The glamping company AutoCamp runs a small chain of hotels built from Airstream trailers, a hybrid business model somewhere between a traditional hotel and a campsite.

The company has proposed rolling out its next location, with 55 Airstream trailers, outside of Joshua Tree National Park.

Joshua Tree locals have mixed feelings about the potential development.

Robert Rootenberg and Raoul La Vogue's silver Airstream camper, parked in the rugged desert a few miles outside of Joshua Tree National Park, is perfect for an Instagram-able getaway.

The duo rent out the silver trailer on Airbnb. One guest gushed about roasting marshmallows over the fire pit while the sun set into a lavender twilight. Another said they snacked on wine and cheese under the stars.

And Rootenberg and La Vogue take pride in the accommodations. They greet each guest with their Labrador, Bella. They recommend hiking trails and restaurants. They stock the camper with coffee for crisp desert mornings and extra blankets for cool desert nights.

But soon, the pair could have some large-scale competition.

AutoCamp, a San Francisco-based company, is floating a plan to build a hotel-campsite fashioned out of 55 Airstream trailers on the edge of downtown Joshua Tree. The company has already built three similar parks in other corners of California, each with amenities like heated outdoor furniture and firepits. Earlier this year, the company announced it had raised $115 million to continue expanding.

At first, Rootenberg worried the proposed AutoCamp park would dilute his rental’s brand. But after a little more thought, he hopes guests will see his Airstream, which is in a more secluded location, as even more unique.

“It does cut both ways,” he said.

IN-DEPTH:Is the Instagram generation filtering Joshua Tree's true character?

Context:Joshua Tree National Park sets attendance record as super bloom sprouts 'never seen before' wildflowers

Last year, a record three million people visited Joshua Tree National Park. Other national parks have notched record visitorship in recent years, too. And in the hoards of hikers, hospitality companies like AutoCamp see a business opportunity. So do some of Joshua Tree's 7,000 residents, who have converted homes, teepees, tents, yurts and trailers into short-term rentals for visitors in search of authentic desert getaways. At the same time, locals worry about maintaining their community’s rustic charm and tranquility.

Joshua Tree residents have had mixed reactions to AutoCamp. Some locals complimented the company's previous parks. Others said they liked the Autocamp concept but worried about more visitors crowding into Joshua Tree. Still others objected to the size of the project or its location on the highway.

And then there are the locals that host guests in their own backyards or, yes, Airstreams. For now, the area's short-term rentals are operating in a legal grey area while San Bernardino County drafts an ordinance that will formally allow the rentals to operate. There is no ordinance allowing the rentals and no ordinance banning them either, said David Wert, a county spokesperson. In the meantime, he said, the county doesn't shut down short-term rentals just because they're short-term rentals but only responds to complaints about safety or nuisances at the properties.

George Bennett and Stacy Binns co-own Spin & Margie's Desert Hideaway, a set of five vacation rentals off the highway in Joshua Tree.

A few years ago, the couple stayed in an AutoCamp park in Sonoma County, where they were impressed with its design and comfort. What AutoCamp does, Bennett said, it does well. But the local debate about AutoCamp is ultimately an argument about “what’s best for Joshua Tree,” he added.

“It’s this remote little outpost on a remote highway — and you could argue that it’s a compelling thing to keep that sort of spirit about it,” he said. “But it’s also not that anymore. It’s a remote little outpost with three million people going through it every year. So how do you reconcile that?”

For AutoCamp, and companies like it, the record crowds trekking to Joshua Tree and other national parks each year are potential customers.

In Yucca Valley, a neighboring community north of Joshua Tree National Park, a glamping company called Under Canvas has pitched a plan for a “luxury campground” with 125 tents, plus a pool and yoga deck. The company has already unfurled similar developments near Yellowstone, Moab and the Grand Canyon, among other places. Forbes reported that the company expected revenue to hit $9 million in 2017.

More:The glamping craze, from outside of Manhattan to Mendocino

AutoCamp is following a similar strategy, rolling Airstreams into parks near Yosemite, as well as Sonoma County and Santa Barbara. Saturday night rates quoted on the company's website in Yosemite were as low as $300 and as high as $515 through the end of the summer.

The people behind AutoCamp have introduced themselves delicately to Joshua Tree residents. In a letter addressed to “members of the Joshua Tree Community,” CEO Neil Dipaola stressed that AutoCamp’s previous projects hire locals, support homegrown restaurants and seek to educate guests about local history, art and nature.

Ryan Miller, one of AutoCamp’s co-founders, said he grew up visiting the park. He said the company is trying to attract Joshua Tree visitors that might otherwise pass through town for a day trip, buying little more than lunch on their way.

