How to expand in a nontraditional hospitality company? Partner with the marketing vehicle that’s been driving your growth in the first place.
Santa Barbara, California-based Mesa Lane Partners is the force behind AutoCamp, a luxury camping company that has two California-based sites and in 2019 will open another site in the state just outside of Yosemite National Park, with 80-plus custom-built Airstream trailers.
Getting a site on the outskirts of Yosemite was no easy task (the acquisition took a year and a half), but the effort largely worked out due to an exclusive partnership with Airstream, an Ohio-based company whose aluminum trailers evoke feelings of 1960s U.S. road tripping.
AutoCamp came into being in 2013 and, initially, the company was sourcing vintage Airstreams and renovating them to a luxury level. Now, via the partnership, Airstream is building models to a spec designed by AutoCamp. In addition to the new, customized Airstream models (which measure 31 feet long and 250 square feet), the upcoming Yosemite site will also have a mid-century inspired clubhouse with reception, indoor fireplace with meeting space, a bar and general store – all amenities in line with AutoCamp’s existing properties.
HOTELS spoke with AutoCamp CEO Neil Dipaola about the partnership and the company’s plan for expansion as a result.
HOTELS: What drove this expansion?
Neil Dipaola: The experience economy and the credible demand for the AutoCamp experience. People, more than any time before, they want something they can talk about when they’re back in their office, standing around the cooler. They want to post the Instagram pic of them with the Airstream. That thirst for experience has made our social media go over the top with likes, and put the demand for our rooms at a premium, where you’d be hard-pressed to find a weekend where there’s availability at AutoCamp. We recognized that there is a need and said, “Hey, it’s time to expand.”
H: What’s next for AutoCamp in terms of expansion?
ND: The Yosemite property is the first of what will be an international rollout of our properties. We’ve got properties planned on the east coast that we’ll be announcing in probably just a few short months.
H: What’s average occupancy right now like on existing properties?
ND: In terms of occupancy, we really can’t talk to the specifics, but I can tell you that occupancy is significantly higher than our concept. We used some travel research to look at other hotels that are in our market, for any given market that we decide to venture into. And AutoCamp is consistently hitting higher than the average occupancy rates.
H: What do you see as the biggest opportunity here?
ND: We could never scale to the point and move at the velocity that we’re moving at right now without Airstream. They can build hundreds of trailers a month for us, so we’re only limited by the properties that we find to put them on. I think this is an interesting point because, unlike a traditional hotel that’s building onsite, Airstream can build our hotel rooms really, really quickly. So, once we buy a property, we can pretty much roll the Airstreams on within a few months, making the site improvements, building a clubhouse. And we can have these elements guest-ready in a fraction of the time compared to a traditional stick-built hotel.