Latest / Outdoor Hospitality Podcast: Glamping, STR, Resorts, Unique Stays, RV Parks, RV Resorts & Campgrounds / The Story of Glampitect, USPs and Hot Tubs - Calum MacLeod

Transcript

The Story of Glampitect, USPs and Hot Tubs - Calum MacLeod · Outdoor Hospitality Podcast: Glamping, STR, Resorts, Unique Stays, RV Parks, RV Resorts & Campgrounds

• 0:08
  Nick Purslow: Hello, and welcome to the Glampitect Podcast. My name is Nick Purslow. And every week a guest expert is going to join me to deliver advice and inspiration for anyone who runs a glamping site or is thinking of setting one up. In this episode, I interviewed Callum MacLeod, the founder of Glampitect, as he gave us the story of how Glampitect came to be. As this is the first episode, I thought it was important for you to learn our story, so have an idea of what we do as we deliver value in future episodes. As well as giving Glampitect's backstory, we discuss some really important topics of current and prospective glamping site owners, including hot tubs marketing before you launch your site and differentiating yourself from the competition.
• 0:48
  Nick Purslow: Now, before we get into the discussion, I want to mention two things. One, this episode is sponsored by Made of Bits, made a bit you're a CNC and design studio based in Matlock, Derbyshire. They specialise in supplying bespoke frames for glamping pods. So if there are only glamping pod manufacturers listening, or anyone who wants to have a go at building their own glamping pods, give me two bits of call, the link to their website will be in the description. Secondly, this is our first go at podcasting.
• 1:12
  Nick Purslow: There'll probably be some hiccups along the way, so don't expect us to be challenging Joe Rogan anytime soon. However, we do promise to work as hard as we possibly can to improve with every episode. So please let us know if you have any recommendations as to how the listener experience can be improved. And with that, I think we're ready to go. So, Calum, my boss, how you doing?
• 1:41
  Calum MacLeod: I'm good, Nick, how are you?
• 1:42
  Nick Purslow: I'm very good.
• 1:42
  Nick Purslow: Thank you. I thought I'd start off by just getting a little bit of your backstory and how you got into the glamping business.
• 1:48
  Nick Purslow: So if you could just give us a run through of basically how you got from idea to how Glampitect started
• 1:56
  Calum MacLeod: Yeah, of course, of course. So it actually starts with our business separate to Glampitect, but they both feed off each other. But the whole concept came from a separate business. And that's North Coast 500 Pods. It was a few years ago, I think it was three or four years ago, I there was some family land, my mum and dad owned some land. And they hadn't done anything with it for a long time, they were going to build a holiday home on it, but it turned out that they ended up just not doing that. And it kind of got left to do nothing. And when I came of an age that I realised that that land had potential to do something, to generate money or generally holiday accommodation or something, I thought, I'm going to make an attempt at doing this. And I had some ability with CAD and design and planning applications through my job at the time, I must have been 23-24 maybe. And I had CAD ability, no money, and no no kind of anything else. But I had CAD ability. So I produced a planning application for glamping pods. And kind of never really thought much more of it at the time, I put it away into planning. And a few months later, planning came back and accepted it. And at that point, it was fantastic. It had incredible earning potential.
• 3:16
  Calum MacLeod: We're on a fantastic location on the north coast 500 up at the top of Scotland, which was growing in popularity. We were at a fantastic beach, we had loads of good things going for us. And which actually, at the moment, isn't even super important for glamping sites.
• 3:31
  Calum MacLeod: glamping sites are so popular at the moment that you actually don't even need all these other benefits. That, you know, if you don't have one, that's it, that's probably enough. And but we had loads of different things going for us. So. I say 'we'. it was me at the time, a guy with some drawings and a bit of a dream, and nothing else. And so I needed money. And I didn't have it. I didn't really know how to come across money at that age, but I kind of thought about a few different things. And anyway, it turned out that there was some private investment kind of sitting on my doorstep, which I think is a very pertinent point for a lot of people at home that are potentially thinking about starting up glamping sites just now, is money is actually closer than you think it is. You know everyone thinks Oh, how can how can I find money? And they just they can't even think of the the obvious; there's people close to you that will have money nine times out of 10 and will want to invest in things like this. So yeah, that's a very pertinent point, I think for the people listening.
