What happens when three brothers — each with backgrounds in hospitality and consulting — team up to build not one, but three vacation rentals from scratch? You get a stunning cabin compound in Luray, Virginia, perched on a ridge in the Shenandoah Valley, complete with cedar hot tubs, saunas, and unforgettable views. And at the heart of their success? DEN Outdoors' cabin plans.
In this interview, Joe, Elliot, and Oliver Portera walk us through how they transformed 10 acres of raw land into a modern cabin retreat using DEN's Modern Alpine Plus plans. They share why they decided to build rather than buy, how DEN's pre-engineered cabin plans streamlined their permitting and contractor process, and what it's been like to host guests at their luxury short-term rental compound.
Whether you're exploring Airbnb investment properties, thinking of building a weekend home, or just looking for real-life inspiration on how to bring your cabin dreams to life, this conversation covers it all — cost-saving tips, builder relationships, design modifications, and lessons learned from tackling wells, weather, and winter builds.
Check out their properties at skylineglobalproperties.com.
Meet the Porteras: Three Brothers, One Airbnb Investment Property Built with DEN Outdoors
Mike: Let's start there — who are you guys? Let's do just a round of introductions. What DEN design did you build, where did you build it, and what's the use case for this project?
Joe: Sure, I'll jump in and start. My name is Joe Portera and I live in the Annapolis, Maryland area. I'm a defense contractor as my formal job, but this is the job that I really want to get into, which is real estate development. DEN has been a great path, especially a first step for somebody that doesn't have a ton of experience in that area.
Oliver: I'm Oliver Portera, based in Charlottesville, Virginia. I'm also in the management consulting and contracting world. Passionate about real estate, passionate about design, and really kind of building something from the ground up to call my own and our own — not just from a business perspective, but to have something physical and tangible. And when we saw the DEN product, it was a no brainer for us.
Elliot: I'm Elliot Portera, also in Charlottesville, Virginia. I've been working in restaurants and the hospitality industry for 10 years, and now currently, aside from doing the short-term rental thing with these cabins, I'm helping my wife who just opened a donut shop. I've always been interested in food and hospitality and there's a lot of similarities — it's cool to see how I can apply what I've learned to these projects as well.
Joe: Following up — answering your question, we built three Modern Alpine Plus models, with slight variations on each. They're located in Luray, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Two of them especially are very unique, because they're nested up on a ridge. They're on big pillars — one of them looks like it's way up there, in terms of the decks we had to do and everything else.
Joe: The views are pretty incredible. One of them has a double deck — an over-under — with different access. And we've done different amenities in each one of them, so they all have some unique feature.
Mike: Is this a first of its kind for you guys in terms of a hospitality project?
Joe: It is, yeah.
Why They Chose to Build a Cabin Compound from DEN's Modern Cabin Plans
Mike: What made you guys decide to build something instead of buying preexisting property and potentially rehabbing it for this particular project?
Oliver: We did a lot of research. Buying existing and either renting out directly, or getting a fixer upper and doing a lipstick reno, or buying land and building — we went down each scenario pretty deeply. With the real estate market the way it was when we decided to do this over a year ago, home prices were really high. Even for something that was a fixer upper, comparing that to what rental rates were short term or long term, it was hard to make the financials work unless you had something very special or got something very cheap. That's what pushed us into building our own — buying land, developing raw land, doing utilities, finding DEN. Using plans we knew were tried and true as opposed to doing a modular build, which we also thought about. Very happy with that decision so far.
How DEN Outdoors' Cabin Plans Helped the Porteras Design and Budget More Efficiently
Mike: Also, feel free guys — if anyone else wants to jump into any of these answers.
Joe: Yeah. To piggyback on that, the idea really did evolve. The initial strategy was actually to look at college rentals around college towns in Virginia. And the numbers just didn't work with the high interest rates and home prices. We've all got a little bit of experience with real estate and building our own homes or long-term rentals. But nothing with short-term rentals and certainly not building — the buildings that collectively we've done have been with major builders that have their process right, with limited customizations.
Joe: And so we decided to go from dipping our toe in the real estate waters to "let's make it as painful and difficult as possible and just develop raw land." We drilled the well, two septic systems — one unconventional — did all the electrical infrastructure, and running these water lines from the well, because the DENs are so geographically dispersed on the property, we had to run a lot of line. On that part we ran into a lot of issues — not with the DEN designs at all, but with the infrastructure piece, especially in a very rural area. That complicated things during winter and during the summer when they got torrential downpours. But we wouldn't take it back for anything in the world. It was absolutely the right decision, and we can't wait to continue.
