MC Fireside Chats - August 13th, 2025 - MC Fireside Chats, an Outdoor Hospitality Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brian Searl (00:45):
Welcome everybody to another episode of MC Fireside Chats.
My name's Brian Searl with InsiderPerks and Modern Campground.
Hopefully you guys can hear me.
I'm in my remote studio of not havingsomebody who normally operates my
camera and my mic and trying to figureout technology for the first time.
I'm like a little baby.
Hopefully this all goes off smoothly.
And if not, then we have wonderfulpeople here, Zach, Scott, Brian and
Ann, Jayne, who are gonna just takeover the show anyway and I won't talk.

(01:08):
And then you all actuallyenjoy it for once probably.
Excited to be here for another episode.
We have a couple of our recurring guests.
We have Zach and we have Scott whogonna introduce themselves in a second.
And then we have Jayne, who'sone of our new recurring guests.
And we also have my dog in the backgroundwho needs to be let out on the balcony.
Apparently we five minutesand go back in and out.
She's barking at me.
She may have some commentary in the show.
And then we have Brian and Ann, who areour special guests for this episode.

(01:31):
So let's just go around the roomand briefly introduce ourselves.
Brian and Ann, you wanna startsince they're your special guests.

Brian Konradi (01:36):
Sure.
Excited to be here.
Thanks.

Ann-Tyler Konradi (01:39):
So I'm Ann Tyler Konradi.

Yeah.
And I'm Brian Konradi and we'rethe Owners of the Yurtopian.
We have two locations, both in CentralTexas, between Austin and San Antonio.
And we started in 2019.

That's right.

Zach, you wanna go?
Sorry.
I direct you.

Zach Stoltenberg (01:58):
Zach Stoltenberg.
I'm the Associate Principalfor Architecture at LJA.
We're design engineering architecturefirm, and we specialize in
helping people build campgrounds,glampgrounds, luxury, every parks,
boutique, hotels, experiential stays.

Awesome.
Thanks for being here as always.
Zach.
Zach's gonna be our guest host, right?
Is that, do you commit to thatnext, right before I announce.

Next month?
Yeah, we'll do it.

I'll be in, I'll be in Ireland.
Like I was struggling.
I didn't know if I was gonnabe able to run the show, right?
Like I, every time I hit somethingon my phone, now it pops up in
half Gaelic and half English andI don't know, I'm not sure what
setting I did to make that happen.
But Scott, go ahead.

Scott Foos (02:38):
Thanks Brian.
Hey everybody.
Scott Foos.
I am a Managing Partner withHorizon Outdoor Hospitality.
We operate currently nearly 30properties from coast to coast and
also offer professional servicesand consulting, exclusively serving
the outdoor hospitality space.
It's a pleasure to be here.

Are you actually exclusive?
'cause I say that to people tooand then somebody asked me to take
on a storage business or somethinglike that and I do it as a.

Scott Foos (03:06):
No.
Right now we are, yeah,exclusively outdoor hospitality.

Look, there's Casey Cochran.
Casey you exclusivelyoutdoor hospitality too?

Casey Cochran (03:16):
Yes we are.

Okay.
Like a hundred percent or just like 99.9%
because that's what.

Drilling down on that one.

I feel like it's a hundred percent.
Someone, correct me if I'm wrong,but can you consider some storage
and marinas Outdoor Hospitality?

No, not unless it's outdoor storage.

We only do outdoor storage, so we're good.

Okay, perfect.
Go ahead, introduce yourselfsince you popped in we're talking.

Yeah, I didn't mean to interrupt, Casey with Campspot.
Good to see everyone.
Glad to be on.

That's it?
You just assume everybodyknows what Campspot is?

No, man.
We dabble in things here and there.
We're just trying to make people happy.
That's what we do.

Alright, welcome Sir.
Jayne?

Jayne Cohen (03:57):
Hi everyone.
I'm Jayne Cohen from CampgroundConsulting Group and our sister company
is Glamping Consulting Group and wejust do everything outdoor hospitality.

Welcome Jayne.
Appreciate you being here.
Excited to have you as ourcurrent guest going forward.
And then Brian and Ann last, but notwe, will you introduce yourself already?
Brian, tell us a little bit.
Yes.
Tell us a little bit more about yourproperty, is what I meant to say.

Sure.

And how you got started in the business and what's going on.

Absolutely.
We're husband and wife team.
As Brian said earlier, we started in 2019.
We have two locations.
One is Wimberley, that's ouroriginal location, and we have
six yurts there that we run out.
And then we have a second locationin Dripping Springs, about 45 minutes
from us that has 10 units and thenboth have a spa yurt on the property.
And

and then we got four more that we use personally.
We have 22 Yurts in between our twoproperties here in central Texas.

So we are sitting in one now.
This is our office yurt.
Yeah, we run 'em under the same brand, theYurtopian, and it's been a fun wild ride.

So how did you get started here?

Brian?

Yeah.
Go ahead Casey, what'd you say?

What do I need to do to get an office yurt?
I officially.

That's what i'm, I guess I really can't complain an.

Office.

I say Eve, talk to Eve at Groovy Yurts.
That's where we get our yurts.
He's pretty awesome.
He's a.

Good idea.

He works with a family in Mongolia and they hand paint these yurts.
They're very soulful, yurts.
And he's got a great relationship withthe the Mongolian people in general.
I think he's one ofthe larger importers of

any Mongolian

of Mongolian other than raw materials, the largest
importer to Canada of from Mongolian.
And it's all about Yurtsand Yurt related products.

Wow.
That's a little bit moreof a fascinating story.
I feel like we could hear about.
So how do you end up

We can spend the next hour talking about Eve and those
Mongolian Yurts, they're amazing.

He's pretty cool.
He has a fascinating story.
You should definitely have him on.
He's in Ontario and so he, he hasa relationship with the family.
They hand strip the wood andsteam it to bend it into position.
And then if you can see, it'sreally beautiful at the top.
It's all hand painted.
And and then he ships 'eminto Canada, typically.
They come into Vancouver at, and thenhe trucks 'em around to where, or ships

(06:12):
'em around to wherever they need to go.
And they're all over the world.

They're beautiful.

It's pretty cool.

Zach you're an architect, right?
Do you have questions beforeI ask my non-scientific
special architect questions?

No I was actually gonna ask where you got your yurts from?

Yeah.

Because there, there's a few, suppliers and
I've worked with both of them.
They're two big ones in the US anyway.
And they, they definitelybuild, great products.
But I think the thing that makes, what youguys have is that it is different, right?
That it has that personal touch, it hasa tie to the culture, the connection
that originated those structures.

(06:50):
And definitely, the story and the kindof hand craftsman that goes with that.
I think it's really cool.
And it definitely, we talk all the timeon this podcast about the importance
of experience over just accommodation.
And I think it's, unique touchesand things like that, that
help create that experience.

Absolutely.
And the other thing that's interestingabout Mongolian Yurts is that they have a
layer of insulation that is sheeps wool.
So it's a canvas on the outside andthen the sheep's wool and then a
layer of waterproofing we put on.
The Mongolians don't usewaterproofing Tyvek, but we do.
And then the sheep's wool andthen the cotton on the interior.
But that sheep's wool isphenomenal insulation.

