Why Glamping and Retreats Are the Perfect Pair: The Retreat Leaders Podcast

By Sarah Riley | Glamping Business & Retreat and Hospitality Marketing Expert

Inspired Courses ☆ The Glamping Academy ☆ Inspired Collective

I recently sat down with Shannon Jamail on The Retreat Leaders Podcast for Episode 269, "Why Glamping and Retreats Are the Perfect Pair (And What Retreat Leaders Need to Know)." Shannon and I have both spent years in the experiential hospitality space. She hosts retreat leaders through her mastermind and community, and I've been building The Glamping Academy and Inspired Courses since 2010. This conversation is one I've wanted to have on her show for a while.

For 32 minutes, we dug into the intersection of two industries that keep pointing to each other: glamping and retreats. If you're a retreat leader, venue owner, or entrepreneur weighing whether glamping belongs in your business model, here's what we covered, and what I've learned running a boutique glamping and retreats business for over a decade.

Why Glamping and Retreats Are a Natural Match

Retreats need a container that supports the experience they're selling: presence, nature, disconnection from routine. Glamping structures such as bell tents, safari tents, shepherd's huts and yurts deliver that container without asking guests to sacrifice comfort.

On the show, I broke this down into four qualities that glamping brings to a retreat:

• Nature - Guests are physically immersed in the outdoors, not looking at it through a hotel window.
• Comfort - Real beds, proper linens, sometimes en-suite facilities, so guests can relax instead of "roughing it".
• Uniqueness - No two glamping structures look the same, which matters when your retreat is competing for attention on Instagram and in inboxes.
• Immersion - The accommodation itself becomes part of the retreat experience, not just a place to sleep between sessions.

 For retreat leaders specifically, I explained how glamping structures can lift occupancy and revenue in the off-season, turning quiet months into retreat-hosting months, which is a strategy I teach inside my retreat business program.

What Glamping Actually Is (And Why the Structures Matter More Than People Think)

Shannon and I spent time on a question I get constantly: what actually counts as glamping? I walked through the range of structures, from canvas bell tents and safari tents to yurts, shepherd's huts, treehouses and increasingly creative moveable builds, and why the diversity of the industry is exactly what makes it exciting for retreat leaders. There isn't one "correct" glamping unit. There's a structure for every budget, land type, and guest experience you're trying to create.

The Real Cost of Starting a Glamping Business

This is the part of the conversation I care most about getting right, because the misinformation costs people real money. There's a persistent myth that glamping is a "cheap and easy" way to get into hospitality. It isn't.

Building a glamping site properly requires:

• Planning permissions specific to your land and local authority
• Infrastructure: power, water, drainage, access roads
• Upfront investment in structures, furnishings, and site prep
• A real business and financial plan before you commit capital

What I told Shannon, and what I tell every client who comes through The Glamping Academy, is that the flip side of this reality is opportunity. Because glamping sits outside traditional hospitality categories, it opens the door to funding routes that hotels and traditional B&Bs can't access, including crowdfunding models built specifically for experiential accommodation projects. I go deeper on the actual numbers in my Glamping Business Profit Blueprint, which forecasts example cash flow, costs, and profit for new sites.

How AI Is Driving People Back Toward Real, In-Person Experiences

The most unexpected part of our conversation was about AI, not as a retreat marketing tool, but as a force reshaping what travelers want. My take, which I shared on the show: the more digital and AI-saturated daily life becomes, the more people crave the opposite. Offline time. Real human interaction. Environments they can trust because they can touch them.

We talked through why this shows up generationally: Gen Alpha and younger travelers in particular are gravitating toward nature-based, in-person, authentic experiences specifically because so much of their world is already mediated by screens and algorithms. Glamping and retreats sit right at the center of that shift, which is exactly why I think this is one of the biggest opportunities in hospitality right now.

That said, I was clear with Shannon that this doesn't mean retreat leaders and glamping owners can ignore AI in their own businesses. I talked about the tension a lot of "right-brained" creative retreat leaders feel toward data-driven marketing, and how AI tools can actually close that gap for them, handling the analytical side so they can stay focused on the guest experience. I compared adopting AI now to the early adoption of the internet and social media: the businesses that resisted got left behind, and I don't expect this to be different.

Join Us at The Glamping Show America

Shannon and I also talked about The Glamping Show America, which I co-direct as Conference Director of Glamping Show Americas in Colorado. Shannon will be speaking there this September, and I shared what attendees can expect: exhibits from structure manufacturers and suppliers, hands-on learning sessions, and direct access to the people building this industry. If you're a retreat leader considering glamping, or a glamping owner considering retreat events, this is where those two worlds meet in person.

About Sarah Riley

I've been working in the glamping and retreat space for decades, running a boutique hospitality and retreats business before building Inspired Courses and The Glamping Academy in 2010, to help other entrepreneurs do the same. I'm a professionally qualified business coach and marketing visibility specialist, and I've now helped over 5,000 customers and 2,000+ launched businesses across 18+ countries, from first-time site planning through to marketing and occupancy strategy. I'm also Co-Conference Director of Glamping Show Americas and have had over 200,000 episode downloads for my podcasts.

If you're weighing whether glamping belongs in your retreat business, start with my Retreat Business Startup program, or join fellow owners inside the Glamping Owners Club.

Listen to the full conversation: Episode 269 of The Retreat Leaders Podcast with Shannon Jamail

Got any tips on this topic? Get in touch and let's have a chat. 

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