Glamping (glamorous camping) is becoming a favorite pastime around the country. People like to enjoy nature without losing access to the luxuries of the modern world — like running water, electricity, and comfortable beds. And where there’s demand, there’s opportunity.
Whether you want to rent out a piece of your land for glamping to offset the cost of the land, or you simply want to run a full-time glamping business, we’re here to help. Here’s how to buy land and rent it out for glamping!
Choosing the Land
Renting out your land for glamping successfully requires a combination of things. Chief among them is the land itself. You’ll want to have land that people will find attractive with features and nearby attractions. But you’ll also need to make sure you won’t be breaking any laws! This means ensuring that you’ll be able to get the correct permits for glamping. Let’s start with features first.
Land Features and Access
Desirable land features will go a long way to attracting glampers to your land. A wooded area will be more desirable than a piece of land that’s just flat dirt. That’s not to say that you can’t add features to a piece of land that lacks them — you can. But this takes time, energy, and money. So if you can find land that already has desirable features, you’ll be one step closer to your first glamping customer!
Some desirable features include things like lakes, ponds, streams, and magnificent views. If you think people will want to take pictures on or around your land to share on social media, you’ve got an excellent piece of land for glamping!
You’ll also want to make sure it’s easy to access the land by road. While your customers may want to go hiking during their stay, they probably won’t want to hike all their stuff in on the first day!
Zoning and Permits
When searching for land to purchase, it’s important to ensure that you’ll be able to use it for glamping. Laws vary depending on location, so it will require some research in your area to find out the requirements.
Properties that allow RVs and tiny homes can give you a good indication that glamping will be allowed, but you’ll still want to check with the local planning and zoning office. Since it’s a business, there will probably be some minimum requirements you’ll need to meet, like having some kind of toilet and running water. More on that later in the “Utilities” section below.
Nearby Attractions
Even if the land you have your heart set on doesn’t have any of the features listed above, you can still rent it out for glamping. If you can get land near attractions, people will be more likely to stay on your property.
Some ideal attractions include:
- Hiking trails
- Beaches
- Wilderness areas
- Lakes or rivers
- State parks
- Natural attractions (Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Pikes Peak, etc.)
You probably won’t want land too close to a city. However, rural areas outside cities can be great for group glamping adventures. Those areas further away from population centers tend to attract smaller groups of glampers.
Land Size
You’ll also want to make sure your land is big enough for what you want to do. If you know you’ll only want to have one or two glamping sites on the land, you won’t need much more than an acre.
But if you dream of running a glamping business with several sites, you’ll need to buy more land. While there’s no hard-and-fast rule, it’s ideal to have no more than one or two glamping sites per acre of land.
Determining what you want to do with the land in the long-term — like building a home — should also factor into this decision.
Planning Your Site
Once you find land that fits your needs and will be able to (legally) accommodate a glamping business, it’s time to plan the site. Planning is important because it will tell you how much of an investment you’ll be putting up in addition to the land. And one of the biggest expenses will depend on the “pods” you’ll use.
Pod Types
You can have a glamping site with everything from tents to trailers to tiny homes. Tents are the least expensive option, but they’re also more likely to need replacing sooner than trailers or tiny homes, depending on how much use they get.
Building or purchasing one or more tiny homes on the land can range from inexpensive for basic homes to nearly the cost of a full house for more luxurious ones.
You also have options like yurts, A-frame houses, and modular homes. The type of pods you use, combined with the climate of your land, will also influence whether you can rent year-round. Tents in a cold climate in the winter aren’t likely to attract many guests, whereas heated tiny homes, A-frames, or modular homes are.
Utilities
Your choice of utilities on the property will depend mainly on any requirements set forth by the local government. That said, glamping sites generally provide access to running water, toilets, and electricity.
There are a lot of different options when it comes to providing toilets and running water. If you’ll have solid structures like tiny or A-frame homes, it makes sense to have the water hooked up to the house. But if you’ll have tents or yurts, you could offer a central bathroom facility. You could even have chemical or portable toilets, if zoning allows it.
The more convenience you include on your site, the more customers you’re likely to attract. So if you have the means and method to provide running water, electricity, and toilets for each pod, it’ll likely pay off for you.
Business Plan
Bringing all the factors mentioned above into a business plan is important for the success of your glamping rental business. Even if you only want to have one pod or tent on the land, it’s still a good idea to write down a basic plan for recouping your expenses. For a more complex glamping business with two or more sites, a business plan is essential to keep you on track.
Conclusion
Whether you want to own land with the option of renting it out for glamping, or you want to start a full-fledged glamping business, there’s some work to be done. Making sure glamping is legal and the land is suitable are big first steps. It’s also important to work out the details before making a move to purchase land.
Like any other investment, buying land for glamping requires some research, due diligence, and planning. But with the growing demand for glamorous camping, there’s no better time to buy land and rent it out for glamping!
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