9 minute read
Coming back from disasters
COMING BACK
FROM DISASTERS
BY MIKE GAST
Thomas Fire © Jeff Turner via Flickr Creative commons
If you operate a business in the outdoors, eventually Mother Nature will show you who’s really in charge. Glamping operations, no matter their locations, can’t escape the reach of devastating natural disasters.
Asuccessful rebound from devastating events seems to hinge on advanced planning, the right insurance, and an indefatigable spirit that ignites a comeback.
Here are the stories of two glamping operations completely wiped out by natural disasters in 2017, as well as what they learned on their journeys back.
FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN / VENTURA RANCH KOA RESORT, CALIFORNIA
Just before Christmas 2017, Scott Cory was thrilled with the glamping accommodations at his Ventura Ranch KOA Holiday just outside Santa Paula, California. Glamping was luring an entirely new category of “non-camper” guest to the park bordering picturesque Santa Paula Creek, just east of Ojai. Business was booming.
But in the early evening of Sunday, December 4, 2017, something sparked a fire in the mountain brush just five miles from the campground. Everything changed.
“I got a call from my maintenance person saying he could see flames in the hills,” Cory said. “We were having 50-mile-per-hour Santa Ana winds at the time. I knew this could be a disaster.”
Those first flickers of flame became the massive Thomas Fire, at the time the largest wildfire to ever strike California. It eventually consumed 281,893 acres and destroyed more than 1,000 homes and structures.
Cory’s order to evacuate his facility had guests scrambling to leave. Luckily, it was a Sunday evening and most weekend guests had already departed. Those who remained were still leaving when firefighters arrived.
“It was chaotic,” Cory remembers. “We had one recreational vehicle leaving with its slide out still extended, they were in such a hurry.”
Firefighters arrived just 15 minutes before the flames. In the end, Cory lost 26 structures including 14 Deluxe Glamping Cabins, 12 teepees, 4 glamping tents, 150 trees and most of his underground utilities.
“Everything was flattened,” he said. “Fire temperatures reached 1,500 degrees. The coins in the washing machines melted together.”
The metal roofs on all glamping cabins warped and cracked and the concrete siding turned to dust. What had been a premiere California glamping facility had been completely devastated within a half hour.
ONE RESORT, TWO HURRICANES / CINNAMON BAY RESORT, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS
If you live in the Caribbean, sooner or later you will experience a hurricane. But the two back-to-back Category 5 storms that walloped the tiny island of Saint John in the U.S. Virgin Islands in September 2017 were a surprise even to longtime residents. The storms completely flattened what had been
The aftermath of the hurricane at Cinnamon Bay
Econ structure prior to the storm
a thriving eco-tourist destination with a fledgling glamping industry.
One facility was the Cinnamon Bay Resort, a 50-year-old concession within Virgin Islands National Park operated under the direction of the U.S. National Parks Service.
Prior to the storms, Cinnamon Bay Resort was one of the few affordable vacation options on the island. It had 55 sturdy Eco Structures tents, 31 bare tent sites, and 40 cottage rooms. None of the structures was sturdy enough to survive the 185-mile-per-hour winds.
Managing Director Adrian Davis wasn’t working at Cinnamon Bay Resort when hurricanes Irma and Maria slammed into Saint John, but he was on the island.
“It felt like a nuclear bomb had gone off,” Davis remembered. “It took us three days to clear enough debris from the road just to get to town to make a phone call. It was a week before anyone showed up to help.”
Davis said what Irma didn’t destroy, Maria did. “Everything was just devastated.”
RISING FROM THE ASHES
Cory said there was never a question of whether to rebuild his property near the California coast. By January 2018, he already had orders placed with glamping cabin manufacturer Cavco Industries. “We started the process not really knowing when we would be able to put them on the property,” Cory said. “By July, we were able to take delivery of most of the cabins, and we ordered new covers for our teepees.” By the end of 2018, Ventura Ranch had regained nearly 70% of its previously occupancy.
The rebuilding process was an exercise in patience. Seemingly each day, a new challenge presented itself.
“We were told to wait for help from FEMA, but that never came,” Cory said. “I knew we just had to get started.” Insurance was also a challenge since most of the underground utilities at the site had been melted by the fire. “Insurance companies had never dealt with damage like that before,” he said.
STARTING FROM SCRATCH ON THE BEACH
The former concessionaire for Cinnamon Bay Resort eventually decided to sell his company, complete with the Virgin Islands concession contract, to a wealthy benefactor on the Saint John Island who hired Davis to start the rebuilding process.
“We started from scratch,” Davis said. “We built new concrete cottage structures instead of the wood-and-plaster structures that had been there. We also rebuilt the platforms for the Eco Structures and made platforms and added rain flys for all of the bare-ground tent sites to get everything off the ground.” Some of the new multi-unit cottages are also multi-story, allowing the facility to reduce the overall footprint of its structures.