• 4:38
  Nick Purslow: That was Ali, right, the co founder of
• 4:40
  Calum MacLeod: Yeah, that was Ali. So it was actually my Glampitect?
• 4:43
  Calum MacLeod: cousin's friend. I'd been on Ali's stag do, and he'd be classified as my friend as well.
• 4:46
  Calum MacLeod: And he messaged me one day, he was actually drunk on a night out, and he messaged me and said, I've heard that you've got plans for glamping pods in Achmelvich. And I said yeah, a d he was like "I want involved. So and I went round to his, a d we had a chat about it. And h is a very shrewd guy, like, I as shocked that he even wante involved. And he's such a sh ewd guy. And that was how he had the money to be able to nvest. But I proposed the v sion and the potential to him.
• 5:18
  Calum MacLeod: nd as shrewd as he was, he went for it. And, and he invested in he business, and which ultimatel turned into North Coast 500 P ds. So that was in the August f 2018. And we started build in January, February of 2019. A d we opened in May of 2019. S we've been open, you know, 1 months, or something like that, minus obviousl, the COVID restrictions, howev r long that shut us for as we l. And so that was how North Co st 500 Pods opened. And now you' e thinking how does this rela e to Glampitect? Well, the year that I went looking for po s to buy them, for North Coast 5 0 Pods, I was walking aroun the Glamping Show, and there as all these other potential lamping site owners walking a ound as well looking to pote tially start glamping sites, th y're looking at, you know, ods, they're looking at all t e additional people that are t ere, the hot tubs, the fire its, and all these sorts of thin s. And I was walking arou d the Glamping Show myself, nd I had my plans that I' done in my pocket. And I wa looking at my plans, and I was hinking every single person her needs plans, and nobody s selling it. There's nobo y here that's offering p ans, offering planning advi e, planning help, all the stu f that I've just done and lea nt for myself. Nobody is of ering that and every single pe son here needs it. So with the k nd of I've got quite an entrepre eurial mind, and I thought t myself, you know what, I'm g nna do this, why not? So that w s, you know, probably a couple y ars ago now. And that I had th se thoughts. It was actually Sep ember, so it must have been wo and a bit years ago, was whe I had those init
• 7:09
  Nick Purslow: Why do you think people need so much help with planning permission? What's so difficult about it?
• 7:14
  Calum MacLeod: So, planning permission. In general, there's a lot of experts out there in planning permission. There's a lot of architects, a lot of designers, a lot of people that do houses, people that maybe do some stuff out out in, you know, green areas and stuff like that.
• 7:30
  Calum MacLeod: But there's nobody that does specifically glamping. And because of that there are no experts in the field. So planning itself is obviously so important, because you need to legally be allowed to open and have customers and all these sorts of things. It's the bread and butter of having a glamping site. It's just one of the prerequisites that you need. And then beyond that, and you know, generally, forever You do you need an expert in the field. And there was no experts in the field at the time when I realised that this is what we should be doing.
• 8:05
  Nick Purslow: Okay, so once you're at the Glamping Show, and you realise people need your help with planning permission, where did you go from there?
• 8:12
  Calum MacLeod: So I went away back home, and I kind of had a think about it. And again, it was one of those that are left on the back burner for a little while. And it's funny, and this is actually quite pertinent to everyone listening at home as well, is a lot of the clients and potential clients that we speak to always think you know, or leave it six months, I'll leave it nine months, I'll do it next year. And that was exactly what I did with Glampitect. And I'd be in a very different place if if I hadn't done that, I wish I'd done it the day that I thought of it. And I went home and I kind of did a little bit writing out and stuff like that, and I left it. But if I started this nine months earlier, it's crazy to think where it would be now. Where wee're going to be nine months is incredible, and if we could have that now, even better. Not that I regret, it would just be nicer to have done it a little bit quicker. So I jotted a few things down waited a few months, maybe six months, it got to around about june of 2019. It was when our site had opened itself. We've done the website, we've done the marketing, we've done the social media, and we realised that what we've done for nc 500 pods is so helpful to all these other people who can start at glamping sites. And that was a point when the penny drops and I went, "You know what, we are needed". And as a company, Glampitect is needed to help these people looking to set up glamping businesses. You know, there's nobody their to hold their hand.
