We recently connected with Emma Musto and have shared our conversation below.
Emma, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
There are tons of vacation rentals in the Smoky Mountains, many of which are owned by large rental companies or groups of investors looking to maximize profits with minimal effort. That’s not how we do things. In a sea of copy and paste cabins, with the same yellow pine interiors, black bear decorations on everything in sight, and some variation of the same “cozy/bear/sleepy” cabin name, Valhalla Cabins stands out.
Our vision was to bring a modern, luxurious twist to the traditional wooden cabin, and our goal is to provide our guests a unique experience with as much value as possible. We kept this mission statement in mind during every single stage of the construction and development process and into every detail of the property. Our theme at Valhalla Cabins is Scandinavian style A-frame’s, each belonging to one of the famous Norse gods. Staying true to the traditional wooden cabin with wood siding, flooring, furniture, and even live edge bathroom vanities, but incorporating more modern design elements like granite countertops, concrete sinks, and an overall more spacious and high end feel. While each cabin is “themed” it’s a subtle approach that doesn’t take over every square inch of the cabin like many, many others in this area.
We also want to provide our guests with as many amenities as we can. Each cabins comes with a hot tub, fire pit, grill, corn hole, and our newest addition, a sauna and ice bath! The tourism that the Smoky Mountains National Park and Gatlinburg attract each year is so great that many other cabin owners in the area don’t bother to update their cabins or add any amenities. They stick to the bare minimum and it shows in their reviews. We are so proud to say we’ve been open since August 2023 with 2 cabins on the market and we’ve never had anything less than a 5 star review. Our listings are also awarded with the Guest Favorite badge and Superhost status. Our guests love our cabins and that’s our bottom line at the end of the day.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My husband Branden and I have always loved traveling. We met at a bar in Bali, Indonesia where I had just finished a yoga teacher training program and he was on a surf trip with his friends. We immediately started backpacking Southeast Asia together which then turned into a year long trip around the world including Asia, Europe, and South Africa where he is from. Within the first month of dating and living a nomadic lifestyle, we both said we’d love to one day own and run a bed and breakfast. We even went as far as booking various bed and breakfast stays during our travels around the world and interrogating the owners with all of our questions on how to get started. Although we were on a tight budget at the time, we often compared different accommodations and talked about what we would do differently. We kept this vision for years, working various jobs and even starting different businesses, until we could finally afford to buy a piece of raw, undeveloped land in the Smoky Mountains and our dream started to become a reality.
We poured all of our passion as travelers into our development and kept the guests in mind every step of the way, How can we make their experience special? What sets our cabins apart from the competition? How can we provide the most bang for their buck and make their experience so comfortable and enjoyable they will want to return? That’s how Valhalla Cabins was born. Out of a love for travel and a deep understanding of what it’s like to be a guest looking for a unique experience.
My husband and I partnered with my parents and Valhalla Cabins is completely family owned and operated. My parents help fund the project, my husband and stepfather do all the construction work themselves, and my mother and I are in charge of design. It’s been a long and at times difficult journey but we are so happy that less than two years after we broke ground we have two cabins up and running with a third and fourth on the way! We are also proud to say that we are Airbnb Superhosts, our listings are Airbnb Guest Favorites, and we have not received anything below a 5 star review.
Our two currently active listings are Thor and Freya’s cabins. The former is a more rugged ‘industrial meets wooden cabin” decor with Thor’s famous Mjolnir hammer set under a painting of a lighting strike. The latter is Thor’s cabins feminine sister with a light and airy decor, touches of gold in reference to Freya’s golden hair and tears, and subtle nods to the norse theme throughout the cabin. Odin’s cabin will be the largest and is currently underway and we’ve got plans for Loki’s cabin in the next year or two. Each cabin comes with a hot tub, fire pit, grill, sauna, and ice bath.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
When taking a 4 acre raw piece of land and turning it into a rental property with 3 cabins, you’re going to come across one or two (or hundreds) of issues. There were many times when this development felt so overwhelming we called family meetings and seriously discussed if it was worth soldiering on or pulling the plug. Small incidents like when a water pipe burst on the property and we had to dig a hole in the ground, with a hand shovel, through our gravel road, while it was raining, twice!! And much larger issues like when our framing crew, one of the very few things we outsourced, told us there was a structural issue with our third cabin. While they insured us we could make some structural adjustments to our blueprints, they failed to anticipate the difference in weight distribution. Once the structure was already up, they told us it was unstable and they would need to put a weight bearing beam in the middle of the cabin, not only interrupting the design but blocking the view from our floor to ceiling window wall.
That was one of the most frustrating and adrenaline spiking problems we had to solve. Luckily, my husband is an engineer, and was able to sit down with the builders to come up with a solution that wouldn’t interfere with our design or view. After days of arguments, calculations, and deep breaths, we incorporated weight bearing beams in the ceiling which provided more than enough structural integrity. That wasn’t the first or the last obstacle we had to over come, but we have learned that letting your emotions get in the way is never going to help you solve the problem. The best thing you can do is take a deep breath and go back to the drawing board until you can figure out the best way forward.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
Aside from a team of builders who framed up our cabins, and a certified electrician who we needed to help us pass our inspection, my husband and stepfather built everything themselves. And when I say everything, I mean everything. From the foundations, plumbing, insulation, dry wall, siding, and flooring, to cabinets, countertops, bed frames, coffee tables, decks, and outdoor entertainment areas. One reason this was possible is because my husband Branden is an engineer and a lot of these things make sense to him, but the biggest reason this was possible, is YouTube.
I joke that Branden is YouTube Universities number one student. He would come home from a long day of laying insulation, itching from the fiberglass stuck to his clothes, take out his phone, and YouTube “how to install dry wall.” He would watch hours upon hours of YouTube videos from various creators learning different techniques and all the tools he needed to do a job. And it worked! And when it came time for me to manage our property online, YouTube helped me learn all the different platforms I needed to run our business efficiently, how to set up our listings optimally, and various tips to foster a positive relationships with our guests. It’s made us realize that sometimes, we really overthink things. If you have an idea you want to pursue or a business you want to start, something as simple as a YouTube search can get you off the ground running!
(I want to add that our property is in an unrestricted area where there is much less red tape to get through and you can build something like this yourself. This isn’t possible everywhere in the country, but it is in many counties with unrestricted zoned land.)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.valhallacabins.staydirectly.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smoky_mountains_cabins/
Image Credits
Branden Musto