If you are looking to grow your glamping business for next year, it's never to early start thinking about what it will take and any considerations you need to make for your existing site and guests to avoid unnecessary delays.

Our guide below will take you through the most important things to consider, to help you launch a new space by next season.

Planning

Planning can take some time and if you have done it before you’ll be familiar with the process. But here’s a reminder.

• Types of planning: Change of land use Vs Operational Development. Find out which one applies to you.
• Do the research: Take a look at the National Planning Policy Framework, Local Development Plans and Neighbourhood Development plan (if one is in place)
• Consider a pre-app: relatively fast and a low-cost way to determine whether your full application will be successful.
• Consider employing a planning consultant: It comes at a cost, but is also likely to speed up the process, so this will be recouped by allowing you to open sooner for bookings
• Engage with the local community and Parish Council
• Arrange a meeting with your local traffic and highways officer to see how growing your site may affect access / traffic on site
• Plan for multiple Ecology Reports

If you haven’t seen them, take a look at our planning guidelines or give us a call and we will do everything we can to support your planning application.

Getting ahead

Whilst waiting for your planning permission, grant funding or simply for more time as bookings quieten down, it’s important to consider how you might get ahead.

• Start work on your landscaping: plant natural screening to give time for it to grow. Consider how the land might be affected by winter weather, lay pathways and consider how the fountains may change with the weather
• Consider ordering items which may have a long lead time. i.e. hot tubs can take approximately 6 weeks to be delivered
• Be prepared for the weather: Many of our owners lost months of potential revenue due to snow. Plan your build with bad weather in mind
• Let us know your plans early: If we know you are planning a new space, we can help you with advice and support on everything from siting to planning, to get your listing live with no delay.
• Book a photographer: Having a photographer on standby will speed up getting you live. Guest booking lead time is 4-12 weeks, so if you can get professional photographs of the exterior and interior as finished as possible we can get your listing live and taking bookings as you work on the finishing touches.
• Be mindful of guests: consider how your building work might affect guests in your other spaces and how you can minimise this. Also include potential loss in revenue if you have to close your other space for a few days during particular works.