GLAMPING!

Where HAVE we been?  Is it possible the GLAMPING trend nearly passed us by? Maybe so, since our first glimpse of glamps occurred in this month’s AARP magazine.  Glamorous camping there was described as combining “the splendor of the great outdoors with the comfort of a top-tier hotel.”

In Google retrospect, we see that USA Today and ABC News both covered this altLuxury style of camping as early as 2007.  And in 2008 New York Times’ Green Traveler described glamping as “camping but not quite.”

Offering a business model perspective, Mark Penn in the Wall Street Journal described this updated and upscale visit to the outdoors in August 2009.  For those wishing to enter the hospitality industry, he opined, start-up costs could be minimal as undeveloped land may be available at low cost and accommodations can be mobilized as necessary.

In fact, we did glamp before we knew glamping was cool.  Our initiation was at Safari West in California’s Sonoma County.  We chose to celebrate a special birthday in one of the resort’s luxurious yurts, where you “wake up with the sounds of Africa echoing in your dreams.”  Really!  From our yurt-pad we looked out at the giraffe family and were only steps away from the tropical bird refuge.  A two-hour safari the day before had introduced us to the many other wild animals usually found in far more remote regions of the world. We had to pinch ourselves to remember that we were in Northern California!

Glamping, aka “Comfy Camping” or “Boutique Camping,” is indeed a worldwide phenomenon.  Vacations may offer kayaking, climbing, hiking or fishing, in sun or snow, sea or mountains, northern or southern hemispheres, for singles or families.  The common threads are the haute cuisine, luxurious linens, superior service offered by those providing the glamping experience.  Many carry coveted ratings from the likes of National Geographic or Conde Nast.

Inherent in most of these wilderness luxury vacations is a certain greenness.  Chefs offer locally grown ingredients in their riverside feasts.  Far and Away Adventures, based in Sun Valley, ID, posits that their river trips with personal concierge service, massages, award-winning wines and organic food are also carbon neutral.

For more information, visit goGlamping.net a complete directory of luxury camping experiences.

Two prototypes are the first of their kind in Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park, CA – April 2010 – Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, a popular year-round lodging destination in the heart of Yosemite Village, unveiled today two prototype guest rooms on the cutting edge of environmentally-friendly interior architecture and design. The two rooms at The Lodge are the first of their kind in Yosemite National Park.

Reflective of Delaware North Companies’ award-winning GreenPath® environmental stewardship platform, the two eco-friendly guest rooms were designed with an eye toward an eventual roll-out throughout the Lodge’s 245 rooms. Every design selection, from insulation and paint to textiles and light fixtures, was evaluated based on its proximity, sustainability, recycled content and resilience. The prototypes offer an opportunity for Delaware North Companies and the National Park Service to evaluate the success of the overall design, research the durability of eco-friendly products and gather guest feedback from those who stay in the rooms. An additional goal is the eventual certification of Yosemite Lodge at the Falls as a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and Energy Star property.

“A great deal of research and technology is integrated in these rooms, most of it working quietly just beneath the surface,” said Keith Erikson, General Manager of Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. “Our guests won’t notice many of these elements, but when they cross the threshold and drop their bags, their rooms will be welcoming, comfortable, affordable and, we hope, inspiring.”

In designing the prototype eco-friendly rooms for Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, Richard Kollath and Edward McCann of Kollath McCann Creative Services considered each element of a standard hotel guest room and found a way to make it as eco-friendly as possible. The following outlines every aspect of the guest rooms, and can double as a resource guide for those looking to incorporate green design elements into their home living environment.

Room Entry
A new electronic key card entry system integrates with the room’s energy controls, using a lock that requires 50% fewer batteries than older locks, with the batteries lasting for nearly four years. After unlocking the room, the guest places the key card in a wall slot just inside the door. With a faint click, the key card activates select circuits that power lighting and electronics. When the guest removes the key from the slot upon leaving, the room reverts to its unoccupied, energy-saver state, automatically reducing the demand for power to circuits that feed the television and accessory lights. (Coupled with a wireless sensor, this approach to energy management has been shown in European hotel case studies to reduce demand and energy expenses by upwards of 40%.)

Insulation
The blown-in cellulose now in the walls of the two prototypes at Yosemite Lodge increases heating and cooling efficiency and reduces sounds from adjacent rooms. With an R-value similar to fiberglass but nearly three times as dense, the insulation is made with locally available materials – up to 85% recycled newspaper and 15% boric acid as fire retardant – and has the highest recycled content of any insulation available.

