Glampitect vs Wigwam Cabins - Choosing Glamping Advisors
Starting a glamping business is an exciting prospect, but it takes a lot of work. From applying for planning permission to choosing your glamping accommodation to support after you’ve launched your site, having the right support by your side can make all the difference.
Luckily, expert advice is available. Today, we’ll compare the service we provide through Wigwam® Cabins with that of Glampitect, another popular brand in the UK glamping scene.
As you’ll discover in this guide, the biggest difference between the two brands is that Glampitect focuses on support leading up to the launch of your glamping site, while becoming a Wigwam® Holidays franchisee guarantees ongoing support from industry experts.
Read on to make an educated decision about the right glamping advisor service for you and your budding business.
The story of Wigwam® Cabins
The story of Wigwam® Cabins begins in 1992, when our CEO and founder Charles Gulland created the first drawings for Wigwam® glamping pods.
Wigwam® Holidays was launched in 2000 to help make great holidays in the great outdoors accessible to more people. Today, the Wigwam® Holidays franchise consists of 80+ glamping sites across the UK, run by dedicated and passionate franchise partners.
The story of Glampitect
Glampitect was set up by a glamping business owner who, after setting up his own site in 2018, saw how many other businesses in the industry could use a helping hand in setting up their glamping site.
Glampitect is an independent glamping consultancy business offering support for would-be glamping business owners in the UK and further afield. The team has a background in architecture, design and planning, and they’ve helped more than twenty glamping sites launch.
Feasibility planning
The first step of setting up your glamping business is making sure your plans are feasible and that starting a glamping business is right for you.
Calculating what kind of initial investment and infrastructure you need, what kind of funding you could apply for, and what kind of ROI you can expect are just a few important things to consider. Through a feasibility study, you take the first steps towards a fleshed-out, detailed business plan.
Wigwam® Cabins
Wigwam® Cabins offers feasibility studies for those interested in joining the Wigwam® Holidays franchise.
We can help you map out opportunities and challenges on your journey to starting a glamping site. This includes flagging up any potential issues around infrastructures and planning as well as providing advice on setting prices and adding extra facilities to your site. We’ll also carry out competitor analysis to help you figure out what kind of numbers you could expect.
If after this you want to go a different direction with a different company, that is no issue. We can even recommend other pod manufacturers we trust if you feel like the Wigwam® Cabins is not the right fit for you.
Before you seek out a feasibility study, you can read up on our free online resources, including our 12-step guide to starting a glamping site and our blog.
Glampitect
Glampitect’s no-commitment feasibility service helps you with the necessary market research; things like whether there’s enough demand in your area and whether you can expect a reasonable return on investment. They’ll also help you assess the viability of your site in terms of access to things like water, gas and electricity and how likely you are to obtain planning permission.
You can combine your feasibility study with a four-week course aimed at offering personalised advice.
Glampitect also offers a free 2-hour online course you can take before seeking out a feasibility study. It can help you figure out how realistic setting up a glamping business is for you, as well as give you a brief overview of things like planning permissions and marketing your site. This way, you can figure out if glamping is right for you and then have a feasibility study carried out.
Glamping planning consultants
Applying for planning permission for your glamping site is arguably the most complex part of starting your business. Both Wigwam® Cabins and Glampitect offer a planning consultancy service to make this process as painless as possible.
Wigwam® Cabins
Wigwam® Cabins can offer just the level of support you need in the planning process as a would-be franchisee. This can range from simply advising you to managing all the necessary paperwork on your behalf. The service is based on our own experience of setting up glamping sites and supporting more than 80 franchisees to do the same.
As part of your tailored service, our team of consultants specialising in rural business developments can help you with:
Initial project viability consultation
Review of local plan policies and local designations
Pre-application (if required)
Design and access statements
All necessary drawings and site surveys
Supporting statement for the planning application
Advice on specialist input such as an ecology or topographical survey, flood risk assessment etc.
Glampitect
Since setting up their own glamping site in 2018, Glampitect helped hundreds of glamping businesses file pre-planning applications and helped launch over twenty sites.
Glampitect takes a very hands-on approach to supporting you through the process of applying for planning permission. This means identifying any potential pitfalls and addressing them in your application and helping you prepare all the necessary paperwork.
Paperwork they can help you with includes detailed plans, designs, market research, and supporting evidence, such as community impact statements, in order to obtain you that ever-important green light from local council.
Glampitect’s team have a background in planning and architecture, making them a knowledgeable partner in planning permissions.
Glamping accommodation
Glampitect focuses on consultancy and isn’t a glamping pod manufacturer. However, they’ve recently partnered with a company called Pod Factory, so now you can buy glamping pods directly from them. Additionally, Glampitect can recommend glamping pods and other glamping accommodations from a variety of manufacturers.
