HL Holiday Homes: Combining Development & Dynamic Pricing

Executive Summary

Hayo Kok runs HL Holiday Homes, a vertically integrated holiday rental business in the forest-rich north of the Netherlands. What started as a way to replace lost household income has grown into something rarer in the short-term rental space: a company that finds the land, builds the home, operates the rental, and now develops similar projects for clients — all under one roof.

To run that breadth without it consuming every weekend, Hayo built his stack around two tools: MyTourist as the operational backbone from day one, and PriceLabs as the dynamic pricing layer that revealed missed revenue during high seasons and weekends. Together, they let HL Holiday Homes operate quietly in the background while Hayo focuses on his next development project.

“Don’t save money on automation. The right tools give you freedom and save a lot of time.”

— Hayo Kok, Founder, HL Holiday Homes

About HL Holiday Homes

HL Holiday Homes is based in a forest-rich area in the north of the Netherlands, where tourism stays strong all year round. The business began for the most personal of reasons: Hayo’s wife was winding down her dog training business, and the couple needed a way to replace that income. They bought their first holiday home — and the results came in better than expected.

That early success set up a question that defines the company today: when prices for ready-built properties had jumped by the time they were ready for a second home, they didn’t walk away. Instead, they bought a forest plot and built the second holiday home themselves.

That experience reshaped the business. HL Holiday Homes now actively looks for new investment opportunities to develop and operate, and has started building similar projects for clients as well — combining development, construction, and rental under a single roof.

Challenges Before Dynamic Pricing

Hayo got the operations side right early. After researching how to connect calendars and manage bookings as efficiently as possible, he settled on MyTourist from the very beginning. The bookings side ran cleanly.

Pricing was a different story.

Static rates were leaving revenue on the table. In the early phase, prices weren’t moving with the market — making it harder to fully optimize revenue, especially during peak demand windows.

No reliable data for new investments. As HL Holiday Homes grew its appetite for new properties, Hayo needed something more rigorous than gut feel and listing comps to evaluate whether a deal was worth doing.

PriceLabs as the Pricing and Investment Engine

Looking for a way to make pricing more dynamic, and to get a real data view of potential investments, Hayo discovered PriceLabs through an unusual route.

“Interestingly, I came across PriceLabs through ChatGPT.”

— Hayo Kok, HL Holiday Homes

A smooth setup with responsive support

Getting started required some time investment to properly configure everything, but the process itself was smooth. PriceLabs’ online support is fast and helpful — something Hayo says made a real difference during setup.

Pricing that runs in the background

Once configured, PriceLabs takes pricing off Hayo’s plate. It automates rate decisions based on real-time market data, which is exactly the kind of work he didn’t want eating into his development time.

“PriceLabs now runs largely in the background. Once properly configured, it automates pricing based on real-time market data, which saves a significant amount of time.”

— Hayo Kok, HL Holiday Homes

Revealed underpricing in high season and weekends

The biggest surprise was where the missed revenue was hiding. PriceLabs showed Hayo that he’d been clearly underpricing during high season and weekends — the exact windows where every euro of optimization compounds across the year. It also helped HL Holiday Homes hit a strong occupancy rate during the launch phase of a new property, when most operators struggle to get traction.

“What stood out most is how it revealed missed opportunities, especially during high season and weekends, where we were clearly underpricing before.”

— Hayo Kok, HL Holiday Homes

Revenue Estimator Pro for investment decisions

Because HL Holiday Homes builds and develops as well as operates, Hayo uses PriceLabs’ Revenue Estimator Pro for market research when evaluating new investments. The same platform that runs his daily pricing also informs which forest plots and properties are worth pursuing next — closing the loop between operations and acquisition.

MyTourist as the Operational Backbone

MyTourist has been part of the setup since the very first holiday home, and continues to play a central role in how HL Holiday Homes runs day-to-day.

Centralized bookings, communication, and calendars

MyTourist pulls bookings, guest communication, and calendar management into one place — keeping operations organized without adding complexity Hayo would have to babysit. It’s the kind of quiet, reliable infrastructure that becomes invisible in the best way: you only notice it when it isn’t there.

“MyTourist has been part of our setup from day one and plays a key role in keeping everything organized. It centralizes bookings, communication, and calendar management, allowing us to run operations efficiently without unnecessary complexity.”

— Hayo Kok, HL Holiday Homes

Results

With PriceLabs and MyTourist working together, HL Holiday Homes runs leaner, prices smarter, and grows faster:

Higher occupancy and revenue. Both have improved since PriceLabs joined the stack, with pricing now aligned to actual market demand rather than static assumptions.

Strong launch-phase performance. Newly listed properties have achieved strong occupancy out of the gate — a hard problem PriceLabs helped solve.

Almost fully automated operations. Day-to-day work runs in the background, which means more time for development, family, and growth.

Better investment decisions. Revenue Estimator Pro turns market data into a sanity check on every new property and plot under consideration.

Hayo’s Advice for Other Operators

Hayo’s tip for operators sitting on the fence about automation is short and direct:

“Don’t save money on automation. The right tools give you freedom and save a lot of time. We’ve automated almost the entire process, which allows us to focus our energy where it matters most — whether that’s spending time with family or scaling the business further.”

— Hayo Kok, HL Holiday Homes

Looking Ahead

HL Holiday Homes is actively scouting new investment opportunities to develop and operate, and is building similar projects for clients alongside its own portfolio. With operations running on MyTourist and pricing handled by PriceLabs — plus Revenue Estimator Pro doing the heavy lifting on investment analysis — the company is set up to scale without scaling the operational headache.