• 9:44
  Calum MacLeod: There's nobody there to give them an understanding of how to set up a glamping business. And that's where we realised that we would come in. So I was chatting to Ali my business partner at North Coast 500 Pods and we worked so well together on North Coast 500 Pods and he said,"Look, I'd be interested in getting involved". I said,"Let's go for it, let's, let's do it together". And so we did.
• 10:06
  Calum MacLeod: And quite quickly, we gained some traction, we did a lot of marketing, and, you know, got on the phone to a few different people, all these sorts of things, and went to the Glamping Show that year, so September 2019, and got a few sales and it was our first sales. And it was crazy, it was really cool. And you know, that first sale, it was the same with their North Coast 500 Pods, that first booking is cool. It's like, wow, somebody actually paid us money for this. And that, again, for the guys at home is is an amazing feeling. And it's one of the best things, when you actually get people to pay you money to come and stay, it's great. And it was the same with Glampitect. And that kind of reaffirmed to us that we were needed. For all the the market research we'd done, the understanding that we realised that we're needed, it's still just good to solidify it by somebody else paying you money to do. So we went about starting to work. And at the time, both Ali and I were still in jobs. We obviously paid all the money for North Coast 500 Pods and it was starting to pay back but we weren't taking any money from it at the time. And Glampitect only just got its first couple of clients. So for the next two months, we were spending more and more time as much as we could, on top of our own jobs, on growing Glampitect and pushing North Coast 500 Pods as well. And so we we got a few more sales. And at that point, I kind of looked at the finances.
• 11:39
  Calum MacLeod: And I thought to myself, you know what, I'm just going to, I'm going to quit, I'm going to quit my job, I'm going to go for this 100% because with with what's been shown already with the feedback that we're getting from the clients, the the realisation of how needed we actually are in the glamping industry, with helping people setting up glamping businesses helping people with planning permission. I went all-in and I left my job it's only just over a year ago, it was December of 2019. So left my job and we went quite quickly from strength to strength. The traction in January was amazing. Again, you know, with with our marketing and was the fact that we were the only experts in the field.
• 12:26
  Calum MacLeod: Then February was good. March was was all key and then obviously Coronavirus really hit and it was Yeah, it was a little bit of a tough time in April I would say end of March, start of April. And then you know once everyone got over the panic and fear of the Coronavirus, because you know what it was like at the start, everyone was thinking we're gonna die, all these bad things, let's shut up shop. So yeah, once we got to end of April start of May people suddenly went Hold on a minute here. We've gone from this is really bad to actually we can really make good of this bad.
• 13:11
  Calum MacLeod: All the people that were realising staycations are going to explode as soon as people allowed out of their houses, the kind of the forward thinkers who owned land, were starting to jump at setting up glamping sites and very quickly, we went from you know, we had enough work to be fine from the first few months and then there was a little lull for the start of Coronavirus but we very quickly went from that to okay we need people to help us we've we've blown up is gone crazy. And and that's kind of how it all started. That was when Glampitect really started, April off the back of the Coronavirus.
• 13:53
  Calum MacLeod: And very quickly we started to bring in other experts. So we brought in two architects that were the first people that we brought in and the the kind of revitalised us. It went from Ali and I with some planning knowledge to two guys that had over 30 years of experience between them coming in, and I mean, the the vitalize or the drawings, the planning applications just got so much better. And you know, everything that we did, suddenly became very, very professional, we were professional enough before, to kind of get by, but bringing in these guys just made us you know, the knowledge, the experience. Both of them had experience in land, you know, land out in the countryside and stuff like that getting planning applications in there. And and that kind of gave us a good boost. And from there, I think month on month we've we've taken on, you know, several people every month and we're now at 16 at the last count, we're looking to bring in another seven this month in various different aspects of the business to just help the guys that are currently here. So everyone that's in, you know, has got a great knowledge and experience of glamping already with, you know, they've gone in stayed in our glamping locations on North Coast 500 Pods, they've all worked within glamping for probably more than most people. And yeah, we as far as we're aware, we're the market leaders and industry experts in the field for what we do. So that is the kind of whistlestop tour of how it all started.