(07:31):
So we put we climatecontrol hours down in Texas.
It can get, believe it or not, it canget really cold in the winter, and
it definitely gets hot in the summer.
And so we have little mini splits thatwe put in them, and they really hold
their temperature well because of thatlayer of insulation that you don't
always get with a modern style yurt.

And it works both ways too.
Like wool is temperature regulatingboth hot and cold, right?

Yep.

Yes.

Insulator either direction.

That's right.

And just follow up on Zach, I think when we talked to Eve
and he helps us set up these first fewyurts that we bought from Groovy Yurts.
He points out that 2000 years,probably more, 2000 years of
engineering can't go wrong.
These things have been createdby nomads thousands of years ago.
And there's very few nuts or boltsor even nails metal involved in them.

(08:17):
They're made to, they'reengineered to self stabilize.
As you put more weight onthem or more wind on them, et
cetera, they become stronger.
It's pretty cool structure.

Yeah, that, that kind of stuff.
Like I, again, like Zach was talkingabout, we talk on the show all the
time about experience and some of thatis the activities and the amenities
you have on our new Campground.
Some of it is the story behind your yurt.
Some of it is the storybehind you as operators.
You know what, everybody'sstory is different.
Everybody has different piecesand parts that they wanna tell
as part of their property.
Some people might have barked in Yorkies.

(08:47):
I dunno if you can hear that in themicrophone, but so but I found I've
really found, I haven't been as muchas you would think hosting this show.
Like I've been glamping all thetime and all over the place.
I really haven't, 'cause they neverlet me outta the office that much.
But I found, as I've looked at, I saidI was planning a trip to Ireland as
I've looked at I really wanted to goglamping over there because of all the
coastal regions and the, the fields andbeautiful mountains and things like that.

(09:09):
And I found, as I worked my wayaround the country, I even though I
haven't been in them a lot, avoidedthe places where the combinations are
the same and they're all stacked nextto each other, a couple feet away.
And they just put them there because ofthe beautiful location and steered toward
the I will go glamping, but I want it tobe a unique, I want it to have a story.
I want it to not necessarily be aMongolian Yurt, but like something that

(09:32):
the owner is handcrafted or put loveor care into or has an experience or,
and so I almost found myself in somecases booking bed and breakfast because,
just because of the people, right?
The people I knew that in the review werelike, Hey, Cheryl was amazing and she came
and told the stories over breakfast andthat kind of stuff really surprisingly
to me, resonated with me more.
'cause I'm typically a hotel guywhen I go to big cities, but I don't

(09:54):
know if you guys feel the same way.

Yeah, I think that's definitely true.
No, go ahead.

No, yeah.
I was just gonna say, I definitely, I,same way doing so much business travel,
Scott probably has the same thing.
You do so much business travel, youget accustomed to, the hotel or your
rewards and it just becomes automatic.
And the more vacations that we do.
Taking the time to just try to findcreative ways to stay without it being
like aggressively more, more expensive.

(10:21):
But, finding those, unique, scenariosas long as, again, I always have to
get my wife's buy-in because, she doeslike showers and she does like air
conditioning and a bed with a pillow.
So there's certain like non-negotiables,but overall, like the experience, it just
makes it so much better in my opinion.
If there is that kind of outdoor elementin some capacity, so if we can avoid,

(10:43):
like I think it's bugs and havingair conditioning, I think those two
things can, can somehow happen that Ithink that, that the world opens up.

I think it's just really interesting in our industry
as we see this blend that we'reheaded to of like the Marriotts and
Hiltons being involved in glamping.
What ends up coming out of that, wewill still have what we have, which
is appealing to a lot of people.
We'll have new things that Zach isout building and Scott is managing
and Casey's providing software for,and Jane's Consulting for like,

(11:12):
all kinds of different things.
But it would be interesting to seehow that evolves, because I think,
like to me, if I'm reserving a reallyquaint bed and breakfast on the coast
of Ireland, that I can walk out thedoor and I'm on the coast and I can
act, to me that's a form of glamping.
Is that outdoor hospitality?
I don't know.
But it's an interesting.

I think We're starting to see that transition too.
And I know we've talked about it beforeand most of the major flags are now
jumping into outdoor hospitality.
We're starting to see someof those announcements.
Marriott's acquisition of postcard lastyear the partnership with Auto Camp and
Hilton I think Windham, I think it'sWindham as partnership with Under Canvas.

(11:53):
To that point, right?
Like when you stay at any of thoseplaces now, even though you're
glamping and you're definitely,at an outdoor hospitality brand.
You're stable, still able to get yourpoints and that kind of brand loyalty.
And for those business travelers,they're able to stay at the, the Hampton
Inns and build their points, but whenthey want to take a vacation with
their families that they can go andstay at an Auto Camp and cash it in.

(12:17):
So I think we're already starting tosee kinda some of that pivotal change.
Myself, I travel a lotfor the work that we do.
'Cause most of the folks that we'reworking with, the sites were designing
they're all over the country and someof 'em all are all over the world.
Two years ago, I think Ispent 85 nights at a hotel.
This year I think I've spent three.
I will do my best to avoid stayingat a hotel at all costs if possible.

(12:42):
And it's just, I think it'sthat kind of market change.

Yeah, it's interesting, like I've never really been a big hotel
person, but when I stay there, like Istay in a lot of hotels, but when I do,
I will look for the boutique though,the unique, the experience, the non
same chain thing everywhere, right?
Mostly I'm in hotels when I'm in likedowntown Dublin for a couple nights.
It just makes sense because you wannawalk everywhere, but everywhere else.

I'm curious for Brian and Ann because I'm familiar
with that part of Texas, and we'veworked on several resorts that
are not too far from you guys.
What do you guys find, is your typicalguest makeup at your Yurtopian?
Do you get business travelers?
Do you get people that are justin that area for a couple days or
is it like from your experiencewho do you think your guests are?

Okay, so part of that is, is refined by what
the product is that we have.
So we unlike I think a lot of glampingdestinations, are not focused on children.
In fact, we only allow adultsbecause we're trying to create a
place where people can reconnectwith nature in a quiet setting.

(13:49):
And kids are great.
We love 'em.
We have 'em, but but they don't,they're not and conducive for
conducive, for conducive for quiet.
We've we focused on couples andgetaways for couples, it's most often
a kind of a romantic setting, althoughsometimes we get individuals or friends.
Most often it's a romanticgetaway for people.
So in that sense it's usually a birthday,a celebration, a babymoon, a honeymoon.

Elopement or we've done a few proposal.
We get a lot of proposals.

That kind of that's our demographic.
And in that sense that's partof your answer right there.
We're getting couples who want to findfun ways to to get away and escape.
Sometimes it's just for the 24 hours.
Sometimes it's three or four days.
And and that's what we offer.

And I think we're far enough outside of the major cities
that, a business traveler might addit on as a night for fun, but it's not
like you would commute and you couldcommute into Austin, but typically
you would find something a littlebit closer to Austin or San Antonio.
And you come to the Yurtopian because youwant the experience of being in nature and
you're not going into the city typically.

