Sage Outdoor Advisory, 5113 South Harper, Suite 2C, Chicago, IL (2026)

05/28/2026

Our newest Partner Spotlight is live, and it starts with a road trip.

RoverPass began when its founder couldn't book a campground online anywhere he looked. Most parks were still using a paper notebook. Today, campgrounds and RV parks around the country run their whole operation on the platform he built.

We sat down with CEO Ravi Parikh to talk about building operator-first software:

→ Shipping new features weekly instead of waiting on a yearly roadmap
→ The two things operators say on every call: more bookings, more time back
→ Why the smallest parks feel the impact first
→ Bringing small operators into the modern era on the same terms as big resorts

Read the full Q&A: https://sageoutdooradvisory.com/blog/partner-spotlight-roverpass

05/27/2026

Our Glamping Properties Map just hit 718 verified properties and over 8,000 units.

676 properties across the U.S. and Canada, with 42 international markers now live in Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico. 331 of those properties are projects we've personally worked on, spanning glamping resorts, RV parks, campgrounds, marinas, and landscape hotels.

What's new:
→ The first international markers, with more countries coming
→ Filter by country, state, or unit type to pull a comp set in seconds
→ Toggle demand-side overlays for population change (Census) and tourism growth (BEA) directly on the map
→ National Parks layered in for proximity context

If you're underwriting a project or scouting a new market, this is the layer underneath our client work made public.

Explore it: https://resources.sageoutdooradvisory.com/en/map

05/22/2026

🌲 — Our weekly series spotlighting past Sage Outdoor Advisory projects that are now open and welcoming guests.
This week: Columbia Gorge Getaways in Carson, Washington
Set on 400 acres of private timberland in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge — and conveniently located near Portland, Seattle, and Bend — Columbia Gorge Getaways is a family-owned resort that gets glamping right.
Guests can choose from luxury Creekside Yurts, one- and two-bedroom Safari Tents, cozy Bell Tents, or secluded campsites — accommodations that range from full-service comfort to back-to-nature simplicity. Premium units come with full kitchens, en-suite bathrooms with heated showers, climate control, and even high-speed Starlink WiFi. It's pet-friendly, family-friendly, and home to an expansive trail system plus a dedicated event space for weddings, retreats, and celebrations.
What we love about this one is the story behind it. The Sourek family first settled on Bear Creek Road in 1981, and after purchasing the 400-acre parcel from a local logging company in 2017, they built the resort around four guiding pillars: conservation, education, relaxation, and celebration. Roads are kept narrow, structures are milled from timber harvested right on the property, and power is supplemented with solar — proof that you can build a beautiful retreat in harmony with the land. It's no surprise they've been featured in USA Today, Willamette Week, and AOL's 2026 family-travel roundups.
If you're dreaming of a Pacific Northwest escape under a canopy of evergreens, this is the one. 🍃
👉 Learn more and book at https://www.columbiagorgegetaways.com/

05/13/2026

New on The Outdoor Hospitality Podcast: Myth Busting with Mike Harrison () and Wendy Heineke ().

Sage founder Shari Heilala hosts a fast-moving conversation through 10+ of the most common misconceptions in glamping and RV resort development, including:

"If you build it, they will come"
"Outdoor hospitality is recession-proof"
"Glamping is just a trend"
"Pricing should stay consistent year-round"
"It runs itself once it's built"
"Five-star reviews mean you're doing everything right"

A must-listen for developers, operators, and investors trying to separate signal from noise in today's market.

