How a Retired Veteran and His Wife Turned Two Farm Cabins Into Their Best Booking Month Ever

Extra income for a couple who were already busy

Stephanie and Mike Trost run a working farm and a nonprofit together. On the side, they rent out two cabins on the property as short-term rentals, a way to turn part of the land into extra retirement income without turning it into a second full-time job. Mike is a veteran, and between the farm, the nonprofit, and everything else the two of them juggle, neither one had the bandwidth to also run guest communication, pricing, and bookings for two Airbnbs.

Before switching to Corzly, that's largely what was happening. Bookings were inconsistent, sales had been flat, and it was all landing on Stephanie.

"We wanted to increase sales, and that's what we were lacking. We looked at the numbers and I thought, we've got to do something to pump these back up again."

Stephanie Trost

Handing that over to someone else wasn't a small decision. It meant trusting a stranger with income the Trosts were counting on.

"When we researched you guys, it felt like Indiana Jones stepping out onto that ledge with nothing underneath him. We were just hoping it would work. And it has."

Stephanie Trost

The gap-night play: filling the night nobody else would bother with

One of the details Stephanie mentions unprompted is a single open night between two bookings, the kind of one-night gap that's normally just written off as lost income. Our team called the guests on both sides of that gap to see if either one could extend their stay or check in a day early.

"They started calling the guests on both ends to see if either one could stay longer or check in a day earlier. I would've never thought of that. Those little things really do make a difference."

Stephanie Trost

Before Corzly, the Trosts also weren't listed on Booking.com at all, Airbnb was their only channel. Between the added distribution and someone actively working the calendar instead of just taking bookings as they land, it's part of what pushed October into a record month.

Vetting guests and protecting a working farm

A farm with a tractor, gravel drives, and animals carries real risk that a typical short-term rental doesn't. Before Corzly, the Trosts relied on a house rules book left in the cabin and hoped guests read it.

"I like that they go back and ask guests again, have you read the rules, do you have any questions about them? On a working farm, that matters. Before, we'd just put everything in a book and hope people read it. If a kid bashed their head on gravel, we could say 'didn't you read the book?' and the answer was always no, we didn't read the book. At least this way, they actually know they should."

Stephanie Trost

Our team also screens incoming guests before accepting a booking, something the Trosts hadn't had in place before. Every guest is required to provide a copy of their ID, a selfie for verification, and a signed digital rental agreement before check-in.

"If a guest doesn't have previous reviews, I know you'll go back and question them. I never did that kind of vetting myself before, and you do a really good job with it."

Stephanie Trost

A team behind the cabins, not one overworked point of contact

The Trosts assumed that with two cabins, they'd be handed off to a single dedicated coordinator, and that if that person was ever off, guest questions would just wait. Our model is different: no one person is tied to a single property, so a guest question never sits unanswered because one coordinator happens to be off that day.

Stephanie also assumed that a company managing hundreds of properties would feel like just another account. It didn't.

"Way more properties than I thought, because you've been so personal with me."

Stephanie Trost

What Corzly unlocked for the Trosts

Before Corzly, the Trosts' two cabins were producing inconsistent, underwhelming bookings, enough to notice, not enough to feel good about. After consolidating guest communication, gap-night outreach, and guest vetting under our team, October became the best month the property has ever had: both cabins nearly fully booked, and close to $8,000 in revenue for the month alone.

"We're almost booked out in both cabins for October, close to $8,000. We've never had a booking month like that, ever."

Stephanie Trost

"You passed our expectations. If you ask me whether I'm happy with the service, yes. There were a few things to work through on the onboarding, but other than that, everybody's been great. I'd say we've been happy 90% of the time, with just a few little glitches."

Stephanie Trost

The Trosts have already sent a friend with her own Airbnb down the street to look into Corzly, and Mike sums up what the change has actually meant day to day: less of his and Stephanie's time going to guest management, and more of it going back to the farm, the nonprofit, and everything else on their plate.

"After the first month or two, it starts to run like a train. We've got fingers in so many pies, the farm, the nonprofit, everything else we need to do. It's nice taking that off of Stephanie, because she was doing all of it before."

Mike Trost

"If your goal is to generate more income from your property, I'd strongly recommend Corzly. You guys know what you're doing."

Stephanie Trost