Spotlight: Savannah's Meadow's
Social Media Strategy

By Nathan Gawlik & Brynne Adamson

"Find Yourself in the Trees"

Using positive messages on Facebook and ResNexus' promotional emails, owners Ron and Susan Van Volkenburgh of Savannah's Meadow in Celeste, Texas were able to grow their business and fill up their treehouses for 2021 and into 2022, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the bed and breakfast:

Ron and Susan Van Volkenburgh bought Savannah's Meadow in 2016. Named after the daughter of the previous farm owners, Savannah's Meadow has a beautiful wedding venue, events destination, and three units: two treehouses and a converted travel trailer. These aren't your typical accommodations.

Their most popular accommodation — The Majestic Oak Treehouse — is equipped with central air and heating, hot and cold running water, a full kitchen, glass shower, floating sky lounge and crows nest. The treehouse can fit up to seven people and has a hot tub and pool below it.

The Bare Creek Hollow Treehouse is cloaked in mystery. As legend has it, the creek below it's branches was "always dry until the very day the creek was named bare, and water began to flow," according to the Van Volkenburghs. This large treehouse is complete with a balcony, front and back porches, central air and heating, hot and cold running water, a full bathroom, a double bed, and a loft.

The Gypsy's Grotto travel trailer "creates a romantic atmosphere for the adventurous soul," according to the Van Volkenburghs. It's complete with a working outdoor bathtub and other fine amenities.

The accommodations are spread out among the 18.3-acre property. Along your stroll you will find wild woods, a large fishing pond, farm animals, an herb garden, lavender field, pecan grove, a gift shop and bikes at each of the venues for guest use. One bike in particular is a tandem bike that guests can use as the "ultimate relationship challenge," as Ron Van Volkenburgh likes to call it.

Most of the B & B's guests are from the Dallas area, but it has guests from as far away as Australia, France and China. Savannah's Meadow is open from April 1 to Nov. 1. During the off-season, the upbeat Van Volkenburghs are working on major projects to help keep their property serene and beautiful.

What's your marketing strategy?

A lot of our ideas for changes or improvements come from things that happen in reality. We focus on the simpler things. We promote a positive message through our Facebook page and our ResNexus marketing emails.

One of the ways we gauge our success is through Facebook likes. In 2016, the previous owner had a Facebook account with 2,200 likes on it, and we now have more than 7,400 likes; we accomplished that in 4.5 years.

We don't pay for advertising of any kind. It's all word of mouth from people liking our page, checking in and following us. You'll see a lot of pictures and video of treehouses, animals, ponds, sunsets and sunrises... things like that.

One time we were working on the tree house and had to rip the top of it off. We made sure we posted a lot of pictures of Susan with a great big smile on her face as she's holding up pieces of the roof. These posts provide ways people can connect with us and feel like they have a stake in the success of our farm.

The ResNexus marketing emails are easy to create because it's a simple process of dragging and dropping things or changing a template.

We send out reminder emails to our guests about what they need to bring for their stay or a map of the property. We see couples, families, older people, younger people... who have printed off our scavenger hunt and all of them looking for things on the property they need to find, like the Scary Man Tree. We create these kinds of things for our guests because they are unique and fun ways for our guests to connect with us and the farm at a personal level, but more importantly...reconnect with one another.

Through those venues, we promote an experience where you can show up on property, disconnect from your digital devices and reconnect with the family by playing a game in the tree house. The tagline for our business is: "Find yourself in the trees." Not only does that have a meaning of "enjoy yourself in our treehouse," but that also has the message of "take the time to get to know yourself."

What were the benefits of those promotional emails you sent out a couple months ago?

We closed down in April because of COVID-19 and reopened in May. At that time, we started out a campaign where we sent out an email with a 2020 reboot coupon to get a discount for staying with us. We also started a campaign called "Toilet Paper Included with your Stay," where, even though you'd get toilet paper despite the pandemic, we were trying to make a difficult and heavy topic light and fun. That was pretty successful.

We used birthday and anniversary coupons to give our guests 10% off of their next stay, too.

You did better this year than last year despite COVID-19. Can you tell me why that is? How has COVID-19 affected your property?

Although we were shut down in April, the pandemic didn't negatively impact us. In fact, if anything, it positively impacted us because people were going cabin silly at home. We became a lot of people's Plan Bs because they couldn't leave the country but still wanted to go on vacation. People could come and stay with us and not be near anyone else on the property.

We were also on Texas Today, a local travel show, on NBCUniversal Media. We immediately began filling for the next season when that show aired.

One thing people ask about when they visit us is the duck parade because they saw the Texas Today episode. The duck parade is where we put ducks, geese and chickens in their houses every night, and people feed them. We also give guests the opportunity to feed the donkey, goats and other animals. People would never have the chance to do that in the city.

How do you manage guest expectations?

A lot of what we do comes as a direct result of interacting with our guests. You can't get that learning experience if you don't heavily interact with them.

How did we ever decide to go out and get an old tractor, which we ride up to greet each and every one of our guests? It's a by-product of that learning process. How did we get to allowing our guests to feed the animals at night? That kind of just happened, and we decided to incorporate it. We're always looking for those opportunities where you can add to what you built.

Listen to your guests. Sometimes they bring their own decorations and leave them in the treehouses. We think, ‘Oh that looks nice,' so we leave it in the treehouse. For us, it's about making yourself available for your guests: some want to interact a lot with you, and some don't want to interact at all. You've got to be flexible.

What's your advice for other innkeepers?

You have to be a good host, meaning you're personable with your guests, and you make them feel happy. We take a backseat to the property. Everybody should get the same level of love and respect. We don't judge anybody, and we greet everyone with a smile. If guests aren't happy when they leave, they're not going to post about you or talk about you to their friends.

You have to be transparent and offer all the information your guests need.

For example, we want folks to understand that they're not staying at a 5-star hotel. They're coming to stay with us to "glamp," or glamorously camp. Instead of sleeping on the cold ground, they're sleeping up in a treehouse; though, they're still getting that experience with nature. We help people to understand that through our social media account and our ResNexus website.

How has ResNexus created value for you?

We will forever recommend ResNexus because ResNexus is constantly improving and adding value, which helps attract more customers.. You can tell the software people at ResNexus are always striving to improve the website and reservations system, which is all included in our subscription. We think you guys do a great job in listening to customers and the things they're telling you about in terms of real-life experiences. Then you translate that into improvements.

We really love the calendar, so guests can book online and know exactly what's available and what's not. Even though we didn't ask for the marketing section, we get to take value from it. We're always going in and updating the website to make it more user-friendly and add more information based on what guests are telling us.

Key Findings

Revenue Per Available Room increased YOY by 63%

Since getting a ResNexus Website 18 months ago, online booking rate increased 115%

Revenue increased YOY by 40%

Most Popular Room:
The Majestic Oak Treehouse

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Spotlight: Savannah's Meadow's Social Media Strategy