S2 Ep9 - Season catch-up, site disasters, bookings & what's changing in glamping

The Glamping Business Roundup – Season 2, Episode 9

After a busy summer break, Vicki Jones and John Maddy are back to catch up on everything that's happened since the Glamping Summit. From floods and structural failures to packed festivals, changing booking patterns and the rise of hot tubs, this episode is an honest look at the realities of running a glamping business during peak season.

They discuss how unexpected challenges can become opportunities, why data is becoming one of the most valuable tools for operators, and how guest behaviour continues to evolve across both camping and glamping.

The episode also introduces Vicki's exciting new business venture, Tickle Tubs, bringing premium South African-made, wood-fired hot tubs to the UK market. Find out more at www.tickletub.co.uk. The conversation also explores why hot tubs continue to be one of the biggest booking drivers across the industry.

In this episode:

• Why the podcast took a summer break while business operations took priority
• Reflections on the Glamping Summit and the value of industry networking
• Vicki's busy season, retreats and the importance of taking time off during peak season
• John's barn collapse, rebuilding the bar and creating new opportunities from disaster
• A holiday cottage flood and the challenge of turning accommodation around in just hours
• Managing wildfire risks and tightening campfire rules during hot weather
• Hosting camping and glamping for a 1,500-person festival
• How camping guests have changed since COVID and why older demographics are proving ideal customers
• Current booking trends, the growing role of OTAs and the increase in last-minute bookings
• Using operational data to reduce costs, improve purchasing and make better business decisions
• Why hot tubs have become a major booking driver, plus an introduction to Vicki's new Tickle Tubs venture
• GITA's ongoing work to improve hot tub standards and safety across the industry
• Emerging trends in international tourism and repeat guest behaviour

Key takeaways

This episode highlights the importance of resilience, adaptability and making decisions based on real data rather than assumptions. Whether it's responding to unexpected site disasters, understanding changing guest behaviour or investing in the facilities guests value most, successful operators continue to evolve with the market. 

Thanks so much for listening. 

To find out more about how GITA can help you and your glamping business then visit www.gitauk.org or find us on the socials...

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LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/glamping-industry-trade-association-uk

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:02

Welcome back to the Glamping Business Roundup, the podcast where we grab a coffer, dive into the glamping world, and get straight to the honest practical side of things.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

I'm John Maddy.

SPEAKER_05 0:11

And I'm Vicki Jones. Every week we're here to share the latest stories, tough lessons, and crucial conversations from inside the glamping industry.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Before we jump in, a quick nod to our partners. This podcast is brought to you in association with the Glamping Industries Trade Association, Gita. They are the voice and support system of our entire sector.

SPEAKER_05 0:31

So whether you're battling laundry, figuring out your next investment, or just need a dose of relatable insight, you're exactly where you need to be.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Well, before we get into today's episode, Vicky, I think there's probably one thing that we need to address first. It's been a little while since our last episode.

SPEAKER_05 0:48

Oh yeah, just a little while, John.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Okay, maybe a little bit longer than we planned. So first of all, apologies to everyone who have been waiting for the next episode of the Glamping Business Roundup. The reality is that we've both been incredibly busy doing the thing we spend most of the time talking about on this podcast, actually running our businesses.

SPEAKER_05 1:08

Yeah, exactly. It's funny because one of the things we always discuss is how demanding this industry can be, especially once a season gets going. And then suddenly we found ourselves living exactly what we've been talking about.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Between guest projects, events, site visits, training, and everything else that comes with running a business, the weeks seem to disappear incredibly quickly.

SPEAKER_05 1:28

Yeah, and before we know it, we've gone from saying, we'll record again next week to realising several weeks, maybe even months, has passed.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Well, the good news is we're back. And we thought rather than jumping straight into the guest interview, we'd do something slightly different today. Since our last episode, a lot has happened across the industry, and a lot has happened for both of us personally and professionally.

SPEAKER_05 1:50

The last time many of our listeners saw us was probably at the Glamping Summit back in May, and that feels like a lifetime ago now.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

I know. We had such a fantastic time at the summit, meeting so many operators, suppliers, and people looking to get into the industry. Some now that we'd even call friends.

SPEAKER_05 2:07

Absolutely. And one of the biggest things that came out of those conversations was hearing about how everyone was feeling about the season ahead. There's like a real mix of optimism this year, I think, and excitement. But also people are a little bit nervous about are we going to get the bookings that we want to?

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Yeah, which which makes today's episode quite timely because we can now look back and ask, yeah, how how it's actually been this season? Has it met our expectations? Have guests behaved the way they expected? Probably not. What what trends are we seeing? What's worked and what's what's been challenging?

SPEAKER_05 2:46

Yeah, and we're gonna also share what we've both been up to over the last few months, some of the lessons we've learned, some of the things that have happened, and our kind of thoughts of where the industry's heading as we move towards the like end of the main season.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

So I think think of this as a catch-up around the campfire.

SPEAKER_05 3:04

Yeah, that sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

So, Vicky, let's uh let's start at the beginning. It's it's been a couple of months since the glamping summit. What's been keeping you busy? And how's the season been shaping up?

SPEAKER_05 3:16

Yeah, really good actually. So the summit was great, but it was like such a major thing in my calendar for the year that I would all my focus was on getting through the summit. And then once that was over, I was like, oh crikey, like I have to really focus on summer's coming up, and May, half term was then coming up, and then it just starts to really ramp up. May and June tend to be where we get our weekend retreats, so like yoga retreats, Pilates retreats, group bookings. So it was kind of trying to make sure that all that was ready and then making I wanted to make sure that when we're going into sort of June time that the calendar that July and August was full, basically.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:54

So we had the summit, but we also had a sneaky holiday. So we'd we'd booked out in the first week of July to go away to Norway. And actually, although it sounds awful having like I was worried about having a holiday in the summer because I thought, like, how can you block the site out? Uh we have to block the site out for the week. Um, so we just thought life's too short, we need like the kids need a summer holiday. So the first week of July we went away for a week, and it was the best thing ever because you actually kind of chill yourself, reset a bit, and then you're ready to tackle the summer. Whereas I think if we didn't have that and we hadn't have had that to look forward to, I would have been utterly miserable.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah. Now that sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_05 4:34

Because you managed to get away, don't you? You're going away next week, I think, aren't you?