Mike: This is a perspective that we try to share as transparently as possible with prospective customers — that developing land, either for a single family build or multiple units, is a time-intensive, logistically intensive, capital-intensive process. How did the DEN plans help you deliver on this vision and align to the right contracting partner?
Oliver: In terms of the DEN plans themselves, we just fell in love with the minimalist style. The ability to purchase the starter set first, and then the building package, meant we actually bought a few starter sets in order to have those conversations with local builders. "Is this doable? What do you think we're talking about in terms of price?" So we could really narrow in our budget and our vision. Then, after getting the full plan set, the ease of translating that vision and having that conversation on paper with a builder — without having to hire an architect and spend a lot of time and money on revisions — was really helpful for us.
Elliot: The plans coming with the supplies list — our builder commented on it and said "I'm gonna use this exactly for my future builds. It's way more useful and purposeful." Having that level of detail made it easy for him to plug and play, and as things changed and we wanted to add a deck or change the patio, he already had that framework.
Joe: His comment was, "It's down to the number of drywall screws you need for a project" — which is a level of detail he just wasn't familiar with. He'd just buy boxes of them and use them when needed. From a pricing perspective, it was very detailed, and that helped us — no surprises. Everything was captured at that level. Now we did a lot of modifications and design elements that did increase the overall build, but in terms of what we'd see on the DEN website, that's what we got for the price that we paid. Building my own homes before, I've been surprised — "Oh, by the way, you want recessed lights in your basement? That'll be $500 apiece." "What, it doesn't come with lights?" So that transparency throughout the process was very helpful.
From Floor Plan to Foundation: How DEN's Modern Cabin Plans Streamlined Their Build
Mike: When did you guys start taking bookings for this project?
Oliver: Our first booking was the weekend of December 13th, 2024. We went live probably a week before that on Airbnb. We have a direct booking website as well, skylineglobalproperties.com. So we've been about a little over a month into operations now, renting out full time.
Mike: And what are your guests saying about staying there?
Oliver: Incredible things. A lot of comments on just the design — not just how we furnished things, but the layout, the A-Frame all-windows-in-front, especially with the views we have across all three cabins: one by a lake, two with mountain views. We added cedar tubs, cold plunges, hot tubs, a sauna. Amenities are a part of it too. But yeah, it's mostly around the design and how the layout is.
Favorite Design Features of the Portera Bros' Modern DEN Cabins
Mike: What are your favorite aspects of this particular design? What's your favorite room or part of the exterior?
Joe: I'll jump in — and this is gonna sound weird, but the bathroom.
Joe: It's a really good size for the unit, and if you have four people, everything is well proportioned. But specifically what we did is we went all in on the bathroom. Heated floors, cedar-lined ceiling, Bluetooth speaker that also doubles as a fan with LED lighting, backlit mirror with an anti-fog setting, heated towel rack. Body sprayers in the shower as well as a handheld and a big rain setup. We did a frameless shower door. And we did a lighting niche where you can change colors that shine down in the shower — it gives it a really cool look. We've gotten a lot of feedback on the bathrooms. It's apparently a lot of guests' favorite room as well.
Elliot: You can't beat the great room. With the views and the windows, you don't get that glass-house vibe where you feel exposed — it still feels really cozy and comfortable, but you also feel like you're right there, looking out into the Shenandoahs. You feel like you could step through that door and into the valley. The way it's all designed — you walk in the back door and you can see a straight shot through — I always walk in and I'm like, "that's insane," even at this point.
Marketing Their Airbnb Investment Property: From Instagram to Direct Bookings
Mike: I noticed you guys have close to a five-star flawless review. That is amazing.
Joe: Yeah. So close to a perfect 5.0 — we had one minor issue.
Mike: I recently read that people don't believe perfect scores when it comes to reviews. As long as you're in like the high fours range, you guys are crushing it.
Mike: How have you guys approached positioning and marketing this project?
Joe: It's a good question and frankly we're just really revving up. We hired a marketing firm — they're staying in one of the cabins right now, shooting content. They've gotten a lot of snow over the last three weeks, so it's got that picture-perfect snow landscape. We're focusing heavily on social media and trying to drive direct bookings. Airbnb is great, don't get me wrong, but we prefer to control as much of it as we can.
