Should I Set Up My Own Glamping Business? Part 1
A glamping business is the ultimate work from home job. If you have the space on your property, or you have access to land nearby then you can run a successful glamping business from home, allowing you to create a good work/life balance. Glamping businesses are ideal for people who want to have their own business, who love the outdoors, and who don’t mind being the cook, cleaner, administrator, receptionist and handyman.
Setting up a glamping business can be quite daunting – anyone who watched the comedian Johnny Vegas’ Carry on Glamping series will know that there are a lot of boxes to tick and a considerable financial outlay (depending on the route you take), so it is not for the faint hearted. A quick way into the industry would be to buy an established glamping business when the owners want to sell, so keep your ear to the ground and make a few phone calls if this is a route you could go down. The initial cost will be higher than if you start from the grass roots because you’re buying an established, tried-and-tested business with a guaranteed income, but you will save yourself a lot of time.
The drawback to buying an established business is that you won’t have learnt all the lessons that often get taught the hard way, and you may find yourself out of your depth at times as you grapple with an unfamiliar business. Building the business yourself teaches you all these lessons at the start when you can correct your mistakes without impacting too much on your guests.
2021 has seen an increase in the number of glamping sites across the country. The demand is high, and will continue to be high even when holidays abroad don’t involve quarantining because glamping is such a unique experience. The more diverse and special your accommodation is the higher the demand will be (not to mention the higher prices you can charge for something you can’t get elsewhere). Glamping is a great holiday for groups, families, couples and solo travellers, so you have a really diverse pool of potential customers. Don’t discount foreign tourists either – they may want to explore off the beaten path or stay in a unique cabin, tree house or other structure that they couldn’t find anywhere else.
Before deciding whether a glamping business is for you, look realistically at the obstacles you will face. Planning permission is a big one, because without this you can’t build any type of permanent structure. Temporary or moveable structures are much easier to get planning permission for, which is why a lot of glampsites use restored or converted vehicles – having wheels makes it a non-permanent structure in planning terms, even if it’s going to stay in one place for years in the real world.
Finding the land could be a problem too, combined with the planning permission issue. You could have the perfect spot on land that you own, but if it’s too close to other houses or in restricted areas then you might not get planning permission – a site on the Isle of Wight had to rethink the layout and type of structure they were going to use because of concerns about the impact on nearby residents. You could identify the perfect piece of land from a planning point of view, but be unable to purchase/lease the land or work with the landowner to create the business.
As we can see, getting the land sorted is the first and most pressing issue, but it doesn’t stop there. Setting up a glamping business involves a lot of hard decisions, and a lot of patience! Join us in part 2 where we continue looking at what is involved in setting up your own glampsite.