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Yeah, so so Rich and I split it. So we will always do half, we always have done actually, and it's kind of worked quite well. Rich will take three weeks, I'll take three weeks, and then depending on if you know who wants to go first, I always like going second because I feel as though if you go on holiday on the first half of the summer holidays, it doesn't feel like you've been on holiday by the time you get back and get into work. Yeah, which it's kind of more more expensive actually doing it that way, because you know, you roll over uh an August bank holiday, which is quite a big one in France as well. But yeah, I can't I can't wait. I can't wait to see the back of customers.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

This is the I love them.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

I love them, but it gets to this point of the year where they I don't know, you know, I never think it at the time, but by the end of the season, I you know, I'm ready to kind of just wave goodbye forever to them.

SPEAKER_05 5:41

Yeah, I get to that point around about set late September, like after the glamping show, and it feels like it's all just dragging on a bit, and then we go right through to October half term before we shut. Yeah, honestly, October is the is the draggiest month. I'm just like half term. Yeah, I know I should be grateful for the customers, definitely. And actually, afterward, our customers have been okay so far. Like, all seem to be really nice, all seem to be having a really nice time. Obviously, the weather has been amazing, so that has definitely helped guest morale, I would say. But um have you had any major disasters?

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Not as as many as we normally do, actually. Touch wood. Say that now. As we're recording, the phone will ring.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

No, I think do you know it's funny actually because I was um I was in I was in the van the other day and I listened to you know I listened to a running podcast, or a couple of them actually. I don't know if you've found this. When you when you get to the end of the podcast and it just rolls on, it goes on to another podcast that you you like or you follow, and it'll play you some random episodes or you know the latest episode. So so I'd obviously got to the end of the current episode of my running podcast, and uh it it shot me into the glamping business roundup podcast. So I was on the road, I couldn't change anything. And uh the the episode that it it it went on to was um was the one when we did the the the catch-up last time, so that was that was last year towards I think at the end of the summer.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

So it was quite interesting to I mean, despite the fact that you know, when when I'm editing, I absolutely hate listening to my own voice. It's you know, dreadful. I don't know how how anybody else can on the podcast when they're listening to it, to be honest. But um what what was funny was the amount of stuff that we were firefighting with and and spate uh plate spinning and you know there was there was quite a few things going on for us. Um this year there's not there's not that many. It's great actually. Um and it and it's just been kind of just keeping the cogs turning set up, you know. That that that's been the the main thing for normal service, I should say.

SPEAKER_05 8:11

Well, I was gonna say we could talk about your major disaster that you had.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we we've obviously been talking about the bar for for quite a while, and that and that certainly dominated most of the winter for me, which was great. You know, really enjoyed that job. So it'd been open a couple of months and it was all going really well. And it's in a um, I probably said it's in a kind of a split level barn. So the top, it's a trip kind of a traditional lake, lake district type barn. So it's on a it's on a kind of a built into a hill. So the top section, the big barn top, would be where the farmer stored all the hay, and then in the bottom would be where the shippens are and and and the cattle would be in winter. That and that's kind of how the format of it. Well, we we obviously had the bar down in the shippens and the gable end of the barn above the bar, so in the in the the hay the hay part, um the internal wall gave way and several tonnes of of stone fell into um fell into the barn at the top. I mean it didn't affect, you know, the the bar at all, nothing was damaged.

SPEAKER_03 9:32

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Yeah, but what it did was make the the whole of that front end of the building where people walk in and out and the structural, yeah, the structural kind of part of the building unstable. So yeah, that that was a massive, massive knock. So within about two days to maybe three, um, we had full structural scaffolding up inside and out, you know, pinning the the walls so they they they couldn't fall anymore and supporting the roof. And then of all the time I'm thinking a couple of months, it'd be fine, you know, tops. Or it went from like a few weeks thinking, yeah, we could we could we could get that patched up to now we've got you know a fairly large hole in the in the the hole at the front end of the the building that's been taken down professionally, um big insurance job, um, which is going to kind of rebuild all of that front end of the barn and the remedial work that's surrounding it. And then uh I I think if we hadn't done so well in the bar to start with, I'd be like, oh yeah, let's just kind of you know shelve it for the season. But we'd obviously taken on staff for that role. They they were living on site, you know, and there wasn't really a huge amount of other work for them to do, if I'm honest. So I didn't want to lay them off. And you know, they were doing some other cleaning work as well, so we knew we could give them a little bit of work, but yeah. So I so I set about as as as John Muddy does.

SPEAKER_05 11:18

That's a resourceful business guy now.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Pulling time out of my ass. Um and yeah, uh built built a new bar. So I think I think it took me about two and a half weeks. Um, and we've got this large timber framed um building that we put sides on a couple of years ago in in arguably a better place on the campsite, if I'm honest. And uh I built it inside there. Yeah, it's a great building. Yeah, it's a great little spot. I mean, you know, every cloud's got a silver lining. I I made it bigger because I could, and um we we have more, you know, we've got more beer available now, more storage for bottles and cans, but we've also got yeah, more taps on so we can serve more kind of cask and keg beers, which is brilliant.