Windows
Inefficient single-pane and jalousie windows have been replaced with double pane windows that will help guests feel warmer – or cooler – while conserving energy. The exterior aluminum cladding has a baked-on, electrostatically applied paint finish, minimizing the need for future maintenance.

Water
Toilets alone account for nearly 30% of indoor water consumption; older, inefficient toilets, faucets and shower heads are responsible for most of the water wasted in American homes and hotels. The new shower and bath fixtures in the Yosemite Lodge prototype rooms are high-performing, water-efficient models that will save nearly 5,000 gallons of water each year, using just 1.28 gallons per flush.

Lighting
Handsome new steel wall sconces, pendants and floor lamps in the guest rooms were manufactured in nearby Washington. All use energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs, which use one-third the energy and last roughly ten times longer than standard incandescent bulbs.

Paint
The rooms are painted using California-based Kelly-Moore paints with low- and zero-VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds).

Flooring
With fibers produced in part from recycled plastic bottles and a backing derived from old tires, the carpet tiles in the guest rooms add warmth and comfort underfoot with a small carbon footprint. The 12-inch porcelain tiles used in the vanity and bath areas contain 40% recycled materials and will provide many years of service.

Vanity & Countertop
Produced just outside San Francisco, the countertop is made of 85% glass collected from curbside recycling bins. This striking surface alerts guests that there’s something different and special about their room, especially when paired with drinking glasses made from wine bottles. Additionally, wall-mounted soap and lotion dispensers eliminate clutter and waste.

Furnishings
Richard Kollath designed a line of Old Hickory furnishings unique to the green rooms at Yosemite Lodge at the Falls featuring distinctive, inset bow tie joinery. Like other Old Hickory furnishings and accessories in the Yosemite Valley, this rustic, durable collection is made using mid-western hickory saplings – the hardest wood in North America (30% harder than oak) and a renewable source that continually re-sprouts from the same stump. Produced in a factory employing sustainable practices and water-based glues, Old Hickory furniture has lasted for decades in hospitality settings.

Television
The 40-inch flat-screen SONY Eco Series HDTV selected for the guest rooms features a high-efficiency HCFL backlight that provides optimum brightness and reduces power consumption up to 50 % in comparison to Energy Star requirements, using only 90 watts, which is as little as an incandescent light bulb. The television’s Presence Sensor detects when a guest has stepped away from the TV and turns the picture off. If after 30 minutes the sensor still doesn’t detect movement, the set turns off completely. And, an energy-saving switch reduces power consumption of the TV to zero when the set is turned off.

Recycle Caddies
Kollath McCann’s prototype divided recycling caddies were also made by Old Hickory.

Bedding & Linens
The American-made, 100% organic cotton sheets were produced in a solar-powered factory in Rhode Island. The bed’s blanket cover, throw and window drapery are made from washable cotton matelasse.

About Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts at Yosemite, Inc.
The Ahwahnee, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls and Wawona Hotel are operated by Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts at Yosemite, an affiliate of Delaware North Companies and an authorized National Park Service concessioner overseeing lodging, dining, guest recreation activities and transportation services in Yosemite.

About Delaware North Companies
Delaware North Companies is one of the world’s leading hospitality and food service providers. Its family of companies includes Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, Delaware North Companies Gaming & Entertainment, Delaware North Companies Travel Hospitality Services, Delaware North Companies Sportservice, Delaware North Companies International and Delaware North Companies Boston, owner of TD Garden. Delaware North Companies is one of the largest privately held companies in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. For more information, visit www.DelawareNorth.com.
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About GreenPath®
GreenPath®, which began in Yosemite National Park over a decade ago, has since expanded to Delaware North Companies’ 200-plus venues across the world. A sophisticated environmental stewardship program actively engaging employees at every level, GreenPath® ensures environmental considerations are incorporated into all business decisions. The program’s initiatives are showcased in comprehensive recycling, composting and other waste-diversion programs, energy and water conservation, employee and guest interpretation and education, sustainable, local and organic food policies, strategic planning and partnerships, product purchasing and fuel consumption. As a result, Delaware North Companies is one of the first hospitality companies in the United States – and the first operating in a national park – to earn 14001 environmental management registration in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a worldwide federation of national standards from some 140 countries.

In a perfect AltLuxury moment, C. Montgomery Burns loses his billions and finds comfort in friends, simple moments and a Coca-Cola. Brilliant!

