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Camping Cabins

Managing a Glamping Business

Before embarking on a tourism venture such as self-catering camping pods it's important to consider how you'd go about managing the enterprise.

 

It appears to be straight forward - you simply order your camping pods, list yourself with some web sites and wait for the guests to arrive.  To some extent it is this simple, but opening your property to people who have committed their weekend and a significant sum of money to staying with you can place weighty responsibility on you, the site owner.

As you consider the venture ask yourself the following questions:

 

1. Do you have an existing administration function that will handle the paperwork or will you do this yourself?
2. Will you employ staff to prepare, clean and maintain your site or will you do it yourself?

3. Will guests use shared washing facilities or will you include en-suite toilet and shower facilities in your camping pods?

4. What price range are you aiming at?

5. Which segment of the market are you targeting - families, couples or groups?

6. Are you willing to invest in the level of furnishings and consumables required to justify the rate you want to charge?

 

As with any business venture, your success will depend on having the right resources in place.  We’ve identified two essential areas of responsibility.  Firstly there's the area of administration - finance, bookings, marketing.  Most of this work can be done at a time that suits you, unlike the second priority operations - cleaning, maintenance, greeting and responding to visitors as they arrive.  In an era when last minute bookings really can come in at the very last minute, it's important to be on hand at the key times and able to prepare your pods for the next guest within hours.

 

Additionally, you may choose to offer visitors on site activities, access to groceries and preferential rates at nearby attractions.  All this requires time and as none of us can be in two places at once it's important to think through who will be doing what and when.

 

Finally, one of the beauties of self-catered tourism is that it requires minimal staffing, yet generates healthy returns.  However the best operators can only achieve these riches by giving outstanding levels of service so give some thought to:

 

1. The level of time you can give to visitors when they are with you on site

2. Your need for privacy, especially if you live on site

3. How you will ensure your own and your visitors' security?

4. How you will balance your private life with this venture?


If having thought this all through you feel you'd like to pursue the venture further, contact us to talk about how we can get you started quickly and for minimal initial outlay.