How Short Term Coops Increased Revenue by 30.7% Across New Cabins

About Short Term Coops

Short Term Coops is a vacation rental management company based in Sevierville, Tennessee, specializing in luxury cabins in the Smoky Mountains. Over the past year, the company grew from roughly 15 cabins to more than 50, and it has retained 100% of homeowners except one who sold their property. The company manages cabins of all sizes, with a focus on large luxury properties of four to twelve bedrooms. Its coverage area includes Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and Wears Valley.

Co-founders Ali Bhola and Joseph Cooper attribute their results to several changes made together: listing optimization, resolving listing issues, a direct booking site, and dynamic pricing with PriceLabs.

Owners First, Managers Second

Ali and Joseph founded Short Term Coops after managing a cabin of their own in a Smoky Mountains resort development. They replaced three property managers on that cabin before taking over its management themselves. It became the highest revenue-producing cabin in the development, and real estate agents, owners and developers began asking them to manage other properties.

“Joseph and I had a cabin in the Ridgetop Resort where we fired three different property managers and ultimately took over the cabin ourselves.” – Ali Bhola

“I understood how it should work when we saw what these other property managers were doing.” – Joseph Cooper

When a Fixed Price Meets a Moving Market

Pricing was the central difficulty. On their first cabin, Ali and Joseph set rates manually, with one price for weekdays, one for weekends and one for holidays. The property managers before them had used a similar fixed approach.

Fixed rates produced uneven results. Some dates filled quickly at prices that were too low, while others stayed open.

“There are certain places that were booking too much because we were priced too low and other dates that were not getting booked.” – Ali Bhola

Large cabins added a second difficulty. A five-bedroom property has few true comparables, which limited the market data available for setting prices. In a destination with frequent events and sharp seasonal peaks, the team also needed prices that could respond faster than manual updates allowed.

Pricing Like an Owner

Why PriceLabs

Ali found PriceLabs through YouTube and Google research and was drawn to its data-driven approach. He tested other providers before choosing it. The deciding factor was depth: PriceLabs priced weekdays, weekends and holidays in line with how Ali understood the Smoky Mountains market to behave.

Peers, not approximations

Custom comp sets address the shortage of comparables for large cabins. Rather than relying on loose matches, Short Term Coops builds sets of true peers.

“Being able to identify similar five bedrooms with similar features, similar square footage, similar amenities, to leverage that data to help inform our pricing. That’s a tool that we use quite a bit.” – Ali Bhola

Protecting the peaks

The Smoky Mountains market is defined by peak periods: two in the spring, in March and April, followed by the 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Short Term Coops uses the seasonality function to price these periods deliberately, and applies minimum night stays to protect them.

“Those functionalities have helped us quite a bit in terms of driving additional revenue and helping ensure that we are booked for the entire holiday.” – Ali Bhola

AI, MCP and API for faster answers

The team also works with the PriceLabs MCP (AI Connector to Claude, ChatGPT, etc) connection and API alongside AI tools. Ali uses them to see more quickly which cabins are performing well and which need attention.

“It’s identifying things that we may not have necessarily identified.” – Ali Bhola

The Results

Revenue gains on a new cabin come from several changes, of which pricing is one. Across the newly onboarded cabins, Short Term Coops saw revenue rise 30.7%, driven by dynamic pricing with PriceLabs alongside listing optimization and a direct booking site.

Smoky Ridge Retreat: before and after

This is a five-bedroom, five-bath cabin in Sevierville that sleeps 14. Its revenue gain came from several changes made together. Previous 12 months compared with the first 12 months under Short Term Coops, increased revenue by +77%.

At Smoky Ridge Retreat, the work extended beyond pricing. The team rebuilt the Airbnb and Vrbo listings with lead photos up front, tagged all amenities, and added features that were missing. They also added the cabin to the direct booking site.

“We’re able to take care of what they call their family vacation home.” – Ali Bhola

Their Advice: Start Small, Stay Involved

Ali’s advice for managers at a similar scale is to get started. Many operators hold back from dynamic pricing, but it is possible to begin with base pricing and add features as familiarity grows. He also advises against setting a price and leaving it.

“We are in there three times a week optimizing the pricing, and sometimes we’re overriding a price up. Sometimes it’s priced a little too high, sometimes a little too low. But it’s an amazing tool that enables you to get closer.” – Ali Bhola

Joseph recommends taking it one step at a time: watch a video on building a comp set, then build one for your own property, and repeat the process for minimum night stays and gap nights so revenue opportunities are not missed. He also values the learning material PriceLabs provides, and contrasts it with other technology partners where answers are harder to get.

“I think it’s wonderful what PriceLabs puts out there for us to learn and use your tool effectively.” – Joseph Cooper