• 15:45
  Nick Purslow: So I don't want this podcast to be a sales podcast, really. But because it's the first episode it's probably worth running through what exactly Glampitect do from feasibility studies all the way to the Glampitect Academy, so why don't you run us through that?
• 15:59
  Calum MacLeod: Yep. Cool. So I'll give you a quick run through of kind of everything that Glampitect does. Just to kind of overview of what we do, I'll not go into too much depth, but just the kind of things that we can help with. So again, I'll take you back to a previous glamping show. It was the Glamping Show of 2019. And by that point, we'd set up, we'd started, and we were doing a presentation. And we at the start of the presentation to gain an understanding of who we're talking to, so that we could tailor the presentation to them. We said, How many guys out there on a glamping site, put your hands up. And I think one person put their hands up. Then, How many have a glamping site in build, I think it was one again, then How many have a glamping site that's got planning accepted, it was one again, for all the way down to how many people are out there that want to start a glamping site have a bit of land, or don't have land, and don't really know what to do now. And just about everybody else put their hands up, there was maybe 50 people there, 45 of them put their hands up for wanting to do it, but not really knowing where to start. And so we tailored the presentation to that. And we kind of we did our whole thing. And that was great.
• 17:07
  Calum MacLeod: And then in the car on the way home, I thought to myself, how can we help those people? How can we help the people that either do or don't have land that really wants to start a glamping business, but don't know where to start. And that was when the feasibility study sprung to mind. I thought we can do feasibility studies for these people, we can get an understanding of the planning probability, the construction challenges that we'll have the demand and competitor analysis.
• 17:34
  Calum MacLeod: So who's around them how much money they're all charging, the return on investment analysis, so how much money they're going to make back versus how much they put in. And, you know, better conclusions, next steps, timelines for for going forward.
• 17:46
  Calum MacLeod: And, and we kind of brought all that together, realising that that was going to be the most beneficial thing to the people out there that wanted to start glamping businesses. So that became the crux of our business quite quickly. And you know, everyone that gets one absolutely raves about it and says, You know, I can't believe that this was so cheap. So that's our kind of first and main offering for people looking to start up a glamping business.
• 18:15
  Calum MacLeod: And then beyond that, we help with pre planning applications, which would be a submission to the local council, to ask them their opinion of the potential glamping site that you're looking to set up the full planning applications, which is our main thing, we are taking on a great deal of them at the moment, we've got over 50 planning applications in with various council straight up and down the country as it stands, and then from there, we can help with building warrants if people need them. And beyond that, websites, marketing, channel manager systems, and all these sorts of things. So that is something I actually think is very useful for the people at home, to realise is that you can't just build and they will come Well, actually with the way the glamping industry is at the moment you maybe could. But as you get down the line, as we get more glamping sites out there, you need to make yourself seen and heard. And you can do that through websites and marketing.
• 19:11
  Calum MacLeod: As I say I won't go into too much depth on that. But it's pertinent to understand.
• 19:17
  Nick Purslow: Well marketing was really important wasn't it for NC 500 Pods because you started marketing before you were actually set up, right?
• 19:25
  Calum MacLeod: 100%. So we had our social media going over a year before we opened and set up. And because of that, in our first month of being open, we had 75% occupancy, which is absolutely insane. There will be very few sites in the world that will have ever done that. But because we had a good following, and crucially what we did was we got the following involved in the journey. And this is actually really interesting when I said I wasn't gonna go into too much depth, but this is actually really important. If you can get your social media viewership to join in the journey. With you, you know, for those of you or here's me standing in the land, we're going to be setting up a glamping site soon. And then the diggers come in, and there's photos and videos of that. And you know, you get people involved in setting up to say, oh, guys, should we get a hot tub? Should we not? Or what do you think of this type of path versus this one, if you can get people to join in the journey, then people will have an affinity with you and your site.
