He built a micro-resort that was banned from Airbnb

At 24, Isaac French bought five muddy acres for $133,000 near his home in Waco, TX. In 10 months, he transformed it into travel’s next big thing: a “micro-resort.” He says his seven tiny cabins at Live Oak Lake beat massive hotels as an investment any day.

Q: What inspired you to build your first micro-resort? “I was working as a bookkeeper and deeply dissatisfied. So I started looking for land. One morning I opened Zillow for the hundredth time and saw a listing down the road. I called the Realtor; an hour later I was standing on five acres with a swampy pond that I’d driven past dozens of times without a second thought. But I could immediately visualize what it could be. I got chills. I put it under contract that day. Within a year, we’d spent $2.3 million to build a seven-cabin micro-resort.”

Q: What is a micro-resort, and why is it a viable business model? “It’s a 5- to 25-unit hospitality property that’s nature- and experience-driven, lightly staffed, and uses social media to drive direct bookings rather than relying on third-party platforms that have been flooded with large-scale portfolio managers that, frankly, have no heart or soul. Micro-resorts are trying to build on what made Airbnb compelling in the first place—novelty, authenticity—and add a communal layer that today’s travelers are hungry for. These properties are great for families, friend groups, and corporate offsites. But more than anything, they have a story.”

Q: You were suspended by Airbnb. Why? “Airbnb suspended us due to a system glitch two weeks after launch. I was stranded with no income and loan payments coming up. Then I got a message from a travel influencer on Instagram, where I’d posted a few photos to barely 200 followers. She wanted to feature the property; I Venmo’d her $950 to post some photos. Within seven days, we had thousands of new followers and $40,000 in bookings. What almost destroyed us became our biggest breakthrough. It forced us to go direct, which turned out to be the final piece of the business model I hadn’t originally planned for.”

Q: What’s your advice for investors who want to build a micro-resort? “Build fewer units and spend more time, money, and care on each. Everyone is obsessed with scale, but the real opportunity is going smaller. It’s counterintuitive, but financially, it’s not just about lower operating complexity. The bigger thing is that it’s much easier to hit 90%+ occupancy when you have one truly singular place. We averaged 94% occupancy our first year. That demand exists because we tapped into FOMO and created a lot of urgency just by making it exclusive. Social media and giveaways are multipliers, but they can’t replace a genuinely one-of-a-kind property. You’ve got to build something great first.”

Click here to learn more about how to build your own micro-resort.