Navigating the Joys and Challenges of Operating a Remote Fishing Lodge

Date: 23 September 2024

Author: Felix Borenstein

Over the past few months, we have conducted 3 consulting assignments, in 3 different countries, with 3 operators of fishing lodges at different stages of their evolution. The most valuable common thread/denominator they all had was passion.

Passion to grow their business, passion to be the very best and passion to exceed guest expectations.

Unique Challenges of Off-Grid Lodges

Each of these lodges also shared – a level of luxuriousness in their offerings, and a remote location. The remoteness of their fishing lodges in particular came with different challenges. Two of these outdoor adventure lodges were completely off grid, no mains electricity, no mains water, and no government-arranged rubbish collection.

The lack of these facilities, that we assume are everywhere, creates specific challenges in both the day-to-day running of these sporting lodges, but also affects the guest experience.

Enhancing Guest Experience in Remote Locations

One of the challenges they/we faced was due to the limited supply of electricity, explaining to guests why there were no coffee/tea facilities or hair dryers in their guest rooms.

We worked with the owners and made several suggestions that specially addressed their remote locations :

Update the pre arrival information that due to the off grid nature of the property there are some things you’d find in a traditional hotel room that would be missing.

We also worked with them to find ways to increase their independent power supply to accommodate a hair drier in each guest room. One decided to increase the size of their backup generator, the second lodge reviewed their current power use and found ways to minimise power hungry devices when guests would be showering. The third lodge have decided to install solar panels and a battery array as their emergency back up solution.

We also recommended that they reach out to their neighbouring farmers to see if they would like the kitchen scraps to feed their chickens or pigs, thus turning rubbish that would have ended up in land fill to a win-win scenario.

The remoteness of these facilities meant we all needed to think through the guest experience and its impact and thankfully, together we found ways to deliver a superb guest experience.