Tent hire package for family holidays

[wmrcomputers]

Thanks to a business angel, I'm now offering family tent & accessory hire. It's a time where a lot of people are feeling the pinch and this is therefore a great way of trying out a camping holiday without shelling out £1000 on a decent tent and essentials.

Pricing is £30 per night for 4 to 7 nights, and £20 per additional night thereafter. We use airbeam (no poles) tents making pitching super easy! For full details, please take a look at our website at www.staffordshiretenthire.co.uk and you can also find us on Facebook at facebook.com/staffordshiretenthire

 

[Lucy]

Ah, this popped up on my Facebook feed yesterday and I thought it was a great idea.

 

[Mikinton]

Nice idea. I like the idea of super-easy pitching as it's always a bit of a pain. But £120 to dip your toe in the water isn't bad.

Have you considered one of these? Only £35 from Argos. I've had mine since 1999 - I bought it when we went camping in Cornwall for the eclipse.

ETA For maybe 6 people, you might be a bit light on cooking facilities. I've usually got two rings on the go and that's just for me. And I'm not sure providing sleeping bags is a good idea.

 

[Lucy]

Yep, have you got a way of washing the sleeping bags quickly and cheaply? They will get worn pretty quickly unless they are top of the range.

 

[Lucy]

Also, what about a cool box?

 

[Mikinton]

Something like this might be useful as well. https://www.cleverboxes.com/garden/...ries/bar-be-quick-instant-barbecue-stand.html

And what are you going to do with half-used butane gas canisters? "The one that's in there is free; pot-luck that there's much gas left in it. Here's the two (?) new ones that come as part of the deal."?

 

[wmrcomputers]

Thanks everyone for feedback and input so far.

@Lucy - I've run a paid promotion with Facebook, so it's nice to hear of someone actually seeing it

Sleeping bags - we decided it would be more sensible to use cheaper bags for a few hires each before disposal rather than expensive bags hoping for a long run. That will most likely be a launderette job in the 18kg duvet machine! Same again with air beds - if they're going to damage one it's probably equally likely with expensive vs cheap ones, so it makes more sense to use cheap. They also wouldn't be as disgruntled about losing say £10 of their deposit compared to £35.

@Mikinton - yes, basically leave half used canisters in the rings and provide a few spares. You've got the idea. If ridiculously light though, then I'll just keep them for my own use.

Basically, I haven't ruled out things like seating tables, larger cookers, cool boxes etc - however, I have to remember that a lot of people wouldn't fit too many items in their car and might have to be selective - hence the use of the word "essentials". I know campers personally that only use a gas ring when camping to boil a kettle and eat out. A good chat will be had with people when bookings start to come in, to find out what they hope for. We know we'll have to adjust things as we go along as it will be a learning exercise for us too.

I'm just gutted we don't live "beside the seaside" as it would then have been viable to offer pre-pitched tent holidays, or at least a pitching service.

 

[Gramaisc]

A You Tube video showing the pitching process might be useful for utter novices.

 

[Mikinton]

I know campers personally that only use a gas ring when camping to boil a kettle and eat out.

I did wonder about whether you could offer a "camping lite" service - essentially no cooking equipment, the expectation being that they'd use facilities on site or in a nearby town. It's how we did it when we went camping in Belgium and Germany; we flew there just with tents and sleeping bags, and hired a car at the airport.

 

[wmrcomputers]

A You Tube video showing the pitching process might be useful for utter novices.

In the pipeline and will be live before any hires go out. There are some online for similar tents but I've decided it would be better to make our own.

I did wonder about whether you could offer a "camping lite" service...

Good point and has certainly given me some thought for a bit of re-wording. Thanks!

 

[Thehooperman]

Have you thought about offering to hire out tents that you pitch for the customers and they just arrive and camp.

This may be popular with first time brigade or perhaps a walking group where they could just walk between camps.

Not sure how far away you'd have to go to find sites but Derbyshire or the Welsh borders may be feasible.

 

[Alee]

What about dogs ? Are they allowed in tent ?

 

[wmrcomputers]

Have you thought about offering to hire out tents that you pitch for the customers and they just arrive and camp.

We're currently discussing this option, although it would of course be quite limited on distance. We've even discussed the possibility of a "Pitched Holidays" page where we do different holiday sites for different weeks and have 3 or 4 tents allocated for the week to make it worth the longer journeys - but this is looking way ahead at this time as we need to just test the water with standard self-pitch hires first to see if it all takes off in general.

What about dogs ? Are they allowed in tent ?

We're about to make wording to the effect of not currently allowed, but will eventually aim to use older tent stock for this purpose once it has done a full season. Such hires when that time comes would of course be at lower rates too. Whilst I'm an animal lover myself, I have to respect that not everyone would appreciate hiring a tent that has previously been used with dogs, so in just the same way as caravan sites do we'll eventually aim to have categories for both with and without pets.

 

[wmrcomputers]

Not so sure how (or if) to proceed with this idea now. Been to Go Outdoors today and these tents are ridiculously large and heavy. Allowing for all of the equipment, most people wouldn't be able to transport in a normal family car. Could resort to smaller tents with regular pole systems and reduce the hire price accordingly, but defeats a bit of what we wanted to achieve

 

[Gramaisc]

My only experience of pneumatic tents was one of the original Igloo ones in the 1970s - they were on the heavy side back then, though materials may have improved since then.

 

[Mikinton]

Not so sure how (or if) to proceed with this idea now. Been to Go Outdoors today and these tents are ridiculously large and heavy. Allowing for all of the equipment, most people wouldn't be able to transport in a normal family car. Could resort to smaller tents with regular pole systems and reduce the hire price accordingly, but defeats a bit of what we wanted to achieve

That's a shame. Couldn't you go with a smaller airbeam tent as the one on your webpage seems quite big (to me at least)?

Rather than give them a "taste of camping", maybe give them a "taste of camping in the size of tent they're likely to buy as their first tent".

 

[Lucy]

I assumed you already had the tent. You could probably get a smaller 6 berth, without the canopy, to make it lighter?

 

[Gramaisc]

My only experience of pneumatic tents was one of the original Igloo ones in the 1970s - they were on the heavy side back then, though materials may have improved since then.

We only had that in order to protect delicate electrical equipment in outdoor site works. A few people did try it 'unofficially' as a camping facility and weren't over-impressed, I remember - and nobody actually bought one for themselves as result of the "trials" - although somebody did steal it eventually, so it presumably met their requirements...

 

[Mikinton]

We use airbeam (no poles) tents making pitching super easy!

One question ..... are they as easy to pack away again?

 

[Gramaisc]

One question ..... are they as easy to pack away again?

My limited experience raised no real issues with the small tent above, but I do wonder if the larger ones proposed may need to be folded in a particular way to avoid erectile dysfunction when they are next deployed?