To the Limited Partners of Ziggy Resorts River Cabins, LLC
Thank you for your patience these past few months. Investor interest has been overwhelmingly positive and the fund was closed successfully!
Given the expiring nature of the deal and lending requirements, the team was compelled to focus 100% on closing the property and getting the cabins online for immediate revenue. We have successfully acquired the property, completed an initial checklist of property and cabin improvements, secured our partnership with Carolina Cabin Rentals and listed all properties on Airbnb and VRBO.
Going forward we plan to send out investor updates quarterly. Please read on for more details, plans for the coming months, and access to the cabins as valued investors.
We appreciate your continued support.
We began operation in mid February after the deal was delayed by the seller by a few weeks. We immediately moved to contract Carolina Cabins as property manager and began preparing the cabins for rental.
We spent the majority of February working through a punch list of cosmetic and functional improvements to all six cabins. These items included hundreds of little things like:
Following these improvements all cabins were deep cleaned and professionally photographed. The cabins were then listed on Carolina Cabins website, Airbnb, and VRBO alongside various marketing announcements in the middle of March.
You can see the Airbnb listings and various cabin photos here:
And some social media posts announcing the cabins along with property photos here:
Renovations are still in progress. We plan to begin renovation on the first two of six cabins in the coming quarter or two depending on summer rental volume. When volume allows for a prolonged renovation we will continue by two cabins at a time until all renovations are complete. After renovations are deemed complete, quarterly distributions of net cash flow will be distributed pro rata to all Limited Partners at the appropriate time.
Maximize Bookings
Going into this summer season we are largely focused on maximizing bookings and revenue through the Spring into the Summer/Fall high season. Given the unusual demand of vacation homes like these cabins amidst the 2020 - 2022 Covid cycle, our goal for our first year of operations is to meet revenue numbers from these record years. Then in future years exceed these revenue targets and achieve the targets modeled in the Pro Forma.
Right now we are working with Carolina Cabins to optimize rates for the upcoming Summer/Fall high season.
Cabin & Property Improvements
Our next major improvement to the property will be hot tubs. We believe this is the single quickest and most impactful improvement we can make to maximize price and bookings in time for the Summer season. You can see a sample of proposed hot tubs here.
We are also preparing to regrade the upper part of the roadway due to some recent Spring rain deterioration of the road.
Marketing & Awareness
We face a competitive market of numerous boutique hotels, cabins, and short term rentals. Blowing Rock has ~240 listed short term rentals. As a property under new management with new listings we must maximize awareness and quality reviews to begin standing out in the market.
We trust our partners at Carolina Cabins are up to the task and will continue to invest in property improvements to ensure the River Cabins become a destination property for families far and wide.
High Country Tourism & Market Demand
The High Country of North Carolina has been on a steady pace of growth for the past decade culminating in record tourism revenue in 2021 and 2022. The town of Blowing Rock alone reported over 80% tourism spending growth in 2022 over 2019. This outsized shift has been attributed to Covid tourism and will likely return to ‘normal’ levels soon. The River Cabins demand is at the mercy of these macro-regional fluctuations and we will be monitoring them closely.
Over the next year we will be renting, renovating, and generally maximizing revenue of the property we all acquired together. We want to reiterate our appreciation for your belief and trust in our thesis and team.
We plan to inform Limited Partners once per quarter via updates covering the good, the bad, and the numbers. Please let us know if you have particular information requests, questions, or suggestions for our updates and/or strategy. We welcome the input.
Thank you again for your confidence and we look forward to working together.
Sincerely,
Ziggy Capital General Partners
P.S. We have established a policy for investor stays at the cabins. You can read about it and book your stay here.
