The 29-key glamping operation on the Trust for Governors Island's public land — the only place to spend the night on the 172-acre island — has a new owner (Dovetail + Co) and a new management company (Charlestowne Hotels), both confirmed by their public portfolio pages. The Collective Retreats brand is being retained even as the original company contracted sharply nationwide.

The 29-key tent operation on Governors Island — the only licensed overnight accommodations on the Trust-managed, 172-acre public island — changed both ownership and management this season. New York boutique hospitality firm Dovetail + Co now holds the property, and South Carolina-based Charlestowne Hotels is running daily operations under the original Collective Retreats name. Neither the brand on the booking site nor the tents have changed. The people in charge of them have.

The transition marks a significant contraction of the Collective Retreats brand that first brought glamping to the car-free harbor island. The company's current website lists Governors Island — open May through October — as its only direct U.S. retreat, alongside a global curated-booking arm called the Conservatory Collective. Earlier locations in Texas and New York's Hudson Valley are no longer listed as operating properties.

Dovetail + Co, the new owner, describes itself as a creator of "experiential real estate." Its public portfolio includes the Wayfinder hotel chain (Newport, Waikiki, Bishop, CA), Cambridge Beaches resort in Bermuda, and Now Now NoHo in Manhattan. The firm lists Collective Retreats Governors Island alongside those properties on its website without disclosing terms or timing of the acquisition.

Charlestowne Hotels, headquartered at 28 Bridgeside Blvd in Charleston, SC, manages more than 50 lifestyle independent properties nationally. The company's portfolio page names Collective Retreats Governors Island as a current managed property in its Northeast cluster — alongside Hotel Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, Hotel Marcel in New Haven, and the Colgate Inn in Hamilton, NY — logging 29 keys, one food-and-beverage outlet, and two function spaces.

The concession sits on public land, granted by the Trust for Governors Island under a license arrangement that makes the operator swap a matter with public consequence. The Trust, led by president and CEO Clare Newman, manages the island and issues commercial licenses to tenants. The Trust did not respond to a request for comment on the transition by publication time.

Guest complaints about service quality during the current season have circulated on social media, with at least one guest reporting they contacted the Trust directly to raise concerns about the concession. Whether the Trust has taken any formal steps in response is not publicly known. The 2026 season runs through October.