We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful DARREL Maxam. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with DARREL below.
Alright, DARREL thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
In my industry, many owners of short-term rentals (STR) (i.e., Airbnb’s) have not accounted for the continued change in the market. Very early on as I got into this business, my wife and I knew we needed to set ourselves apart. Instead of just building beautiful structures, we also knew we needed to create an experience for guests. We decided to build unique and individual properties that didn’t look or feel like any other STR. We are and have been the face of our business, telling our stories and relating to our guests. When time allows we spend time with our guests, vendors, and those who make our business move. The last thing we have done really well is to truly study our market, trends, and highs and lows. When we see changes we immediately pivot.
DARREL, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
We’re a tag team couple based out of Atlanta exploring the limitless potential of treehouse space and design within the STR (short term rental) industry. We’re on the journey to build 20 unique, treehouse hotels all across the world and are ever learning, ever pushing, and ever creating. [Currently in NY!]
You may know us by our flagship location in Atlanta (@theatlantatreehouse), but if you’re new here- welcome to our journey! We’re excited to show you and have you along. Both of us come from incredibly humble beginnings and have found the success that we have today through a tremendous amount of trial and error, risk, and our fair share of failures. We’re here to show you our journey thus far and what we’ve learned along the way.
Our journey begins in 2014, when we bought our first house together and had all together, a couple hundred bucks left after our deposit.
2015 we found our opening in the market and created unit #1- Tin and Juice Treehouse off our own house.
With the success of unit #1, Darrel made units #2-5 in the following year.
2016 Our most popular Unit #6 The ATL Treehouse and Unit #7 Young Wild & Tree, came shortly there after.
Airbnb was a success! We were featured on multiple news outlets, was listed an Airbnb top stay, and was featured on the HGTV show “Tiny BnB” covered by Levi Kelly.
2022 We launched our Youtube and began documenting!
We began construction on our newest hotel, the Finger Lakes Treehouse in Q4 of 2022. Opening July 2023!
2023 We launched this website, began the break up process with Airbnb, taught a course at UNC Chapel Hill, hired a content house, and are opening our NY location.
About Patrice
My background as a nurse was a true career calling, but while I don’t care for patients anymore, my instinct to care for others and pay attention to detail is a transferrable skill that has allowed me to create a red carpet experience for guests in my second career of buildings resorts.I grew up in a small town in upstate NY with a large family with two brothers and three sisters. Worked relentlessly in the corporate world to create a life for myself and have now, together with my partner, are working towards building our dreams and leaving an impression on future generations, and our kids.
I love meeting all of our guests and learning from others from around the world. I love to travel and look forward to living a life as nomads as we build out the next 18 locations.
About Darrel
CEO and Founder
Lead designer & Architect, Project Manager, Creative Director
Darrel was born in Jamaica but raised Connecticut. He holds a Bachelor in Art/Marketing, Masters in Construction Management and an MBA in Project Management. An Afghanistan Army combat veteran.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
An incredible and aggressive social media campaigned via Instagram and facebook has been a way we have grown our clientele, booked out units, and booked weddings and events.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
My wife and I booked strapped our initial capital to get our business started in Atlanta.
We worked full time corporate jobs and when we had enough savings, we would build out another unit. We took 1 high interest rate loan from a bank to pay for the buildout of one of our units.
We made the decision not to pay ourselves until that bank loan was paid back. Everyone project we have done we have a 18 month ROI of payment. If we feel we cannot get an 18 month ROI we will not take on the project. This has been one thing that has kept us from making bad financial decision and in above our head.
Contact Info:
- Website: MaxamHotels.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fingerlakestreehouse/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fingerlakestreehouse
- Linkedin: Darrel Maxam, C.M., MBA
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MaxamHotels/videos
Image Credits
Codey Dingfield Logan Dingfield