So what say about groups.

Sorry, go ahead Zach.

Because I, I know that, some of the other kind of places,
Lucky Arrow and those very near you guys.
They do a lot of likegroups and corporate events.
So that's something we talked aboutlast month with our guests last month.
That's their core breadand butter business was

Yeah.

Hosting groups and large events.

So That's true.

So did you guys get any traction with that?

A little bit.
We've had some corporate retreatsand we do have, our Dripping Springs
property has a lodge in the middle ofthe property that's an old house that
we have a group gathering space for.
And we have had a few elopement weddingsand, or like micro weddings and we've
had a few corporate retreats there.
But our setup is really not, like Briansaid, like two person occupancy only.

(15:34):
They're all separated, one from the other.
As we like to say, you can gonaked from the hot tub to the
yurt and nobody's gonna see you.
It is a very, isolated, set up.
So Lucky Arrow has more likeunit kind of side by side.
It's more conducive to groups.
They have a pool that everybody shares.
They have.
And then they now havea restaurant that some.

Great communal space there.

They have really great communal space, and they'll bring in
winery, they're next door to a winery,and then they'll bring in other, for
tastings and it's meant to be social.
And that's their modelwas always that way.
But we were always the opposite.
We don't mind if people wanna gettogether, but please don't do it at your
yurt because three people talking, orfour people talking and laughing at one
yurt is just louder for the neighborwho's maybe 300 feet over in the woods.

(16:18):
And we're selling quiet.
If you're gonna visit, go up to thelodge vibes it's just a very different.

Have you gone out and tried to get that type of gaps
or is that just who you've beenattracting naturally as you've opened?

We fell into it.

That's, yeah, that's our, that's who we naturally attracted
from the beginning and that's how we'vegone forward in terms of our marketing
and our brand positioning, et cetera.
We really are just targeting couples.
We're not anti group like we said, butit's not been at all our bread and butter.
And the few times that we've made alittle bit of a marketing push, we haven't
really it's not something you dabble into.
You need to be all into groupsand and so that's not something,

(16:52):
if it comes our way, great.
Otherwise haven't somethingwe've been looking for.

I also think you need more keys.
The one reason that I think LuckyArrow has really gotten traction of
weight with the corporate side isthat they, they have 30 plus keys
now and with only 10 in dripping.
You and there, two person occupancy,king size vet in each one.
You're talking, if it's a businessgroup, then that's 10 people total.

(17:18):
We don't have the capacityto have large groups.

And just for the, anybody who's listening, we're talking about
Lucky Arrow, which is our colleague downthe street from one of our locations.
That is got a great glamping, but alsonot so glamping ground that that is a
well-known brand in our Austin area.

Scott, and Jayne, how do you guys think about this when
you're either taking over, managinga new property, consulting for a new
property, how do you guys look at thetype of people, whether it's glamping
or, RV resorts traditional or Camping?
How do you look at whodo I want to attract?
Who do I wanna market to?
What facilities do I have?
Can I make this, can I, or should I makethis into something that is currently not?

Scott Foos (17:58):
That is such a a wide ranging question.

But your pause, Scott, I know you're gonna
take it somewhere really good.

Scott Foos (18:06):
No, I was gonna ask Jayne if she wanted to run with it first

sure.
I think so.
I think there's like a lot ofdifferent things that go into it.
For instance I've actually donefeasibility studies in both Waverly
and Dripping Springs, and I knowthat like Dripping Springs is
a big wedding destination kindof area for that area of Texas.

(18:30):
So I, I think that to a certainextent, the market defines it, right?
And to, to another extent.
But that's not to say that a couple'swedding retreat treat could do
well in dripping Springs, but also.
A Jellystone Park possibly could dowell in Dripping Springs, especially

(18:53):
because of your proximity to Austinand the number, simply the number of
households that are within, a hundredmiles of dripping springs, let's say that.
So what I important is that you lookat the market, you try to define
the market as closely as you can,and you also then try to cater to

(19:20):
the those who you wanna cater to.
Brian and Ann, I think that it's greatthat you are understanding your market.
You're catering specificallyto that market, right?
And you're making the experience acouple experience, which is okay to do.
Oh, I'm trying to think of hisname in, it's a, it's the farm.

(19:42):
It's in Carolina.
I can't think of the name.
I think his first name's Seth.
He did a, he oh, Seth actually.
Zach.
Oh, Seth, yes.
Yeah, Tennessee.
He does a farm.
Yeah.
Yes.
There's another example of he'sreally being very micro-focused or
myopic as to what his market is.

(20:04):
Now obviously as you get biggerand you grow, sometimes you can't
sustain just that very defined market.
And I don't know if I'm havinglike a little bit of a delay here.
I feel like I am, but butsometimes you can't sustain.
Like lots of times I've had folksthat are like, we wanna build a

(20:24):
thousand sites in this market.
And I'm like, what?
That's just, you're just overbuilding and building the market.
So there's just so manythings that go into it.

Scott Foos (20:36):
And maybe just to, I, I don't really have much to add to what Jayne
shared, which I thought was great, Jayne.
But to your point, we've seen a lot ofpotential clients come to us and say,
we are developing, as Jayne said in ourexample, a thousand sites in this market.
And the first question we ask is,or one of the first questions we
ask when we're thinking about brandposition is, who are your guests?

(20:58):
And have you designed a property that'sspeaking to who that guest mix is?
So that's.
That's something that's oftenoverlooked in the development phase,
but with an existing project, speakingmore to Horizon's experience with
managing properties again, it'sone of the first things that we're
looking at is in this specific marketis are we targeting and for this

(21:20):
family, are we targeting, families?
Are we targeting thesingle, solo travelers?
Is it more so couples.
Is it extended stay snowbirdor transient driven?
And then try to drive really intowhere those guests are coming from
and more specifics around the typesof amenities and how they want to
experience and interact with your brand.

(21:42):
And your property.
It can be challenging, but it is alot of the important work that has
to be done early to really understandhow you are setting yourself apart.
But I think, Jayne, youmay agree with me on this.
I don't wanna say you will, butthere's also a very big difference
between glamping and RV, right?
I think an RV resort and a Campground thatputs in nice cabins on existing RV sites.

(22:10):
Is not even remotely the sameas what Brian and Ann have done.
And those guests are very differentand understanding and being real
about what your property is andisn't is just as important as
figuring out who your guests are.

Yeah.
You're selling an experienceand, oops, sorry Brian.
No, I was just saying that,
in everything we do, we'reselling an experience.
I think, Scott, you're right.
I've I think that RV parks and groundsan opportunity, a lot of 'em have an

(22:45):
opportunity to introduce glamping attheir properties, but it has to be in
the right setting on your property.
And what you just said about, wecould have, cabins all in a row.
And that's really not necessarily theglamping experience that, it's definitely

(23:06):
not what Brian and Ann are providing.
And you lots of times experience inplanning, you're developing, expanding,
or bringing glamping into your RV park.
Like the setting for glamping,to me is very important.
You know what Brian and Ann said,we've, you can go naked to the hot tub.

