A New Way to Build a Glamping Business: The Tentations Story
Innovation often comes from asking a simple question: What if there was a better way?
For AGA member Tentations, that question led to reimagining what a glamping accommodation could be. By combining mobility, durability, and thoughtful engineering, Tentations is helping landowners and hospitality operators launch or expand their glamping businesses with greater flexibility and less risk. Their mission is to make it easier than ever to transform underutilized land into unforgettable guest experiences—without the lengthy construction timelines or significant upfront investment traditionally associated with development.
We recently caught up with the Tentations team via this AGA Member Spotlight Q&A to learn more about the inspiration behind the company, the innovations driving its growth, and its vision for the future of the glamping industry.
Q: How did you get started in the glamping industry? What motivated you to get involved?
A: Glamping has been part of our family for a long time. My family is South African, and we owned and operated the number-one resort in the Caribbean, so hospitality has always been in our blood. Growing up, we also spent many vacations on African safaris, staying in beautiful glamping tents long before "glamping" was a word anyone used in the US. Tentations itself started with my dad. He'd been approached to build glamping resorts here in the US, and while he was scouting the space, he stayed at a large tented resort the last week of December and watched the staff breaking down the tents for winter and packing them into shipping containers. He thought there had to be a better way to do this. He sketched the idea on a napkin, filed for a patent, and that napkin sketch is where Tentations began.
Q: What is unique about your approach to glamping? What sets your business or services apart from others in the industry?
A: Most of the glamping industry forces a trade-off between speed, quality, and cost. Pick two. Tentations breaks that triangle. It's a 430-square-foot luxury suite built on a road-legal trailer platform: no permits, no construction crews, no foundation. It unfolds in 15 minutes and is fully guest-ready in one to two hours. Unlike a canvas tent or a dome structure, it's climate-controlled and weatherproof enough to operate in extreme heat or extreme cold, so operators aren't stuck with a five-month season. It's genuinely mobile too, it carries a VIN and can be relocated for severe weather or if a market shifts.
Q: How is your company innovating within the glamping space? Any new technologies, products, or services you are developing or implementing to push the boundaries of glamping?
A: We engineered Tentations from the ground up to solve the specific problems that make traditional glamping unreliable, and that meant rethinking the platform, not just the tent fabric. That's what lets us offer capabilities most glamping hardware can't touch: full off-grid capability (self-contained water, gray water storage, generator hookup) alongside on-grid plug-and-play compatibility, an extreme-weather liner that supports an operating range spanning desert heat to mountain winters, and a footprint that goes from a sealed transport trailer to a 430-square-foot suite in minutes. Our composite trailer construction puts us about 10 years ahead of the rest of the industry: no rot, no mildew, and it wipes down easily. We're also considered an RV, which comes with a vehicle identification number (VIN), so the unit can be financed like a vehicle, opening up different financing options than a traditional hospitality build would ever have.
Q: What’s the most innovative thing your company has done in the last year?
A: Across the major hospitality review platforms, temperature discomfort consistently ranks among the top guest complaints in glamping, and it rises to a top-three issue at premium nightly rates, where guests expect hotel-grade comfort. Common complaints include "too hot during the day," "too cold at night," and "the AC couldn't keep up." Tentations' insulated tent platform and new inner liner systems were engineered specifically to eliminate these failure modes. The result is a stable, climate-controlled interior, quieter, drier, and more comfortable than traditional single-wall canvas, that holds up to guest expectations at premium price points. For glamping operators, resort developers, and eco-lodge owners, the Tentations platform is designed to deliver a measurably stronger business case:
All-season usability that opens up shoulder-season and off-season nights previously lost to weather.
Higher nightly rates justified by hotel-grade comfort and climate stability.
Higher Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) potential through extended operating windows and improved guest satisfaction.
Fewer negative reviews tied to heat, cold, humidity, or noise complaints.
Faster deployment than hard-wall construction, with a meaningfully lower capital cost
Q: What’s your vision for the future of your company within the glamping industry? How do you see your business growing or evolving in the next few years?
A: Tentations is a family business, and that's central to how we think about the future. We're building something we want to hand down, not just scale and exit. We want Tentations to become the default answer for landowners and hospitality operators who have unused acreage and don't want to gamble months of construction and six figures of investment to find out if a site works. The long-term play is scaling from single-unit pilots to full fleets. Start with one Tentations unit, prove the revenue, then expand based on real demand rather than a five-year construction bet.
Q: How do you incorporate sustainability into your business practices? In what ways are you making your business more sustainable? What are the challenges and benefits of these efforts?
