Lost Horizon · Founder · 2021 to now
Comfort in wild country
For guests who want a quiet weekend on a Texas wildlife ranch
I designed two stays on raw Hill Country land near Kempner, and we built the solar power, battery bank and water systems that go with them. The Satao is a safari tent on a deck six feet up, with a soaking tub under a roof that opens to the sky, and the Hideout is a container tiny home with a Japanese soaking tub.
The result
Guest Favorites
Both the Satao and the Hideout carry Airbnb’s Guest Favorite badge, which Airbnb gives the homes guests love most, based on ratings, reviews and reliability.
The short version
The land
No power, no water
Lost Horizon started as wooded Hill Country ranch land near Kempner with no power and no water, and I wanted people to have wild Texas and real comfort there in the same weekend.
The build
Power, water and two stays
I designed the stays and the systems, and we built solar power, a battery bank and a water system with rainwater collection, then the Satao safari tent and the Hideout tiny home.
Where it is now
Profitable
We run Lost Horizon as a profitable business, and an AI agent I set up proposes and tracks its pricing tests while I make the calls.
Five acres inside a wildlife sanctuary
The two stays sit on five private acres inside a 1,700-acre wildlife sanctuary near Kempner, a former hunting ranch where 18 species of exotic animals roam free alongside native coyotes, foxes and bobcats. The Lampasas River is about three and a half miles down the ranch road. I chose the place and created Lost Horizon so people could have that wild country and real comfort in the same weekend.
Mornings are my favorite time there, with coffee on the deck while the birds start up and, in October and November, red stags bellowing far off down the valley.
The country around the stays
5 acres
of private land inside a 1,700-acre wildlife sanctuary
18 species
of exotic animals roaming free, alongside native coyotes, foxes and bobcats
3.5 miles
down the ranch road to the Lampasas River
Starting with no power and no water
When we started, the land had no power and no water. I designed the stays and the systems, and we built the solar power, a battery bank, a water system that includes rainwater collection, and the controls that run it all. We built the battery bank ourselves to avoid the cost of buying one.
The water is filtered three times and sterilized with UV light before it reaches a tap, and the waste goes through a living compost system and a reed bed, while the toilets flush the way they would anywhere else. Opening the Satao in 2021 took a year of firsts, from building our own power and water systems to finding materials through that year’s supply chain problems.
When we started
Wooded ranch land
- No power
- No water
- Nowhere to stay
What we built
Two stays, ready for guests
- Solar power with grid backup, and a battery bank
- Our own water system, with rainwater collection, filtered three times and UV sterilized
- A safari tent and a tiny home, each on its own plateau
Two stays, out of sight of each other
Each stay sits on its own plateau, out of sight of the other. The Satao is an insulated safari tent shipped over from South Africa, with air conditioning and heat, on a deck six feet up. The roof over its soaking tub opens to the sky at the push of a button, and its front door came from a 100-year-old farmhouse in Lampasas.
The Hideout is a container tiny home with teak walls, a Japanese soaking tub, and steel windows and doors with bronze glass that an artist made on site. Its sofa unfolds into a full bed and its table rises into a standing desk.
Running it as a business
Then came the parts nobody sees in the photos: launching on Hipcamp and Airbnb, marketing it, pricing it, and running it as a real business. We first listed the land on Hipcamp for primitive camping in February 2021, before the first tent had arrived, and the Satao opened on Airbnb and Hipcamp that November. We broke ground on the Hideout in late 2022.
The business is profitable, and an AI agent I set up now proposes and tracks its pricing tests while I make the calls.
How it came together
- Feb 2021 We list the land on Hipcamp for primitive camping
- Mar 2021 We build our own battery bank
- Nov 2021 The Satao opens on Airbnb and Hipcamp
- Late 2022 We break ground on the Hideout
- Now Both stays are Airbnb Guest Favorites
What guests write about
On Airbnb, guests write most about how well we looked after them, then about the bathrooms, the location and how comfortable they were. Hipcamp reviews talk most about the quiet, the wildlife guests see and hear, and the river, where they fish and cool off.
You can see both stays and book a weekend at losthorizontx.com.
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