As of 2026, Isaac French is arguably the face of the micro-resort movement – a shift away from developing large hotels or retreats, towards creating small clusters of cabins with a distinct visual identity, usually tucked away in nature. On social media, in podcasts, and through his own masterclass program and community, Experiential Hospitality, French shares insights on how to build a narrative around a space that will attract the growing share of high-spending travelers in search of a unique story above all else. On how to finance and build this sort of small facility within a real estate ecosystem that tends to favor scale above all else. And on how to automate elements of management and operations, turning a hospitality asset – traditionally a vortex of day-to-day micro-managerial demands and brain damage – into a low-stress stream of revenue.     

"I have a community of over 300 folks around the country building these projects" anchored on this education and consulting work, French tells GPLetters. "Now that's a full-blown business itself." 

All of this is pretty wild, when you consider that just six years ago French didn't actually know much about hospitality, nor did he plan on building his life around this niche. He developed the project that put him on the map – the Live Oak Lake cabins in Waco, Texas – with little planning and a lot of intuition. "I've always been very spontaneous and inspiration-driven," he explains.

But through his work on that project and others, that whim evolved into a philosophy, then into a mission: To help people – developers and guests alike – shift back towards the small and decentralized, the natural and beautiful things in life. Or as he puts it, "I'm arming the rebels." 

French's The Nook. All photos courtesy of Isaac French. Photo credit to Jeff Jones. Prior photo credit to Matthew Lancaster.

As a child growing up on a farm in Texas in the early aughts, French built trails and forts into patches of brush and dreamed up stories around them. He didn't realize it until later, but in retrospect he believes that this creative play planted the seed of an idea in the back of his mind – what he calls "a subterranean dream" to someday "create a little world" all his own in a corner of the real world.  

He believes his upbringing was the perfect soil to help that seed germinate from idea to reality.