Reviving Hidden Gems Into Design-forward Destinations: The French Cowboys Story

Key Insights

• Unified platform gives full portfolio visibility, enabling lean growth across 7 unique properties
• Automated data + CRM created a closed-loop engine to track ROI and optimize marketing spend
• Intuitive system reduced training to days, freeing staff to focus on guest experience

“Hospitality is an art, but scaling it is a science. To grow a multi-property portfolio, you need a partner that understands data as deeply as you understand the guest experience. Cloudbeds provides the backbone we need to operate like a larger hotel brand while keeping our team lean, sharp, and entirely devoted to the guests who bring our properties to life.”

Co-Founder, Franklin Dusserre, French Cowboys

French Cowboys is a boutique hospitality group dedicated to restoring overlooked properties across Texas Hill Country.

For founders Dylan Petrich and Franklin Dusserre, their mission is simple: modernize historic properties while preserving the soul that made them worth saving in the first place. “We create design-forward boutique stays that feel premium but remain accessible,” explains Dylan.

But the real difference lies in their philosophy of restoration. As Franklin puts it, “When we acquire a property, we don’t change anything for six months. We sit, observe guests, and learn the history of the walls.”

Today, the group operates seven boutique hotels, each rooted in its town, and each telling its own unique story.

From shared roots to a shared vision of rewriting what hospitality can become

The story behind French Cowboys begins decades before the company existed.

Franklin and Dylan were born in the same hospital in Paris just a year apart, both raised between cultures with French fathers and American mothers. 

But their paths didn’t cross until they attended The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Years later, they reunited in Austin, Texas, and that’s when the idea began.

“We saw these incredible, “memory-soaked” properties that were being overlooked: musty carpets and zero marketing, but incredible bones. We realized there was a specific formula to these gems, they were almost always in historic towns, tucked away on bodies of water (a river, a creek, or a lake), and yet less than a two-hour drive from a major city.” 

They bought their first property in Wimberley during the 2021 winter storm, frozen pipes and all.

Cookie-cutter systems don’t build one-of-a-kind experiences

French Cowboys aren’t, as Franklin puts it, a “rinse-and-repeat” brand. 

“You’ll notice that no two French Cowboys properties look or feel the same. Each hotel carries its own distinct name, custom design language, and unique brand identity. We ensure every property in our portfolio reflects the specific character and grit of its town, rather than forcing a corporate template onto a local treasure.”

With each property also serving a different guest and purpose, they needed a system that could handle everything from a 200-person wedding block to specialized mid-week corporate packages.

They began looking at various legacy systems, but they all felt like they were holding the team back — clunky, outdated, and no match for the design-forward energy French Cowboys puts into their hotels.

“We needed a platform that mirrored our own ambition: modern, agile, and built to scale as we added our 5th, 6th, and now 7th property,” explains Dylan.

A partner that keeps up

By bringing reservations, distribution, and payments into one platform, Cloudbeds gave French Cowboys a single source of truth across their entire portfolio.

“If you’re trying to grow a multi-property group, you need a partner that understands data as well as you understand hospitality,” says Franklin. “Cloudbeds allows us to operate like a much larger hotel group while staying lean and focused on the guest experience.” 

With full visibility across every property, the team can manage the entire portfolio from anywhere, streamline operations without adding complexity, and maintain flexibility across distinct property types — all while gaining back valuable time to focus on restoring and filling their hotels. 

“Cloudbeds gives us the freedom to manage the whole group from one place. Whether I’m in Austin or on-site in New Braunfels, I have total visibility. It gives us our time back so we can focus on what really matters.”

But the impact goes beyond operations. Cloudbeds has become the foundation of, as Franklin puts it, “a closed-loop growth engine”, where guest data flows directly into their CRM and marketing strategy, allowing them to track the true ROI of campaigns across Meta and Google and optimize spend based on real bookings. “It allows us to see the real return on every dollar we spend.”

Cloudbeds’ ease of use also makes staff training a breeze. “It generally takes about 2 to 3 days for an employee to feel totally confident navigating the system on their own. We don’t want them glued to a manual, we want them interacting with guests.”

Turning overlooked places into the standard everyone chases

French Cowboys’ long-term vision is to become the definitive voice of boutique hospitality and the gold standard for “affordable luxury.” While the brand is rooted in Texas, it is built to travel, with a model designed to translate to hidden gem destinations across the country.

Regardless of location, their strategy remains consistent: identify properties with history, character, and enduring appeal, and thoughtfully modernize them. As Dylan puts it, “Whether it’s a 1930s landmark like Petit Cowboy on the Comal River or a future mountain retreat in the Rockies, our goal is to modernize the legacy. Our focus is on elevated design and high-vibe amenities, and to ensure these properties are loved for another century.” 

Asked whether they would recommend Cloudbeds, Franklin responds: “Definitely. If you feel trapped by your current tech, my one piece of advice is: stop managing software and start managing your guest experience. Don’t settle for a system that takes more than it gives.”

About Cloudbeds

Cloudbeds is the hospitality management system built for ambitious hoteliers who demand more. The Cloudbeds platform unifies operations, distribution, guest experience, and revenue marketing, giving operators a breadth of tools to capture demand, grow direct bookings, optimize pricing, maximize upsell revenue, and act on real-time intelligence within a single system. Designed to scale with independent hotels, large hotel groups, and multi-property portfolios, Cloudbeds is trusted by tens of thousands of properties in more than 150 countries. Founded in 2012, Cloudbeds is recognized as a top Hotel Management System, PMS, and Channel Manager, and Best Place to Work, by Hotel Tech Report for eight consecutive years.