SPEAKER_05 12:12

But yeah, I mean, I always think, and we've said this on the podcast before, when something absolutely horrifically disastrous happens, when you think it is like the end of the world and there's no good reason for this to happen, sometimes something good, you can always find the good in something that happens, disastrous that happens. And it could be now that you end up keeping this section of the this bar here forever, even when you've finished your other bar, and then having like that separate event space that you can do definitely stuff in as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Um Yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, what I what I did was I I started to think about that and um I I measured up a few things around the site. So there's an area outside of our food van that we always thought we'd we'd put like a you know, when you go to festivals and you you see the food sellers and they essentially they've got you know a a a shell of gazebos, a few tables, but they always have like these really cool facades, don't they? They they're on the front end advertising the the the business, what food they're selling. And it always looks quite permanent, I suppose, or or quite, you know, uh you know heavy duty, but essentially it's just a few panels that they've screwed together. And I kind of I kind of tried to to build on that mentality really so that so that the panels could be taken and put in anywhere else. And and I was thinking actually, when we finish the bar, I can use them as an outdoor kitchen for the food van. So we're thinking about kind of moving some of that outside and doing you know, some other events like barbecue and smoking and live fire events. So that that would work really well for that. But you're absolutely right as well. You know, seeing it in the space now and the bar set up, you know, there's an argument to say it should stay there. I mean, it certainly hasn't come without its issues, you know, it's always the same, isn't it? You try and try and introduce something that you think, well, I'll just add that, and that element works really well, but then it throws up other issues that you just haven't really thought about. You know, when we were when we were in the in the um the bar that was kind of in the barn originally, it was super cold in there, you know, really cold. And um we we we didn't need any refrigeration in there at all for our barrels because it was essentially under the ground, so it was like a cave, really. But now obviously the barrels are outside and the weather we that we've had at the moment, you know, they've needed additional cooling and and it was stuff that we just yeah, we thought that our existing system could cope, but then you know, I'm sorting out kind of all these cooling elements for the barrels and you know, where is it gonna go? And so there's you know, nothing's ever straightforward, I suppose. You know, it's filled a bit of time, but but I'm still drinking cold pints when I've finished so that is the main thing.

SPEAKER_05 15:21

Yeah, I'm so glad it all worked out well eventually. And we're planning on having the next year's spring summit up at your place, aren't we? Still, yeah. So it'll be great everyone can come and see it all in the flesh, and hopefully your bars, your original pubs done by then and the gable walls finished soon. Um really excited to come up again and see it.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Yeah, definitely, yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's uh it'll be it'll be a great, great, great couple of days. And I think, you know, originally it was kind of that, you know, enjoyment for getting um getting everybody together, but seeing how important it's been to people, just having that space to to to network or to talk about their their issues, it it's been really, really well received. And I think, yeah, it's um it's something that we need we definitely need to do as a as an association on a more regular basis for people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:21

Definitely relationships are stronger. Relationships with suppliers, I think also, you know, we're all very supportive of the suppliers that are Gita members, which is great, and we all want to support them and use them. Um but also, you know, like even creating little WhatsApp chats and stuff. Really nice that a WhatsApp group now with like Wendy and Joe and Vicky and Zoe and stuff, and and it's really nice that we can all have a little group where we're, you know, we're on this group quite a lot actually, saying to each other all the things that have happened and um when we've had awful guests and you know, supporting each other through the like funny slash stressful times. I definitely feel like a you know I've made friends for life from this from Gita as well. So, do we have a date for next year? 11th of May is what I think we've said. Um, but we will put out some communication around when it's gonna be. But I think that's what I've got in my diary because it seemed to work quite well having it on a random Tuesday. So put that date in your diary if you don't already have it.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:27

Uh we'll join you next year better, because uh we're coming up to you.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Definitely, yeah. Yeah, I better close it off now. If it hasn't been, I'm sure it has already, if we've spoken about it, yeah. So that'd be like one one random family in the middle of it all, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

How's everything else been for you this this season so far, then Vicky? You know, have you have guests been uh behaving themselves?

SPEAKER_05 17:51

Yeah, they have, yeah. We had one major disaster. We were on a cruise ship in Norway for our holiday. We just cut there's no signal when you're on a cruise ship, you're just, you know, unless you go to port, when you're at sea, you've got nothing. And so Hachel, who works here, she's moved into our holiday cottage, but she's kind of this bless her, so she's in and out quite a bit because we had existing bookings, but we said, you know, she needed to move in for personal reasons, so she's moved into the cottage, but we've had bookings. So she's then moved out into our like A-frame cabin that we built years ago. Um, and she's in and out there anyway. She was in the cottage for the week that we were away, and then we just got we're heading back to land, so we could see like England, we could see the coastline, and we just about got some signal and got a phone call from her saying, the cottage is flooded, water's pouring through the ceiling. Where's a stop tap? You didn't tell me where the stop tap was, and so I was like, God, like you'd never find our stop tap, like it's outside under a patio slab. So I was like, go here, turn it off. So she turned the water off to the whole site. Obviously, there's nobody on site because we were way blocked out.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:01

So I was like, what happened? She sent me a photo. Basically, the cold water feed to the boiler up in the loft had completely popped. So it was like a whacking, great, gaping, gushing mains pressure water into and they had they weren't there, they were out, and they came back and saw water all down the outside, the smoke alarms are going off. So it's just it's just pouring through both the bedrooms, soaked all their stuff. I mean, a few things. Thank goodness, A, it wasn't guests in there because A and Guests would have been mad. I mean, she was mad, but like, you know, it's just one of one of those things, isn't it? Thank goodness we could we had signal at the time when she phoned us. She would have been just sat there waiting for the water to pour in without knowing how to turn it off. But yeah, so then we got back on the Saturday morning, and before I'd even gone into the house, I was there with the wet vat, like sucking up all the water in the carpets. We've got the matches outside. It was just horrendous. Annabelle had been sick on the way home because she got car sick, so there was nowhere for her to watch all the water was off. So it was just one of those like total oh shit show, basically, is the only nice way to describe it. So yeah, and then we had guests supposed to be checking in there on that Fridays. The ceilings were like brown with water stains. Luckily, the ceilings hadn't fallen through. But we basically spent that next week cleaning the carpets, drying everything out, dehumidifiers in there, repainting the ceiling, which had been painted like two months before. And by some miracle, we managed to get our they were Airbnb guests in, so you don't go and cancel Airbnb guests any either. Um yeah, so um, yeah, they got in on the Friday and literally had no idea that the week before the whole place was flooded. So that is how you pull it out of the bag.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

That is how you pull it out of the bag.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

I'll tell you what, you you want to put your CV into D-O-Y-S-O-S. Yeah, I think great on the They are the skills that they need.

