You'll Screw Up Your Glamping Development

Opening a resort is tough.

I speak from personal experience. I’ve been at Posh Outdoors for a year, and it’s been an absolute rollercoaster.

The highs? Amazing. 

Like when we pulled in our first big investor, or when we walked inside our first completed mirror cabin. Those moments keep you going.

The lows are hard to take. 

We were ghosted by an investor who would have taken us over our funding goal. We’ve experienced construction delays. We’ve gone months without raising a dollar of capital.

We joke in our team meetings about how hard it is. It helps us cope with the stress.

What helps even more is knowing we’re not alone. That what we’re going through is completely normal for anyone in our industry.

Every successful operator has war stories. It’s a comfort I’ve picked up after interviewing more than 100 for my podcast. 

So don’t worry if you’re running into obstacles during development. Or if you’re dealing with shitshow after shitshow after your guests arrive.

The Michael Jordans of the glamping world went through the same thing. They dealt with it, and you can too.

Here are some examples from people you might recognize.

War Stories From Your Favorite Operators

Bygnal Dutson - Open Sky

Open Sky is an incredible property. With 13 luxury, off-grid safari tents near beautiful Zion National Park, it’s worth every penny of the $500+ it costs to stay there in peak season.

Bygnal and I have a running joke that it’s not a normal week in his life if something doesn’t go terribly wrong. 

Here’s a sample of issues he’s encountered:

Pre-construction

• He faced significant delays in securing water access

• Figuring out how to go completely off-grid was a total nightmare

• Supply chain disruptions during COVID led to delays and rising costs

• One of his contractors posted something on Facebook that led to a local backlash against the development

• He ran out of money several times

Post-construction

• Guests weren’t happy that they couldn’t park near their units, so he had to bring excavators in to create individual parking spots

• A neighboring watermelon farmer used scare cannons that totally ruined the guest experience (Bygnal had to negotiate with the farmer)

And yet Open Sky is one of the most acclaimed glamping sites in the US, with an average Google rating of 4.9 after 217 reviews. 

Bygnal is one of the most driven people I know. He’s obsessed with Open Sky being the best in the business. It’s this tenacity that got him through challenges that were thrown his way, and he came out all the better for it.

If you have an ambitious streak, tap into it when you’re in a difficult spot. It might just see you through.

Sarah Dusek - Under Canvas

Under Canvas are the pioneers of the American glamping industry. Not only were they among the first glamping operators in the country, they were the first to do it at scale. They were rewarded for their efforts with a $100+ million exit in 2018.

But things weren’t always rosy at Under Canvas. Their first location was a total failure.

Back in 2009, when nobody knew what glamping was, Sarah Dusek had the crazy idea of creating an African-inspired luxury camping experience at her in-laws’ farm in Montana. 

Relying on credit cards and personal finances, her and her husband funded construction without help from investors. They excitedly opened that summer, expecting the guests to start flooding in.

Nobody came.

The concept was too new, and the location was too remote. It was a complete disaster.

Still, Sarah knew she was onto something. She closed the site, and in 2012 re-opened in a prime location, near Yellowstone.

This time, it was a total hit.

Sarah went on to create generational wealth because she had the guts to pick herself up and go again after experiencing total failure.

Even if everything goes wrong, there's still a way back.

Josh Turner - Blackstrap Glamping

With winter temperatures as low as -60°F, Josh was always going to have a steep learning curve at Blackstrap Glamping. 

Take his first season. Every time the temperatures dipped and rose, the domes flooded from the condensation. They were forced to use towels to catch the dripping water, and the units were nearly ruined.

An ingenious trough system saved the day, but only after a period of immense stress.

Building on public property also brought its challenges. Just before breaking ground, the municipality approved a large public kiosk to be built just meters from Blackstrap’s supposedly peaceful escape. Josh was forced to rip up his site design and come up with an alternative that would keep his guests away from the crowds.

In his hurry, he overlooked a crucial detail. One of the domes was inaccessible from the resort’s pathways, leading to another change of plan. They also miscalculated the placement of a septic tank, which had to be corrected at great cost.

It was a harsh lesson in slowing down and double checking everything before implementing expensive strategies.

It’s lessons like this that make you twice the operator. Josh levelled up by screwing up.

Consulting with someone like Josh can help you avoid similar mistakes. But it’s inevitable you’ll run into issues of your own at some point. 

Remember, shit happens to everyone. The key is finding a solution to the problem. Everything is ‘figure-outable!’

Others Are Going Through It Right Now

There are plenty of operators fighting to reach opening night as we speak.

Leslie Martin has been working on Lagom Retreat for more than 3 years. She had to grind relentlessly to piece together the financing to get phase 1 off the ground. All the hard work is about to pay off, with construction due finish this summer.

The guys at Sojourner Glamping had a permitting application denied before being approved for 144 units in Virginia. Then they realized raising capital for 144 units would be ludicrously difficult, so they downsized and are on the hunt for funding now. I know they’ll make it because they’re prepared to bounce back from setbacks, pivot if needed, and reach the finish line no matter what it takes.

And, of course, I can say the same for Team Posh Outdoors.

Sometimes my head tricks me into thinking that I’m no further along than I was a year ago. Back then, we had $0 of outside capital, no units built, and we felt a million miles away from opening.

Now, we have 5 mirror cabins built and arriving on site next month; $520k of capital raised, and we’re projected to generate c. $100k of booking receipts before opening.

The fruits of putting one foot in front of the other, every single day, aren’t always clear in the moment. It’s only when I stop and look back that I can see the progress I’ve made. 

If you’ve been trying to get your project off the ground and things haven’t gone as planned, don’t sweat it. It happens to the best of us.

Just keep going. 

I’ll see you on the other side.

📰 The Posh Report

This week was a good one for Team Posh.

• We passed $500k in our WeFunder pot

• We received a flurry of new investors

• 5 weeks of advertising data confirmed we’re on track for c. $100k of pre-opening booking receipts

With our WeFunder community round closing on April 30th, we’re in the final stretch of our capital raise. 

If you’d like to get involved, do one of the following:

• Ready to invest? Go to our WeFunder page and hit “Invest”

• Want to talk it through first? Schedule a call with me

• Not able to invest but know someone who’d be interested? Send them our WeFunder page and set up an email intro with [email protected]