From Backcountry to Frontcountry: How Janice Stitzer Built a 7-Cabin Micro-Resort

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This Week’s Guest:

Connect with Janice Stitzer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janicestitzer/

 

Your Host:

Zach Busekrus - Journey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/

 

Four cabins had private saunas and cold plunges. Three didn't. And within the first few months, the bookings were telling Janice Stitzer she'd made a mistake.

So she ordered three more saunas.

I love that story because it gets at what this conversation is really about. You can have the beautiful renderings. You can have the cabin that looks incredible on Instagram. But at some point, the guest has to choose you, and the business has to work.

Janice is back on Behind the Stays, and she is one of my favorite people to talk to about the actual work of building these places. She comes from finance, including time at Disney and Fox Studios. She and her husband, a third-generation contractor, have spent years buying, renovating, and building real estate. Then they built Backcountry A-Frame in Colorado, and that opened the door to something bigger.

Her latest operating project is Frontcountry in Salida: seven micro-cabins on one acre. And that one acre came with some very expensive lessons. A well, parking requirements, setbacks, and septic all competed for the same little piece of land. The septic system alone ended up costing ninety thousand dollars.

We get into all of it. Why she chose an established destination over a more remote piece of land. What she learned about the amenities guests will actually pay for. And why, when someone asks her how many cabins they should build, she starts with a different question: what revenue does this business need to support the life you want?

Her starting point is roughly a million dollars in annual revenue, then working backward. That's her planning framework, not a promise that every project can get there.

We also talk about Vista Meadows Ranch, the farm-and-workshop experience she's building next, and why she's starting with the experience before the overnight stays.

If you've ever looked at a beautiful little resort and thought, "I could build something like that," this is the conversation I'd want you to hear before you buy the land.

Please enjoy my conversation with Janice Stitzer.