brand people actively want to follow and share
The brief
Building a new luxury rental brand from the ground up
Montana Luxury Escapes began after the owners moved on from a previous vacation-rental partnership. A number of the property-owner relationships they had built came with them, giving the new company a strong starting portfolio, but the brand itself had to be created from scratch.
SOL had already been working with the team, so the next chapter became a true rebuild: brand identity and logo, a new website, new ad accounts and campaigns, a Hostaway setup and a marketing system capable of introducing an entirely new name to the market.
Paid acquisition through Meta and Google created the early demand. As the business grew, we added segmented email marketing, a property-matching quiz, organic social content, property films and creator collaborations. The direct booking experience came later, once the brand had enough demand and momentum for owning more of the guest journey to really matter.
The relationship has stayed highly collaborative throughout. The people behind MLE work hard, care deeply about the guest experience and have been genuinely great partners to build alongside.
Image unavailable
Image unavailable
The challenge
Luxury homes do not become a leading vacation rental brand on looks alone.
The homes already felt premium. The business around them needed to feel just as credible before a guest would book direct or an owner would trust it with another property.
The business needed more than bookings. It needed a brand that guests would choose directly and owners would want to join.
What we built
A booking experience they own
Guests can now discover a property, see the real price and book it without leaving Montana Luxury Escapes.
Live availability search
Guests can search the portfolio at once and immediately see which homes actually work for their dates.
Image unavailable
Image unavailable
Their own checkout
Direct bookings fit the payment schedule the team already uses, without creating a separate way of running the reservation.
Image unavailable
Upsells at checkout
Guests can add experiences like dog sledding, sleigh rides or a stocked kitchen while they are already in booking mode.
Image unavailable
Branded guest emails
Direct guests stay inside the Montana Luxury Escapes brand from confirmation through to the review request.
Image unavailable
Reviews in one place
Reviews from Airbnb, Vrbo, Google and direct stays are gathered into one place guests can filter by property.
Image unavailable
Event and wedding inquiries
Weddings and retreats don’t fit a normal checkout. Guests choose dates and a home, describe the day, then the team follows up with a real quote.
Beyond the site
What keeps the business growing
The site turns demand into bookings. The rest of the marketing keeps giving more of the right people a reason to arrive there.
Brand identity worth remembering
We shaped how the business shows up so it reads premium and credible, to a traveler choosing a $16,000 week and to an owner choosing a manager.
Positioning that attracts owners
The marketing does more than fill dates. It makes the company look like somewhere worth handing your house to, which is how the portfolio grows.
Paid ads that reach people ready to travel
Paid campaigns put the portfolio in front of people actively looking for a Montana stay and gave that demand a direct place to book.
Content people want to share
The homes stopped looking like listings in a feed and started looking like trips people wanted to send to someone else.
Automations that cut the admin
Payments, guest messaging and the operational touchpoints all run without anyone chasing them, so the team spends its time on guests instead.
Reviews that do the selling
Review generation runs on rails, so guest feedback keeps building into an owned proof library that works for every booking that comes after it.
How we create demand
Paid acquisition creates demand. The brand makes it convert.
Meta and Google ads do the heavy lifting at the top of the funnel, putting the properties in front of travelers who are actively planning a Montana stay.
From there, the premium brand, landing-page experience, email marketing and direct-booking journey give that attention somewhere credible to go.
Meta advertising
Visual campaigns create demand around the homes and send high-intent traffic into property and campaign landing pages.
Google advertising
Search captures people already looking for premium Montana accommodation and gives them a branded path to enquire or book.
Email + property matching
Past guests and inquiry leads receive segmented campaigns, while the Get Matched quiz helps new prospects find the property that fits their trip.
Organic content + collaborations
Reels, property films and creator partnerships keep expanding the audience and make the brand feel bigger than a collection of listings.
Organic proof
Content people actually want to send to someone else
Hooks like “POV: You found the house in Montana” and “Let’s book a house in Montana” have turned the properties into shareable travel inspiration, not just inventory.
863,000
Views across their seven best Reels since July 2026
Not a lucky one-off. The same format keeps landing, which is what makes it worth running every week.
6 of 7
Passed 50,000 views
232K
Best performing Reel
11,340
Shares across the seven
10,000+
Instagram followers
Every one is a real post you can go and watch.
Property films
Every home gets its own film at the top of its page. A guest deciding between a $13,000 week and a $16,000 week wants to see the place move, not scroll a gallery.
Tap to play with sound.
What the content actually bought them
Bookings were only part of it. The result that changed the shape of the business came from somewhere else.
Property owners saw the content and came to Montana Luxury Escapes about putting their homes into the portfolio.
For a management company that is the outcome that compounds. A booking is one transaction. An owner partnership is management revenue on that house every year it stays. The reach has kept growing since, so each new home now launches to an audience rather than to nobody.
- Portfolio growth
- Owners approaching them, instead of the other way round.
- Brand awareness
- In a market where most rentals are anonymous listings.
- Site traffic
- Which keeps compounding in search.
- A growing following
- Past 10,000 and still climbing.
Why it worked
What Made the Difference
The brand felt established
Instead of looking like a collection of listings, the business showed up with a cohesive identity that made the properties feel more premium and trustworthy.
Interest had somewhere strong to convert
People who discovered the brand could immediately find a property, trust what they saw and take the next step toward booking.
Growth did not create more work for the team
More bookings did not mean manually chasing every payment, message or review.
The marketing did more than fill dates
The brand became strong enough that property owners started approaching Montana Luxury Escapes about joining the portfolio.
Want More of Your Bookings to Belong to You?
If you want more guests booking with you directly and a brand that helps attract the next property too, let’s talk.
Let's Build TogetherManage vacation rentals? See what Airbnb and Vrbo cost you