Joe: A lot of Airbnbs you stay in, it's like "you gotta do the dishes, run the laundry, strip the beds." You don't really get that luxury or hotel-type-of-stay feeling. We're the antithesis of that. Our check-in checkout process is — we want you to feel like you're being pampered. On the direct booking site, we want to offer packages and differentiate in terms of how we treat guests. That's not "hey, you're staying in my basement — lock the door on the way out and do the laundry." We're really focusing on the luxury aspect, driving direct bookings, and social media.
Lessons Learned: Building Modern Cabins in the Shenandoah Valley
Mike: I noticed you guys have a fireplace — a stove — in these units. Did you opt for wood burning or gas?
Elliot: Wood burning!
Mike: Oh wow. You guys are like "I'm gonna hand it over to the guests, and if they wanna be cowboys and cowgirls, they can." You guys also have a Morsø, right?
Joe: Yep.
Mike: Sometimes you get back and see how someone attempted to create a fire and you're like "that's not how I would've done it."
Oliver: We think most guests just use our kindling to start the fire. So we go through a lot of those little starter splits.
Mike: I want to talk about the high point and the low point in the process. What was the moment you guys were really clicking as a team with the builder, everything progressing smoothly? And what was the moment that was like "oh man, why did we do this?"
Elliot: I'll jump in. The high point for me was: rough-in was done, we were picking selections, especially kitchen and a lot of the wood accents. Our builder and his guys, they're just pros — artisans, really. They have a great eye for things and were shooting us ideas we could add. And watching that come together was very validating and satisfying. That's gonna be what we look forward to for the next one.
Elliot: As for the low point — everything and anything that had to do with the well. That's from the drilling all the way to testing water, not having water in two cabins, having to go back and forth with 10 different well companies to figure out the logistics and the fix. That was a nightmare.
Oliver: For me — high point was standing on one of the decks with my brothers, also my best friends, seeing something that we built physically. Something we accomplished. We started having weekly meetings years ago, coming up with business plans and proposals and ideas, and to be standing at the deck of one of these DENs, finished product, having poured our hearts and souls into it — just being able to see what we built, right before we started renting — that was very special for me. As well as taking trips out there and seeing it pre-drywall, post-drywall, post-finishes — all of those moments are just very cool. To have something conceptualized on paper and see it in real life.
Oliver: Low point: water, for sure. We hit a lot of snags. A lot of it was with land work — clearing trees, digging wells. Getting water from our well at the bottom of the hill up to the cabins on the ridge was quite the challenge.
Joe: I really enjoyed a lot of the outdoor design — the decks, the amenities, the hardscaping. Mapping out how that was all gonna sit with the two cabins up on the ridge, the retaining walls we had to do, seeing that come together from vision to reality was incredible. The results were better than any of us could have imagined.
Joe: But for the low — one day that was particularly disheartening: we had a site visit planned after the valley had gotten torrential rain. The cabins were built and we weren't far from buttoning them up, but the entire site had washed out. Red clay and mud. The road washed out. It was all over the decks, all over the front of the cabins. A tropical depression had come through. We ended up having to put in a bunch of culverts and gutters on the cabins, which we had not initially planned. That set us back a week's worth of work and it was disheartening.
Mike: Last question: if one of your friends or colleagues wanted to pursue building a weekend home or a short-term rental asset like this using DEN plans, what advice would you give them?
Oliver: I would say go for it. Full disclosure — since we've opened December 13th, we've gotten maybe four or five questions from guests on who our builder was, where we got the plans, how we designed it, how much did it cost, how long did it take. We've seen our dream come true and are reaping the benefits and rewards of our work through those plans. I would encourage it wholeheartedly.
Joe: I can't count how many hyperlinks I've sent to DEN — the main website and specifically the Alpine Plus. I would say go for it, but also make sure you're finding the right network of people and builders. We absolutely found the right builder — he's phenomenal. Just make sure you've got all the right people in order to make your vision become a reality. The plans are bulletproof. They're amazing. That's the key.
Elliot: Only advice I'd have: spend way more time researching and doing your due diligence on everything but the plans. Everything that surrounds it. With the plans themselves, it seemed like everyone who got eyes on 'em loved them. That would be all I'd have to say.
"To be standing at the deck of one of these DENs, finished product — poured our hearts and souls into it — just being able to see what we built. That was very special for me." — Oliver Portera
Build your own ridge-top cabin compound — the same plans the Portera brothers used across all three builds in Luray, VA.
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