Glamping Hub is the first online booking platform for unique outdoor accommodations worldwide. With over 32,000 glampsites in over 115 countries, Glamping is the leader in nature-based, experiential travel. Their mission is to connect travelers with nature in order to create a once-in-a-lifetime experience for guests and their families. The term ‘glamping’ is a portmanteau for the words glamorous and camping and is a way in which travelers can stay in the great outdoors without sacrificing creature comforts commonly found in a hotel.
Essentially, camping with a few added luxuries and five-star amenities. Guests can find over 27 different types of glamping accommodations to choose from including but not limited to, canvas bell tents, treehouses, shipping containers, igloos, domes, and more.
Travelers choose Glamping Hub because they care about their trips being truly memorable. Every accommodation found on Glamping Hub was handpicked and placed in a targeted collection, making it easy for travelers to find what they are looking for while staying true to the nature of “glamping”.
Each accommodation is one-of-a-kind, submerged in nature, and surrounded by outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, climbing, bird watching, canoeing, beekeeping, winemaking, and more! Guests can disconnect from their daily lives and reconnect with each other for an experience they will never forget. At Glamping Hub, the accommodation is the destination. Making where you stay, why you stay there.
Glamping Hub was originally started in Sevilla, Spain, and is now a global team with two offices, the other being in Denver, Colorado. Glamping Hub has over 120 employees and interns from over 15 different countries. David Troya, Ruben Martinez, and Talal Benjelloun are the founders of Glamping Hub. Martinez is originally from New Mexico but now resides in Denver, Colorado. He met Troya, the CEO of Glamping Hub while studying abroad in Sevilla, Spain, where Troya was born and raised. Benjelloun is originally from Morocco, and met Troya and Martinez in while studying in Sevilla, Spain, as well.
In 2011, Founder and CEO David Troya originally had the idea for Glamping Hub while studying for his MBA at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). While in one of his classes, he heard the term ‘glamping’, and together with some of his classmates and co-founders, Martinez and Benjelloun.
First established Glamping Hub as a blog. In 2014, Glamping Hub then launched into a fully-transactional booking platform with a humble 200 accommodations on the site.
The idea behind Glamping Hub was to create a product that provides people with accommodations that felt “out of reach”, and/or those looking to create a once in a lifetime experience – all in one place.
Online information for outdoor, unique accommodations was scattered throughout the internet. There was no “home” for glamping, especially in the USA. Troya, Martinez, and Benjelloun noticed that there was an uptick in searching for these key terms and interest in unique places to stay in nature was on the rise. At the start of 2018, Glamping Hub had 25,000 accommodations published on the website and will be on track to 35,000 accommodations by the end of summer 2019.
The inspiration for Glamping Hub began with the term “to-gather”, to congregate with a group of loved ones for that purpose alone. The goal was to create a business with meaning and to bring people together. On a more personal note, Glamping Hub was also a way for Troya, Martinez, and Benjelloun to stay in contact and maintain their friendship – despite being across the world from one another.
Glamping Hub’s customers are those seeking adventure and experience. The guest demographic is roughly 70% female and 30% male. 69% of bookings are generated by guests living and traveling in the USA.
The most fruitful strategies for Glamping include the expansion into the USA marketplace specifically, and SEO marketing. The USA was new to “glamping”, rapidly increasing interest, and allowing Glamping Hub as a booking platform to grow quickly and gain control of the USA marketplace.
In the global market, there are an estimated 100,000+ glamping accommodations—with eight units per site and an average of $320 per night stay—creating a $45 billion (and growing) glamping specific market. Glamping is not just luxury camping, but also ski getaways, wine country stays, safari excursions, surf camps, yoga retreats, and wildlife tours, which increases the outdoor accommodation market to $200 billion and growing.
Message from The Founders…..
The product speaks for itself. One of the biggest achievements of Glamping Hub is market growth and the ability to expand into different markets quickly. Last year at this time Glamping Hub had 8k listings (May 2017), now there are over 32k listings (May 2018). It is able to provide users with more options and more inventory for those looking to stay in an outdoor structure of any kind — essentially offering a one-stop-shop for the various types of glamping mentioned in the question above.
Within the vacation rental sector, Glamping Hub is the only platform that is both transactional and specialized, which is due to a number of factors, including rigorously researched SEO practices, lower rates and costs, organic traction and unique visits, and its marketing tools. In 2016, Glamping Hub received 2.6 million visits, resulting in 12,000 booking requests and $2.1 million in revenue, and by the end of 2018, those figures tripled.
Glamping Hub shines with 90% of guest satisfaction and 4-star and 5-star ratings. Glamping Hub has also been featured in many highly-regarded publications, including The New York Times, the New York Post, Forbes, TIME, NBC, USA Today, O Magazine, and more.
