How We Used Hip Camp to Make Cash from Our Personal Land

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Final week we “opened” our campground property to visitors utilizing Hipcamp—although we haven’t constructed out RV pads but!

Since we’ve shared our campground dream, many individuals have emailed us to share that they’ve the same dream. And fairly just a few individuals have stated “I’ve ## acres and would love to only invite individuals to camp on my property. How can I do this?”

I’ve all the time replied with the hyperlink to join Hipcamp.

Hipcamp is a website that permits personal landowners (or wannabe campground builders) to become profitable by charging nightly charges for campers. When somebody’s planning their subsequent tenting journey and need to keep on personal land (versus the foundations that include free public land), they’ll keep in your property. It’s kinda like Airbnb for tenting. Plus it’s method much less concerned than a full-on campground or short-term rental as a result of nobody expects hook ups or dump stations or canine parks or playgrounds or paved roads.

(Which is nice as a result of we don’t have any of these issues.)

Individuals are merely on the lookout for an outside expertise. Plus they’re usually on the lookout for tenting close to nationwide parks which might be arduous to come back by! We’re solely about 20 minutes from Black Canyon of the Gunnison Nationwide Park right here in Colorado.

Since we aren’t a full-functioning RV park but, we determined Hipcamp was the right place to listing our property to open up boondocking for campers by means of the remainder of 2021.

We arrange our itemizing final Tuesday and shared the hyperlink with you all. Bookings began rolling in however we shortly observed one thing…

Solely about half of the bookings had been from individuals on our electronic mail listing.

The remainder had been from campers looking the Hipcamp website simply on the lookout for a campsite out right here on the western slope of Colorado.

And we had been like…

Somewhat bit shocked.

Somewhat bit nervous.

Somewhat bit like hey…this campground factor would possibly truly work out. 🤯🥳

(Heath already requested me if we actually wanted to take the money and time to construct out RV pads as a result of organising our Hipcamp itemizing was really easy. Sure, Heath. Sure we do.)

This previous week of bringing in our first visitors, getting paid (funds are direct deposited each Tuesday and we made precisely $22.50 for our first campers however IT FEELS GOOD), and determining learn how to run a boondocking campground taught us just a few issues.

1. Choosing the proper platform for constructing your corporation issues.

Discover the platform that has the most effective performance to make your corporation run seamlessly. It’s the identical motive we give the recommendation to promote a e-book on Amazon versus in your web site. Hipcamp makes it ridiculously simple to arrange your profile and we had been up in working in a day.

2. Go the place clients are prepared to purchase. 

Hipcamp has been round for lengthy sufficient to have an excellent repute amongst campers and a rising buyer base. Heath and I each frightened that nobody aside from individuals who double faucet our Instagram images would ever select to camp with us. Strangers reserving our campsite is unbelievably encouraging and thrilling. They’re rising in reputation, making it a no brainer to listing the place campers are actively on the lookout for websites.

3. Automation makes all the things simpler.

We are able to settle for reservations, ship automated check-in messages, and handle questions all from our telephones. Very helpful if you spend most of your day enjoying with a one-year-old.

4. Be okay with model 1. 

Heath and I went backwards and forwards a LOT on if we needed to confide in campers in 2021.

It often went one thing like this:

“We aren’t prepared. What if somebody drives over the leach discipline and sinks and must be towed out? We haven’t even discovered the place to order commercial-size bathroom paper but! We haven’t furnished our 4,000 sq. ft schoolhouse but. We have to purchase a washer-dryer set earlier than anybody camps!!” 😬

“We’ve got a completely renovated schoolhouse that’s prepared to be used. We’ve got enormous shade timber and a leveled, gravel space for RVs. No different boondocking websites have showers and fiber web and a kitchen so I don’t suppose individuals might be mad about our lack of a washer. Individuals are emailing us asking each week if they’ll boondock. Why not open up?” 🤷🏻‍♀️

After a strong month of backwards and forwards, we’re each feeling good about our determination—although it means giving individuals an up-close and private take a look at our messy model one in all a campground.

Sure, there may be some buyer assist and we put in coded locks so individuals can entry our constructing and loos. However nobody has complained as soon as about our messy model one and we’re persevering with to see extra reservations (and extra money) are available.

5. Most of all, it was a great reminder that taking motion is all the time scary and all the time value it—whether or not it’s beginning a brand new enterprise, shopping for an RV, promoting a home, or simply inviting somebody to camp beneath your timber.

We nonetheless have a protracted solution to go. Thanks for sharing this journey with us ❤️🏕

You may uncover and e-book websites on your subsequent tenting journey on Hipcamp 🙂

Observe: We’re by no means affiliated with Hipcamp, though I’m biased that the founder Alyssa Ravasio and I share the identical first identify. It immediately made me like Hipcamp extra. But it surely additionally a really nice solution to become profitable along with your property and primarily based on our expertise, we might extremely suggest it!