(23:29):
That's, that's glamping, right?
Because you're in the woods.
That's.

You clinically could do that in an RV park too.
You might not wanna, but.

You might just be upon Yeah, no, I agree.
And I think that one of the thingsthat's happened, like during the COVID
years, we started in 2019 with ourWimberley site, and we had a wait list.
Like we, we could not we couldn't buildYurts fast enough for the amount of
people that wanted to get out of the cityand come and they, the yurt itself was
fascinating and amazing and they came.

(23:57):
But as, as more players have gotten intothe mix and we built more and we built the
the second location and other people camealong, it it has become more and more.
Necessary to provideexperiences around the lodging.
The lodging itself is awesome,but you also need to think about
add-ons and do you have a spaand do you have hiking trails?

(24:20):
And what other things doyou have for the guests?
'cause I think that the guestpopulation has expanded, but it's
also gotten more discerning andwants, they want more and more of it.
It's like feeding the audience moreand more is kind of part of what we do.
So it's a fun business to be inthat sense, because we're always
pivoting and iterating and thinkingabout what's something new that we

(24:41):
could give our guests that wouldexpand on their experience with us.

Scott Foos (24:44):
And I know we've talked about this on this show and others in
the past as well, but we have the veryunique opportunity in outdoor hospitality
to lean into, to travel trends in thegreater in the greater travel industry,
specifically with hotels where, folks dostill participate in loyalty programs,

(25:06):
but it's for economical reasons only.
It's not for loyalty.
It's not like you have a true loyaltyto that brand other than earning points.
And what type of experience andstay and relationship do you want?
I is that between the hotel propertyand the guest or the brand and the guest

(25:27):
and in our space, we have the ability tocreate these true connections and really
focus in on how we're making guestsfeel on site that drives loyalty itself.
And so I think, going back to theoriginal talking point about some of
the larger players with those, hugeloyalty programs getting, starting
to get into our space I think it'sstill gonna be quite a while before

(25:49):
there's really mass adoption of thatbecause of how fragmented and segmented
our our segment of the industry is.
But I think it's a unique opportunityto have a little, have best of both
worlds where boutique hotel stays areare increasing in demand and popularity
because those hotel operators havelearned that folks are looking for

(26:10):
something that's unique and we can,both indoor and outdoor hospitality
can both do it, but I think thatoutdoor hospitality has been doing it
organically for a much longer time.
And we just didn't quite know it.
And we can figure out a way tocontinue to figure out a way to
systematize it and innovate that.

I think there's a couple things here, right?
There's, that we hear about the bigacquisitions like Marriott and Hill,
not acquisitions, but partnerships,acquisitions, whatever between these big
hotel chains, but also there's the, likeyou're talking about with the boutique
hotels, there's the email I get fromHyatt like once a week with this new
boutique hotel chain that's now part oftheir point program that you can write.
They haven't acquired them.
And so I think your pointto loyalty is very valid.

(26:48):
Like I, I used to, I, I still am whenI have time, but I used to be one of
those people who had 19, I do have 19credit cards in my wallet and I used
to maximize for points and miles andI decide where I wanna go on vacation
two years in advance and figure out howthe banks could give it to me for free.
And it's a great game.
But that was like, it was waybetter in 2012 than it is today.
Because those things have beendevalued and changed, and maybe

(27:09):
that's a result of people like me.
Maybe it isn't.
It's probably more toward the economyhas been good for so long that they
haven't had to do that, but I thinkthat type of loyalty program can foster
true loyalty if it's set up right.
I just don't think a lotof 'em are set up that way.
Like I think they're set up to beloyal in the fact that like the
real money maker for the changes.
I have your email address,your contact information.

(27:31):
I can market it to you.
I can sell that data to AmericanExpress or whatever else.
I don't like, I think there's anopportunity there, done, right?
That you could really be moreinclusive or loyalty toward a property.
Why do we not have acamps by loyalty program?

I'm curious with with Brian and Ann do you
guys get a lot of repeat guests?
Do you have any I wishwe wish got loyalty.

Yeah.
I wish I had a stat in front of us.
Anecdotally.
I don't think there's any, a day in whichone of our guests isn't a repeat user.
We do have a lot of repeat guests.
I don't know what percentageoff the top of my head of our.
Bookings are repeat bookings.

I don't either, but we do one, one thing we do is
we have a digital guidebook thatthey are signed into when they,
that gets their arrival details.
And then on the departure it asks fora review and we send a text message
through that system that says if you wannarebook here's a special code for 20% off.
Use it in the next three daysor four days or something.

(28:30):
And and then we get a lot of peoplethat will, as they're exiting,
book the next anniversary, thenext year or it's usually, yeah.
Yes.
Sometimes it could be a few months out.
We do have some guests that aresuper users that come four or five
times a year, but usually it's.
It's a once a year type of thing.
And a lot of our guests havereally saved up to come.
It's a, as Brian was saying, it'sa special occasion and it's not

(28:52):
an inexpensive place to stay.
We feel like our.

Not an

inexpensive place.
Not an inexpensive, yeah.
And so we really try to honor that.
'cause we feel like a lot ofour guests have saved up and
it's special occasion for them.
And so we really, we focus on theI, there's a term for it that's like
the five love languages concept wherey'all are probably familiar with this.
Where you do, you give a gift, yougive a note, you give the service,
you have a conversation, like youtry to hit all the types of love

(29:19):
languages for lack of a better word

For customers.
Yes.

Yeah.
For customers and and then we have aguest book that they can sign in the yurt.
And that is.
Hands down, our favoritepart of the entire business
is reading that guest book.
Because people write the nicest thingsand you can see that we've it's been an
experience that they won't forget and.

It's, people write shockingly nice things.
It and personal things differentthan, by the way, any kind
of review will get on, Google

True.

Or whatnot.
That's in the book.
In these books, they will drawpictures and talk about what happened.
One of our favorite stories is moreof a joke than a than a beautiful
thing that someone said to us.
It was the story of the timethat we went and opened.
We, every time we walk into a year,we kind of skin through what the
last few reviews where, and one ofthem was I hope I get this right.
Had an amazing timehere with my girlfriend.

(30:05):
Just one of my favorite weekends ever.
Next time I'm coming with mywife and we thought, oh my gosh.
Yeah, that's bold.
Like, why are you telling us.

I hope the wife doesn't read the guest book and get the same Yurt.

Exactly.
And then we looked closer.

They got engaged.

Wedding ring, an engagement ring on there.
And so we realized it's pretty cute.

Yeah.
So it's, yeah.

That does make more sense.
I think we're all scold, scarredby the Coldplay thing now,
and we don't want anything.

Yeah.
No Coldplay situation.
Yeah, no, this was sweet.
But but yeah, it's, we.

Digress.

Yeah.
But that is the most funpart of that conversation.
We don't have, we have a contactlesscheck-in, so we don't have a lot of if
you don't have a problem when you'restaying with us, you might never see us.
You can come and go.
We get the we software to send them allthe information that they need and all
the guidebooks on how to turn on the firepit and the hot tub and all the things.
So if a guest doesn't have anytroubles, they might never speak

(30:59):
with our staff in person at the time.
But nonetheless, we find ways to,we leave notes, we have a little
Prosecco gift and things like that.

