Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cuatro Tolson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Cuatro, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
During Covid, a group of us found ourselves with a serious urge to get out of the house and get out of the city just to be outside/outdoors. Of course with each trip, we ventured a bit further and further until we found a few nice rental property getaways on the Llano River only 1.5 hours from Austin. After a few of these trips, we decided we needed to have one for ourselves, and began to envision an outdoor escape that we could curate to be admired and enjoyed along with our close friends and family. We stumbled across this special, quirky town called Castell, which is already quite infamous in its own right for being a weekend pass-through for bikers, hikers, cyclists, rockhounders, kayakers, fly-fisherman and various other admirers of the Texas Hill Country, Hill Country, Castellito. Little did we know, how special it was until we actually closed on the property.
Shortly thereafter, we decided we needed to share this little slice of adventure with others, and as a result, we decided to open it up to Airbnb. We have had great success thus far and have coveted the town and the townspeople, who rock to live old school country bands while drinking cold beers and serving one of the best burgers in Texas, at the Castell General Store. We look forward to growing a creative presence in the town while preserving the historical nature of the town for all to enjoy. We also look forward to inviting various local artists to help with creative activations in and around the town.
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?
We are a group of professionals who have a vested interest in rural landscapes and wish to create outdoor escapes and wonderful experiences for others with a creative tilt. We hope to expand our footprint in the Texas HiJI Country and eventually create a community for creatives, artists, and explores while maintaining the charm, originality, and beauty of the spaces that we participate.
We are also very inclined to maintain low-level light pollution so that the nighttime sky is lit with the natural light from the stars and planets. for all to admire for generations to come. We would like to believe that we have created a comfortable destination for others to visit our town based on our own experiences while traveling around the world. We would like to present the template for others to explore and enjoy our cabins and landscape, however, we don’t want to limit experiences to the way we see the world.
We would prefer that people create their own experiences amongst the backdrop that we have created – and thus let your own experiences take on a life of their own. We are always looking for others to experience and stay at our locations (El Castell and/or El Caslell1to) while engaging our Instagram account@castelltexas so that they too are able to share their personal experience with others.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Well like most new ventures, nothing is easy and everything is learned as you go. A week later we closed on the property the Snowpocalypse of 2020 hit the whole state of Texas. Since we knew nothing about the water system, particularly the water from Llano River we were hit like everyone else with complete destruction of the water piping system throughout the house. Trying to figure out the pump system, which was completely destroyed, was no small task. And of course, getting someone to come and help, was virtually impossible at the time. There were no parts at any of the stores. Nothing. And repairs were not going to be cheap. But we worked through it with some very valuable help from the local community which of course is what it is all about. Without the help of the local townsfolk, we might never have gotten help for at least 2-3 months. So you can say, we had a crash course on the meet ‘n greet of sorts.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
Really Airbnb has been a beast in terms of bookings for us with 70% of bookings coming through that channel vs. VRBO and direct. As we are and have been a SuperHost since the first Quarter in business, I think the algorithm puts us up top from and center for our area, which is great. And as a SuperHost, they have had excellent customer service so we are very satisfied with the Airbnb business model.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.castellcabins.com
- Instagram: castelltexas
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elcastell.club
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/GtWe4zdKbhA
Image Credits
Castell Land Company