Hiring Camping Equipment

[kayzr]

I am thinking about starting an online business hiring out camping equipment.

You could hire tents, sleeping bags, cooking equipment, portable showers, rucksacks etc.

We will hire out sets so a tent, x amount of sleeping bags, stove, pots etc and singles so if you own sleeping bags but not a tent you could just hire a tent or if you had a tent and sleeping bags but no cooking equipment you could hire a stove.

Do you think this is a business that would make much money? We are also thinking about selling maps, camping books etc.

Honest Ideas wanted please.

Depends on Pricing I suppose.

I might have liked to hire a tent before I bought it, see how you really get on with it.

If people try & like camping though they tend to buy their own stuff - hiring trailers might be good though??

You would need a lot of room for drying out the wet tents that get returned, and there would be the question of insurance for when the May Bank Holiday weather wrecks some tents??

I think the outlay for the equipment would be too huge for the amount people would want to pay.

We couldn't hire out trailers, we don't have anywhere to store trailers. We have the room for drying out tents though.

Would you deliver? Or would people have to pick it up?

Are you based near a lot of people? (ie. the south east) or near a good camping place? (devon, cornwall, lake district) One or other would be necessary i think.

I can see it would be a good idea for people who have none of the stuff already and want to give it a try....

i'm not sure i'm that comfortable with the idea of hiring a sleeping bag though - even if you would wash them thoroughly.

We are in the North East near a lot of campsites. We are going to deliver as that way we can cover more people.

I do see your point about sleeping bags.

We are camping out for the first time ever this year. We are going to a site that has ready tents, we only need to bring pillows and sleeping bags. This will be the taster we need to see if we like it or not.

If more places start doing this, would your business be viable?

The ready tents we are going to are new to the site this year and I know Sandyballs do it too and a couple of other places.

I meant to say too what we are paying is peanuts for a week and the tent is fully equipped for 6 (although there is only 4 of us)

The income would be very seasonal. You would need to establish how many uses each tent/sleeping bag/etc might reasonably be expected to get before you have achieved payback and before the equipment is likely to need replacing and how many seasons that is likely to take. You might be best advised to trial it on a very small scale first. Do you live near a large population centre or alternatively a popular UK holiday destination? Otherwise collecting & returning the goods might be an issue for many potential customers. I would add roofboxes to your list of items (wondering how many people will arrive and be unable to fit everything they've hired into their car).

We might try it on a small scale to see how well it works.

We are at the North York Moors and it is very very touristy so we do get lots of holidymakers here.

I think with the credit crunch that camping might become more popular. I think a bit of advertising would be the key - target London types, perhaps, and suggest sites (could you come to an arrangement with some local sites, maybe?) and offer to deliver the stuff to their chosen campsite (as long as it's in your approximate area!)

As for sleeping bags, perhaps you could use washable sleeping bag liners?

I think for busy professionals with families, the thought of getting in the car and having EVERYTHING they need for a week's holiday delivered to the site would be appealing.

Thanks LadyT, I do think the delivering to campsites is a good idea. I'll certainly look into that.