Listen here: https://www.outdoorhospitalitypod.com/outdoor-hospitality-myth-busting-with-mike-harrison-and-wendy-heineke/

05/08/2026

We're continuing our weekly series called spotlighting past Sage Outdoor Advisory projects that are now open.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘆:
Open Sky Zion Resort, located in Virgin, Utah

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀:
→ 80-acre off-grid retreat in Zion National Park's gateway corridor
→ 13 luxury canvas camps across seven bookable types, with three more under construction through summer 2026
→ Unit mix spans solo, couples, families, and small groups (sleeps 1-5), including an ADA-compliant unit
→ Premium tier features copper soaking tubs, glass-ceiling stargazing rooms, telescopes, and private cedar hot tubs; a forthcoming flagship adds a custom 16-foot horizon-edge pool from a repurposed shipping container
→ On-site farm-to-table dining at Black Sage Restaurant, plus a complimentary Experiences concierge for local guides and excursions
→ Pursuing DarkSky International Approved Lodging certification; 2024 American Glamping Association Member of the Year
→ Baseline rates start at ~$390/night; peak rates reach ~$825/night

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆:
Open Sky Zion is the work of four partners (Bygnal Dutson, Nathan and Nolan Jessop, Lorin Harker) who came together in 2017 with backgrounds in land development, architecture, and construction, soft-launching in 2021. Zion is one of the most visited national parks in the country, but lodging in the gateway corridor has historically clustered into chain hotels and dated cabins. Open Sky took a different path: an off-grid 80-acre site with a chef-driven restaurant and a curated experiences program tying guests into local outfitters. That F&B and ancillary stack is rare in glamping at this scale and meaningfully extends length of stay, ADR contribution, and on-property spend.

The unit mix is also worth studying. Premium units push rates higher while entry-tier units across both couples and family segments anchor the floor. Covering that much price range inside a single brand at 13 keys is unusual and gives the property real flexibility across seasons.

👉 Learn more at https://www.stayopensky.com/

05/06/2026

📊 Top 5 Brands: U.S. Glamping Market

The largest glamping chains in our database: 67 properties, ~2,950 units. Avg. retail daily rates (ARDR) by brand spanning $158 to $557. Operating windows from 5.9 to 11.6 months.

Here's how they stack up.

→ 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗻𝘀: 29 properties, 1,100+ units. Largest footprint by a wide margin. All outposts within a two-hour drive of a major metro. $192 calendar-blended ARDR, 10.8 months open.

→ 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝘃𝗮𝘀: 14 properties, 790+ units. Iconic national park gateways from Yellowstone to Acadia, with ULUM extending into Moab. Highest rate in the market at $557 summer ARDR. Shortest season at 5.9 months.

→ 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽: 9 properties, 395+ units. Hybrid location strategy: roughly 30 minutes from a park or scenic landscape and 15 minutes from a town. $377 summer ARDR. Longest operating window at 11.6 months.

→ 𝗛𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗮: 8 properties, 380+ units. Chooses landscape and national forest over national park cachet. $281 summer ARDR, 9.6 months.

→ 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽: 7 properties, 285+ units. Same iconic park geography as Under Canvas at rustic, off-grid product. About a third the rate, with a 9-month season.

What ties the data together: location strategy drives both rate and season length. Park gateway product wins on ARDR but pays for it in operating window. Drive-market and hybrid locations trade peak rate for runway.

For developers and investors, the math that matters is rate × season × occupancy. Headline ARDR is the ceiling. Operating months tell you how many nights you actually get to sell.

Swipe through for the full breakdown.

04/30/2026

❌ Myth: More units = more profit.

✅ Reality: More units forces a decision. Scale your operations with them, or scale your problems.

The jump from 10 to 20 glamping units is where most operators quietly lose money.
Not because demand drops. Because revenue doubles, costs more than double, and nobody can quite point to why.

Margins across outdoor hospitality have tightened in recent years as labor and utility costs have climbed. Glamping, with its higher service intensity, feels that pressure even more acutely.

Here's where margins quietly compress between 10 and 20 units, usually in places that don't show up on the labor line:

→ Deferred maintenance becomes emergency maintenance. Soft goods, climate control, hot tubs, custom finishes. A $50 fix today is a $5,000 repair next month.

→ Guest experience erodes before the P&L shows it. Glamping guests pay premium rates and expect boutique-hotel service. Reviews soften, ADR and occupancy follow, and revenue weakens against the same fixed overhead.

→ OTA commissions quietly eat the upside. 15 to 30% of every booking goes to the channel. Without a direct-booking strategy, scaling units just deepens OTA dependence.

