Open Air Business June/July 2018

GLAMPSITES
OUT & ABOUT
with Kate Morel
Back-to-nature tourism, planning woes,
and when things just don't add up
WELL, HERE we are girls and boys – our beautiful
British summer is now in full flow, and what a
glorious summer it is, with some wonderful long, hot
days and balmy evenings. It’s certainly shaping up
to be a great season for the glamping industry, with
individual glampsites enjoying good booking rates,
and online marketing companies boasting a healthy
increase in bookings on last year. Hardly surprising
really, as more people look for something deeper
than a package holiday, the number of staycations
increase, and the ‘back to nature’ tourism and
leisure movements show no signs of cooling off.
Glamping remains, in my opinion at least, bang on
trend.
ABOUT KATE
A rural, feral upbringing sometimes
pays off. Growing up on a
smallholding has its perks, such as
a mostly unsupervised childhood
spent building woodland dens,
treehouses and blanket tents -
resulting in an eye for a good stick,
and a creative imagination. Kate
says she could still rustle up a den,
but admits, even though it would be
a low investment project, it wouldn’t
deliver much of an income. Unlike a
glamping site.
These days, Kate’s ‘den building’
is a more sophisticated adventure,
involving a hand-picked team of
industry specialists, adding to
her many years of experience,
knowledge and creativity, all
applied to every project. Above all,
Kate takes pride in providing honest,
impartial business advice that’s in
her clients' best interest.
She is also, rather notoriously,
always happy to talk at length
about glamping, so if you have any
questions about starting a glamping
business, or just want a few pointers,
her contact details are: info@
katemorel.com, 07849 514588, www.
katemorel.com, Facebook Group:
Glamping Business Link.
TRELLYN WOODLAND CAMPING
FROM THE DIARY
I’ve spent more time than usual at
my desk lately, number crunching. In
particular, one project has contributed
to a few late (and sleepless) nights because I was
working out the opposite of what I usually do - how
much revenue a project might have to lose. It was a
unique situation where the quality of the location
was, through no fault of the landowner, about to be
heavily compromised. So much so, I ultimately had
to suggest that the glamping build should not go
ahead. After a year of meetings, landscape design,
bespoke structure design, planning application
issues, and no small amount of investment, it was a demoralising decision.
However, certain criteria are critical to a glamping business’s success, and if one of
them is taken away, we simply don’t have a business.
On a more positive note, I broke away from the desk to visit this month’s case
study glamping site, Trellyn Woodland Camping in Pembrokeshire. I really enjoyed
exchanging ideas and discussing our industry with owners, UK glamping pioneers
Kevin and Claire Bird. In the evenings I took in the other side of the business by
chatting with guests around the campfire and was happily reassured just why
people enjoy and need their glamping breaks “every year, no matter what”.
By Kevin’s own admission, Trellyn does little advertising, and its website could
be a better example of digital marketing. Even so, they run at over 90% occupancy
with a covetable repeat booking rate, and their guests love the place. However,
it took Kevin and Claire some years to achieve this and even though they close
for winter, when they are open they work hard. The type of glamping they offer
falls very much into the ‘lifestyle’ model (see OAB Issue 11 for ‘Glamping Business
Models’) where it is entirely about the space and experiences that we create for our
guests. I’m not going to elaborate on that, however, because after years of having
done so, I know I’ll sound like a broken record.
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