Outpost boosts local Jackson Hole businesses while giving vacation rental guests an authentic experience

Whether it be finding activities or a restaurant serving hyper-local cuisine, traveling often entails a time-consuming amount of research and logistics to experience the true essence of a destination.

Property management company Outpost in Jackson, Wyoming, has streamlined that process by distilling the best of the Old West town on its website for its vacation rental guests. When guests reserve their vacation rental on the website, they can at the same time do things like purchase discounted ski lift tickets, rent outdoor gear or baby equipment, or book a private chef.

“We want to be a one-stop shop for our guests,” said Meaghan Moylan, executive director of Outpost Group, Inc.

Jackson Hole vacation rentals boosting local businesses

The service provides convenience and a richer experience for guests, but it also helps to elevate local businesses and indirectly support jobs in the community.

“Keeping our economy and local businesses flourishing is the crux of what we all do here in Jackson,” Meaghan said. “We support each other and care for this town because we want people to be able to enjoy it for decades to come.”

For example, Outpost’s sister company, Outfitted, delivers, among other things, local wines and beers to vacation rental guests. Some of the wine comes from the town’s only winery, Jackson Hole Winery.

Local businesses also find a place to shine in Outpost’s online lifestyle journal.

There is a mouthwatering feature story on Provisions gourmet meal delivery service, which dishes up upscale mountain fare such as baklava soaked in huckleberry bourbon syrup and elk pomodoro. It also comes in handy for guests who want to stay in for the night at their vacation rental.

Readers also can learn about local artists like jewelry designer Padgett Hoke who designs and sells distinct Jackson Hole souvenirs – necklaces shaped like elk antlers and the Teton mountain range.

“Jackson Hole is our home, and we want our guests to be able to bring a piece of Jackson Hole with them when they leave – whether that’s a bag of delicious Snake River Roasting Co. coffee or a box of donuts from Provisions,” Meaghan said.

Outpost also plugs events with a good cause like the annual Cutter Races in February to raise funds for Shriners Hospitals.

Read more: How to create a great vacation rental guest experience by supporting local businesses

Home-grown business that makes guests feel at home

When Mekki Jaidi and his wife, Jane, founded Outpost in September 2014, Mekki designed the website and booking engine himself, making Jackson’s many offerings come alive at visitors’ fingertips.

The company started with Mekki’s own home, which he rented out as a vacation rental. Since then, Outpost has grown into Jackson’s largest property management company, with 225 medium-to-high-end vacation rentals in its portfolio. 

“The goal is to always make an Outpost guest feel as if they’re staying in our own home,” Meaghan said. 

Data-driven decisions on vacation rentals

Outpost uses Key Data for revenue management, to track the performance of their properties, and to compare their performance with the market as a whole. Their reports allow Outpost and their clients, vacation rental owners, to track average daily rate, RevPAR (revenue per available room), and occupancy.

“Every month, we send a monthly performance report to our homeowners about how we’re performing in the market and how we’re performing for the month that just passed and how we’re doing for the next few months coming up so they know what to expect,” Meaghan said.

Key Data also provides crucial insights into the performance of the travel industry as a whole – a particularly relevant data point in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We lean on it pretty heavily for reporting purposes and make a lot of our pricing and staffing decisions based off of Key Data,” Meaghan said.

Vacation rentals contribute to Jackson’s tax revenue

That data matters outside the company, too. Like in other parts of the country, demand for vacation rentals in Jackson has been booming and that has yielded important lodging tax revenue for the town, county, and state. According to an annual report by the Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board, visitors spent $1.28 billion in Teton County and generated $34.4 million in state and local tax revenue in 2019. Visitors paid 56.3% of all sales taxes in Jackson, and travelers generated 8,860 jobs.

Illustrating how vacation rentals support the local economy is more important than ever as the community of Jackson considers more short-term rental regulations.

Giving a voice to short-term rental operators

Several years ago, the town created a short-term housing overlay. Homes outside of the short-term housing overlay can be used as vacation rentals. At first, the policy helped to quell the concerns of some residents about the proliferation of short-term rentals in the community. However, during the last few months, there has started to be a grumble from the town about the lack of affordable housing and a corresponding labor shortage. Meanwhile, short-term rentals are booming, and there isn’t enough staff to keep up with the growth.

Currently, no new regulations have been proposed, but Outpost and other local property management companies decided that the time has come to be proactive in making sure they have a voice regardless of what comes down the pipeline. That means meeting and cultivating a positive, collaborative relationship with each other, Meaghan said.

Meaghan and representatives from two other property management companies convened their first meeting on Jan. 4. They plan to reach out to other companies that are either in the vacation rental industry or are supported by the vacation rental industry and form a trade group to share information and give a voice to the industry, she said.

“We can band together if regulation is introduced within the next six months or the next year,” she said. “We can talk about what to do to proactively show that we are continuing to grow our economy by providing jobs, and if it’s housing that we need, then, we’re committed to working to provide housing for employees.”

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