Retreat Seekers

We get the privilege of welcoming retreat seekers on a regular basis to our farm. I love to hear where they’re from, how they found us and what brought them glamping in the first place. 

For the past year we’ve been on a number of online travel agencies (OTAs), including VRBO, Booking.com and Hipcamp. Airbnb is by far the OTA most of our guests use, when not going to our website directly from a Google search. 

The majority of our glamping guests come from the Dallas Fort Worth area. The next largest percentage comes from Austin, and then Houston. We also get a number of locals looking for last minute staycations. But there’s another type of guest we get - those who would typically stay in a hotel, but are looking for a different type of experience. Those are the ones who intrigue me.

Last week we had guests who came for a local conference. They were driving from a few hours away. I asked how they found us. The woman who made the booking said she was looking for lodging in Corsicana on one of the OTAs, and decided our farm looked more fun than a hotel. They stayed during the week, so had the glamping area all to themselves. Our farm dogs Samson and Darcy kept them company in the evenings by the fire, and spent the night camped out on their deck. It was a much different experience than they would have had at a hotel, and one that, by all indications, they thoroughly enjoyed. 

A year and a half ago we hosted a man from a few states away who was working in our area for a couple of weeks. Because he had his dog with him, he felt like staying at our place was a better fit than a traditional hotel. He was able to start and end his day in a beautiful setting and give his pup a chance to smell around the property to her heart’s content. 

About that same time a couple visited who live on a farm in upstate New York. They were coming to town for a funeral, and found us on Airbnb. Houston and I got to spend some time with them, sitting out on the deck of their tent, chatting about farm life, their time in agriculture and just life in general. Our time with them was one of those magical moments where we felt like we were doing exactly what we were meant to do - hosting. 

And that’s our passion - hosting people. Sometimes we get to lead an hour-long farm tour. Sometimes we welcome guests to a private event. But then there are times we open the gates of our farm to people for a lodging experience that’s unlike any other. 

This piece first appeared in Sherry’s column, Finding Myself in a Small Town, in the February 10, 2024 edition of the Corsicana Daily Sun.