It is interesting.
I think that's a Casey I was making ajoke in some ways about the Campspot
should have a loyalty program.
Although maybe that's a thingone day, you never know.
But I am curious.
It would be interesting, and I don'tknow if you guys could actually study
this with all the data that you haveto understand the behavior of the
type of guests that would typicallyuse a loyalty program and be loyal.

(31:28):
Because for me, like I'mloyal to Marriott, right?
For a brand when I stay in hotelsbecause I like my upgrades and my
perks and stuff like that it's arelationship like Scott was talking about.
It's not really loyalty to the brand,but loyalty to what the brand is
specifically giving me in those instances.
And even then, I will rarelychoose Marriott unless there's
nothing else that I can find.
But it would be interesting to seethe amount of people who are loyal

(31:52):
to a property like Brian and Ann's.
Are they mostly local?
Do they come from for farther away?
Will they drive from the other side ofTexas or different states to be loyal?
Because like for me.
I would be loyal to a reallygreat place that I found,
but I haven't found that yet.
And I've stayed in somecrazy interesting places.
But my personality is this.
Once I've experienced it once,maybe I might go to Brian and

(32:13):
Ann's other property, right?
But I don't know if I wouldgo back to the same place.
But I think that science wouldbe interesting to understand.

Yeah, there's a couple of things there.
One is, if someone's loyal to aplace, especially a Campground, that
they say they're seasonally, right?
Or they say they're annually, right?
So if they're loyal, they check inand they check in for the summer.
So that's literally what Campingyou want them to do is say, I like
this place enough where I'm gonnapark my rig there for the summer.
I think the second thing, even ifyou're looking at it from a transient
standpoint one of the dashboards that webuilt was this guest driving distance.

(32:43):
And it's a heat map of wherecustomers are coming from.
And then it tells how muchthey're spending, right?
So are the customers comingfrom these different areas?
What type of sites are they booking?
And then, are they spending money at thepark with add-ons and things of that sort.
And there's an interesting correlation,not necessarily just only by zip code,
but just trying to understand, whereare my guests coming from, right?

(33:04):
And then are, are they thepeople that are coming from 30
miles an in or 50 miles an in.
Maybe they're not spending as muchon, on add-ons and they're not, doing
golf carts, but people coming from,60 to 90 miles are does that make
sense then to adjust the marketing tofocus on people that are coming from a
little bit further away because they'remore inclined to book the golf cart.

(33:24):
They're more inclined to buy the firewoodice and smore kits than someone that's
maybe coming from, a little bit closer.
So we're trying to provide asmuch of those insights along with
things like your lifetime spend ofa guest to try to dive into that.
Is it, there's guests that comeback all the time and they don't
spend any money when they're there.
And then it's still a spot.
They're the site night'sgetting filled up.

(33:45):
But, and it really depends on the park.
'cause there's some parks that offer alot of ancillary revenue opportunities
and there's some that's not atall what the, what they're after.
That additional guess spend isn'trelevant 'cause they're not offering
additional things to purchase at the park.
Yeah, no, as much of that insightas can in terms of what would create
loyalty yeah, I mean you just gottakeep looking at who the customer is
and get as much detail as you can.

(34:07):
And make, really it comes down to amarketing decision, who, who and how are
we gonna market to based on the data.

Yeah.
I think interesting.
Do we create, does every propertyeven, obviously they don't do,
they need a loyalty program, right?
Like Spacious Skies has a loyaltyprogram, they have 15 locations.
Each location is a little bit different.
It makes perfect sense for a larger playerlike Spacious Skies, or even like maybe
one day a Horizon Management has itsloyalty program or whatever else, right?
Because you have different experiences.

(34:34):
It's much easier to Campgroundto have a loyalty, not a loyalty
program, but to measure loyalty.
Like you were saying, you come yourpark, your rig there the whole day.
It's just interesting to me, like maybejust the study of do I actually put
effort into a loyalty program or do Ialmost then know that my guest doesn't,
isn't a repeat, but that's okay becauseI'm bringing in thousands of new people

(34:56):
who are getting experience for thefirst time, still telling people about
it, but maybe don't wanna come back.
That's okay to me, but then maybe Ineed almost an anti loyalty program.
Come try it for the first timefor 25% off or something and then
spread the word or I don't know.
I think.

This kind of reminds me of a post it was a few months back.
And Scott, I think youcontributed to the article.
But Jeremy Wells with Longitudeshared a really interesting
take on this exact piece.
What's driving kind of the futuresin hospitality and what they
focused on was loyalty, memory andlong-term value in that kind of

(35:33):
brand relationship with their guests.
And the metric that he came upwith and what he calls it is
ROX, it's return on experience.
That's, it's that emotional ROI thatyou're creating for your guests.
And it doesn't always, come out ina metric that's measurable 'cause
it's not about, a P and L or,balance sheet or what's profitable.

(35:54):
You're making that investment intothat guest experience and that if they
come and they have a good experience,that is what creates that loyalty.
That is what creates that return customer.

Which drives ROI long term you're not you're by implicitly
not focusing on the money shortterm, you're getting it long term
in the way that you just described.

And it's that emotional ROI.

Scott Foos (36:19):
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Zach, thanks for mentioning that.
And I think that, the example thatI gave if I'm remembering correctly
in that article was a welcome snackbasket, which is, Zach, you and
I have talked about before that'sincluded in the cost of a cabin.
And it's included in the rate.

(36:39):
It costs us five bucksmaybe to put together.
And at the end of the day, we're notable to track the return on that $5,
but it's, it is helping to improveoverall guest reviews and experience.
And being able to track that ROXis difficult or almost impossible

(37:00):
to do on that specific item, butit really does make a big impact.
And I wanted to also just mention too, onelast quick thing on, on loyalty programs.
It is very salient to to arecent experience that I had too.
Last week I took my wife and Itook her parents up to a property
that we manage in Oregon.

(37:21):
And her father was like, canI book this place on Expedia?
Why do you ask?
Yes, you can, but why do you ask?
He's then I can use my one key,whatever the loyalty program that
Expedia has, that the OTA has.
And I think that's an interesting wayfor glamping, specifically, and in RV

(37:43):
with the right accommodations to crosscutinto the traditional hotel segment, is
through those guests that are typicallyutilizing and loyal to the OTAs.
And Brian your question to Caseyabout that with Campspot a very
interesting one for them to consider.
Because I think that as diversity and staycontinues to become such a an important

(38:05):
factor in the overall lodging industryas folks move away from the big brands.
As that continues to build momentum Ithink people will be looking more to
OTAs to help aggregate those potentialoptions since it is still so fragmented
and offering a loyalty program throughthat could be very interesting.

