Blake Dailey

Most investors would look at this 10-room mountain lodge in Lakeshore, California and think, "Only 10 keys? That's too small."

I had the opposite reaction.

Small hotels can be incredibly powerful because they don't need to appeal to everyone. In fact... I'd argue the smaller the property, the more opinionated the experience should be.

With only 10 rooms, I wouldn't try to compete with larger hotels on amenities or price. I'd go all in on creating a mountain escape people couldn't stop talking about.

The goal wouldn't be to give guests a place to sleep. It would be to create a place they never want to leave.

Because when you only have 10 rooms, you don't need thousands of guests.

You just need the right guests.

The other thing that stood out to me was the location. You can renovate rooms and improve operations, but you can't recreate an irreplaceable setting in the Sierra Mountains.

I'm not saying it's a great deal. I haven't underwritten it.

But a small property in an irreplaceable location is always worth paying attention to.

Comment "FOR SALE" and I'll send you the listing.

The day before we closed on Tremont Lodge, we lost a $1,000,000 investor.

I honestly thought the deal was dead.

At the time, Tremont was the biggest acquisition we'd ever attempted: a 130-room hotel and wedding venue in the Smoky Mountains with millions of dollars in renovations still ahead of us.

Getting the debt alone had already been brutal.

I pitched more than 50 banks trying to get the deal financed, and most of them told me no.

Eventually, we got the financing lined up and thought we were finally in the clear.

Then, less than 24 hours before closing, one of our investors backed out.

Just like that, we were short $1,000,000.

So we started making calls.

We leaned on relationships we'd spent years building, brought in additional capital, and somehow found a way to get the deal across the finish line.

That experience completely changed the way I think about this business.

Buying boutique hotels isn't like buying an Airbnb.

Eventually, something will go sideways. A lender pulls out. Construction gets delayed. An investor backs out. The question isn't if it happens. It's when.

And when it does, your network is everything.

The people in your corner can literally determine whether a deal dies or survives.

That's exactly why we created Boutique Hotel Con.

Yes, the networking is incredible. But you're not showing up just to shake hands for a few days.

You're spending time with boutique hotel investors, operators, lenders, and people actively doing deals while we go deep on acquisitions, funding, operations, systems, AI, and everything else it takes to build a boutique hotel business.

We're hosting it September 16 at Tremont Lodge & Resort in Townsend, Tennessee.

Comment "BHC" and I'll send you the details.