We recently connected with Cheryl Hillis and have shared our conversation below.

Cheryl, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.

We started a program a few years ago called the “Buffalo Creek Passport Book”. We have 12 properties for guest to rent. Once they have stayed on our property 12 times they get a free 5-night stay. We just had our first guest complete the book last week & she just booked her free 5 night stay to come back in June.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am one of the owners of Buffalo Creek Vacations, located in The Great Smoky Mountains of NC. My family & I started this business in 2004. Last year we celebrated our 20th anniversary. It started out by building 1 log cabin & then we started doing vacation rentals. Over the years we added more cabins, more animals & then started renovating train cabooses. To date, we have 8 cabins & 4 cabooses. Guests love seeing all our animals. They come down to our daily bison feeding in the mornings, then they can walk around & see: alpacas, llamas, mini horses, mini donkeys, goats, rabbits & even a turkey. Guests also love to get involved by signing up to be a ranch hand helper – a program we offer. We just love seeing our guests happy & enjoying the beautiful Smoky Mountains. Our greatest reward is when they come back year after year.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

We were hit pretty hard with Covid – but we survived, then a few years later we were just hit with Hurricane Helene. It was devasting. October is such a beautiful time of year in the Smoky Mountains, our calendars were booked for the last quarter. Noone ever expected the so called “hurricane” that was coming to the region would’ve caused such devastation. Typically, they fissile out by the time they reach the mountains. Once the river that rose over 30′ in front our property went back to normal – we couldn’t believe our eyes. Our road was gone; electric was off for over 2 weeks & 90 reservations were canceled within 48 hours. We cleaned up the messes, repaired the roofs, cut up the trees & made our property ready to welcome our guests again. Now, we are just waiting for folks to realize this area is open & ready for visitors.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

We like to stay in touch with our clients by emailing updates about new properties opening & specials we are offering. We also invite our guest to follow us on social media where they can keep up with the daily happenings on the ranch. They love seeing the animal updates!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.buffalocreekvacationsnc.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buffalocreekvacations/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BuffaloCreekVacations/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BuffaloCreek
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/buffalo-creek-vacations-clyde

Image Credits

All photos by Cheryl B. Hillis