→ Owner labor fills the gaps, until it can't. Many owner-operated properties underreport true labor costs because owners work without formal payroll. Buyers add that replacement labor back in at sale, which reduces NOI and your valuation along with it.

→ Turnover compounds. Burnt-out managers quit. Unhappy guests don't rebook. Both cost real money to replace.

The operators we see scale profitably do one thing differently. They build the operational infrastructure before the unit count demands it, not after the margins start telling them to.

Growth is a strategy. Scale is a system.

04/29/2026

🌿 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: MSCAPES

This month we're shining a light on MSCAPES, a team that's quietly raising the bar for what outdoor hospitality can look like.

What started as a deep expertise in traditional hospitality and interior design has evolved into something pretty special: a full turn-key partner for owners building luxury glamping and outdoor resort destinations. Structure, decking, furnishings, HVAC, interiors, all from one source, all designed around how the guest will actually experience the space.

𝗪𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗤&𝗔 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺:

"It's not just about how something looks. It's about how it feels, how it functions, and what the guest walks away remembering."

That experience-first mindset is exactly why MSCAPES has become such a valued partner for us and the owners we work with. Whether someone is stepping into outdoor hospitality for the first time or scaling an existing operation, MSCAPES brings clarity, craftsmanship, and a genuine commitment to the long view.

Read the full Partner Spotlight on the Sage Outdoor Advisory blog: https://sageoutdooradvisory.com/blog/partner-spotlight-mscapes/

04/27/2026

The Pacific Northwest is one of the most distinctive glamping markets in the country, and the data backs it up.
We tracked 47 properties and 563 units across Oregon and Washington, covering everything from the Olympic coast to the Columbia River Gorge to Central Oregon.

A few highlights from the data:

→ $206 typical nightly rate (median)
→ +$20 weekend premium per night
→ Summer rates climb to a $252 weekend median, with premiums widening to +$30 in peak season
→ Top-quartile operators are averaging ~$514 a night
→ Washington tourism hit $25.1 billion in 2024 visitor spending; Oregon added another $14.3 billion
→ Roughly 6.7 million people live in the Seattle and Portland metros, most major PNW glamping clusters are a half-day drive or less

The highest-density clusters sit where Cascade access, national park gateways, and metro drive-market reach overlap: the Columbia River Gorge, the San Juan Islands, the Mount Hood / Willamette corridor, the Oregon Coast, and Central Oregon.

Two clusters lead on rate. The San Juan Islands and Oregon Coast both clear $300 median nightly, constrained-supply markets with limited buildable land, strict permitting, and waterfront premiums that hold rate year-round.

National operators are validating the region with real capital. Under Canvas opened its first Pacific Northwest camp in May 2025. Snow Peak opened its first U.S. campfield in Long Beach. Marriott acquired Postcard Cabins, with Washington properties in the portfolio.

Pacific Northwest is the latest installment in our Market Report series.

04/23/2026

This week on : SōLSTAY Lodging & Marina in Sandusky, Ohio.

A vintage marina transformed into a waterfront glamping retreat on Lake Erie, half a mile from Cedar Point and five minutes from downtown Sandusky.

What's there:

→ 12 tiny houseboats, 5 lux houseboats, and 3 cottages
→ Working marina with boat slips, boat launch, and jet ski docking
→ Rooftop hot tub with bay views
→ Floating sauna on the water
→ Kayaks, watersport rentals, waterside boardwalk, mini golf, co****le, ping pong, firepit lounge
→ 80-ft mural by renowned graffiti artist Jules Muck
→ Nightly rates from $150 to $425 depending on unit type
→ Harvest Host and Hipcamp overnight parking on-site

The founders, three longtime friends and one bootstrapping entrepreneur, built SōLSTAY around a simple idea: that Sandusky's drive-to tourism corridor deserved lodging that actually made the waterfront the point, not an afterthought.

Learn more and book at https://www.solstaylodging.com

Sage Outdoor Advisory

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