SPEAKER_05 21:04

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, that was a little bit stressful. And then literally the week later, because we've had so much hot weather, like we are really worried about fires at the minute and like people having fires, people having like throwing cigarette butts on the ground and not thinking about it. So we um so Hazel went out, she drove out down the lane, and she was like, Vicki, the hedge is on fire. Like this is the next door hedge. So like she was like, call Dave. So I ran over there, the whole hedge is ablaze, and I found the next door neighbour. He's like, Don't worry, I've called the fire brigade, but it was also, it had like jumped the fire with the wind, it just moved. So our there's a woodland in between our place and next doors, and it was coming through the woodland. So he went and got his teddy hand there and dumped a whole load of um soil on top of it to try and put that out while we were waiting for the fire brigade. Anyways, fire brigade came, put the whole hedge out and everything, but it just made me think. Like it moves so fast when it's hot and dry and windy. Yeah. And so now we're like, okay, I'm talking to every guest about if you've got a barbecue, keep it on the deck. If you're having a campfire, let us know and we'll come put it out at the end of the night. I just tend to go up there about 11 o'clock and just hose down the campfire anyway. We've been hosing down the area around the campfire because you know how I feel about campfires, like I think it's an essential part of a glamping stay. I want people to come and toast marshmallows and sit around the campfire. So I don't want to ever say, no, you're not allowed a campfire, because that would be so sad. But it's like cigarettes. People just don't think. And I I appreciate lots of people vape now, which actually makes it a little bit easier. Um, we also had was this another story? So last weekend um we had a big festival next doors. He has this thing called Diz Fest. So it started off as his birthday party about 10 years ago, and it's migrated to this massive like 1500 people festival.

SPEAKER_04 22:58

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_05 22:59

This year he was like, Do you guys want to be the camping and glamping? Because normally the music's so loud, we just get my friends down, like all my friends from school, we come and we block the site out and we all just kind of join in, sort of thing. Yeah. Um he was like, Do you want to be the camping glamping for it? So I was like, okay, let's try it. I was really worried about it. Um, I just thought I could foresee so many different things going wrong. And obviously, we never normally have campers, we're just glamping. But Brian's been mowing loads of areas to fit in. I think we had about 40 tents, something like that. Um, which obviously is a lot when you've just got six glamping units and then suddenly you add another 40 tents.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

Sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:38

So we we had that. Bone were the headliners. Do you remember Boney M? Oh wow. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay, so like not even a tribute, like the real Bonnie M. So he'd anyway, we got all our clampers in, everything was fine, but the cottage wasn't booked. So Saturday night, six o'clock, he's like, one of the bands needs to go in the cottage. Can you clean it? Because they're gonna say it was the overtones. I didn't know them, but yeah, they were quite a good band. So I was like, hey, quick, let's clean the cotta clean the cottage with the overtones. I don't know why I don't learn, John. Why don't I just as soon as someone checks out, clean it? Like, why don't I do that?

SPEAKER_03 24:12

I just leave it until anyway.

SPEAKER_05 24:16

So uh Emma and I quickly clean the cottage. And then um, and then I was like, cottage ready, and then he was like, actually, change your plan. Boney Em have come, they've created this dressing room in a cow shed. They've put some like, you know, tried to make a green room, they've put like black material around it, put a sofa and a table and chairs and stuff. Anyway, Bonnie M have gone in there and like this absolutely stinks. There's no way we can be in here for like the next couple of hours. And so then he's like, Can we put Bonie M in the cottage and have it as a dressing room? So I'm like, oh my god, so like go around, like get them like beers and get them like crisps and like teas and coffees and milk and everything. And so he's like, they're coming, if it's okay, they're coming down in one minute. So then we like rushed around like fluoresce flies, like trying to get it like, I don't know, bone ready. So then they came in, they were super happy because they all sat around the table and chatted and they could have a shower and get changed and all that kind of stuff. But there was a security guy on the door, there was another person there who just she was a massive Bone M fan. She was one of the people that worked at the festival. So she just literally sat on the wall outside for two and a half hours, being their like minder.

SPEAKER_03 25:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:28

Until they were on at 10:30. But did when we went and watched them, they were really good. And then they bugged off back to London, and that was that.

SPEAKER_04 25:37

Right. Bloody hell.

SPEAKER_05 25:39

I know, it's just the most bizarre thing.

SPEAKER_04 25:41

Yeah, that is crazy.

SPEAKER_05 25:43

Yeah. So uh yeah, so then the rest of the festival is absolutely fine. Um, we didn't have any issues with the campus. I definitely do again. I think it's a demographic. I don't know if you would agree with this, but they were kind of 50 plus, all the campers, all the clampers, there was no kids, it was mainly it's all just adults, and they left the place spotless. There was no rubbish, they didn't leave a single piece of rubbish anywhere on the field, whereas normally we would get like cans thrown in different places and whatnot, and I'm forever picking up rubbish.

