GLAMPING BUSINESS AND RETREAT EVENT SUCCESS

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 Ma...

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

Inspired Courses ☆ The Glamping Academy ☆ Inspired Collective

Starting a glamping business or unique holiday rental comes with its own start-up formula and there are a key number of phases that every business owner will go through when planning and implementing their ideas and I include them here for those at the beginning of their startup journey.

I have supported thousands of owners in the decade-plus years I have been working in this industry but what I have started to notice is how a few of those outside the industry are trying to confuse new owners with myths and fake information to muddy the water. This is leading to mistakes being made and valuable time and resources being lost, so I thought I would highlight the 5 most damaging myths currently being circulated.

Myth #1 - You Need Your Own Land (No, You Don't!)

Acquiring the land needed to set up a glamping business can feel like an obstacle...

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

Inspired Courses ☆ The Glamping Academy ☆ Inspired Collective

In the Start Up And Grow Club, an accelerator program for glamping businesses and unique holiday rental hosts, we have been talking about negative practices being used by OTAs to the detriment of small business owners. One such practice is ‘ghosting’.

This is such an unscrupulous activity it definitely supports the case for generating more direct bookings between the hosts and guests and relying less on OTAs (online travel agents).

Listen to podcast episode #44 on your favourite platform here.

Ghosting is becoming increasingly common within the hospitality industry but it’s likely you haven’t heard of it before as OTAs are doing a great job of covering their tracks with this underhand technique, which they are using to boost their profits.  

With many OTAs changing their terms and conditions to allow them to carry this out legally, i...