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In just a moment you'll meet Lauren Blanford from Lost Woods — a glamping retreat and event property built on 160 acres of northern Michigan that started with two bell tents, a porta potty, and homemade bagels hand-delivered at sunrise.
Lauren and her husband Jason were living in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood, raising young kids, feeling like two ships passing in the night. They put their condo up for sale, found a property they wanted to buy, and were ready to make the leap. Then COVID hit — the exact week the world shut down. The condo had already sold. The other deal fell through. Everything they owned was in storage. They had no home and no plan B.
So they started over. The original vision had been an event barn, but gatherings weren't happening anymore. They shifted gears, came up to northern Michigan on vacation, and found 160 acres of land with views that took their breath away. They bought it and started building something from scratch — slowly, deliberately, with whatever resources they had left.
What's happened since is one of the more compelling small-scale hospitality stories I've come across. Lauren walks us through how guest feedback reshaped her entire business model — from glamping stays to themed retreats that now drive almost everything. Reading retreats that sell out instantly. A romance novel retreat built around a bookstore that opened in their tiny town. Mother-daughter camps that filled in a day. A perimenopause retreat that was born from a literal conversation at the dinner table during a previous retreat. We talk about the decision to close the business Monday through Thursday this summer so she could actually be present with her kids, how she went from fully dependent on Airbnb to 95% direct bookings and what that did for her cash flow and her sanity, and this idea she keeps coming back to — that the real growth opportunity for operators like her isn't more units. It's more reasons for people to show up.
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Behind the Stays is brought to you by Journey — a first-of-its-kind loyalty program that brings together an alliance of the world’s top independently owned and operated stays and allows travelers to earn points and perks on boutique hotels, vacation rentals, treehouses, ski chalets, glamping experiences and so much more.
Your host is Zach Busekrus, Head of Growth at Journey. If you are a hospitality entrepreneur who has a stay, or a collection of stays with soul, we’d love for you to apply to join our Alliance at journey.com/alliance.