Yeah, I think we're all just trying to figure each other out, right?
Like the hotel chains are trying to figureout the glamping or outdoor hospitality.
I think this opportunity is also thoughfor a lot of the glamping, outdoor
hospitality independent operators tofigure out what the hotels are doing.
We talked a little bit about this onOutwired last week where we said I think
there's a lot of opportunity for peopleto target outside of, and most of the

(38:44):
campgrounds is what we were talkingabout at the time, but outside of the
traditional RVer, and we ran this throughAI, and AI was like, go partner with
a boutique hotel in your local city.
And then they can offer the same thingthat Marriott and Postcard do, or Hilton
and Auto Camp and say put my glampingsites as long as my brand matches yours,
it's the same kind of type of traveler,it fits and melds well together.

(39:05):
Then you put your glamping siteson, your hotel and reach out to your
email marketing list, and maybe Ihelp you with hotels and there's
some crossover there, sending a busdowntown and saying, we're just gonna
pick up 20 people at nine o'clock onSaturday and bring 'em out to glamp
who don't have cars or never would'veconsidered outdoor hospitality before.
So I think the more we talk about thisand think about the things that like sound
weird when they're rolling off your tonguebecause they've never been said before,

(39:28):
may spark an idea, not necessarily whatyou just said, but just how do I reach out
to all these different types of guests.
Because I think there's a lot of peoplethat and Campspot facilitates a lot
of that too through their software.
I think, again, we're all, Casey,have you made a loyalty program mean
it's been about 20 minutes we'vebeen talking about it, but I think
there's all kinds of different ways.
Like how does camp, how can Campspot,that's a good question for you Casey.

(39:49):
Let's assume that we want an industry,some people want an industry that
attracts more groups or more corporatetravelers or more things like that.
Are there ways that Campspot canhelp assist with something like that?

Yeah, the corporate travel in general is the, that's the, to me it's
the biggest difference between hotelsand campgrounds when you look at guests
is that the volume of business travelthat goes to a hotel versus the volume of
business travel that goes to Campgroundare just significantly difference.
And there's some resorts that do a goodjob of finding corporate retreats and
because they have the lodging to, to takecare of it, and they have enough cabins.

(40:24):
To answer the question directly,the hesitation we've had with a full
blown rewards program within Campspotis, if it gets to the point where
there's additional things that arebeing offered to the guest that they
couldn't get direct, it feels like we'recompeting with the park directly then.
And so our goal with the marketplacewas to have price parity and to

(40:48):
not compete directly with parksfor their own direct bookings.
So our goal has always been to expand theaudience and get new guests to recognize,
Hey, I want to go to a park in Oregon.
And I, I didn't know this park existed.
We wanna draw those lines.
We wanna, those two things tomeet, and they book that way.
And we fully expect thatguest moving forward.

(41:10):
If they book again at thatpark, they should book direct.
There's no reason they shoulduse the marketplace if they
know where this Campground is.
And that's been the vast majority,it's still 82, 84% of every guest
that books on the marketplace at thatpark is it first time staying there.
Now there is some guests thatwe have that just, they like the

(41:30):
convenience of the marketplace search.
And they'll go back there andthey'll say, Hey, I'm looking
for a place in around Austin.
And they might fall back on thepark that they've already stayed at.
We can't really help that.
If that's the case.
But they started with themindset of, we're open, right?
We're not necessarily onlygonna stay at this place.

(41:51):
We want to see what's available, andsometimes they land on a park that
they've already stayed at, but we'vebeen really hesitant to create an
incentive to use the marketplace versusbooking direct in any sort of way other
than convenience of inventory, becausewe're not gonna compete with a park.
We can't compete with them.
And we're, we're really, and this isn'tthrowing shade at any anything else.

(42:13):
We're the only, marketplace or OTAthat's committed to not doing any
type of keyword searching competition.
We're not trying to say, Hey, to takethe keywords from campgrounds and have
them book through our marketplace versusbooking them direct, because then,
this add-on that we've created to helpparks that are using our software is
then competing with them financially.

(42:33):
And that isn't a goodbusiness move, in my opinion.

Scott Foos (42:37):
I think that's so thoughtful, Casey.
That makes a lot of sense.
And the one, the group that we shouldbe that should have a voice in this
that have a lot of firsthand data ofcourse, is KOA with that's thinking of.

Yeah.

Scott Foos (42:51):
Yeah.

There probably, I think there's maybe a way for this to
work reverse and we're not tryingto back into corner, Casey, we're
just talking about this in real timeand I don't wanna finish the whole
show talking about loyalty program.
But the last maybe piece of it, andif anybody else wants to wrap up
anything, it's maybe it works inreverse, maybe there's a way for the
Campground to say I'm gonna opt in toallowing people to earn points when
they book direct with me even and notthrough the marketplace because they're

(43:13):
still using the Campspot software.
And we funnel those points up to anaccount that could be used back at my
park or could be used at the marketplace.
Like KOA is, right?
But then maybe there's anincentive for the park to do that.
Maybe they get a discount on thefirst time rate that the marketplace
charges them or something like that.
And then it benefits the whole ecosystem.
I don't know.

Yeah, no, we are also, we're looking heavily
into a loyalty program, right?
And so that's something that we'vebeen doing a lot of research on.
We've been doing a lot of thoughtfuldevelopment on creating that.
Something 2026 for sure willwe'll have in some capacity.
It's just a matter ofthe scope of it, right?
Does an individual park wanna createand and manage a loyalty program

(43:53):
internally to the same regards as like aJellystone franchise and managing their
Yogi rewards and things of that sort.
So it's just the different scopes of that.
But 100%, a direct loyalty program in myopinion whether it's an individual park
or a multi park operator does make sense.
There's no question that people arekeen to, incentives in at random times.

(44:15):
That's why it works, right?
It's just, I got a reminder the otherday of, finishing, finishing a thing
because we were looking at a trip toLas Vegas, and then here we go again.
I'm looking at what shows andstuff are there, like it, we
know that it works, right?
And I'm not loyal to anything inLas Vegas, but anything that can
remind your guests of a reasonto stay there is a good thing.
And loyalty programs, that's what they do.
And everyone there's not oneperson you can convince me that

(44:37):
isn't a sucker for a deal, right?
You want any reason to save anyamount of money at any point in time.
And so a lot of consumer habits isdriven by, is this a good deal right now?
And so loyalty programs canassist with that, right?
It's not the only factor, butit's definitely a major one.
Yeah, to draw the line Campspotsoftware, 100%, we will be creating and

(45:00):
developing a loyalty program internallythat there's no question there.
The marketplace we've tried to verycarefully with that, with the idea that
we do not wanna compete with directbookings with our campgrounds, because
then we're working against driving aparks revenue up in theory because, we're
competing with direct bookings that we,they would've already or otherwise got.

We should.

A lot of ways.

Oh, go ahead.

I think too, some of this, it's already happening organically.
As an example, a lot of times when I lookup a place to stay when I'm traveling,
I'll look at VRBO and then I'll find theexact same property listed on Airbnb,
and then sometimes I'll even be able tosearch and find their direct booking site.