• 20:21
  Calum MacLeod: And ultimately, when it opens, they'll want to book and that's exactly what we created with our Facebook and our Instagram for North Coast 500 Pods. And as I say, 75% occupancy when we opened which paid dividends, of course.
• 20:37
  Nick Purslow: Okay, and with that, we'll round off the discussion about Glampitect, that's probably the longest we'll talk about ourselves as a business throughout the whole the whole time this podcast runs. And the first time I spoke to you actually, Calum, was an interview for Made of Bits who I used to work for, they supply frames to glamping pod manufacturers. And we basically just discussed the glamping industry and it got turned into a blog. And in that, you raised some interesting points. And you basically said, one of the most important things any glamping site owner can do is to try and differentiate themselves from the competition as much as possible, whether it's through having USPS on your site or having better marketing than your competitors. And so I'm just wondering why you think it is so important, especially in the for the long term health of your glamping business, to differentiate your glamping site from your competitors.
• 21:30
  Calum MacLeod: Yeah, 100%. So that is so important. for ourselves, you may have realised that we want to have all of the USPs, we want to have all of the things that differentiate us, we want to have everything. Now, I wouldn't recommend that potential glamping site owners need all of that. But I would recommend that you do at least have one or two different USPs.
• 21:51
  Calum MacLeod: And though for the benefit of the people at home, USP is a unique selling point. So it's things that differentiate you from the other people. And so, I mean, at the moment, here, here's a key thing at the moment, and anyone could chalk up a glamping site in their fields, and they could make money and they could, you know, live for two years and have a great time, or three years, and it might be four or five. But, crucially, that's not going to be around forever. Currently, the demand for glamping sites massively outweighs the supply.
• 22:27
  Calum MacLeod: And it will do for a long time to come. Given that the lag of people thinking I want to start a glamping site to actually making it happen is probably a year. So anyone that's currently seeing the demand is going to take a year to actually fix a supply. And, and so we're gonna have that big lag. And it's going to go on for a while. And there's a key thing that people mentioned a lot, and that saturation, a lot of our potential clients and current clients ask us about saturation.
• 22:59
  And my answer to it is this: saturation, probably will come.
• 23:04
  And my answer to it is this: It might not, you know, I don't have a crystal ball, it might not come. But I would suspect that sooner or later, and with the lifestyle, and potential earnings and all that sort of stuff that owning a glamping sight can bring, there's going to be a lot of people that want to do it. And, you know, we might get to a point where we've got a lot of glamping sites, and the supply matches the demand or maybe even the the supply goes slightly above the demand. And when we get to that point, that's when your USPs are massively important. They're already a little bit important.
• 23:43
  And my answer to it is this: At the start, you always want to be oversubscribed, I'd much rather have four units, and have a demand for it than have four units and have a demand for two, of course. So I would always recommend to bring in the USPs anyway, but you probably don't need them just now. But when that saturation point does come, that's when it will sort out naturally through USPs, who's good and who's not and therefore, who's going to be more successful and who's not.
• 24:16
  Nick Purslow: Could you give the listeners some ideas on some potential USPs that they could introduce their glamping site?
• 24:20
  Calum MacLeod: Yeah, absolutely.
• 24:20
  Calum MacLeod: So there's different types of USPs. And I'll start with one of the ones that's actually the most important, although it's potentially arguably not necessarily USP, it's marketing.
• 24:32
  Calum MacLeod: A lot of glamping sites out there, they've got an okay website and and an okay social media. And that's kind of it. I would really recommend to differentiate yourself to get really good on social media, get active, get lots of good photos up, interact with your potential customers on social media, and you know, have a great website Easy to use booking system and channel manager system because again that crucially differentiates people get yourself on booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb. