Groundwork
$1,500Two weeks to find what's wrong first.
Build
From $5,000One sprint, fixed price, agreed upfront.
Backbone
Monthly, quotedOngoing support once you're set up.
Groundwork
Start here if your list is long and the order isn't obvious.
I go through the business properly and give you a ranked plan, plus a roadmap so you can see what happens next.
A review across the whole business. How you make money, how guests find you, how the place runs.
Your baseline numbers. Occupancy, your average nightly rate, revenue per available night, direct booking share, off season runway.
A ranked plan, sequenced by payback.
A live project board you keep and work in, not a PDF that goes in a drawer.
A 90 minute walkthrough with the awkward questions answered.
Fixed price, so you can find out what's wrong without signing up to something open ended. And if you go on to a Build sprint, $1,500 comes off it.
Build
One sprint, one outcome, price fixed before work starts.
This is the part most consultants don't do. I don't recommend the booking system, I migrate you onto it.
One thing at a time, scoped and priced in writing first, built around how you actually work. You get trained on it, and every account is in your name.
Booking and reservation systems
Guests booking themselves, direct, instead of phoning you at nine at night.
The highest payback thing most operators can do, and the most often put off. I pick the system that fits how you trade and migrate you onto it without losing a booking.
Rates, policies, deposits, taxes and confirmation emails set up. Booking engine on your own site so direct is the easy option. Channel manager connected if you list on the big booking sites.
At Birken this took online bookings from zero to ninety percent, most of them direct.
The digital foundation
Website, Google listing and booking path, so people find you and can act on it.
Not a design project. Someone searching for a place to stay finds you, understands what you are in four seconds, and books without emailing anyone.
Site built for booking rather than for looking at. Google Business Profile claimed and connected. Set up so Google and the AI assistants can both find you. Domain migrated with the search history intact, which is the bit that goes wrong when people do this themselves.
Finance and reporting
Books, dashboard, and knowing what a night actually costs.
Nobody else in this market sells this to an independent operator, which is odd, because it's the one that changes decisions.
Accounting rebuilt to match how an accommodation business actually earns, with the booking system feeding it. Then the numbers that matter, and a seasonal cash flow forecast, because your costs and your income sit in different months and that's the thing that kills people.
CRM and guest data
Enquiries and guest history out of your inbox.
Most small operators have no CRM at all. Every enquiry and returning guest lives in an email account and in memory.
One place for enquiries, guests, groups and partners, with your history pulled in and cleaned up. Automatic follow up on enquiries that go quiet, which is where most lost revenue sits.
Your guest list is the only asset the big booking sites can't take off you.
Revenue streams
Weddings, retreats, corporate. The stuff that fills a dead shoulder season.
We work out which streams fit your site, capacity and licences, and which are a distraction. Then the package gets built properly, with sales material that does the selling and a pipeline of planners worth knowing.
Birken's wedding pipeline is now booking into 2027.
Lightweight AI
The admin that eats your evenings, handled. Nothing you can't run yourself.
Being honest, because there's a lot of noise. I'm not building you a robot.
We find what's actually repetitive. Enquiry replies, guest questions, listing descriptions. Then small, boring, reliable tools, with training in plain English.
Guest relationships stay human. Nobody comes to your lodge for an automated welcome.
Succession and business continuity
The place keeps trading if you step back, sell up, or can't work for a season.
Most owner run properties have no version of this written down. If you were off for six weeks, the business would stall, and if you wanted to sell, a buyer would be paying for you rather than for the operation.
Written procedures for the jobs only you know how to do. A handover pack, clean books a buyer or a bank can read, and a plan for who covers what. Then adoption, so the family or the team actually work to it rather than filing it.
The best time to do this is years before you need it. Nobody ever does it then.
Backbone
Start here if the systems are in and nobody's watching them, or the plan from the diagnostic is stalling.
I stay on. Your numbers produced and explained, a dashboard tracking the handful of things that matter, and one session a month.
Written scope, so it's proper support rather than me being on call. Not priced here because a six unit glamping site and a lodge with a restaurant are different jobs.
An implementation partner, long term. Monthly meetings, and the plan keeps moving between them.
Accounting and bookkeeping support. Books kept current, month end done, and someone to ask.
Marketing support. Campaigns, listings and seasonal pushes run to a calendar rather than in a panic.
Funding. Windows watched, applications written, reporting kept up once the money lands.
Hiring and onboarding. Job descriptions, pay benchmarks, and procedures for the people you take on.
Reporting for a board, a bank or a silent partner, produced on time and explained first.
Once we're working together, you can just ask. An hour of judgement, a fast read on a funding window, a second opinion before you sign something. Billed by the hour.
Some different way for you to work through this.
If one of the other four is right for you, I'll say so on the call.
The things people ask before they book.
How small is too small?
I've worked with businesses of two people and businesses of forty. Somewhere between four and forty units, with you doing the admin at ten at night, is the sweet spot. Under about four units the numbers rarely justify hiring me, and I'll say so on the call rather than take the work. Above forty you're usually big enough to have someone in house, though plenty of properties that size still don't.
Do you work outside BC, Alberta and the North?
Not usually. The regulations, the funding programs, the seasons and the guest market are all local, and knowing them is a large part of what you're paying for. A consultant who has never dealt with a BC tourism accommodation licence, a Destination BC program or northern funding through CanNor is starting from behind. If you're just outside and the fit is right, ask anyway.
Will you come to the property?
Where I can, yes, and I'd rather. An hour walking a site tells me more than a week of calls. How guests arrive, where check in bottlenecks, what the connectivity is like at the far cabin, which matters a great deal before anyone picks a system. Not every engagement needs it and some properties are a long way from Squamish, but usually at least once.
How long does this take?
The diagnostic is two weeks, start to finish. Sprints vary. A booking system migration is usually a few weeks, a full finance and reporting build takes longer. At Birken it was two months from the first meeting to a live booking system, a new website and AI running in the day to day, across several sprints back to back. It also depends on the season, because migrating a reservation system in July is a bad idea and I'll tell you to wait. Timelines go in writing before we start.
What happens to my accounts and logins?
They're yours from the start, in your name, on your email. If we stop working together tomorrow you keep everything and nothing breaks. Some agencies hold the domain or the hosting account and it becomes a hostage situation when you try to leave. I won't do that, and I'd check whoever you hire next on the same point.
Do I have to use AI?
No. I use it to work faster on my side either way, which is part of why the pricing works. Whether any of it goes into your business is your call. If we do use it, it's two or three repetitive jobs made faster, with training so you can run them, not a system you'll be frightened of.
Can I skip the diagnostic?
Yes, plenty do. If you already know what you want built we scope a sprint directly. The diagnostic is for when the list is long and the order isn't obvious, which is most people, but not everyone.
What if I just want to talk it through?
Book the call. Thirty minutes, free, and it's a conversation rather than a pitch. Worst case you get a second opinion, and I point you at whoever is a better fit.