(45:44):
And what a lot of theseoperators are doing because they
pay fees for VRBO or Airbnb.
If that property is $300 on Airbnb,it's $275 if I book direct with them.
And so it doesn't have tobe a complicated, loyalty
rewards type of program.
I think things like Brian and Anndescribed, like hitting them with

(46:05):
that text email blast on checkout,Hey, you got five days to rebook
and we'll give you a 20% discount.
That's a great thing.
I've worked with some clients andoperators that, they'll look at their
booking window and they'll say, Hey,it's Thursday afternoon and we've
got three units that aren't rented.
And so they'll do a quick text messageblast to anyone who stayed with them

(46:28):
for the last three months and justsay, Hey, we're doing a special deal.
If you book before the end of today, forthis weekend you can get it for 25% off
and it, it doesn't have to be necessarilypoints and a system and all of this stuff.
I think that model of loyalty and thatconnection and just Brian and Ann,

(46:48):
exactly what you described, I thinkthat is a loyalty program, right?
You having guests, the connectionand the share those stories.
Yeah.

Yeah.
On a goal for those together, right?
Like for me, and I'm sorryBrian, I'll let you One second.
Like for me it is like whenI'm going around, like I always
look for the book direct too.
When I'm planning in Ireland,I'm going to their website,
I'm looking at their website.
I'm saying, can I book direct?
Is it not necessarilyjust because it's cheaper?
Because also I have a knowledge of I don'twanna make 'em pay 20% to booking.com

(47:18):
or whatever else if theydon't have to, right?
But also there is theconvenience factor of me.
If I can book everythingthrough booking.com
and I'm going on a two week trip aroundIreland, having all the itineraries right
in a row in one place, so I don't have togo look for all the emails is helpful too.
Go ahead, Brian.
Sorry.

A conversation about loyalty is something we
could talk about for a long time.
And it's been interesting.
I just wanted to make sure that wedid mention something that we at
the Yurtopian have done that's abit unique that might be interesting
for other people in the industry.
If you want to ask us some questionsabout it, but it's on a different topic.
We on the topic of exiting from people'sproperties, we have two properties

(47:54):
and we've been considering how toexit from one of our two properties.
And we recently came across a reallyunique method of that happening
when we saw an article in the NewYork Times about a woman in Ireland,
speaking of Ireland again, who whoraffled off her Irish farmhouse.
And we thought that was interesting.
So we launched just a couple,three weeks ago, a program by which

(48:16):
we are actually raffling off ourDripping Springs 46 acre property.
It's a raffle style transactionon a platform called raffle.com.
And.

Just pause a second.
Does it, do any of youall know about this or no?

I do.

Yes.
No.

Okay.
You guys feel free to askus about it if you want.
We thought it wasinteresting for the industry.
I think we're the first ones inthe United States to do this in
glamping or real estate in general.
It's gotten us a lot of press.
We've been in the HoustonChronicle just yesterday and

realtor.com
on Sunday wrote an articleand we've been in and talked.

It's a new, it's a new interesting way to exit one's property.
We still are very much committed to thisindustry and our our loving our jobs.
And we're going to keep our property inWimberly, but but we're we're raffling
off our property in Dripping Springs.

The first question I have is why exit that way?
Obviously there's a reason.

It might be a bit surprising that someone would take an
expensive piece of property and andexit via a raffle style transaction.
It sounds like it could be a bit risky,but the way it's structured Oh yeah.
There you go.
The way it's structured isthat that it's a win-win.
So we establish aminimum ticket threshold.
If we sell enough tickets thatthreshold, then we are obligated to

(49:29):
convey the property to the winner, theperson who draws the winning ticket.
If we don't met that, meet thatthreshold, then the winner takes
50% of the earnings and we take 40%.
And we keep the property.
So from that perspective itcould be a very much a win-win.
We could, the person in Irelandwho sold her Irish farmhouse,
I think earned more through thetickets, the raffle style process.

(49:49):
Yes.
Than she would have had,she just exited naturally.
For us, it's a fun way to connect.
Going back to loyalty.
It's a fun way to connect to ourcommunity and to the glamping community
at large, because someone would bestepping into our shoes without having
to have done bank financing, acquisitionfinancing in a traditional way.
And it's a, it's a way to really.

We'll see.

Connect with someone who might might step into our shoes.
Yeah.

And we like bankers and we like brokers, but if you could save the
percentage on the broker fee too, right?

Yeah.
And it's been such a weirdmarket this year, right?
It's been hard tounderstand interest rates.
Are they going up or down andwhat's happening with that.
It.
Not the same scenariowhen we bought in 2021.
We had much more favorable bank financingoptions then than a buyer has today.
I don't know.
We'll see.
We

September 30th when the drawing happens.

So at the glamping show.

We'll see it just over six weeks.

Yeah.

I need you guys to draw my ticket.
Okay.

Okay.
So we

Do you have enough time to run a glamping, Zach?

I bought a whole bunch of them.
They're in there.

That's awesome.
Okay.
So we don't control it.
It's controlled, obviously,by the raffle platform.
And so really we'll be in Coloradoat the time of the drawing, but the
system will pick the winner and yeah.
So it would be really fun if itwas somebody within our community.

Somebody in the industry would be fun too.

Would be awesome.
But you never know.
So it's been a wild ride.
Like it, I don't know.
We threw it out there and, and we'rehopeful our role we're working hard.
We hired a PR firm to help us get the wordout because it definitely needs virality.
It needs everybody to tell everybody.
In order for us to meet ourminimum ticket threshold.

There are three people that watch this show.
So you're working on a little better.

Perfect.

Yeah, we're getting there.

Perfect.

We're getting there.

Yeah.

Jayne, you've been really quiet over there.
Do you have anything to addon, anything we can talk about?

I don't

I've ever heard you be this quiet.

I'm just listening.
I do wanna say that I read somewhere,and I'm trying to remember where,
that the younger generations aren'tbig on loyalty clubs, is, that's what
I read, that they're not like drawnto, to lo to loyalty programs like
the boomers and the older generationsand i've often thought about what,

(52:03):
when we, when I had a Venture BoundCamping resorts and I had 13 resorts,
we talked about a loyalty program.
And while we did, if you had acredit at one of our resorts, we
honored it at any of our resorts.
We did stuff like that.
But for me, loyalty was more of watchingmy loyalty was more of watching my
repeat and referral business, that wasmy loyalty and trying to figure out

(52:28):
ways how I could increase my businessso that more of my business came from
repeat and referral, because that kindof marketing in general costs me far
less than some of my other kind ofmarketing, and how do we build that?
And I do wanna say that I've always been abig customer service person and this marks

(52:54):
50 years that I've been in this industry.
So I've been here a long timeand way before experience and
customer and giving great customerservice was the cool thing to do.
We were doing it and I just think thatit's a little bit sad that we're going
to this all digital thing and just doinghospitality by having a gift basket.

(53:21):
No offense, Scott.
'cause I do gift baskets too, but Ithink that, I think it's a mistake
getting away from that human touch.
Like I do believe that we arein the hospitality business and
I think we need a human touch.
I know that through my days of runningresorts and having guest surveys,

(53:46):
meeting the manager or meeting theowner or this, the hospitality and the
helpfulness of the staff always was veryimportant on the guest surveys, right?
And so becoming so automated that,we're really not in the hospitality

(54:09):
business, I, that worries me.