The 50-year-old location kept presenting Davis with challenges. “When you have destruction like that, you keep finding other things,” he said. Uprooted trees decimated the park’s water and sewer system. The old system turned out to have a small amount of asbestos, so it had to be removed. That added another year and $750,000 to the project.
BUILT BOTH BACK BETTER
“We had two ziplines, and now we have six zips and a 12-station ropes course for the public,” he said. “We’re going to continue to expand those courses.”
Cory also saw the fire as an opportunity to build things better. Several deluxe glamping cabins now have a second-story deck accessed by a spiral staircase. Inside amenities were also improved to add comfort to a guest’s stay. “We learned from what we had before and just kept adding to them,” he said. “We wanted something that no one had done before.”
There are now 20 new Deluxe Glamping Cabins, with four more on the way. “We are just seeing so much demand and I don’t see that slowing down,” he said. He’s now designing new “pod” groupings of glamping cabins that will allow group and family gatherings. On the lower campground, he’s also added four Conestoga covered wagons to his teepee area. The more “traditional” glamping safari tents were also improved, adding doors to the tents for added durability and security.
“Before, our average stay was about 1.3 nights,” Cory said. “Now, it is 2.4 nights. We got there by building nicer glamping facilities and adding more things for our guests to do.”
The activity features include a massive stone labyrinth designed to bring calm and renewal to those who walk its paths. The labyrinth is so massive, guests who walk the entire path both in and out will cover almost a mile.
At Cinnamon Bay Resort, what had been “merely a campground” prior to the hurricanes is now emerging as an affordable, entry-level glamping facility on the pristine sands of
Deluxe cabin before and after at Ventura Ranch
Cinnamon Bay Beach. Guests in the Eco Structures tents will enjoy comfortable queen-size beds and linens, along with electricity and USB access that didn’t exist before the storm. The tents don’t have interior kitchens or private bathrooms (part of the challenge of operating under NPS concession rules), but guests will have access to outdoor kitchens with two-burner cooktops, coolers, storage boxes and gas grills. Clean and comfortable bath houses are clustered nearby. There’s also a full-service restaurant on property that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Twenty of the Eco Structures have a bunk bed addition for families.
Davis is thrilled to offer younger, less-affluent travelers an affordable option on Saint John. “We aren’t able to add many of the amenities that you might find on higher-end glamping facilities because we are a national parks concessionaire,” he said. “We have to be sure to keep things affordable across the board.”
There won’t be any air-conditioned units at Cinnamon Bay Resort but, Davis said “the Caribbean breezes are free.”
“We are very honest about what we have here,” he said. “Most of the affordable accommodations on this island never came back after the storm. We think we have a glamping segment to serve that can’t afford to come to the Caribbean and rent a villa for a week.”
Eco Structure glamping tents will rent for $130 per night, and the new cottages will garner $155 depending on the season.
THE TAKEAWAYS
Financial results at Cory’s Ventura Ranch KOA Resort prove he’s been making all the right moves. Despite pandemic challenges, Ventura Ranch KOA Holiday has set new records every month of 2021.
Cinnamon Bay
“Right now, we are on track to finish the year about 20% above our previous best year before the fire and before COVID-19,” he said.
“The fire was indeed devastating, and I know we’d be farther along if it hadn’t happened,” Cory said. “The trick is to decide quickly that any disaster is an opportunity to build it back better than before.”
The Cinnamon Bay Resort’s new website (www.cinnamonbayvi.com) will come online in October, and the first guests are set to arrive by December 15, 2021 – more than four years after the hurricanes.
Although their disasters occurred more than 3,500 miles apart, Cory and Davis had the same advice for glamping facility owners everywhere.
“Above all else, be sure that you have the appropriate insurance and have enough to cover everything,” Davis said. “Many businesses on this island decided not to rebuild so they took their insurance payout and sold what they could from
Cinnamon Bay
their business. Either way, the insurance provided them a means to move forward.”
Cory agreed that the right insurance is key, but owners need to look below ground, too.
“I didn’t know that our insurance didn’t cover infrastructure like underground pipes, electrical services and sewer lines,” he said. “Also be aware that commercial insurance doesn’t automatically cover the true replacement costs of your assets. If your policy says your Cabin is worth $50,000 but it now costs $75,000 to replace, insurance will only pay $50,000.”
Cory said owners also need to stay abreast of local building code updates. “When you rebuild, you may have to rebuild to upgraded codes for electrical and plumbing, and that will likely cost more. Nothing gets grandfathered in.”
Regardless of the size of a glamping operation, all should have disaster plans in place. Those plans need to include a “comeback” strategy.
“Disasters can happen at any moment,” Cory said. “If you’ve thought it all through, you’ll quickly be on your way back.”
