exceptional homes, curated experiences, and lifelong memories for guests
We are Woods to Water Vacation Homes, a small team of locals who live, work, and play in this area we get to call “home.” We go beyond the vacation, creating lasting memories through the experiences of our guests. As a full-service vacation rental management company we work with our guests and owners to ensure we exceed expectations and deliver genuine hospitality.
Our homes are spread across the vast woods and and quaint towns of northern Minnesota and provide nothing but the finest accommodations in the best of locations. The Brainerd Lakes Area is one-of-a-kind and we want to help share our love of this incredible area with you!
Whether you’re looking to book your next B.L.A experience or need help managing your up north property, count on the team at Woods to Water Vacation Homes to ensure a first-class experience.
We’re always looking for fun, motivated, and hard-working individuals to join our team! If you’re interested in working with us, please send your resume to denise@bookthebla.com.
We understand life happens! If you need to cancel your stay, our refund policy is as follows:
A 50% payment is due at the time of booking to reserve your stay. The remaining balance is due four weeks prior to your check-in date.
Early check-in or late check-out is not always possible during peak season. However, please reach out to us and we will do our best to accommodate you!
We run a number of discounts and promotions throughout the year. Sign up for our email list and follow our social media pages to stay up to date when they become available!
A handful of our properties are dog-friendly! If you are interested in bringing your furry friend along for your stay, we require a pet fee and a signed pet addendum prior to check-in. Please reach out to us upon booking!
We want to make this the most memorable vacation for you and your guests. Let us enhance your stay by setting up a private chef experience, scheduling your tee times, or simply delivering groceries to the property. Please reach out to info@bookthebla.com for all of your concierge needs.
Professional management companies are experts in their field and can help avoid costly mistakes. You wouldn’t do your own root canal, would you?
Leave it to the professionals! Responding to guest inquiries, reservation changes/cancellations, updating nightly rates, coordinating lawn care, scheduling cleaners, coordinating docks, coordinating repairs, providing local recommendations, paying vendors, putting together month-end statements, staging a property for photos, hiring professional photographers, the list goes on…
In short, no. Some management companies offer a la carte options so you can pick which services you’d like and which ones you’ll do yourself (a hybrid of self-management and professional management), others offer low rates and commission structures but will only list/maintain your properties on platforms like VRBO or AirBnB. It’s true that you really do get what you pay for!
The answer is unique to each property. Our team weighs many factors including market competition, time of entry to the market (fall vs. spring, etc), booking lead time, amenities offered, guest count, etc. Once we conduct an onsite visit of your property we’ll put together an Annual Gross Revenue Estimate of how we think your property will perform in year 1 + beyond.
We’re a small, hands-on team of Minnesotans based in Nisswa, MN and this region is genuinely home for us. We live here, we play here, and we’ve built our entire business around sharing what we love about the Brainerd Lakes Area with guests and owners alike. You won’t get a national 1-800 number with us. You’ll get real people who know which lake has the best walleye bite and which property has the fire pit worth staying up for.
We’ve been building our portfolio and reputation in the Brainerd Lakes Area for several years, growing a collection of carefully managed homes and a team that genuinely knows this region inside and out. We’re not newcomers trying to scale fast. We’re locals who are here for the long haul, and it shows in how we manage our properties and take care of our guests.
Our home base is the Brainerd Lakes Area of northern Minnesota, one of the best lake regions in the entire state. We manage properties on and around Gull Lake, Leech Lake, Whitefish Chain of Lakes, Pelican Lake, and surrounding communities. Our office is in Nisswa, MN, right at the heart of the lakes region, and we manage properties year-round across the area.
Honestly? We care and that’s not a tagline. Every property in our collection is individually chosen and managed, not just listed and forgotten. Our guest experience team goes beyond check-in codes and WiFi passwords, we’re here to help you make the most of every day you’re on the lake. And for our owners, we’re the team that treats your home like it’s our own by providing you with customized concierge services and local area guide recommendations.
Yes, and this is something we’re genuinely passionate about. Through our Invest With Us service , we work with investors who want to buy or build a vacation rental property in the Brainerd Lakes Area and actually have it perform. We know which lakes are in demand, what amenities drive the strongest bookings, and how to set a property up for success from day one. Whether you’re a first-time investor or expanding a portfolio, we’re a good first call!
Give us a call at 218-961-1005, shoot us an email at info@bookthebla.com, or stop by our office at 25496 Murray Rd, Nisswa, MN 56468. You can also reach us through the contact form here. We’re real people, we’ll actually get back to you.
Proudly, 100% locally owned and operated. We’re not a franchise, not a national platform, and not managed from a call center in another state. We’re a small team based in Nisswa, MN, and the Brainerd Lakes Area is the only place we operate. That focus is intentional, it’s what lets us actually know our properties, our lakes, and our guests.
Every home in our portfolio goes through a careful onboarding process and is managed by our in-house Woods to Water Vacation homes team. We’re talking professional photography, detailed listing setup, regular property walkthroughs, and a vetted local vendor network for cleaning and maintenance. We read every review, track every stay, and genuinely sweat the details, because a great stay isn’t an accident, it’s the result of a team that gives a damn.