I think it all depends, to neatly wrap this up, I think it all
depends on who your guest is and whoyou're going after and who your target
market is and who the type of people whoare, who stay at your Campground, right?
'cause there are just like you,I agree with you fa there are a
lot of people who wanna meet themanager who wanna hear the story.
I wanna meet the BnB owner in Irelandand have her tell me how she got
this amazing house on the side of acliff and maybe how I can sweet talk

(54:33):
her into raffling it to me one day.
I don't know.
But there are people like that.
And then there are people like Brianand Ann were saying, who you can
just have a great stay and if youfigure out how to use the hot tub,
you don't need to talk to somebodyand they're just as happy that way.
So I think there's, it justdepends on the type of guests.
Yes, automation is dangerous, we're notgonna get into that conversation, but
automation can also be great because itcan allow people to focus more on meeting
the guests, they're more on undoing.

(54:54):
So there's so many differentways that you can handle and
talk about that conversation.
Zach, you were shaking your headwith the loyalty program thing.
Do you agree with the younger peoplenot using loyalty or do you disagree?

I think that it's just perception of value.
I think it's different.
Maybe I'm one of those rare, on the cusp.
I'm a Zennial not quite, I'mtoo old to be a millennial and
too young to be a good Gen Xer.
So I'm a little bit unique, but Ithink, the way I value loyalty is.
What you were talking about, Brian,like some of those Perks and things.
But I'm willing to pay more for aresort where I just get those Perks

(55:29):
where I don't have to earn 'em.
Yes.
If that's a difference between a $200a night and two $50 night stay, I'll
take the two $50 nights stay and nothave to, gamble with it essentially.
Am I gonna bank enough points thisyear to get something good out of it
or see a return from enough route to.

Gimme an upgrade to a suite.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Yeah.
So I think it's, I think younger folkscare more about the first experience,
the first day, and they're willing tocome back and, when you look at some
of those indicators, and some of thoseare things, Brian and Ann you shared,
like when you're getting those commentsabout the emotion, the way that their

(56:08):
stay made them feel I think all of thoseare things that are evidence of that
loyalty and if your guests are feelingthat way, then you've accomplished it.
You've met the goal of doing that.
You're building brand, you'rebuilding loyalty, and you don't
need a program to do that.

Yeah, I do agree.
I think that this younger generation livesfor, and values the experience part in a
way that the older generations don't, andthey literally complain about nothing.
Like nothing.
They're such, I, we love the GenZ demographic that comes out.
We have a very young crowd that comes toour place and they're fantastic guests.

(56:50):
99% of the time they're.
Awesome guests and respect theproperty and they love everything.
And if something's wrong, they calland say, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.
Our hot water's not working.

Our hot water doesn't work.
We really hate to bother you.

That apologies going the wrong direction.
We, yeah.
We're the ones that's supposedto be delivering hot water, not.

Yeah.
And when we have guests that are ourage and older, it's very different.

They know how to complain.

Yes.
Very different.

I think it's still always been about the experience though.
I think just even what you'retalking about, bye Jayne.
We're losing people anddropping like flies.
'cause we're over, we'regonna end it in a second.
But so I think it's the same thing,like I think that the boomers you're
talking about, we're just raisedon a different type of experience
where points, maybe points, miles,loyalty programs were actually worth
something and actually meant something.
Even when Starwood existed beforeMarriott bought, like I was guaranteed a

(57:39):
suite upgrade if I was a certain level.
Like you had to give me it.
That was the terms of thecondition if one was available.
And then that disappeared and so did a lotof other things over the last 15 years.
So I think it's just a differentgeneration has been raised with different
experiences and the younger generationhas been raised with a, I want the
experience to just be there becauseI'm like, I'm not used to getting that
experience in a good loyalty program.

(58:00):
So I don't think either way is wrong orright, but I think it's still all about
experience and convenience for the people.
So it's two things that come backto, but let's wrap this thing up.
Brian and Ann, I reallyappreciate you guys being here.

Yeah.
Thanks for having us.
We appreciate it.

Where are you guys gonna be in five years if everything
goes perfectly for your business?
And then tell us where they can findmore about your business online.

We'll probably be still here in Wimberley, Texas
running the Yurtopian in Wimberly.

Yep.

Yeah.
And they can go to, oh, to findout more about to stay is you
can go to the Yurtopian.com
and we have a banner on topof our website that shows that
page that you were showing.
That's the Win My Resort campaign.
And yeah.

And for more information about our interesting
exit raffle style transaction,you can go to winmyresort.com.
Yeah.

It's a good domain.
You should sell that to somebody whenyou're done raffling your resort bet you
can make a profit up in the main thing.
You should raffle the domain.
Zach.

Maybe.

Final thoughts?

It's always good.
Enjoy meet new operatorsand connecting with people.
But we've got some sites underconstruction down near you,
so maybe the next time I comedown, I'll stay at Yurtopian.

Oh, that'd be great.
Love to connect.

Yeah, anytime.

Talk, anytime.
Architecture and design would alwaysbe a fun conversation with us as well.
Yeah.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Let us know.

And yeah, anybody that wants to get in touch with
me you can find me on LinkedIn.
You can email me at zstoltenberg@lja.com.
Or I think most of my stuffis out on YouTube and all the
socials and everything out.
Yeah, reach out if we can help youif you're an operator that's existing
that wants to expand or if you're.
Getting ready to jump in for the firsttime or you're looking at property.

(59:36):
And I guess I like to tell people Idon't charge anybody for a phone call.
So a lot of times it is justthat kind of friendly intro.
Gimme some advice, gimme yourthoughts, gimme some ideas.
Maybe that grows intoa working relationship.
Maybe it's just my chance to connect,with other people that might be able to
help them at the stage that they're at.

Awesome.
Thank you guys all for being here.
Appreciate it.
We lost a couple people.
Jayne Cohen from CampgroundConsulting Group.
If you're looking for consultingservices, look her up.
I don't know her websiteoff the top of my head.
I'm not gonna try to guess it, butmaybe campgroundconsultinggroup.com,
that might be their competitor.
I don't know.
It's a creative name, buthopefully that's Jayne.
She does some great work.
We get Scott Foos with HorizonOutdoor Hospitality does management
and consulting services too, I think.

(01:00:16):
A little bit like consulting services.
He's got a new brandthat he launched there.
And then we have Casey fromCampspot of course, campspot.com.
If you're looking forproperty management software.
But appreciate you guys all being here.
We will see you next week on anotherepisode of MC Fireside Chats.
If you're not tired of hearingof me, I will be on another
podcast with Scott Bahr.
We're gonna talk about some data as itrelates to glamping in the industry and
how things have looked over the summer,but how they're trending toward fall.

(01:00:38):
And then a little bit about AI and the newlaunch of GPT-five, and if we have time,
what happens if AI solves physics andwhat does Camping look like in that world?
So we'll see if we have time to getto those kind of crazy conversations.
But other than that, we'llsee you next week on another
episode of MC Fireside Chats.
Thanks guys.
Appreciate you being here.

Ann-Tyler Konradi (01:00:54):
Bye.

(01:01:23):
(outro)

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MC Fireside Chats - August 13th, 2025

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