Bobby Berk has spent years making over other people's homes on television. Now he's applying that eye to travel: the Queer Eye design expert has launched Camena Collective, a private-estate hospitality brand that debuts with two rental estates in Palm Desert, California, aimed at wellness retreats, weddings, group gatherings and full-property buyouts.
The first property, Casa Tierra, is a Spanish-style hacienda Berk found in 2021. He kept its original bones while layering in custom furnishings and collected pieces. It sleeps up to 17 guests across a hacienda and two casitas, with a theater, pool, terraced gardens and a serious wellness kit: an 1,800-square-foot yoga and event deck, pickleball and bocce courts, a Kohler Wellness sauna and cold plunge, a fire pit and outdoor dining courtyards.
Casa Mallorca goes bigger. The Mediterranean-inspired estate has 10 bedrooms sleeping 22 overnight guests, a resort-sized pool, its own theater, a freestanding spa, an indoor movement and event studio, and the same sauna-and-cold-plunge setup plus pickleball and bocce. The chef's kitchen is built for real catering — four ovens, two dishwashers, industrial refrigeration — and dining spans 30 seats indoors and 100 outside.
Rather than running fixed schedules, Camena's team builds each stay around the group. Bookings come in three tiers: Venue Only, Venue + Culinary, or Fully Programmed. The culinary track draws on a curated roster of chefs and artisan producers, with menus shaped to whatever the group needs. Weddings and social events can take either estate as a complete buyout.
Design and sustainability get plenty of attention, as you'd expect from Berk. Both estates mix salvaged architectural elements, stained glass, Saltillo tile, stone and custom cabinetry, stocked with Flamingo Estate toiletries and Quince linens. Casa Mallorca runs essentially off-grid electrically thanks to solar panels and battery storage, and its native, drought-appropriate landscaping relies on low-flow drip irrigation.
The name nods to the Camenae, Roman goddesses of freshwater, prophecy, poetry and song. Berk describes the concept as a way to offer connection and privacy at once — spaces where groups can gather with everything on site, but individuals can still slip away. Palm Desert is just the start, too: he plans to grow Camena into a global collection of private-estate retreats.
For travellers, this fills a real gap. Big groups — milestone birthdays, friend reunions, corporate wellness weeks, small weddings — often struggle to find properties that sleep 15-20+ people without feeling like a conference center. These two estates were purpose-built for exactly that, with wellness and food programming on tap. Anyone planning a desert getaway around Coachella season, a bookable retreat or an event in the greater Palm Springs area now has a striking new option, and more locations are likely to follow as the brand expands.
Story first reported by Global Traveler.
