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Courtesy of Michele Broxton
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Master bedroom
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Courtesy of Michele Broxton
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Front porch
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It's not evident now, but Ozark Farms—complete with two historic homes and a campground available for booking in Rolla, Missouri—wasn't intended to be a vacation rental. In 2018, a newly divorced Michele Broxton was just looking for a bigger home space for her, her two children, and any potential foster care children.
A photo of an interesting property with a broken down porch near her farm was Broxton’s first introduction to what would become The Holmes House. Built around 1865, the home fell into disrepair over time, ultimately being foreclosed on before Broxton bought it from a bank at an affordable price. After three months of cleaning, painting, and conducting repairs on the residence, she had her first occupant stay in the farmhouse.
There was an additional ranch hand home on the property that Broxton decided would also be nice to fix up for family and other visitors, which eventually became the Green Acres Historic Farmhouse. When she began work on these two homes, she hadn’t been very familiar with Airbnb, but eventually, her homes were such a hit with renters, she wondered how she could provide more space for them to stay. One day she thought to herself, “what if we turn part of our existing farm into a campground?” And so, she did—providing water, electricity, and campsites that booked up quickly.
Courtesy of Michele Broxton
Michele Broxton
The Holmes House has space for eight guests behind its vibrant yellow door, with three bedrooms, five beds, and two bathrooms. The main floor consists of one bedroom and a bathroom, as well as a spacious living room, sunroom, kitchen, and laundry room. Upstairs is home to a two-room main suite and an adventure room perfect for families. Outside, what was once a broken-down porch now wraps around the house, providing space in addition to further outdoor seating situated around a gazebo and a fire pit.
Nearby, the Green Acres Historic Farmhouse also wows renters, housing up to six guests at a time with its five bedrooms and one bathroom tucked behind its bright green front door. A former bunkhouse for cowboys, the home is now a beautifully decorated, private space for families or friends to relax and recharge. Complete with a backyard and a back porch, it can be an outdoor oasis with a fire pit and space for grilling.
The furniture filling both homes has been carefully curated by Broxton to ensure maximum comfort, “floppable” couches, and a “warm and welcoming” feeling. Never one to shy away from leaving space throughout the rooms, she doesn’t feel “everything really has to be full” in order to feel homey. She strives to “enhance [and] showcase” what already makes the homes interesting, including their historic style and abundance of natural light.
Courtesy of Michele Broxton
Broxton now has a small part-time team and a virtual assistant that work to ensure the homes are clean before check-in and the campsites are maintained to ensure guest experiences are as good as they can be. “I obsess over our guest experiences,” she says. “So when somebody calls our business, they reach me, or they reach my voicemail, and I call them back.” If someone calls her asking for activities to do in Rolla, she wants to be able to take the time to really engage with that person and make sure their time on her property is worthwhile.
Though there is plenty to do nearby, like taking a five-minute drive down to Fugitive Beach, Broxton says, “the thing that people tend to say over and over again is that they just enjoy this peace that they feel whenever they come into one of our homes and onto one of our properties.”
She and her team want their guests to “recharge and feel that sense of peace and have a really easy plug-and-play experience where they can just show up, drop their bag, and have that pie on the windowsill experience.”
