Design-your-own luxury, custom pop-up hotels

Bespoke travel experts Black Tomato introduce their latest service, Blink, for accommodation, location, amenities and adventures unique to each trip.

For seasoned travelers looking for something unique, Black Tomato’s Blink service provides self-designed luxury tent accommodation in some of the world’s most remote locations. Guests choose a country and the Blink team will suggest beautiful, often uninhabited locations. Once a location is agreed upon, the real work starts. Guests work with the Blink team to design their ideal accommodation, choosing everything from the type of pop-up hotel (a luxury tent) to fabrics, layouts, bedding and beds, food and activities.

The Blink team estimates that planning a trip will take three to five months, depending on the size of the group traveling. Costs will vary depending on location and amenities desired, with estimates ranging from USD 65,000 for three nights in Morocco for a group of six to more than USD 175,000 for four nights for six people on the Bolivian salt flats. Blink plans to provide up to 100 trips per year. All evidence of a trip is completely erased afterwards, making each experience unique to the travelers.

Many recent travel innovations focus on planning and transit, with apps helping provide personalized trips for travelers with smaller budgets. Facial recognition software is being tested out as a way to help travelers plan their ideal activities, and smart robots are helping to provide concierge services. What other aspects of tourism could be tweaked to provide lower cost customizations?