Meanwhile, Wigwam® Cabins is a glamping pod manufacturer. We sell glamping pods to both would-be franchisees and independent glamping businesses.
When you choose us, you’ll also make your choice from our range of wooden glamping pods and cabins. This means that you get support from people who know their product inside and out. When you become a Wigwam® Holidays franchisee, the same people who designed your glamping pods will be supporting you in setting up your business.
Marketing support
Marketing your site is key to launching your site successfully and welcoming a steady stream of visitors. Holidaymakers love finding new experiences through social media and simple Google searches and expect to be met with high-quality images and informational content. They expect sleek and intuitive websites and booking systems.
All of this takes a lot of work to establish, especially if you’re not lucky enough to have years of marketing experience under your belt! Luckily, both Wigwam® Cabins and Glampitect can help you with marketing your glamping site.
Glampitect
Glampitect offers a full website and booking system design and hosting service. They can also offer support in integration with external booking websites as well as social media marketing. For the latter, they can help you define your target audience, establish KPIs, brainstorm content ideas and find influencer collaborations.
Wigwam® Cabins
Meanwhile, Wigwam® Cabins can also help you with the design, launch and hosting of your own website, all with an integrated online booking system when you become a Wigwam® Holidays franchisee. You’ll also get a stand-alone back office website to help you and your team manage your bookings.
As a franchisee, you also have access to fully tailored SEO (search engine optimisation) and PPC advertising packages across search engines and social media platforms. Additionally, you will be integrated into our national social media and PR strategy. Since a picture says a thousand words, we’ll also carry out an extensive photoshoot of your site to help you draw in visitors.
Ongoing support
As we stated in the intro, while Glampitect focuses on getting your glamping business up and running, Wigwam® Holidays offers ongoing support to your business long after your site has welcomed its first visitors. Below is a little more information on what you can expect as a Wigwam® Holidays franchisee.
Wigwam® Cabins
While you could choose to simply buy glamping pods from Wigwam® Cabins and go it alone, you also have the chance to partner with us and become a Wigwam® Holidays franchisee. We’re continuously looking to recruit the most promising would-be glamping entrepreneurs to join our brand.
Becoming a Wigwam® Holidays franchisee means getting access to a host of services and perks including the ones already mentioned in this article as well as:
The right to use the Wigwam® Holidays trademark
Access to the Wigwam® Holidays Brand Manual and branding material
Access to the Wigwam® Holidays Operations Manual
Geographical exclusivity
Ongoing support in IT, Marketing and PR with custom packages
A dedicated Franchise Delivery Officer to provide support as needed.
Access to the Wigwam® Holidays Academy – our online training portal and seminar programme.
Setup of branded social media accounts for Instagram and Facebook.
Invitation to the Wigwam® Holidays annual conference and regular newsletters
Glampitect
Glampitect’s focus is on helping you launch your glamping business, so once your site is open, you’re more or less left to your own devices. Of course, you’ll have gathered a wealth of knowledge through the process of setting up your site, but if you require ongoing support beyond the hosting of your website, you’ll likely have to find that on your own.
So, which one should I choose?
Both Wigwam® Cabins and Glampitect market themselves as offering a complete service, but this means slightly different things to both companies.
At Glampitect, full service means supporting you to the point of opening your site. Meanwhile, when you choose to become a Wigwam® Holidays franchisee, you get support for your business on an ongoing basis.
Being a franchisee isn’t for everyone. You can, of course, choose to buy glamping pods through Wigwam® Cabins and go it alone, but this isn’t the same turnkey service our franchisees get when setting up their glamping site.
If you want complete control over creating your glamping business and ongoing support is less important to you, building your business with support from Glampitect might work better for you. If, however, you value ongoing support from industry experts as well as access to the built-in audience of an established glamping brand, Wigwam® Cabins might just be the right fit for you.
Learn More about Wigwam
The Wigwam brand consists of two separate but overlapping businesses - Wigwam Cabins and Wigwam Holidays.
Wigwam Holidays operates as a franchise, booking system and website. It is one of the top glamping businesses in the UK, consisting of over 80 UK locations and welcomed over 100k guests last year. Wigwam Holidays offers a tried and tested franchise model to its franchisees, and “great holidays in the great outdoors” to its guests.
Wigwam Cabins is a manufacturer of high quality wooden cabins. It’s the business that invented the ‘glamping pod’ over 30 years ago. Today, from its workshop in Perth, Wigwam Cabins focuses on building a range of glamping pods and timber lodges. Fear not, you do not need to be a part of Wigwam Holidays to buy products from Wigwam Cabins.
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