SPEAKER_04 26:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:13

But they were just super good. So I'm gonna say to the next door, like when they have the festival next year, can we do can we do the same sort of 80s, 70s, 80s music? Because it definitely kind of right crowd, I think. I think if we had like, I don't know, yeah, or something, it might be a bit different.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

It's funny, isn't it? They so if I told you that I go down to this this N's festival down in uh um not where where the bloody hell is it? Minehead in Butlands.

SPEAKER_05 26:42

But yeah, well are you a big weekender?

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:46

So I know all about big weekenders.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Oh yeah. Well, I was I was talking to somebody there at the time and I said to them, you know, you know, it's how do you do it? Like, how do you change over from a mad party weekend to families coming, you know, you know, it must be it must be a nightmare. And he and the guy there said, actually, you'd be surprised. He said the 80s and the 90s weekends, the the age of the age of the demographic, um, they they leave it spotless. He said, but the dance weekends, the kind of the noughties, the the current, all of them weekends, he said they're a nightmare because everybody's a lot younger and they just leave it, they trash it. So they don't go straight into family weekends um or family weeks after it, but for the 80s weekends, they the transitions happen on the same day because of the age of the people. So they leave it, they leave it.

SPEAKER_05 27:48

Right. Well, there's a tip for anybody starting a glamping site. Choose your demographic wisely, choose your age that you're going for, like go for the over 50s.

SPEAKER_00 27:58

Yeah, I've definitely noticed I think campers in general, because I know obviously we you know we mostly focus on glamping on this glamping business roundup.

SPEAKER_03 28:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Having uh having in kind of the last last three years taken on taken on the campsite as well. Now I've really noticed a shift in campers since certainly since COVID and the kind of the evolution of campers, I think. Um it's fair to say. You know, people got into camping maybe because that's all they could during COVID. They bought a load of cheap stuff to just get out, and then their equipment has evolved and they've kind of learned their craft, shall we say, over the last few years. And that's made a huge difference to how people behave on a campsite, I think, and a glam site. They understanding the market that they're in allows them to be a better customer, I think, as well. And having kind of more accessible products is really important. And, you know, I mean, when we first started, you know, just sorting the space out, you know, people would break stuff all the time, you know, the simple things because they just didn't know how to behave in that space, you know, although it's essentially like a cottage, really, but it isn't, you know, people just have no idea sometimes. But now, you know, the glimping industry's you know matured so much. I think people understand, they've had that experience and they understand more so about how to behave and live in that space, and that alleviates so much of the issues that that we may have had originally.

SPEAKER_05 29:48

Hmm. Yeah, so much so. We were even thinking, oh, could we offer camping? Like we've got the space for it.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Like I think you absolutely could there, Vicky. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:57

Like, if what we'd need to do, because obviously the problem is the showers, because what we did at the festival is just opened the three showers that are for the front three domes. We just opened them up to everybody between the domes and the campers. And I was so surprised as well. I was on edge the whole of Saturday, every hour, checking the showers, and I was like, oh, actually, they're fine. Like, there's loads of toilet roll. I I was so worried about toilet roll. So all we'd need to do is put another shower in, basically, that was a communal camping shower, and we could probably have four or five pitches. It's something we're thinking about. I mean, all my days, my brain power at the moment is off the scale, like mush. Um, so obviously I have to work 20 hours a week for Resin Access still during the summer holidays. The glamping site is uh full, completely full, no availability. Got gita stuff going on that we're trying to sort out and try and get that ready. You know, we wanna, especially for September for the glamping show, we've got the events subcommittee, I'd call it, um sorting out what we're doing for the AGM and that kind of thing. Because that the glamping show is gonna be upon us before we know it. So we've got to sort out for that. So that is another date for your diary, is the 10th, is when we're gonna do the AGM. So we're gonna do that on the Thursday, I think, because I think most people, correct me if I'm wrong, come on the Thursday who are glumping site owners generally, because then you're back for changeovers. So AGM will be on the Thursday, which is which I'm looking forward to. Hopefully, we'll do some fun stuff there. I've got a lot of Gita stuff going on in the background, and John also in the thick of the Gita stuff. Um so then, but then also Brian and I have decided in our infinite wisdom to start a whole another business right in the middle of the school holidays.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 31:46

Yeah, I uh I think it's I think it's official now. We think we've put it out. Well, the company in South Africa put it out. So uh so basically, we went to South Africa last Christmas and we saw these incredible hot tubs. So they're fiberglass, fully insulated hot tubs, wood-fired hot tubs. And what I love about them is you can get them in like 300 different colours, so you can match the colours to whatever interior or like you know, whatever theme your unit is. They do wood ones that look like wood clad, but they're fiberglass, so you don't get the wood rot. Um basically, so we we approached them a few months ago and said, like, do you do these in the UK? And they said, Oh no, we don't have a UK distributor. And so then Brian's cogs are turning. He's like, We could be the UK distributor. So we've taken the plunge and we've ordered a container load, so it's 12 hot tubs um from South Africa. Awesome. He's like, we sent Brian's brother over to the factory to check it all out, and he absolutely loved it. He spoke to the owners because obviously that was a tough gig. Oh my goodness, he absolutely loved it. Um he was in his element because he's an engineer. Um, and so he was like all over looking at these different hot tubs and seeing how they worked and everything. So yeah, so we're in for quite a lot of money. Like it's a scary thing sending uh thousands and thousands of pounds to South Africa.

SPEAKER_03 33:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:12

So yeah, we're just trying, you know, arranging shipping and all that kind of stuff. So um, yes, we've got our first container arriving probably in about six weeks' time. And we've ordered the most coolest colours. They also do these ones called twinkle tubs, so they're um they light up so that they've got LEDs inside them so they glow. So they look so cool. Amazing. There's nothing that I've seen in the UK like it. So yes, I'm I'm really excited about it. We're hoping that's gonna be enabling Brian to leave his job that he absolutely hates. But yeah, so uh we'll keep you posted on how that goes, but uh we may need a another hot tub chat.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Yeah, yeah. Maybe a hot tub podcast, Vicki.

