The Soda Butte Lodge is an iconic hotel, restaurant and bar/casino complex located in Cooke City, Montana. The original hotel was constructed in 1962 and a major addition was made in the mid 80’s bringing the total number of rooms to 32. Included in the property is a 50 seat restaurant and a bar/casino with seating for 30.
Located at the North East Entrance to Yellowstone, Cooke City is significantly underserved for both food and lodging operations. The NE entrance to YNP is the premier access point for the Lamar Valley, which is widely considered the premier wildlife viewing location in North America. Cooke City was recently voted one of the “10 coolest small towns in America 2012” by Budget Travel.
The SBL is a “Montana Style” rustic but modern facility with much of the facility remodeled in the past 5 years. While the rooms, restaurant and food prep areas are all well maintained, there are some parts of the facility which need to be brightened up and the carpeting in the guest room hallways and rooms needs to be replaced.
The Soda Butte Lodge is currently profitable with 2011 gross sales of over $950,000 and net profit of $211,000. The SBL is not aggressively marketed which has resulted in low seasonal occupancy rates. The average occupancy rate for similar Rocky Mountain properties is 1.5 to 4.0 times higher than the same month’s occupancy at SBL has been in the recent past.
The short term goal will be to increase the occupancy rate at SBL to a level at least equal to the average level for hotels in the Rocky Mountain region. Simply bringing the occupancy to average regional levels (without increasing the room or meal pricing) would increase the gross sales to $1.597 Million and a net, pre- tax profit of $683,000 and an ROI of 34%

The Soda Butte Lodge is a hotel complex located at the North East entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Cooke City, MT. A 32 room hotel, the Soda Butte Lodge includes a modern, full service restaurant, bar and casino.

In the Spring, Summer and Fall months, Cooke City is the optimum place for visitors to the North half of YNP to stay. Cooke City is closer to a YNP entrance (4 miles) than any other gateway city. This proximity allows incredibly quick and easy access to the Lamar Valley. Often referred to as the Serengeti of North America, the Lamar area is universally recognized as one of the premier wildlife watching locations in the world. Summer business at SBL is predominantly single night stays with business equally split between families visiting YNP and motorcyclists on a summer tour.
In the Winter months, stays tend to be multiday with a large percentage of the December through May business consisting of snowmobilers. Cooke City is a famous and popular destination for snowmobilers who come from all over the west. There is some additional business from back country and cross country skiers and wildlife watchers who visit YNP in the winter. A new backcountry ski operation has just been established in Cooke City and this should grow in popularity.
The Northeast and North entrances to YNP entrances are the only entrances which are accessible by car in the winter and are thus popular among winter wildlife viewers.

The joint managers for SBL will be Howard and Cheryl Jones. Jointly, they possess a broad range of experience and expertise in Sales, Marketing, Business Management, Employee Supervision, Retail, Hospitality and Food Service.
Together, they have owned and operated several businesses including a successful café/restaurant.
Howard’s background includes over 25 years of successful sales and marketing of a range of products including B2B, direct customer and retail experience. With expert level customer service skills, Howard is proficient in all aspects of social media marketing and how to use these emerging tools to reach out to and maintain contact with customers. Additionally, Howard has designed a wide range of websites for both B2B and online product sales including SEO and PPC advertising. Howard will be the driving force for implementing a modern web presence and marketing program for SBL.
A talented cook, Howard has worked in several commercial kitchens including designing and testing the majority of the menu items at the Main Street café.
Cheryl has many years of experience in both front of the house and back of the house in the restaurant industry including national chains like Perkins Pancake House and Cracker Barrel (shift manager/server) where she obtained professional front of the house training and eventually became a trainer.
Cheryl is equally experienced in food preparation and is skilled in “old school” Italian cooking and is always complimented for her pasta dishes.
As a couple, Cheryl and Howard have owned and operated a successful medium size restaurant.

We will be contracting with several hotel/restaurant consultants in the areas of technology, marketing and operations to ensure the success of the operation.  We are hoping that investors will be actively involved with the management of the business and contribute their experience to the success of the Soda Butte Lodge.