The context
The Kendall Collective is a curated portfolio of ultra-luxury homes: a grand estate, a ski-in ski-out mountain property, and a lakefront house. The properties were never the problem.
The site around them was. It ran on standard Lodgify components, so a portfolio built for weddings, private retreats and corporate stays was presented like any other listing — small typography, a booking widget competing with the photography, and little room to tell the story of each house.
Behind that, the commercial picture was familiar to any boutique operator: heavy dependence on OTAs, no structured guest marketing, and a guest database that sat there unused. Every past guest was a booking Glenn had already earned once and had no way to ask for again.
What changed
Three things, in this order.
- 1
The site was rebuilt inside Lodgify, not replaced.
A custom homepage with a full-screen hero, larger and cleaner typography, premium branding, higher-quality imagery, a dedicated booking section instead of a widget fighting the photos, interactive property highlights, a horizontal review experience, Instagram integration and proper mobile readability. The existing booking engine stayed exactly where it was.
- 2
Lodgify was connected to SparkOS through its API.
Guests and bookings now synchronise automatically into one customer database, which is what makes audiences — and any later automation — possible at all.
- 3
He started talking to the guests he already had.
With the database connected, Glenn began running email campaigns to previous guests instead of waiting for the next OTA booking to arrive.
What's running
Email campaigns
- Returning-guest outreach
- Direct-booking promotions
- Property announcements
- The new website launch
- Upcoming luxury properties
Connected through Lodgify
- Automatic guest synchronisation
- Booking synchronisation
- One centralised customer database
- Email audience creation
- Groundwork for future automation
Where it stands
This is still an early-stage case, but the channel is already returning:
- 17–22% open rates across the campaigns sent so far, to a base that had never been emailed before
- One US$16,000 booking attributed to an email campaign — a single booking at this stage, not an average or a run rate
- A guest database that exists imported from Lodgify and kept in sync, instead of sitting unused
- A foundation for less OTA dependence owned channels he can keep marketing through, rather than renting the guest relationship
The Kendall Collective went live on SparkOS recently. Open rates across the campaigns sent so far run in the 17–22% range, and one campaign-attributed booking came in at approximately US$16,000 — that is one booking, not an average, a run rate, or a total. Fuller campaign and direct-booking figures will be published here once there is a larger sample. Results vary with portfolio size, market, and how engaged the existing guest base is.
“Our goal has always been to generate more direct bookings and create a premium experience that reflects our properties. SparkOS helped us build that foundation while giving us a way to reconnect with past guests.”
— Glenn Kendall, The Kendall Collective
The guests you already had are the cheapest ones to get back.
A site that reflects the property and a database you can actually reach — that's the difference between renting the guest relationship from an OTA and owning it.