As a self-proclaimed “city person” who has never camped a day in her life, I wasn’t sure if an overnight stay in a tiny, A-frame cabin in the middle of the Catskills would be my idea of a good time. 

The 220-square-foot accommodation, made almost entirely of wood and furnished only with a queen bed, was a bit more rustic than the full-service hotels I typically frequent. But with “glamping” — a portmanteau of “glamorous” and “camping” — emerging as one of hottest hospitality niches within the last decade, my curiosity was also piqued. 

And so, I found myself the guest of the Eastwind Hotel & Bar, a 19-room boutique property outside Windham, N.Y., this past September. In addition to 16 traditional guestrooms as well as a main building with a check-in area and common space, the hotel offers three Lushna-brand cabins. Eastwind co-owner Bjorn Boyer described the modular cabins, imported from Slovenia, as a perfect space for those who “don’t want to be camping but want a proximity to nature.”

As someone who does enjoy the occasional proximity to nature, I was instantly charmed upon setting foot in one of those Lushna cabins. 

The single floor-to-ceiling window overlooked a pretty hillside dotted with trees whose leaves were just starting to turn yellow and orange, and the entire space smelled pleasantly of cedar. Just outside, a fire pit was available for communal use, and Eastwind’s signature s’mores kits were offered at check-in. 

I also noticed that the WiFi was spotty, which Boyer strongly argues is a feature, not a bug.

“Our other rooms and main house have WiFi, but we don’t have it directly in the Lushna cabins,” he said. “Nobody is turned off by it. People are usually coming to get away from everything anyway.”

Meanwhile, the accommodation still offered more than a few creature comforts. The bed, fitted with high-end Frette linens, was the right amount of cushy, and the cabin’s nearby detached, private bathroom was well appointed and fully stocked with plush, white towels; bulk bathroom amenities by indie fragrance brand Zenology; and an oversize shower with a skylight.

And while the cabin did have a tendency to run hot in the afternoon and cold in the evening, a small air conditioner in each Lushna and a tiny space heater that was available on request helped keep things temperate throughout my stay.

A glamping convert

All it took was one night spent fireside — glass of red wine in one hand, a freshly made s’more in the other — and I was officially a glamping convert.

“The Lushna cabins have really put us in the spotlight,” said Boyer, who became enamored of the company’s cabin design after he and his wife stumbled across an image featuring the modular cabin brand on Pinterest. 

The units, which carry weekend rates of around $229 per night, have proven popular.

“More and more people are coming, and oftentimes we have to turn away people who want to get away for the weekend in a Lushna, because they’re all booked up months in advance,” Boyer said. “And if we do have a last-minute cancellation, we’ll post that we have another Lushna available [on social media], and it will sell within minutes.”

Glamping’s roots in Africa

Eastwind is just one of many upstarts riding the glamping wave, which began hitting its stride sometime in the mid-2010s. An iteration of the concept has existed within the travel sphere for decades, with upscale African safari tents often credited with pioneering the idea of “luxury camping.” 

Today’s trend toward outdoor-centric lodging has evolved to comprise everything from vintage trailers to treehouses to yurts, and it has popped up everywhere from Southeast Asia to the Hamptons.

Ife Mathis, VIP and concierge travel consultant at Bear & Bear Travel, a Tzell Travel Group affiliate, credits social media with the trend’s growth.

“The first time I booked glamping accommodations was six years ago, back in 2013, [and] people thought of it as new and intriguing,” Mathis said. “And while the word has been out on glamping for some time, the army of travel influencers on social media has made it substantially more mainstream.”

Glamping accommodations seem uniquely well suited to social media, with the visual dichotomy between luxury and nature often making for excellent Instagram fodder.

Baxter Townsend, director of public relations at campsite startup Tentrr, which specializes in private camping experiences, said, “Glamping was sort of made for Instagram, in a sense. You have these beautiful, natural backgrounds and, a lot of times, these very chic dwellings, and it sort of fits into that whole ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ kind of ethos that we live in now.”

Tentrr, which lists both unequipped and fully equipped campsites on its distribution platform, recently expanded its offerings to include glamping partner sites. Among Tentrr’s standout glamping offerings is Little Raccoon Key, a private island experience located near Georgia’s Jekyll Island with rates at approximately $399 per night. In addition to a spacious luxury tent, the site features amenities like the services of a private chef. 