SPEAKER_05 33:53

Yes, maybe we need to start a hot tub podcast because you're doing a lot of work, aren't you, on the kind of health and safety side of of hot tubs, aren't you?

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Yeah, yeah. It's been it's been a great, great piece of work actually for Gita. So it's I won't go into it too much detail, but um suffice to say, it's kind of a culmination of a lot of the work that I've been doing over the years. Um and um it's it's been great to kind of work with a number of um number of in the UK um who want to bring about kind of a change in standards and operational procedures and adopt a much, much better way of working, not only for them and for how the designs and um how the kind of format for for hot tubs is interpreted and manufactured, but also for the end user, um, for the business owner, and all of the kind of misinformation I think that that's been put out there over the years in various ways from various people about wood burning hot tub industry. And so, yeah, yeah, really excited. You know, we've got some we've got some great pieces of work. I think by the time we get to the glamping show and the AGM, I'll be able to share kind of all the work that we've been doing. And um as as a Gita member, you'll you'll you'll certainly get access to all of that, which um I like saying it, but it will be a game changer.

SPEAKER_05 35:35

Excellent. Well, I think it it really needs it, doesn't it? Because there's so much, there's so many questions. I mean, that's probably one of the most commonly asked questions about hot, you know, hot tubs. And we know from what we learned at the summit from Paul at Glampingstays about how people are ticking the hot tub box before they're even putting their dates in or their location. Like that is the top thing they they tick. And I'm a complete convert. You know how anti-hot tubs I was like about six months ago. I was like, no, I'm not doing it. I'm sticking with outdoor baths, they're so much easier. I don't want the legislation, I don't want the hassle, I don't want anything like to do with hot tubs. And lo and behold, here we are starting a hot tub company. So um, don't know how it happened, like since we got our first wood wood fired hot tub, and I've seen like the crazy increase in bookings, the nightly rate increase that we can do, the charging for pre-light and that kind of stuff. Although, to be fair, I haven't been charging pre-light this year because I was worried that I might muck it up and not get it up to the right temperature.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

Um I'll talk to you about that, Vicky. I've got the perfect solution for pre-lights. They are they are the best they yeah, it's probably just worth saying, actually, if you've got hot tubs in your business, the pre-light is where you can make some serious cash. Um, because it's about the wood that you use, so the product that you put in, it's not just a normal log, you know, these reconstituted sawdust logs. And a certain brand that we use, and they are oh yeah, it's you can just chuck them in when you do your changeover. You don't need to clean your your stove out as as rigorous as you would normally because you're just lighting a fire and you you go in with it. And you don't need to stir it as much because there's the amount of BTUs that are in that wood or log and sends enough into the the hot tub so you don't you're not having to stir it every 10 to 15 minutes, you know.

SPEAKER_05 37:33

So Oh, okay. Yeah, I need to know this. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Yeah, I'll let you know.

SPEAKER_05 37:38

So yeah, I'm a c basically I'm a complete convert because outdoor baths just don't get the there's no box to tick for an outdoor bath. So the company is called Tickle Tub. So we'll be putting a tickle tub in each of our so in like worst case, we get a shipment of twelve and we use six of them at the glumping site. Like that's the that's the worst case scenario we only have to sell six and it's you know it might it's a total disaster. But my gut feeling is that they've these tubs have got like the kind of wow factor of Instagram. People will want to have their photos taken in them because it's it's so interesting. So if anybody wants to know anything about hot tubs, John German, hot tub expert. And we did do the podcast with Mark as well, didn't we? Um from Super Heating.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

We did, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:21

So check that episode out if you haven't already heard it.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Yeah, it was great, great one actually. Great one. I'm just thinking, yeah, as we've been talking about disasters, haven't really had an inter much after the um the bar, but um one thing that I um have been kind of dealing with has been water in the um uh the facilities. So the ladies and gents toilets and showers that I did all that work with um I think it just it's probably my fault if I'm honest. When I was putting in the drains and when I did all the tiling on the floor, I didn't take the the um drop, I suppose, the the the drop from the the wet room areas into the into the drains as probably sharply and as and and and as as deeply as I should have. Um and as a result of that, people just don't stand under the shower. They they kind of splash water everywhere, you know, and and the water's been falling on the flat areas and and they've kind of been sitting in these flat areas and they've been coming out of the um cubicles. So we've had like this deluge, well, I say it's a deluge, you know, some of the some some of the staff you know make it out to be like a you know like a tidal wave of I think they're they're tired as well.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

So it's like come in this morning, there's been a flood everywhere. Hang on a minute, let me have a look. You know, so it's not as bad as your uh holiday cottage, you know.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

