Was thinking about glamping as a business opportunity, so did a wee Google search and…my! Some of it looks really nice, but lots of it comes across as particularly **** and oh-so-hip.

See some of these examples:
Holidays in Scotland for the urban beardsman

To quote:

Having liberated this 1956 Commer Q4 [truck] … he laid an oak parquet floor rescued from a Tudor mansion, salvaged snooker table slate to make a hearth and a fire escape to make a staircase.

Or:

Made of oak, walnut, ash and wild cherry by artisans in France, a beautiful space and comes with its own eco-hot tub

If I’m going to get into this as a business I’d better iron some tight jeans with turn ups, polish up the brogues, button up my lumberjack shirt and pop to the barbers for some fresh pomade (carried home in my hand-made leather satchel).

What were you thinking that the “glam” part of “glamping” referred to?

#beardlove #yersistersjeans

That does come across like pro-level bellendery.

And ‘urban beardsman’ – what?

A lot of marketing **** in all of that. If you already have the land I think you can make a bit but now there are a lot of glamping sites so you ahve to raise your marketing **** game.

I think the correct analogy is “static caravan holiday parks for the middle classes”. So more “Ageing Hippie” than “Hipster”.

It’s also a well know fact that hipsters will only ever go to the countryside to lend variety to their Instagram account, as soon as a photo has been posed of of them, their fixie and some rural trains station grafiti they’ll be back on the train and safely inside Zone 4.

Or as my parents decided, why waste half a weekends camping setting everything up and realizing it’s going to cost you more than a B&B by the time the campsite has added more extras than Ryan Air* then having to get everything out to dry/air at home afterwards was just too much like hard work so went glamping.

*I reached a new height of goldfishing last year when people, tents, showers, car and bikes were all billed separately. Apparently the basic rate only covered those arriving on foot, sleeping in the hedge and not using the showers. Which I contemplated doing just to prove a point.

What were you thinking that the “glam” part of “glamping” referred to?

I thought “glam” was relative in this context, not absolute. Sleeping in something with a floor instead of a tent for example? Not a hut made from an old canoe, or a tree house, or an artisan hand-carved gypsy wagon with it’s own solarium. Clearly I was extremely naive :/

It is **** but, I quite like the beermoth. It’s gone all the way through trying too hard and out the other side.

If you want more sane and unwanky glamping I suppose it’s all hobbithouses and wigwams. The place at Tyndrum is really good, if you want to see it done well- so many of these are just sheds in a field basically.

For a good example of how to do it if you are going to pursue it as a business then have a look at billycan camping in Arundel.

We’ve been to a few sites and have just bought our own tent plus garb to give us a bit more flexibility. I’d suggest couples with kids are your target market with the ‘kids’ part of it being the most important element.

It is **** but, I quite like the beermoth. It’s gone all the way through trying too hard and out the other side.

http://www.canopyandstars.co.uk/britain/scotland/highland/inshriach-house/the-beermoth

It’s a van with a woodburner in it. It’s about as STW as it gets!

About 4 years ago I volunteered at a project to set up a fully kitted-out canvas bell tent as a ‘turn up and camp in luxury’ (ie proper double bed, furniture, all kitchen goods, double camp stove, dutch oven and fire-pit, awning, books, solar led lights, candle chandelier) option on an existing campsite. It proved popular for all kinds of couples and families ie:

– Those who have camped for a while in nylon setups yet were curious for whatever reason about the idea of a bell tent and wanted to try it out for a couple of nights before splashing out a lot
– Special weekend then got engaged
– Touring with kids wanted a break from the whole setup in the rain with a flapping nylon monster tent
– Single parent with child having a once in a lifetime pamper-camp

I met some great people and hardly any (if any) rent-a-memes, but our emphasis was on offering a basic setup with on-hand coaching in use of dutch oven, kelly kettle, foraging, exciting recipes etc. It was a great experience.

Choose a swathe of the market and cater for that (pricing and spec accordingly).

*Edit – if you go for canvas – be prepared for the British weather and the effect it can have on canvas if you don’t keep the grass cut, don’t pitch near certain trees (big sap bother/pollen bother) . Also make sure to rotate, re-site, generally move the tents around between bookings to keep it all fresh and mildew free. Always pack when bone dry.

I thought “glam” was relative in this context, not absolute

Yep. But that kind of talk gets in the way of a sneering, tabloidesque stereotype-a-thon, careful now…