2021: The year of the glamping Renaissance
Autumn Glamping near London and Hertfordshire
It’s a beautiful sunny September morning here at Home Farm Glamping: the trees which hug the borders of the glamping grounds are starting to turn shades of auburn and the grass is almost shoulder height with bees and butterflies fluttering amongst the lawn. From our Indian Tent, where I’m sitting and taking this moment to put ‘fingertip to keyboard’, I can just about see the tops of our bell tents and yurts peeking out of the dewy meadow. With no clouds in the sky and just the soundscape of the green belt, it’s hard to not be taken aback by this little oasis, or believe we’re just 13 miles from Central London.
The Glamping Gold Rush - staycation 2021
The pandemic certainly instilled in many of us a greater appreciation for green spaces and the hidden treasures we have on our doorstep as well as an appetite to get out, explore and enjoy them. With Brits setting their holiday horizons domestically this summer, it was no surprise that there was a renewed interest in glamping and other alternative boutique accommodation. To meet the increase in demand, land owners were allowed to take advantage of temporary planning permission extension of up to 56 days which resulted in a bit of a glamping gold-rush to transform fields into luxury glamping retreats. Knowing how much our guests have valued their stay with us, we were sad to read The Sunday Times’ article ‘Glamping fantasies fold faster than a damp yurt’ amongst other negative press reporting of overpriced and underwhelming staycations where the thought and detail were missing.
Walking the walk, not just talking the talk
In the seven years we have been running we’ve taken the time to listen, learn and grow from our guests in order to take the hard work out of camping - we too are still learning! In order to create an experience that fuses the efficiency of home with the simplicity of the country we have a whole team dedicated to ensuring our glampers are well looked after and our tents and grounds remain pristine. Our guests are always delighted by our snuggly duvets, kitted out barn, genuinely luxurious bathrooms (yes, unlimited hot water!) as well as the small gestures like Mallow & Marsh marshmallows in our welcome boxes and a basket of hot water bottles in the barn. It’s important to us that our guests sense the care and thought we have put into their stay at every touchpoint from booking through to check out.
Great British Glamping Tents
Even with all of the experience we have gained and with the facilities we have in place, we have found this season hard. Battling against Covid restrictions, the ‘Ping-demic’, an extremely cold spring followed by a rather miserable August we can see why some of the temporary glamping sites have come unstuck. Whilst our prices are nowhere near those quoted in the Sunday Times article, glamping is a rather expensive business to be in -despite being seasonal we don’t pretend to be the Four Seasons! Besides our usual operating overheads we place value in things like having our tents manufactured in Britain by BCT Outdoors as well as spending more on environmentally friendly cleaning products and refills, all of which we believe justify our price point and allow us to return each year.
Glamping on London’s doorstep in 2022
With international travel and a return to pre-pandemic ‘normality’ hopefully on the cards for 2022, we hope that we have been able to convert some jetsetters to spending time away within the UK. We feel privileged to have hosted so many hard-working families and friends eager for the chance to reconnect and disconnect and look forward to returning next year, bigger, better with another year of experience under our belt.