So but it sounded like it on the phone. But yeah, there was a there was an issue there. So I kind of put a couple of these silicon thresholds that you have in, you know, showers and bits and pieces. And I think finding the right one was an issue and getting the silicon, you know, and just getting in between guests, because out of season you can do anything in like you know, half a day, really. But during the season, you you kind of people are constantly going in and out and the floor's wet, and you you know, you have to kind of dry it. It's on there with like a heat gun, like drying it all, and put the first one down, and you know, it just never stuck correctly, you know, because the type of the tiles, and you know, and I'm there like you know, proper cleaning it with alcohol and all of that sort of stuff. And yeah, suffice to say, it's it's worked and um it's it's brilliant now, you know, it's bone dry, um, you know, super clean. The the amount of work extra work that they were doing, kind of squidging it out and cleaning it, um was you know unnecessary for them, really. So yeah, I'm glad I've sorted that out. But these little jobs, you know, if they don't go and get sorted straight away, you're then constantly involved in it for a period of time that, you know, it just takes you away from doing other stuff. Um randomly we replaced I I think I spoke on a previous podcast last year, I got obsessed with toilet roll and I bought these toilet roll dispensers that I could just put normal toilet rolls in because rather than the like big commercial ones. Yeah, the price of the commercial ones were ridiculous, you know. And I was thinking, you know, you're locked into some of these dispensers, think, oh well, they're really cheap, I'll buy one of them, but then you're locked into using that particular size and brand. And anyway, it is, yeah. So you end up paying more really. So I kind of set about, you know, pricing up. I like my spreadsheets, pricing up how much toilet roll we'd used last year and kind of worked it out on a per sheet basis for each cubicle and then compared them across the board. Um, and the most economical toilet roll was, you know, by far a kind of a jumbo, a big massive jumbo one. However, they they they're just a bit unsightly sometimes. And there was this balancing act between having this huge toilet roll dispenser and the staff going in kind of constantly to do it, you know. So we we kind of have a set amount of time that the staff can can clean the toilets each day. And you know, we we want them to go in maybe, maybe twice, three times a day, tops, you know, that could be just a little top-up or it could be a a thorough clean at some point, you know, during the day. But they were they said that they were going in every like hour, really, replacing these toilet rolls. So I was thinking, well, you know, we can't be doing that, and we can't be you know, paying them to just go in and change some toilet rolls. So, you know, I I thought we can't get the jumbo because they're just gonna look unsightly in the cubicles and you know, we haven't really got the space for them. What what can we do? So I found these, they're called micro mini toilet rolls. So they're like a large domestic-sized toilet roll, essentially. But they're the dispenser is it's about 80 quid for a dispenser, you know, so it's it's bloody expensive. But the toilet rolls, each so you get two in two in the dispenser, and they're the equivalent to four and a half toilet rolls. Oh wow. So so it's huge. So, you know, it's brilliant, really, and they get changed once a day. The staffer's super happy. And actually the the per sheet price is cheaper when you buy in bulk, because obviously we can buy in bulk in our businesses. Um than the jumbos. So it it works out amazingly well actually. But just with a little bit of maths, you know, you can you can break it down and and actually save yourself a a rake of money. So yeah, so that's been, you know, uh another little challenge during the summer to try and get that sorted and yeah, get get them swapped over and the staff happy.

SPEAKER_05 44:22

Yeah. It's having the time to sit and think, okay, today I'm gonna sit and work out how much every each toilet roll costs per sheet. You think like it's an important job, but it's then like, oh, but I could do this or I could do this and like prioritising things that eventually is going to save you money in the long run is important. I mean I I just have the problem of I use normal toilet rolls, we put two spares and one new one on. So they have three new toilet rolls. But then obviously everybody uses half toilet rolls. So my house is just full of half toilet rolls that we just for ourselves. Yeah absolutely yeah yeah tell me you have a holiday let without telling me I have a holiday let's take a picture of my bathroom with a hundred half used toilet rolls in there.

SPEAKER_00 45:06

Yeah yeah no no I get I absolutely get that yeah definitely and I think you know it's the one thing I will say with with um with it all whatever it is in your business data is king and I I I I say it loosely but it it's important to make them decisions you know to save you a rake of money. So it may be that you think oh there's no there's just absolutely no point in saving that invoice or you know looking at how many people come through the door or how much water we use or you know the power consumption or all of them things. At the time they might not seem significant but when you're negotiating rate changes you know like buying buying in bulk the following year it makes a huge difference to to the stuff that you buy especially if you buy in local as well local products. I'll give you another example we have orchards surrounding all the campsite and we the the local estate process the apple juice and they sell it to us but they're a super small operator so they're buying in in small quantities of like glass bottles at each time and they they're costing a fortune and they're just putting a massive premium on the product really so for me I'm like well I'll just I'll just do it myself you know I just want to I want a cheaper product and I've got the kind of the headspace to be able to go well I'll just buy the product from them raw form you know massive jerry cans and I'll just get it processed myself you know and I I kind of speak to them about it and say well look you know can you do that and they're like well we just haven't got the capacity at the moment of thinking well it looks amazing like it's the best apple juice I've ever tasted you know we sell hundreds and hundreds of bottles of it but I'm charging you know five quid for a 750 mil bottle right and then I have to charge nearly 350 for like a for the 300mm bottle you know it's just crazy on the bottle price. So um so yeah that data that I've kind of collected I can negotiate with them now well I have done you know and I've said look you know we we're buying you know several hundred litres from you every year can we commit to buying that because I know now that we just we just sell it you know commit to buying it in raw form which will be substantially cheaper and then I'll be able to take it and get it processed either by you know bag in box like the wine that you buy from the thing that we can sell from a fridge in the shop or we can have it plumbed in on a tap in the bar you know there's there's little things like that that make a huge difference. So data yeah I'd definitely say collect collect your data.

