Investing in Glamping Pods vs Joining the Wigwam Franchise

If you’re keen to jump in on the trend with some pod cabins, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll take a look at what you should look for when choosing your glamping pods as well as listing some pros and cons for two routes you could take with your glamping pod business: going it alone or joining a trusted glamping franchise like Wigwam Holidays. Let’s get started, shall we?

What are Glamping Pods?

Glamping pods are permanent, wooden structures that allow people to enjoy holidays in the great outdoors without sacrificing all of their home comforts. Glamping pods range from modest wooden shelters equipped with a simple mattress and perhaps a table and a couple of chairs to luxurious ensuite glamping pods with hot tubs, wood-burning fires and chic decor.

These days, you’ll be able to find glamping pods of all shapes and sizes sold online, but as a minimum, they usually have:

• A solid timber frame

• Insulation

• Double glazing

• Mattresses

• Decking outside

All of the above features can be found in all Wigwam pod models as well as heating for all year round glamping adventures. 

You can find glamping pods for sale all over the internet, but in order to choose quality pods for your investment, you need to do your research carefully. What’s your target audience? How many pods do you want to have? What kind of extras do you want your pods to have?

All of these things will influence the camping pods you choose. Once you’ve found a make and model of pod you like, make sure to visit the manufacturer in person if at all possible to feel out the quality for yourself before purchasing.

What is a Wigwam Glamping Pod?

Wigwam glamping pods are timeless, sustainable and durable wooden structures that can host glampers of all kinds. 

While our more bare bones cabin model like our Original Pod can accommodate people who just want somewhere to rest their heads in between hikes and other outdoor adventures, you can get more luxurious with our Classic 2 Berth, Classic 4 Berth or Grand range. These feature ensuite bathrooms and kitchens for ultimate comfort. 

We also offer larger Wigwam Lodges, both single and twin units that are more like a home away from home and are proving to be very popular.

Wigwam glamping pods are built to last for years with minimal upkeep. In fact, a number of our original pods installed in 2000 are still actively taking bookings! 

You can browse our full range of Wigwam glamping pods by clicking here.

Setting Up Your Business Alone

Now that we understand what kind of glamping pods are out there, it’s time to figure out the answer to another big question: should you set up your own independent glamping business or join a trusted franchise like Wigwam Holidays?

There are pros and cons to both options, and what may work for one person doesn’t necessarily work for someone else. Let’s start by taking a closer look at setting up your own business.

Pros

The obvious advantage of going it alone is having complete control over your glamping site, bookings, branding and promotion. If you’re willing to put in the time and some business-savvy thinking, and have a solid understanding of your local area and target audience, setting up an independent glamping site could be the better option for you.

There are also no franchise fees to pay when you stay independent, which makes your initial investment smaller as you’ll only have to pay for your pods and their installation to get started.

Cons

While the most obvious pro for setting up an independent glamping business is the total control over it, this can also very quickly turn into a con. 

While even as a franchisee the onus of managing your site is on your shoulders, the support you receive as a franchisee does take much of the trial and error out of especially the early stages of running your business.

Especially if you’re looking at glamping as a farm diversification idea, you need to consider how much time and effort you can put into things like applying for planning permissions, setting up your website, or managing bookings and your glamping site marketing.

Going it alone also means you don’t get the baked-in audience of glampers you get with a trusted glamping franchise from the get-go. It can take a good while for your glamping business to become profitable when you have to handle your own website, marketing and bookings.

Joining the Wigwam Franchise

Wigwam Holidays was started in 2000 and was an early adopter of the glamping trend in the UK. Since our founding, we’ve kept growing, and now help 80+ glamping franchisees run their sites, located in every corner of the UK. Here’s some more information on the pros and cons of joining us. 

Pros

There are lots of advantages that come from becoming part of a trusted glamping franchise with decades of experience in the industry. By becoming part of our franchise family, you unlock access to things like:

• Our branding and trademark

• Your own website and booking engine

• Access to the Wigwam Holidays Academy

• Ongoing operational support from us

• A dedicated Franchise Delivery Officer

• An extensive photoshoot and videography session

• Access to SEO & digital marketing packages

Cons

With all the wonderful support you get as a Wigwam franchisee, there’s obviously a cost involved. This is something that we want to be fully transparent about before we even have our first initial chat with you about the prospect of you becoming a franchisee.

There’s no minimum number of cabins you need to get started but there is a £7500 franchise fee required at point of order which - this license will last for five years. We also charge a 10% commission on all of your Wigwam bookings. However, this is a highly competitive rate as the industry averages at 18%.

Ready to get started?

If after reading this article you’re interested in learning more about becoming a Wigwam Franchise Partner, you can fill in the form below to get started and one of our friendly sales representatives will be in touch with you shortly.

In the meantime, you can read more about becoming a franchise partner here and learn more about your other farm diversification options here.

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.

Get in touch with us

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