“Many people don’t own the equipment for camping,” he said, “or there is sort of a mental preoccupation with actually sleeping outside — you know, the critters, waking up with a sore back.”

AutoCamp would provide creature comforts for the camping shy: A queen-sized bed, kitchenette, bathroom, outdoor patio and fire pit at each trailer, according to a proposal sent to San Bernardino County, all walking distance from downtown businesses on Highway 62 and a ten-minute drive to the nearest park entrance.

Guests would enter the hotel from the north side of the property on Verbena Road, according to a map submitted to San Bernardino County land use staff, parking in a lot near the main entrance. Traveling south through the property, guests would walk past the clubhouse and into a loop of Airstream trailers, with patches of vacant land fronting Highway 62 and Sunburst Avenue.

The AutoCamp proposal is under review. The company has not yet purchased the land for its development, according to county property records.

Joshua Tree residents have, in the past, opposed new real estate developments.

“A lot of people think that Joshua Tree is antigrowth,” said Gayle Austin, the owner of Ink & Steel tattoo and piercing shop, less than a mile from the location AutoCamp is eying. “I don’t feel like we are. We want growth the way we want it. We don’t want someone cramming something down our throats.”

A square of land across the street from the AutoCamp proposal is a prime example. In 2013, a group of residents and business owners sued San Bernardino County to block a developer from building a new Dollar General on the land, claiming the dollar store would “likely undermine the economic vitality of Joshua Tree and drive local businesses to bankruptcy.” The group won in state trial court but lost on appeal, and, although the county has issued Dollar General building permits, construction hasn’t started.

Off the grid and on the edge: Community and isolation in California's high desert

Thomas Fjallstam is one of the moderators of a Facebook group opposing the dollar store. He also organizes a group of 350 vacation rental hosts, sharing tips about how to be good neighbors and advocating on their behalf as San Bernardino County drafts its short-term rental ordinance.

Fjallstam thinks AutoCamp has one clear advantage compared to local short-term rentals. It's easier for the county to regulate one business on one property than it is to deal with private homeowners scattered across the Morongo Basin.

“On one hand, you’ve got one site, where you’ve got one corporation and they’ve got a lot of money and they’re going to go through the process the county already has in place,” he said. “Or you have, I don’t know, a hundred individuals, in a hundred different locations, with a hundred different types of accommodations that do not currently have any regulation.”

Fjallstam wouldn’t mind staying in an AutoCamp, but worries that building the equivalent of a 55-room motel near downtown will mean even more traffic and longer waits at local businesses, not to mention at the national park. As it is, he said, the line to get into the park can grow so long that it snakes past nearby neighborhoods, preventing locals from getting into their homes.

“Joshua Tree is already overwhelmed, and so making more bed space is going to make that problem worse,” he said.

But people will visit Joshua Tree whether locals want them to or not, said James Golub, a general contractor.

“This town needs some sort of tourist injection because the economy around here doesn’t support much else,” he said. “It’s either the (Twentynine Palms Marine Corps) base or the park is what it is out here.”

George Bennett, the vacation rental owner, would rather see locals control the future of downtown Joshua Tree, and add amenities for residents, like a grocery store and a few more restaurants.

“What happens instead is, we get what we get as a result of people seizing opportunities,” he said. “At this point, AutoCamp happened to be the ones who thought it’d be a good idea to do something there. It could have been anybody else.”

Meanwhile, locals that own unconventional short-term rentals, like Airstreams, are especially apprehensive about the future as they await the county's short-term rental ordinance.

In an email, county spokesperson David Wert said county staff "plans to try to draft a proposed ordinance that would allow those uses, provided they meet certain sanitary and safety standards." The county hasn't determined when it will finish the draft ordinance, he said.

Dave McAdam, the founder of Homestead Modern, a company that manages short-term rentals in the region, said in an email that he supports having "diverse accommodations" for people visiting the High Desert.

But, he added, "we find it a little ironic that something like (AutoCamp) is being proposed at a time when those individuals who have been offering trailer lodging for vacation rental on their own properties are facing uncertainty about whether they will be allowed to continue as the County of San Bernardino considers its proposed short-term vacation rental ordinance."

On a recent morning, at their home in Joshua Tree, Robert Rootenberg and Raoul La Vogue started the day with pancakes made by their Airstream guests.

Rootenberg has considered renting out a second trailer, maybe more, but he doesn’t want to take the risk until he knows the county will let him keep converting the trailers into short-term rentals. At most, he said, two Airstreams would be plenty.

“I don’t need 55 of them to be happy,” he said.

Amy DiPierro covers business and real estate at The Desert Sun in Palm Springs. Reach her at amy.dipierro@desertsun.com or 760-218-3459. Follow her on Twitter @amydipierro.