A: The biggest sustainability lever we pull is avoiding construction altogether. There's no concrete pad, no permanent land alteration, no months of heavy equipment and material waste that come with traditional building. The unit sits on four tires and can be removed without leaving a scar on the land. The composite shell is also built not to rot, rust, or corrode, which extends the product's usable life dramatically compared to canvas or timber structures that need frequent replacement.
Q: What do you see as the next big shift in consumer expectations in the glamping industry?
How are you preparing to meet or exceed these evolving expectations?
A: Guests are starting to expect glamping to deliver hotel-grade consistency, spa-quality bathrooms, real climate control, reliable hot water, instead of "camping with nicer sheets." The tolerance for pulley showers and no-AC summers is shrinking fast. We built the "Suite" Spot around that shift: full or half kitchens, rainfall showers, and three-tier window systems that behave more like a boutique hotel room than a tent. We're preparing for it by designing for year-round occupancy from the start rather than treating winter and peak summer as dead months.
Q: What challenges do you see the industry facing, and how are you addressing them? Discuss any significant challenges within the industry and how your company is working to overcome them.
A: Cost and time overruns are the biggest one. The traditional build path means permits, architects, contractors, and 12-24 months before a unit ever generates a dollar, and costs have a way of creeping up along the way. Our unit is fully integrated with bathroom, kitchen, plumbing, electrical, and everything else built in, so there are no hidden costs and no surprise change orders once the unit is purchased. Seasonality is the other one. Traditional tent glamping is typically a five- to six-month business (May through October), which caps revenue no matter how good the property is. We address both directly. Climate control extends a property's earning season by roughly 30-50%, and because the unit deploys in a day with no permitting, an operator can be taking bookings almost immediately instead of waiting out a construction timeline.
Q: How do you stay inspired and creative in your work? What practices, hobbies, or experiences help you maintain your creativity and passion for what you do?
A: We love to travel, especially as a family. Safari trips to Africa, road trips through Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. We're adventurous, we're adrenaline junkies, and we love exploring new things. Getting out into different landscapes and different kinds of hospitality experiences keeps us noticing what's missing and what could be better, which is really the engine behind everything we build at Tentations.
Q: Can you share a memorable story or experience you've had in the glamping industry? Describe a particular event or experience that stands out during your time in the glamping industry.
A: One trip has stuck with me more than any other, though not for a good reason, and that experience is a big part of why my family has worked as hard as we have to build something the industry actually wants and needs.
I was six months pregnant and went to visit our tent manufacturer in Tennessee with my dad, and we stayed at a tent hotel, paying extra for a unit with its own bathroom. We got there around 4pm after being on our feet all day and just needed to lie down for a bit. But the tent had no windows. It didn't feel like a space you were meant to spend any real time in, just somewhere to sleep. So I forced myself back up and we went into town instead, even though I was exhausted.
We got back around 9:30pm and wanted to shower, only to find our unit had no running water. We had to lug all our luggage to a different tent, late at night. It was November, so the tent was freezing, and the only heat source was a fireplace you had to light and keep feeding logs yourself. I didn't want to deal with the smoke, so I just slept in the cold instead.
It was memorable, just not in a good way.
Q: What do you think the future of glamping looks like? Share your vision for the future of the glamping industry. Where do you see the industry headed in the next 5-10 years?
A: The lines between RV parks, campgrounds, boutique hotels, and glamping resorts are already beginning to blur. Especially since COVID, guests are increasingly choosing destinations based on unique experiences rather than accommodation type. They want to be part of nature. We expect more parks to evolve into outdoor hospitality destinations; we're already seeing RV parks and campgrounds developing their land, adding more amenities, and adding higher-end options for guests without RVs, serving a larger segment. Tentations gives operators the ability to adapt quickly to changing guest preferences. They give operators the opportunity to expand inventory, test new concepts, and respond to demand without major construction and without running into permitting issues. As land, labor, and construction costs continue to rise, flexible infrastructure solutions become increasingly attractive. We believe the future is integrated outdoor hospitality destinations that offer guests multiple ways to experience the property: luxury accommodations in unique locations, wellness experiences, and distinctive guest offerings, all on the same property.
As the glamping industry continues to evolve, companies like Tentations are challenging conventional thinking and introducing new possibilities for operators at every stage of their journey. From rapid deployment and flexible financing to all-season performance, their innovative approach is helping redefine how glamping destinations can be created and expanded.
Thank you to the Tentations team for sharing your story and vision with the AGA community. We look forward to following your continued growth and seeing the impact your solutions have on the future of outdoor hospitality.
Interested in learning more about Tentations? Visit their website, watch their product video, and connect with the team to discover how they're helping bring new glamping projects to life.
