Dune Lakes: booking site and channel strategy

What it is

Dune Lakes is a multi-cottage short-term rental compound in California. I don’t own it or run it. I work on it the way an outside consultant would: I build the digital side and advise on the numbers, and the owners make the decisions.

What I’ve done

• The direct-booking website. I built and maintain dunelakesltd.com, including the embedded OwnerRez booking integration, and handle ongoing updates.
• A merchandise storefront. I designed an original merch line and launched an integrated print-on-demand store through Printful, owning the product design and the storefront setup.
• Channel economics analysis. Bookings arrive through Airbnb, Vrbo, and the direct site, and those channels are not equally profitable. Airbnb carries a 15.5% commission on every booking against 2.9% payment processing on direct, so each booking that shifts to the direct site is worth roughly 12.6 points of margin. That is the main argument for the direct-booking site existing at all.
• The analytics. I built a Python pipeline on the business’s real booking data, which has its own case study.

Why it’s here

Most side projects have no consequences. This one does. If the booking site breaks or the merch store misroutes an order, a real guest is affected and someone finds out immediately. Working under that constraint is why the analysis had to be honest rather than flattering, and why I left occupancy out of it entirely rather than estimate a number the data couldn’t support.

Skills demonstrated

Web development and maintenance, third-party booking integration, e-commerce setup, channel and margin analysis, unit economics, client advisory, product design.