When Hyatt partnered with Under Canvas, it wasn't buying beds. It was buying programmed nature immersion – guided experiences, seasonal camps, off-the-beaten-path access – that members couldn't earn elsewhere. For commercial directors, this signals a shift: outdoor operators aren't distribution partners. They're product partners. The commercial task is matching and structuring, not sourcing.
01Macro Positioning & Fit
Travellers – especially high-value ones – are no longer seeking hotel rooms as standalone products. They're seeking reconnection with nature in off-the-beaten-path locations. That's not new messaging. What's changed is that upscale hotel groups now recognise this demand sits outside their core operational competency. Building authentic nature programming in-house is capital-intensive, talent-dependent, and dilutes focus. Outdoor operators have already solved that.
This is why the wellness–lifestyle–outdoor category matters commercially right now. It's not wellness as spa amenities or fitness classes – those hotels still do in-house. It's wellness as curated, guided immersion in natural environments. Hyatt's partnership with Under Canvas signals that for loyalty strategy, the question isn't 'Can we add experiences?' It's 'Who already designs and operates them at the standard our members expect?'
02The Partnership Profile
The right outdoor brand for a hotel group partnership has three characteristics: destination access that's geographically complementary to the hotel network; guest profile alignment with the hotel's member base; and proprietary programming that members cannot access independently. Under Canvas operates camps plus ULUM Moab, its resort brand. Members earn base points on room rates plus tier-qualifying nights. This isn't inventory extension – it's experience extension, structured as loyalty currency.
In practice, the partnership works like this: a member books an Under Canvas camp or ULUM Moab through the loyalty programme. Accommodation earns standard points. Guided experiences – nature immersion, wildlife, seasonal programming – become ancillary line items that either earn points separately or qualify for tier benefits. The hotel group gains an exclusive channel into a high-intent guest; the outdoor operator gains distribution to a qualified, affluent audience already travelling for exactly this reason.
03The Commercial Opportunity – Through a TRevPAG Lens
TRevPAG – Total Revenue Per Available Guest – moves upward when you add revenue-generating activities that don't compete with room inventory. An outdoor partnership creates exactly that. Members spend on accommodation (baseline). Then they spend on guided experiences, equipment hire, meals tied to activities, and potentially tier-qualifying spend that accelerates status. None of that cannibilises room rate or average daily rate because it's orthogonal to occupancy pricing.
The second lever is member stickiness and cross-property behaviour. A member who books a camp, participates in curated programming, and qualifies for tier benefits through experiences – not just nights – is generating revenue across multiple consumption points. That changes how you model lifetime value. The commercial task becomes: which outdoor operator's member profile and destination mix maximises incremental spend per actual guest visit? That's a matching and structuring problem, not a sourcing problem.
04Operational Realities
Deploying this requires three things hotels often underestimate. First: technology infrastructure to track and credit experience-based earning, separate from room-based points. Your loyalty system must distinguish between accommodation nights and activity participation. Second: contractual clarity on member access, pricing parity, and experience inventory – which camps, which seasons, which programmes count toward tier qualification. Third: training. Your commercial team needs to understand the outdoor operator's programming well enough to position it to members with credibility.
Timeline expectations matter. This isn't a quarter-turn activation. The outdoor brand needs to understand your member base; you need to integrate their calendar and offerings into your loyalty infrastructure. Channel strategy – whether bookings flow through your app, the operator's platform, or a hybrid – must be designed and tested. For most hotel groups, expect a phased launch: soft opening with high-value tier members, then broader rollout. Staffing is lean because the outdoor operator manages programming; your team manages integration and member experience.
05Who Should Move First
Upscale and luxury groups with geographically concentrated member bases in or near outdoor destinations should move first. Your members are already travelling to these places for exactly this purpose. Matching a member who books regularly in mountain or desert properties with an outdoor partnership that serves those same destinations is intuitive and high-probability. Regional groups often have sharper member data and faster decision cycles than global platforms – that's an advantage here.
The early movers will capture two things: brand association with authentic nature experiences (hard to commoditise) and data on which experiences drive member engagement and repeat visit behaviour. If you're a commercial director at an upscale chain with members clustering in outdoor-adjacent regions, the question isn't whether to explore outdoor partnerships. It's whether you want to understand your member base's nature-seeking behaviour before a competitor does – and structure earning and burning around it. What does your current member data tell you about destination patterns? Are those patterns already pointing toward outdoor access your loyalty programme doesn't yet provide?
Frequently asked questions
- Why would an outdoor operator like Under Canvas partner with a hotel group instead of building direct loyalty?
- Outdoor operators own experience design and destination access; hotel groups own member bases and distribution infrastructure. Partnership amplifies both. Hyatt's alliance with Under Canvas, including ULUM Moab and 13 camps, gives members exclusive access while driving camp occupancy through qualified loyalty traffic.
- How do you structure points earning on experiences rather than just room nights?
- That's the commercial design challenge. Members earn base points on accommodation. Experiences – guided hikes, wildlife programmes, seasonal activities – can be structured as separate earning vehicles, burning mechanisms, or tier-qualifying events. This shifts TRevPAG upward because incremental spend isn't room-rate dependent.
- Which hotel groups or segments should prioritise outdoor partnerships first?
- Upscale and luxury groups with high-value member bases and strong geographic clustering. Members in those tiers already seek curated experiences and off-the-beaten-path travel. Fit between member profile and destination access is the primary filter, not size of outdoor operator.
Sources
BrandMatch is built by hotel commercial and brand partnership practitioners at White Sky Hospitality and Chessa Connect.
