How a Vermont Ski Rental Stopped Paying Commission on Every Booking

Mount Snow Retreat: A Direct Booking Website for a Vermont Ski Rental

Project Type: Brand Identity & Website Design, Direct Booking Website, Vacation Rental SEO

Project Location: Southern Vermont — Mount Snow ski area

Year of Completion: 2026

Project Timeline: 3 Months

Client: Mount Snow Retreat

Beth owns a four-bedroom retreat minutes from Mount Snow — the kind of place guests rebook for the same week every year. The problem wasn't demand. It was that every one of those bookings arrived through a platform that took a cut, kept the guest's email address, and decided who got to see the listing. We built her a website that takes the booking itself, and the search presence to fill it.

THE CHALLENGE - Problem:

Every booking came through Airbnb or Vrbo, with 15–20% lost to commission and guest-side fees before anything reached her

No guest list — the people who loved the place couldn't be contacted directly, so every return visit was bought back through the platform

Reviews and years of goodwill lived on someone else's site, doing nothing for her own

The listing looked like every other listing, with no way to show what makes the property different

Nothing ranking for the searches people actually run — "Mount Snow rental," "ski house near Mount Snow," "Vermont cabin with hot tub"

Winter carried the year, and the quiet months had no channel of their own

THE CHALLENGE — Impact

On a property grossing $60,000 a year, a blended 17% take is roughly $10,200 gone annually — before cleaning, maintenance or utilities

Zero owned audience after years of hosting: no email list, no repeat-guest channel, no way to fill a gap week without discounting

Total dependence on a ranking algorithm that can change without warning

No compounding asset — every dollar of platform visibility rented, never owned

Our Approach

Design thinking, applied to websites

Every project follows the same five stages. It's why the result solves a business problem rather than just looking different from what you had before.

01 · Empathise
Listen & Learn

User needs and business goals, before a single decision gets made.
02 · Define
Define the Vision

A clear user experience and page structure, agreed in writing.
03 · Ideate
Explore Ideas

Creative design solutions drawn from scratch — no templates, no AI.
04 · Prototype
Bring It to Life

Build and refine the website and the experience around it.
05 · Test
Test & Refine

Checked, corrected, and tuned for ongoing success after launch.

The same five stages run on every project — a one-page refresh or a seventy-page rebuild.

Start your project

Solutions

Phase 1: Foundation (Month 1)

Custom WordPress build with Lodgify booking — guests check live availability and book direct, with the same calendar syncing to the OTAs so nothing double-books while she keeps both channels running
Brand identity built alongside the site — a property with a name and a look is something guests remember and search for by name; a listing is not
Google Business Profile set up and optimised — the map pack is where "rental near Mount Snow" searches actually get answered
Schema markup (vacation rental + local business) so search engines understand what the property is, where it is, and what it offers
Technical SEO foundation — Search Console, GA4, sitemap, mobile-first performance — so every later piece of content lands on solid ground

Phase 2: Visibility (Month 2+)

A seasonal content calendar built around two distinct businesses: ski season and summer. The people searching in July want hiking, lakes and a porch. The people searching in December want proximity to a lift.
Monthly posts targeting high-intent searches — not "10 things to do in Vermont," but the questions someone asks in the week they're deciding where to stay
Google Business Posts, twice monthly and increasing, to keep the profile active where local ranking rewards it
Internal linking that connects seasonal content to the booking pages, so a reader who arrived for an article leaves on an availability calendar
Local map visibility for the towns and landmarks guests actually search by

Phase 3: Growth (Ongoing)

Competitor tracking across the Mount Snow rental market — pricing, positioning and what the other listings still can't say
Email marketing to past guests for rebookings and referrals, using the list the site is now collecting on her behalf
A review and testimonial strategy that builds proof on her own domain instead of only inside the OTAs
Rate and demand review, so the calendar gets filled deliberately rather than discounted last-minute

Result

What's true today. Mount Snow Retreat has a website that takes bookings without commission attached, a brand that can be searched for by name, and a Google Business Profile answering local searches that previously went straight to the OTAs. Every direct reservation now arrives with the guest's contact details — the asset she had none of a year ago.

What we're tracking. Share of bookings arriving direct versus through platforms, Google Business Profile calls and direction requests, keyword positions for the seasonal terms, and the size of the guest list. SEO compounds slowly and honestly: the site is months old, the content library is still building, and the strongest returns land in the seasons ahead.

What it means for the owner. She still lists on the OTAs — that's deliberate. The difference is that the platforms are now one channel among several rather than the only one, and every guest who comes back can come back directly.

In the Client's Words

“Tamara understood what we needed—not just a website, but a way to own our bookings. The site looks professional, the booking process is seamless, and we’re already seeing direct reservations come in. I highly recommend Your Wish Digital”

Ready to Build What’s Next — Together?

Every website deserves more than a launch — it deserves a strategy and a team that stays.

At Your Wish Digital, we’re your long-term partners in website design, maintenance, and SEO growth — here to keep your site performing beautifully today, tomorrow, and every day after.