“In the past, glamping’s been a bit of a dirty word for us,” Townsend said. “We always sort of shied away from that. But as we’ve gotten a little bit bigger and we’ve seen glamping catch on, we realized it’s getting more people out to nature who maybe wouldn’t have done that before. There’s especially a lot of interest in glamping from people who live in a city or are surrounded by concrete all day but don’t really know how to go camping. For them, it’s an approachable and accessible option that seems fun.”

But it’s not only inexperienced campers who are eager to hop on the glamping bandwagon. According to Kampgrounds of America’s 2019 North American Camping Report, a survey of 2,900 U.S. and Canadian campers found that close to half of all campers said they would like to experience glamping in the coming year, a rate that has more than doubled in just the past 12 months.

A diverse set of offerings

With interest in glamping showing no sign of waning, the hospitality sector has scrambled to keep up with demand.

Bear & Bear Travel’s Mathis said that because “glamping is still very new for a lot of people” and “because it is still in the early stages, the market remains underserved. You see this especially [around] large cities like New York City where accommodations sell out incredibly quick.”

Smelling opportunity, a vast number of smaller startups and boutique players have quickly moved into the space, offering an array of glamping experiences at a wide mix of price points and service levels. That sudden boom, however, has come with its share of growing pains.

Eastwind’s Boyer said, “A lot of people like to jump into it and think they can put up a tent and call it glamping. But that’s really so far removed from what we do.”

David Levine is the owner of the glamping company Glampique, which manufactures and installs luxury tents. 

“The demand is really high on the commercial side, and you have all these people rushing in to start these glamping companies,” Levine said. But he added that often people become “frustrated by the quality of these accommodations, especially in regard to waterproofing.” 

He added, “If it rains, and there’s water in the tents, you’re going to have terrible reviews. And once there is no longer a glamping supply shortage, or there’s too much supply, it will be interesting to see how those companies fare.”

Levine said that Glampique’s $5,000 luxury tent model, which is geared toward commercial use, is manufactured and built to both protect from the elements and offer a “high design element.”

Moreover, with glamping now a catchall term, running the gamut from El Cosmico’s tepee in the middle of the Texas desert to Collective Retreats’ luxury tent on Governors Island in New York Harbor, it can be increasingly difficult for travelers to know exactly what to expect when it comes to amenities, service and travel logistics. Because of this, Mathis said, travel advisors have to take special care to fully understand what type of glamping experience a client is looking for.

Though glamping is a relatively new product, she said, “Travel advisors must still qualify their client when deciding on what and where to recommend, just as with any other trip. I keep two things in mind when I book glamping experiences: First, do your research. This may be a given, but it is important that you take the time needed to understand everything you can about potential accommodations. Second, always communicate with the client.”

According to Eastwind’s Boyer, the glamping operators themselves are also responsible for accurately marketing and describing their product.

“We try to be very true to everything we present on the property,” Boyer said. “We don’t enlarge the rooms. We don’t make it look like we have anything we don’t have on offer. Every now and then, somebody comes and kind of expected something different, but it very rarely happens. At the same time, we’ve had occasions where people come and say, ‘Oh my God, what is this?’ But then at the end of the week, they’re like, ‘This is the best thing ever.’”

Big players get curious

As the glamping market continues to expand, it seems inevitable that larger brands and developers will start throwing their hats into the ring. 

“You haven’t seen too many of the big hotel companies going into glamping,” said Glampique’s Levine. “You have your Amans and other high-end resorts that do some glamping around the world, but you haven’t seen, say, a Hilton jumping into glamping in a big way just yet, which is surprising.”

Marriott, however, appears to have at least dipped a toe into the segment. The company’s Tribute Portfolio of independent hotels added its first tented resort with the July opening of Natra Bintan, located on Bintan Island, Indonesia. 

Each of Natra Bintan’s 100 safari tents includes amenities such as a garden and outdoor patio, a four-poster bed, an LCD TV, air conditioning and WiFi. Standard rates start at around $126 per night for an entry-level Garden Tent and go up to roughly $260 per night for a higher-end Glamping Deluxe Tent.

Levine predicts that more hotel heavyweights will follow suit. 

“I think what’s going to happen is that some of the stronger glamping players are going to potentially get acquired by some big hotel brands,” he said. “Glamping is still in its infancy, and it is definitely not going away. It’s a fantastic hybrid of staying in a great hotel and camping, and it takes from the best of both of those worlds. It’s not going anywhere.”

CORRECTION: This report was updated to correct the rate information for the Lushna cabins at the Eastwind Hotel & Bar; the units start at $229 a night. The current version also removes information about expansion plans at the hotel, since the plans are not yet finalized.