What The Secret Garden Glamping Can Teach Us About Building a Brand People Want to Book

Dawn Ellis

Sep 13

6 min read

This week, I headed to The Glamping Show 2026 at NAC Stoneleigh Park. Running from 10-12th September, The Glamping Show brings together more than 100 exhibitors alongside seminars, suppliers and businesses from across the glamping, outdoor hospitality and experiential accommodation industry.

I went predominantly for the seminars. Working in hospitality marketing, it’s important to stay up to date with what’s happening across the industry and hear directly from the people running and growing hospitality businesses themselves.

One talk in particular stood out: Derry Green, founder of The Secret Garden Glamping, talking about “Beyond the Booking - Building Experience-Led Hospitality Brands.”

And there was one message running through the entire talk that I think every glamping site, Airbnb, holiday let, and independent hospitality business needs to hear:

If your biggest selling point is a hot tub, what happens when everybody has one?

From a lockdown project to The Secret Garden

Derry’s story is nothing short of inspirational. When Covid hit in 2020, his transport work in Europe disappeared within a matter of days. Like a lot of us during that strange period, he suddenly found himself at home with his children and a lot more time on his hands.

The family decided to camp in the garden. After waking up on wet grass, Derry built a deck for the tent. Then he added a little more, and a little more… Until by the end of lockdown, what had started as something to entertain his children had become a full outdoor retreat, complete with a pod, hot tub, fire pit and kitchen.

The build was picked up by UNILAD as a story about what a dad had created for his children during lockdown. LADbible then shared it, and the story reached millions of people.

Then the messages started. People wanted to know whether they could actually stay there. So Derry put it on Airbnb.

He has since recalled waking up the following morning to around 300-4000 bookings, with Airbnb featuring the property on its homepage. Within around two days, it was booked approximately two-and-a-half years in advance.

Fast forward to 2026 and The Secret Garden is a completely different operation. Recent reporting puts the business at five sites and nearly £2 million in turnover, with another six sites in the pipeline.

But the bit I found most interesting wasn’t the growth; it was why people continue to choose the brand.

“Behaviour, not assumption”

One of my biggest takeaways from Derry’s talk was his approach to developing each unit. He didn’t build the first one, decide he’d cracked it and duplicate it ten times.

He watched and listened. He learned what guests actually used, what they enjoyed, what they talked about and what could be improved. Then he tweaked the next one.

As Derry put it, he looked at “behaviour, not assumption.” It’s something hospitality businesses can easily forget. We can spend months deciding what we think our ideal guest wants without looking closely enough at what our actual guests are already telling us.

What do they photograph?

What do they mention in reviews?

What do they tell their friends about?

What do they ask you before arriving?

What makes them come back?

Sometimes your biggest selling point isn’t the thing you thought it was.

“If your USP is a feature, you don’t have a brand. You have a catalogue.”

This was probably my favourite point of the whole seminar. Features get copied quickly; culture is harder to copy.

Hot tubs, outdoor baths, fire pits, projectors, pizza ovens, saunas, hammocks, welcome hampers. They are all lovely, but they’re not a brand.

There are hundreds of thousands of Airbnb listings across the UK, with countless properties now offering features such as hot tubs.

So saying: “We have a private hot tub.”

Isn’t enough to answer the question: “Why should I book yours?”

If your USPs are simply a list of facilities, you’re competing on a checklist. And checklists are very easy for competitors to replicate.

The Secret Garden has been imitated plenty of times over the years. Elements of the concept that once felt completely different can now be found across the glamping industry. Yet the original brand continues to attract demand.

Because you can recreate a feature. You can’t recreate somebody else’s story.

Category demand vs brand demand

This is where I think there’s an important distinction for hospitality businesses.

Someone searching “glamping pod with hot tub” has category demand. They know roughly what kind of break they want. They might open Google, Airbnb, Instagram, TikTok or even ChatGPT and start looking at their options. Your hot tub might get onto their shortlist.

But then what? Why do they choose you rather than the ten other properties they’ve opened in different tabs?

That’s brand demand. They recognise your name. They’ve followed you on Instagram for six months. They’ve watched you build the latest cabin. They know why you started the business. They’ve seen previous guests sitting around the fire. They know what breakfast looks like, what the view looks like at 7 am and what it feels like to climb into the hot tub when it’s pouring down outside.

They’ve already imagined themselves there. They’ve fallen in love with the stay before they’ve booked it. That’s the power of storytelling. And it’s exactly why I talk about it so much when discussing direct bookings.

Direct bookings start long before somebody reaches your website

The Secret Garden is a brilliant example of why direct booking marketing isn’t simply about building a website and adding a BOOK NOW button. The booking is the end of a much longer journey.

Your potential guest may have discovered you through a Reel three months ago. They might have saved one of your posts. Sent it to their partner. Watched your Stories. Read your reviews. Visited your website. Left. Come back. And then eventually booked.

Every one of those interactions is shaping their perception of your brand. That’s why getting your brand right online matters.

Your guest experience begins before your guest arrives.

Activity isn’t the same as experience

Another point Derry made that stuck with me was the difference between an activity and an experience. A hot tub is an activity. A sauna is an activity. Lighting the fire pit is an activity. The accommodation itself is the product.

But the experience is everything surrounding these things.

The anticipation before they arrive. The little detail they weren’t expecting. The view from the hot tub. The story behind the cabin. The way you’ve presented the property online. The communication before their stay.

And how they feel about you when they’ve gone home is the bit that creates loyalty.

“Growth doesn’t remove problems, it upgrades them”

Another line worth remembering. A full calendar doesn’t automatically equal a successful hospitality brand. More units mean more guests, more cleaning, more maintenance, more staff, more enquiries and a completely different set of problems.

So as your glamping site grows, it’s important to remember why you’re growing in the first place.

Derry’s advice wasn’t simply to chase full occupancy. It was to build something people actively want to return to. Because repeat guests don’t just fill another night in your calendar. They become advocates of the brand.

“Be yourself, not a copy.”

The glamping market has changed enormously. Scroll through Instagram for long enough, and it’s easy to see the same ingredients appearing again and again: wooden cabins, outdoor baths, hot tubs, fairy lights, fire pits and countryside views.

There’s nothing wrong with any of them. The problem comes when the property becomes the entire brand. If everybody has the same features, eventually everything starts to look the same.

Which brings us back to the question: What do you have that nobody else can copy?

Your story. Your personality. Your location. Your reason for starting. Your values. Your approach to hospitality. The little rituals you’ve created for guests. The way you communicate. The community around your business. The feeling people associate with your name. That’s your brand.

“We’re selling experiences, not rooms”

Independent hospitality businesses aren’t Hilton or Holiday Inn. You don’t need to market yourself like them. In fact, your independence is one of your biggest advantages.

People don’t necessarily want another polished advert telling them you’ve got “luxury accommodation in beautiful surroundings.” They want to connect with something.

As Derry discussed, customers can sniff an advert out. You don’t need to manufacture a story for social media, you need to be honest about the one you already have.

Show people why you built the place. Show guests enjoying it. Show the things that make you different. Promote the brand, not just the product.

So, what can we learn from The Secret Garden?

The biggest lesson I took away from The Glamping Show is: stop asking, “What else can we add to the unit?” And start asking, “What else can we add to the experience?”

The Secret Garden didn’t build demand simply by having somewhere beautiful to sleep. They built a brand people wanted to be part of. And in a hospitality market where accommodation is becoming increasingly similar, that’s going to matter more and more.