SPEAKER_05 47:57

Yeah yeah absolutely bookings wise how's it going? I mean we've basically we're full for the school holidays full for the weekends now basically for the rest of the season which is great obviously I can see quite a lot of people of trends through ResNexus um and see kind of how people are doing it seems to have gone crazy so like I spoke to a client the other day who was like I've just got no bookings I've just not got any visibility we just tweaked a couple of prices because his prices are quite high um we just tweaked a couple of prices a couple of like minimum night rules just to make it look more visible on the OTs and things like that and he is now rushed off his feet flying and I and I think it's a it's a kind again data like looking at what other people are doing how it's how it's going in your area and people are a lot more last minute I think yeah like especially with Airbnb and Booking.com so I'm seeing a lot of people getting the majority of their bookings this year through Booking.com which is interesting. Yeah right we're not on booking.com we I want direct in the school holidays no matter what like I don't I don't want to be paying commission in the school holidays but we're in a bit of a privileged position that we've been going for a long time we've got a lot of repeat guests but if you're starting out yeah I would say booking.com is a is the one that people seem to be using I think it's because they've got this genius discount so people know that they can get it probably 10% off. Yeah and a lot of people are increasing their rate on Airbnb and booking.com as well so they're putting a an increase on of about 10 to 15% some people have seen it even doing up to 20% increase because obviously you want your direct bookings look cheaper so that people can try and find you. But yeah I do I do see this major reliance on the OTAs from the guest perspective as then they're trusting the OTAs and they're booking through Airbnb and Booker.com a lot more. Yeah. So I think yeah I think it's I think there's definitely demand out there still like we're seeing on the groups as well if you're not on on on like the Gram Glamping Group UK and best glamping sites as well another Facebook group like that where people are still asking like I want to come next week and I want a hot tub and I want a one night and I want it for under 100 pounds and like I want this like if you if you've got availability and you keep an eye on those groups you can easily fill your summer yeah I would say so yeah I think this year has been our most profitable year yet and I don't know if it's because people are just not wanting to bother going abroad the weather's been amazing hasn't it so that's definitely helped. Absolutely yeah yeah I'm definitely finding that we could have had an extra couple of domes and we would have been alright I think so then you're like oh do we put another unit in with a hot tub? How's your kind of camping versus glumping been?

SPEAKER_00 50:55

Yeah it's um it's been I mean the camping's yeah gone gone crazy you know absolutely crazy busy um we're seeing it's always very last minute with the glamping uh sorry the camping because it's all weather dependent so people people look you know a little bit shorter term. I'm looking back on the data on that and it is stretching out longer so it does the the school holidays always fill fills first but the the in-betweens are filling up I mean it's set to be a one of the best years that we've had on the campsite and we've got all of the old books as well from beforehand before we bought it so we can kind of see that that that trend as well which has been great. The glamping yeah it was a quiet start to the year to be honest. I think in retrospect I probably didn't push it as much as I should I probably just kind of you know see the see the camping doing well and I think wow we're ticking away quite nicely and I'm kind of not as hungry for it anymore so I'm not like straight on to boosting posts and you know I should I should be but yeah it's it's it's been great. I'll tell you what kind of you know we we have seen a change ever so slightly in in customers this year um and that's been a slightly older customer you know it it's been more multi-generational bookings as well um and a lot more kind of European and international customers so we've had that as well yeah I mean we do get we do get a lot of European campers so they've all been great but they've mainly been around the the holiday times but now you know that that's that's a complete mix um the the other um market is the the Asian market that that's that's that's grown huge um and that from from camping and glamping as well and for the lakes it was very much that that kind of end of the market that the Chinese visitors were were always kind of around holiday cottages and and top end accommodation in the lake district it would just be kind of tours coach trips um local minibus guided tours and sticking to the kind of the well trodden routes but but now that that has changed massively as I think next generation um kind of want more from their their stays they want more independent travel and they want to do the holiday on their own terms so there's less less focus on the tours um and also you know them them back to nature experiences um which they value a lot yeah that that kind of that that group have been absolutely brilliant for the Lake District over the years we've kind of as a as a county relied on that on that business as I say the younger generation now coming in wanting to do yeah the holidays on in their own terms and the campsite and the glamping have seen a huge rise in Asian Asian travellers yeah it's been it's been it's been great actually to the point now where um I always discounted doing specific marketing for that but we we will be now next year.

SPEAKER_05 54:18

Yeah that's interesting I think because Lake District is such a tourist hotspot isn't it so like when anybody I've spoken any foreign visitors I've spoken to when they're looking at coming to the UK they want to do London Edinburgh the Lake District and Cornwall that's their kind four places they want to go.

SPEAKER_00 54:34

Obviously Somerset does not feature but we hope to get the people that are coming from the Lake District down to Cornwall stop in Somerset on the way definitely definitely and to be honest the main reason they come to the Lake District is because of Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit yeah they're absolutely obsessed by it yeah I did not know that yeah and it sees one of the the one of the biggest visitor attractions in the whole of uh the whole of the lakes wow who knew yeah yeah okay that's really interesting well yeah I mean that that that's that's been great to see and then everything else you know um I think because we've got the food van as well and we've got the bar you know I think I've said before you know they they wouldn't stand on their own but but as a package it's been a turning point for a lot of people you know we're definitely seeing a huge huge rise in the number of return customers this year not only from previous years but people that have come this year that are coming back a few weeks later like it's mad like you know the the amount of people I spoke to that have said oh yeah we were here like last month or three weeks ago or yeah we've changed our plans and come back and yeah it's it's a really it's a big turning point for the site I think just having them options we've increased the amount of food offerings so we do like a pie night we do food three times a week but next year I think I'm gonna go up to maybe five or six times. Yeah so it's been it's like that.

SPEAKER_05 56:11

Yeah amazing I'm so glad it's all going so well that's great and we'd love to hear from you of how things are going in your glamping business. You know if you're struggling with something us know. If you everything's going amazingly and you want to tell us about it, we're always happy to hear your comments definitely get in touch what is it podcast at gmail.com That's the one that's the one yeah definitely well that's all we've got time for today.

SPEAKER_00 56:38

A massive thank you for joining us as we've taken a look back on what's been happening since the Glamping Summit and shared some of our own experiences for what's been another busy season. We promise to get recording again soon and bring you another bunch of great podcasts.

SPEAKER_05 56:54

Don't forget this podcast is brought to you in association with the Glamping Industry Trade Association, Gita, the voice supporting your business and growing our industry so make sure you follow or subscribe so you never miss a practical episode like this.

SPEAKER_00 57:06

And if you found today's chat a game changer for your business, share it with another glamping enthusiast.

SPEAKER_05 57:12

And don't forget you can always email us on glampingpodcast at gmail.com with any of your questions and ideas. Thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_00 57:19

See you in the next episode