Maybe the consensus of philosophers and economists were right all along – that it takes anger or sadness to change minds, attitudes, verbiage. And what has changed through seven month’s time is a movement from a recession (small case letters, November 2008) to a Recession (in caps, May 2009) with an accompanying movement from resignation to an irritating resentment that, like the Swine Flu, seems more viral than ever before. The severity of the economy, accentuated by bank bailouts of such horrendous proportion that, it is said, all of our children will be indentured servants for years, and the emergence of the Madoff story, showing how trust and trusts, can be Ponzi-ed into oblivion, have changed attitudes of resignation to attitudes of anger in ways we are just beginning to understand.

Those who work in the luxury field, whether it is in luxury hospitality, hotels, branding or shared residences, have noticed a sea change, a movement from objectifying to personalizing, implying the idea of luxury is neither changeless nor timeless, nor above the fray as once thought, but scalable and adaptive to present cultural norms. The vocabulary, especially the definition of luxury, is moving away from the Wall Street model of conspicuous consumption – cars, watches, diamonds – to a softer version, one that gels more with Main Street – family, authenticity, the scarcity and primacy of time.

“I have strongly recommended to my clients not to even the use the word luxury. It has become so overused. For some projects we have worked on, we actually went through the press releases to soften the word or remove it,” says Linda Bruno, Managing Director for Consultare, a consultancy group for the luxury hotel industry.

Softening and removing might not have been as much of an option a few months ago as it is now. In the Pre- Madoff/TARP world, it could be argued that defining luxury moved along a more objectified BRAND bandwidth, with high end magazines telling us what to buy, where to go and what to wear. But now – how many luxury print publications have ceased? Executive Living, Executive Decision, Ocean Drive, Trump, Trump World, Ascent, Distinction, the list goes on. According to Folio, ad sales in recent months have faltered consistently in many of the high end shelter magazines. What can be inferred here? Only an arguable possibility: that aspirationals may be getting tired of seeing the brand stuff of which the inspirationals lives are made.

In one of the last issues of Portfolio, another magazine that will publish its last issue soon, an article was written by a TARP wife, a woman whose luxurious lifestyle was underscored for years by her wealthy banker husband, whose bank has been given billions in bailout money. Understandably, she prefers to remain anonymous. Her Essay deals with how the meaning of luxury has changed for her: “I haven’t even looked at Spring clothes. Keeping up with fashion seems somehow decadent in this new era, like getting Botox injections or catered dinners.” How does she see her life now? In addition to turning down invitations to gala events where they will be asked for donations they don’t have extra for anymore, eating out less frequently, combined with having to actually cook, staying home and watching TV reruns, this is what defines her life — a life, she says, of relative luxury. This means her house is not in foreclosure, and they can still afford things they need. Of course, she is angry, not only because of this turn of events, but also because of her husband’s turn from good physical health to less so, a man who now apologizes each day for losing so much of their money and making so many mistakes.

Given such a scenario, how do you think they feel when they receive in the mail, glossy, elite lifestyle and home magazines, touting the brands they had last year, and have no longer?

Due to such a nagging irritant, the root systems, definitions and presentations of luxury are changing. What is emerging, due to the shock and awe of the world economic collapse, Madoff, and the bank bailout, is a something, well, positive.

New thinking – with the touch points of authenticity, honesty, transparency, genuineness, mindfulness of brand and product has begun to replace the old words of luxurious, extravagant, lavish, elite, one of a kind, dreamlike.. and the like. The luxury experience used to mean selling the dream, but now it is in process of becoming more an offer – to obtain a transformatory experience of awareness, of eco-sensitivity, of education, perhaps a green experience, or, one of philanthropic substance and consequence – something that changes a person from the inside out, not vice versa.

There are some companies that get this, and have changed their marketing and sales messaging to reflect this growing awareness – one that has done this so well is Exclusive Resorts, the largest and best known Destination Club now in existence, with a $2B Real Estate portfolio and over 3000 members. Their online and print advertising defines luxury through the scarcity of time. Time with children before they grow up, time with grandparents so children will remember and time that can be crafted into significant memories. These ideas are the new definitions of luxury.

Abercrombie & Kent Residence Clubs, a dimension of the famed tour operator Abercrombie & Kent, also has the ability to carry their members to places that will create eco-sensitive, educational memories. Other companies, Exquisite Safaris being the major one, takes their clients to areas in Africa where they can come to know the villagers, and create a strong understanding of their needs, allowing new forms of philanthropy to ensue. In all of these cases, luxury is being redefined not in terms of how much but of how well, not in terms of artifice, but of authenticity, thereby beginning to redress the antagonisms of our ailing systems.