“Camping” for those who hate camping

GlampingHub becomes one of the largest platforms for hiring a place in luxury tents. University of San Francisco. End of 2009. Innovation and market class. In the middle of an exciting colloquium between students, a girl talks about glamping. “Glam … what?” Thought David Troya, a Spanish student.

The concept made so much impact that he soon typed it in Google. Surprisingly, there were hardly any entries related to that concept. Thus, almost by chance, one of the most sophisticated business successes of the Spanish tourism sector was forged: GlampingHub. Something like the luxury campsites booking. The union of two concepts that many Americans like. In this case, glamour and camping.

The platform.

Today, GlampingHub is the leading platform in the world for those who want to hire a holiday by staying overnight in a tree, a safari tent as if you were Lawrence of Arabia, an igloo or a cave, among many other unique dwellings. It has a staff of 70 employees and, in 2016, managed 70,000 accommodation in 90 different countries. It almost seems incredible that everything was a blog. Because that is what Troy did after hearing the word for the first time.

He called his friend Rubén Martínez (who despite his name and surname is American) and launched GlampingHub.com, the first blog specialized in glamping. Google soon rewarded them with the first place in the searches. The calls from the American media and establishments interested in being mentioned soon appeared and, with them, incipient advertising revenues.

A hobby.

During the early years, GlampingHub was just a hobby for their creators. David Troya returned to his native Seville and, together with a former study partner and workman, Talal Benjelloun, they launched their youth project: a travel agency.

This Moroccan, trained at the University of Seville, had made a career in the world of large Spanish hotel chains, and had extensive knowledge in the hotel management platforms world. In 2013, the blog evolved to the current transactional platform. The lodgings’ owners yield 4% of their income and the expenditure commission of the users is 6%. In total, GlamplingHub takes about 10% of each transaction that is crossed on its website. Thus, in the last financial year, its turnover reached 2.1 million euros, which are expected to double in 2017.

Tough moments.

What now seems like a great business was not so much during crisis, when they launched the company. To notice that the world tourism business was going to transform into a new profile client that instead of looking for paradisiac resorts, they would rather to sleep in trees, seemed crazy.

As surprising as it may seem, the demand for this type of accommodation continues to increase. People look for more experiences than luxury, and this modality of camping, with all the comforts in the middle of nature, combines both better than any other tourism options.