Our FREE ‘Starting a glamping business’ guide

Our free guide is available to download now. It covers all of the key topics along with a structured approach to the processes you will need to follow to open a glamping site.

You first need to understand exactly what you’re looking to achieve. With so many glamping sites being founded you need to stand out from the crowd. What is your unique selling point going to be? and who are your target audience?

Once you know the answer to these questions you can then begin the exciting task of deciding upon the type of accommodation you would like to offer on your future site. Remember you don’t have to be limited to one type you may choose some semi permanent units alongside some seasonal structures to allow you to trade 12 months but also capture the higher demand during the warmer months.

Download the full guide by clicking on the guide cover to the left or via the download button below.

Take a look at the potential profitability of rental Shepherds Huts with our FREE guide

If you’ve been considering investing in a Shepherds Hut for glamping / rental, then what return can you realistically expect? With so much misinformation out there, we decided to look at this in more detail to try and help potential clients really understand what is a likely return on their investment. There is a lot of factors to consider so we have made some assumptions, but we’ll walk you through these as we go through the exercise.

What’s A Realistic Nightly Rate?

This will be influenced massively by factors such as Type of accommodation, facilities, local attractions, season and many more. The more luxurious the accommodation the higher the nightly rate, that’s also true for the facilities available. Look at your local competition and see what they’re charging per night and what accommodation and facilities they are offering. It’s also a great idea to look at sites further afield and see what they’re offering clients as you may pick up some great ideas to add to your own site.

Calculate your potential return on investment with our Excel tool

We have created this easy to use tool to help you forecast your return on a Shepherds Hut. You can download the tool here and simply select your hut type from the yellow drop down, set your expected occupancy rate on the right and the tool will help calculate your expected annual revenue. You can then enter your capital costs in the table below to establish your full investment requirement to set up your perfect glamping site. You can then also look at the ongoing annual costs to help establish the potential profitability of your hut and also the return on investment period for you to recover your initial capital.

Our latest Shepherds Hut brochure available for download here

Every single hut we create is based upon our core designs, however each one has a varying level of
customisation to ensure it meets the individual clients brief. We believe that there will never be a
perfect ‘off the shelf design’ as the hut must match the intended use by the client.
Whether it’s a simple garden office or a full turnkey 6 berth family hut with all the bells and whistles, we
can tailor a Shepherds Hut to your specification and budget.

We truly believe that taking the time to design what we consider to be one of the strongest chassis on
the market allows us to stretch the boundaries. With our builds ranging from 16’ by 8’ to a massive
30’ by 10’ they are incredibly heavy structures so they need a super sturdy chassis to build from. With
our own design and fabricated in the adjoining building we can create completely bespoke sizes to suit.
Every element of our huts are designed and handcrafted by our own team on site allowing us to design
& build the hut of your dreams. Our team love nothing more than seeing a vision become a reality and
go the extra mile to ensure every detail is covered with as many revisions to the designs as is needed
to ensure we deliver a hut which exceeds your expectations.

Is a glamping business a good idea?

This is a question we get asked all of the time, so we thought we’d share our views on the subject to help you gather information to decide if a glamping business is right for you.

Firstly lets discuss exactly what the potential market looks like. Glamping has seen a huge rise in popularity over the last few years especially, however this trend looks to be continuing with the global industry estimated to be worth more than $5.4 billion by 2028. The main demographic driving this growth is the 18-33 year old’s who are looking for unique, luxurious experiences to reconnect with nature. Many landowners have already taken the jump and invested in diversifying the use of their land and even hospitality venues, hotels and theme parks now offering glamping experiences to capture the younger demographic spend. There has never been a better time to investigate the opportunity.

What are the biggest challenges?

Setting up a glamping business will be challenging but we believe if done correctly the benefits will far outweigh the challenges you may face over the journey. We are here to help and have put down in this article the main obstacles you may encounter and how with good planning you should be able to avoid them by planning ahead.

WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIALS BEFORE YOU START? LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! – Finding the perfect space is key and will set the scene for how you will be able to design your site. If you’re going for a woodland retreat back to nature experience then you need the natural architecture to achieve this, if you have a wide-open space this simply won’t work. So, when deciding upon the plot of land you need to always consider the final vision and work with nature, not against it (this will also be far cheaper to create).

What accommodation is best?

This is a question every potential and current glamping site owner will ask, and the simple answer is that the best accommodation type is the one that fits your site and target audience.

If you have decided to get into the glamping business, then choosing the correct accommodation type is a make-or-break decision and will ultimately determine the success of your business. It will also determine if your site will be seasonal or all year round, take bell tents for example they are a great cost-effective summertime solution but not suitable for a warm and cosy winter break, whereas a Shepherds Hut could offer the outdoor living experience in the summer and warm cosy evenings in front of the log burner in the winter. What also needs to be considered is your target audience and what they will be looking for when deciding upon a location for their getaway.

How do you increase occupancy?

We’ve previously focussed on how to set up a glamping site and the hurdles you need to clear and the obstacles you need to overcome to achieve your dreams. However once you’ve got your site open you need a strategy to ensure you achieve your ROI (Return on investment). We have some helpful tips to ensure you stay on track and deliver on your forecasts.

You’ve created the most wonderful site with all the home comforts and luxurious accommodation but unless you tell everyone about it your occupancy rates will be low. You need to shout it from the rooftops that you’re here and you’re open for business. You could go with the ‘scatter gun’ marketing process many do throwing out lots of random information to a random audience, or you could spend a little time and create a targeted plan with a targeted audience. The latter option is where we suggest you spend your time and money.