A Broken Model. A Structural Fix.
Château de Cabanes is a luxury family resort built on a simple insight: if the children won't leave, neither will the parents.
Family resorts don’t generate loyalty.
The standard model: five-star accommodations, a kids' club that closes at 7pm, exhausted parents managing bedtime by 9pm. The vacation becomes parenting in a more expensive location. Families try a property once and move on.
Industry return rates for traditional luxury family resorts hover between 5% and 10%. Customer acquisition costs remain permanently high. Lifetime guest value stays permanently low. The model works — but only barely, and only through constant reinvestment in marketing to replace the guests who never come back.
The problem isn't service quality. It's structural.
THE MARKET FAILURE
Elite American sleepaway camps see return rates above 70%.
Camps like Nebagamon, Kieve, and Cheley Colorado have operated for decades with waiting lists and multi-generational enrollment. Children count the days until they return. Parents struggle to get phone calls answered.
The difference isn't programming. It's immersion. Children who sleep away from their parents, in their own community, with trained mentors — they form identity-level attachments. The experience becomes part of who they are.
No luxury resort has ever integrated this model. Until now.
WHAT WE LEARNED
Two parallel experiences. One economic engine.
The Adult Experience
Communal dining at 9pm. A curated bar program. Fire pit conversations under skies with no light pollution for fifty kilometers. Morning coffee in silence. Adults don't just relax — they reconnect with a version of themselves they thought was gone.
The Children's Experience
A 24-hour immersive program for ages 6–17. Children sleep in their own cabins with trained counselors. They care for animals at dawn, build forts in the forest, swim in natural pools, and sleep under stars. They don't tolerate the experience. They ask when they can come back.
The Retention Mechanism
The child's attachment drives the family's return. When a seven-year-old spends a week naming goats, building a fort, and forming their first independent friendships — they don't forget. They lobby. They insist. The family returns, and they bring friends.
This is not a theoretical projection. It is the documented behavior pattern of every successful sleepaway camp program operating in the United States today.
HOW IT WORKS
Projected retention reshapes every metric.
Traditional luxury resort economics depend on continuous acquisition — high marketing spend to replace the 90%+ of guests who never return. CdC's camp-integrated model is designed to invert this dynamic.
At projected return rates consistent with established camp programs, customer acquisition cost decreases meaningfully with each operating year. Lifetime guest value increases correspondingly. Marketing spend can shift from acquisition to conversion of inbound referrals.
Nine residences at launch provides a deliberately constrained inventory — maintaining exclusivity while establishing the operational model and building a documented track record before expansion.
THE NUMBERS
Detailed financial projections, capital structure, and return modeling are available in the offering documents. All projections are forward-looking and subject to risk factors disclosed in the PPM.
Three forces converging.
Post-pandemic family travel
Demand for meaningful, outdoor, nature-integrated family experiences has accelerated significantly. Parents are actively seeking alternatives to screen-heavy resort environments.
Undervalued heritage assets
Properties like Château de Cabanes — structurally sound, historically significant, architecturally extraordinary — remain available at a fraction of comparable assets in more established luxury markets.
No competitive offering exists
No luxury resort in Europe currently operates a true 24-hour immersive children's program based on the American sleepaway camp model. The category is open.
TIMING
This is not a concept. Construction Underway.
Château de Cabanes is in active restoration, with opening targeted for Summer 2026. The team combines hospitality operations experience, real estate development capability, and direct knowledge of the sleepaway camp model that drives the entire thesis.
Early inquiries from founding families are now open.
EXECUTION