Pricing, Websites and Influencers: What We Learned the Hard Way
Last time I wrote for this magazine, Posh Outdoors had just opened for business.
We’d partnered with Skyridge Glamping, a stunning boutique resort in the Canadian Rockies, as a pilot for our revenue share program. We supplied them with 5 luxury mirror cabins, complete with decks and furniture, in return for a split of the lodging revenue. It took 13 months of arduous capital raising to get those cabins built and installed. Then we ran an intensive 3-month launch campaign that generated $245k USD of booking receipts in 24 hours.
I published my previous article shortly after.
At that time, I’d had little chance to reflect on the journey. I was still deep in the weeds. Five months on, and I’m out of the weeds. I’ve had the chance to reflect and take in the lessons the past year had taught me. Those are lessons we’ll apply to the next Posh Outdoors location, planned for late 2026.
Today, I’m sharing them with you.
Where We Are Today
The bookings didn’t stop after the launch campaign. Since first guests arrived in June, our 5 units have enjoyed 85% occupancy and an average daily rate of more than $500 USD. It all makes sense when you see the property. It’s a stunning spot, perched on the edge of a mountain in the Canadian Rockies. It has the beauty of Banff, which is a 50-minute drive away, without the insane crowds.
Things are going so well that we’ve just ordered another 4 units, and a purpose-built spa facility is arriving early next year. Think saunas, cold plunges and hot tubs with an outrageous view.
So what did we learn along the way?
Hold Your Nerve When Setting Pricing
Our launch campaign was a success, but we left money on the table. To maximize booking receipts ahead of our units opening, we used a VIP strategy. We ran some ads and took $25 deposits from “Skyridge VIPs”, who received first access to the booking calendar. By the time we opened the calendar in May, we had around 1,500 Skyridge VIPs.
We’d built that VIP list over a couple of months. They were hyped up to book, which was obvious by the activity in our VIP Facebook Group. Basically, these weren’t price-sensitive buyers. They were our earliest adopters, desperate to get the Skyridge experience.
Still, we were conservative with our pricing. We were scared that if we charged too much, we’d face a backlash and nobody would come. We capped our summer rates at around $600 USD, with fall and winter rates in the $250 USD range. These rates were in line with our nearest competitor, a mountain lodge 10 minutes away. This was a mistake.
We should have realized that the Skyridge experience is cooler and more unique than a traditional mountain lodge. We could have easily charged more than them. Competitors can be a reference point when setting prices, but you need to know when you have a better offering. In recent weeks, we’ve been getting $950 for September 2026 bookings. That’s almost 4x the amount we were charging at launch.
The lesson? Back yourself when setting prices!
Don’t Cheap Out On a Website
This is a mistake I’ll never make again. Posh Outdoors doesn’t take bookings directly (they go through the Skyridge website or the OTAs). But we wanted a website to show we were real.
Because the website didn’t need to be super-advanced, we thought we could get away with hiring a cheap freelancer on Fiverr. Idiot move!
His design work was okay, but he couldn’t host the website himself. And the design files he gave us were basically unusable (I won’t go into the boring technical details). Weeks of hard work went down the drain. A small project had become a nightmare. We pivoted and engaged a local web design agency. They had a solid track record, a team of specialists and their own office.
The difference was night and day. Our website live within a couple of weeks. The pivot cost us some money, but the real costs were the time and wasted effort. Never cheap out on a website.
Influencers Are Cheat Codes (especially when you have a small budget)
Here’s the dream scenario for marketing your glamping resort: You have a huge budget. You pay a top-notch content team to visit your site multiple times a year, capturing a ton of pics and videos. That team then repurposes the raw footage into high-performing social media content throughout the year.
That’s the dream scenario, but it’s unrealistic for a scrappy glamping startup. Instead, you’ll be watching every cent, and you certainly won’t want to splash the cash on an expensive content team. At least not in your early days.
That’s what it was like at Skyridge Glamping. We had dreams of bringing in a content team, but the budget simply wasn’t there.
So, how did we fill the gap? With a ton of influencers!
You’ll have lots of available room nights when you’re getting started. Fill the gaps by inviting local influencers for a free stay in exchange for content.
The benefits of this are threefold:
- They spread the word about your resort with their audience
- You’ll get plenty of pictures and videos that you can repurpose into your own social media content
- It doesn’t cost much
Seriously, go all-in on your influencer strategy. Invite as many as you can afford, and observe what works and what doesn’t. Once the bookings start flowing, you can fine tune and reduce the number you invite. Crucially, make sure they sign contracts before they arrive. There are two key items to stipulate in these agreements:
- What content the influencer should post, and when
- The influencer should also agree to provide the raw footage they capture, free for you to edit and use in your own marketing materials
Influencers are a huge reason for our early success, and why our socials are regularly popping off. Use them!
Final Thoughts
We’re only five months into operations, but it’s like we’ve learned an entire curriculum in that time. With four more units opening next year, and plans for at least one new location, we’re expecting a million more lessons to come our way. And we can’t wait.
If you have any questions about our journey, or if you’d like to learn more about investment/partnership opportunities, you can email me at nick@posh-outdoors.com.
