10 iDEAS HOW TO MAKE A SUCCESSFUL GLAMPING BUSINESS

I've been thinking a lot about this space lately. I've never been camping ever. But the numbers have been almost too good to be true. Robyn and I looked at a campground this weekend and got lots of great advice. This is what I would put on a campground ,

Idea #10 on this list crunches some of the numbers and discusses how to find a campground.

Idea #11 on this list is what the NotePD AI suggests.

1. Bell tents

Looking at Airbnb, in peak season you can rent these out for $100 a night depending on the location (how close to a national park for instance) and in peak season (from Memorial Day to Labor Day). Cost is about $500-1000 for a bell tent. In the Airbnb in the image below, the price to stay in a bell tent in Page, AZ is about $200 a night.

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2. Geodomes

Can buy these for about $5000 and rent out for premium prices. People can live in geodomes all year long regardless of the weather.

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3. Tentsites (but no tent)

This is a cleared out site on a campground that the hiker brings his own tent. So no cost at all. On hipcamp these can rent out for about $30-50 a night.

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4. Tree houses

I mean, how much would you pay to stay in one of these with your family per night? The cost to build one could be $20,000 but you can make it back quickly.

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5. Events

Check out this article on TheKnot for weddings on campsites: https://www.theknot.com/content/how-to-have-a-camp-wedding

6. Trails

You can make easy, intermediate, and difficult trails on your sites. Charge a day pass to hikers.

7. Horse trails

Have people bring their horses to go on your horse trails.

8. Kid stuff

Encourage people to bring the whole family.

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9. RVs

At the base of your camp, you can allow RVs to just plug in and use your facilities. Worst case you can charge $40 a night but much more if you are close to a national park and it's peak season.

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10. How to find campgrounds for sale.

I did a basic search on thecampgroundconnection. The first listing I saw was:
$612,000 for 63+ acres. Assume you put about $120k down to buy the site. What do you get for it? 100+ RV sites.

So let's say you can rent out those RV sites for the worst case price of $40 night. Peak season is almost 200 nights. That would be $800,000 in one year's time.

Assume campground expenses of $200k/year, mortgage is about $3000/ year. You're making $400k profit per year on an initial investment of $120 k.

And that's the WORST case. Imagine if you could charge more than $40k. Also, there is room for about 100 seasonal guests (people who bring their tent) . That costs you nothing and you can charge another $40 a night for those people. If you had 100 tent sites, you'd double your revenues. So $1.6mm a year.

I'm not sure where I am wrong on the numbers. Even assume you rent out only half the days of peak season (unlikely) there's also non-peak season and I am assuming worst case prices and the profit is still significant.

https://thecampgroundconnection.com/parks/?region=All&rvSites=any&acres=40-99&priceRange=All&sortByPrice=1&file_number=All

11. What NotePD AI suggests

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jnagy13 @jnagy13

The headline says Glamping instead of Camping just fyi. Interesting list. I used to love camping as a kid, only did it a couple of times as an adult and it's been a while. I was in Utah years ago for the last time I did it and there are some really nice areas there as well as California.

Reply1 Reply0

JamesAltucher @JamesAltucher

yes! Glamping is a combination of "Glamorous" and "camping". The idea of showing up and the tents are set up for you, etc is more glamping-style.

Yep. I now know. I love it. When I am in my mid 60's, I will be Glamping.

Maybe you would come to my glamping site , if I have one!

Reply0

Anytime! lol! Life is interesting...when I lived in California and met a ton of Snow Birds and helped people with vehicles that they can tow behind their RV's, I met a lot of interesting people and they would tell me about all the cool things they would do when they are camping. I never thought back then it would be something I would ever be interested in, but the older I get, it sounds perfect! Some of those Winnebago's are stylish and it's like driving a nice mini home around.

namioshiro @namioshiro

These random topic posts are actually so fun. I hope you do more lists like this occasionally. Fyre Festival should be hitting you up to solve their problems next time! :D

JamesAltucher

10 iDEAS HOW TO MAKE A SUCCESSFUL GLAMPING BUSINESS

1. Bell tents

2. Geodomes

3. Tentsites (but no tent)

4. Tree houses

5. Events

6. Trails

7. Horse trails

8. Kid stuff

9. RVs

10. How to find campgrounds for sale.

11. What NotePD AI suggests

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