Students Get Experience Designing Glamping Accommodations
Students from Cal Poly Pomona are designing and testing the business feasibility of new concepts in glamping accommodations as part of a studio class and micro-internship program sponsored by a private donor.
Twenty-one students from Cal Poly Pomona's College of Environmental Design are designing two types of glamping accommodations: one for a standalone glamping resort and another for an RV resort with glamping options.
“The students have the option of designing hard-sided or soft-sided glamping products,” said Margaret Bailey, a member of the board of advisors for The Collins College of Hospitality Management at Cal Poly Pomona, who has been coordinating the project with the private donor.
Additionally, two students from Cal Poly Pomona’s Collins College of Hospitality Management are working with Bailey to conduct a market, financial and investment analysis of the new glamping products envisioned by the design students to determine and validate the potential return on investment for these products. Funding for the financial/investment analysis part of the project is also provided by the private donor.
“The output of this donation will be to yield glamping concepts that the donor could potentially use in their portfolio,” Bailey said.
Juintow Lin, the professor leading the design studio class, has worked in this space before, and taught Cal Poly Pomona students when they designed a glamping cabin product called The Wedge, which Cavco Industries Inc. produced in 2014 based on the students’ designs. The Wedge product is currently in use at Juila Pfeiffer Burns State Park and Sonoma County’s Spring Lake Regional Park, Bailey said.
Bailey noted that the current donor-funded cross-college collaboration and micro-internship program is the first time that students from Cal Poly Pomona’s College of Environmental Design have collaborated with students from Cal Poly ’Pomona’s The Collins College of Hospitality Management on the same project.
She added that the private donor covered the travel expenses for all 22 students toattend the recent Glamping Show Americas conference in Aurora, Colorado, as part of their research.
“We went to the glamping show with a specific purpose: to provide the architecture students with access to educational sessions on glamping products and to see prototypes and for the hospitality students to meet with vendors, suppliers and management companies in the glamping business,” Bailey added.
The students’ training also included sessions with some of the most prominent experts in glamping and outdoor hospitality, including Todd Wynne-Parry, current vice president of acquisitions for Philadelphia-based Aramark, and Scott Bahr, president of Cairn Consulting Group, a market research firm headquartered in Bryant Pond, Maine, Bailey said.
Additionally, the students participated in field trips to study the different types of glamping accommodations that are available at the San Diego Metro KOA Resort in Chula Vista, as well as Bonelli Bluffs RV Resort & Campground in San Dimas.
The students also camped overnight in bell tents at Splitrock Farm & Retreat in De Luz Heights near Fallbrook, Calif.
This article originally appeared in Woodall's Campground Magazine, December 2025 edition.