Tim Harty, The Business Times

Grand Junction’s Wanda and Wayne Cooley weren’t contestants on the April 7 episode of TV game show Wheel of Fortune, but they felt like winners nonetheless.

The wife-and-husband team’s business, SkyRun Vacation Rentals Grand Junction and Montrose, was featured as a prize package during the show, and one of the three contestants won it.

It got SkyRun Vacation Rentals 20 seconds of exposure for a vacation package that includes: a stay at the seven-bedroom Beatrice Estate on the Redlands; a horse-drawn-carriage ride through Palisade wine country, courtesy of JR’s Carriage Service; a round of golf for a foursome at Redlands Mesa Golf Course; and a five-course meal prepared by a private chef during one of the days at the Beatrice Estate.

The impact of the Wheel of Fortune exposure remains to be seen, but Wanda Cooley said, “I think it’s not only going to bring us a lot of exposure nationally to people that are looking for a different place to go, but around Colorado, too.”

The Cooley’s definitely wanted the opportunity to showcase their SkyRun Vacation Rentals franchise.

“Our corporate office reached out to all the franchise owners and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this opportunity with the producer of Wheel of Fortune and Price is Right, if anybody’s interested,’” Wanda Cooley said.

She then talked to a few of the homeowners served by SkyRun Vacation Rentals Grand Junction and Montrose to see if any were interested in being the property in a vacation package, and the homeowner of the Beatrice Estate, 123 Mesa Vista Drive, said yes.

“We really wanted it to be more of a community thing and not just that specific home,” Wanda Cooley said. “So, we reached out to JR Carriage, and we reached out to Redlands Mesa Golf Course. And then my son-in-law (Jason Sweetman) is a chef. … The cool thing about it is it just became a community thing where we could highlight the Grand Valley.”

Wanda Cooley called the Beatrice Estate “a hidden gem,” saying it has a main house and a guesthouse, a pool house, a pool, a hot tub, a treehouse, and a kids barn with games in it.

“It’s just a beautiful property, beautiful,” she said. “It’s just a great place for families to come and just relax and spend time together. … It’s a great place to just bring them all together in one place. They can do day excursions around the valley, around the Western Slope, and then have that place to just come together at night and eat, and the kids can play in the pool. It really is a hidden gem.”

Wanda Cooley said when she approached JR Carriage Services owner Joe Burtard about being part of the prize package on Wheel of Fortune, she introduced herself and started her pitch when Burtard told her, “You don’t have to say anymore, I’m in.”

The day after the Wheel of Fortune episode aired, Burtard said he had gathered friends and family for a viewing party, and somehow they accidentally tuned into an episode from 10 years ago.

They were able to track down the correct episode online and watch it.

Burtard said JR’s Carriage Service was not mentioned by name, but when the 20-second spot mentioned a horse-drawn-carriage ride, there was only one business that it could be: his.

“Nobody else provides horse-drawn wine tours, and it was a picture of our carriages in the beautiful backdrop of Palisade, so we’re very, very happy with how it was rolled out,” Burtard said.

It was a thrill to get that tiny bit of exposure.

“The carriages, the Western lifestyle, is something I’m really passionate about,” Burtard said. “And for my passion to be recognized and showcased on a national platform, it just means the world.”

He said he’s “very proud” of the services and experiences JR’s Carriage Service provides, and he can do it in the Grand Valley.

“We’re very blessed where we live,” Burtard said, “and we tell our guests that we feel like this is the greatest place on earth, and we want them leaving here feeling like this is the greatest place on earth. And it’s easy for us to convince them of that with everything that this valley has to offer.”

More About SkyRun Vacation Rentals

To contact SkyRun Vacation Rentals Grand Junction and Montrose, call the office at 970-610-0101, or go to its website: skyrun.com/grand-junction.

From one property to 1,600

SkyRun Vacation Rentals Grand Junction and Montrose is a franchise of SkyRun Vacation Rentals, which started in 2004 with one property in Keystone, Colo. According to SkyRun’s website, skyrun.com, it has since grown into a corporation operating in 16 states, managing more than 1,600 homes across 52 independently owned and operated destinations.

Full-service, short-term property management

Husband and wife Wayne and Wanda Cooley own the Grand Junction and Montrose franchise, where Wanda is the director of operations.

“We don’t own any of the homes,” she said. “We manage the homes for homeowners, and we mainly do short and midterm rentals.”

Wanda Cooley said the Grand Junction designation is from Grand Mesa through the Grand Valley, and Skyrun does everything from managing the property, advertising the property, taking care of the guests, taking care of permitting and taxes.

“The homeowners … they just get paid each month,” she said. “We’re a full-service management company. We take care of everything for them.”

Wanda Cooley said short-term rentals are “a really different industry than long-term-lease property management. It’s a lot of moving parts. There’s a lot of regulations, and then just trying to bring the guests in.”

That’s why the 20-second mention of SkyRun Vacation Rentals Grand Junction and Montrose on Wheel of Fortune was “a huge marketing opportunity for us to get that out there. And now on our website we can put the Wheel of Fortune logo on there. It’s provided us a lot of opportunity.”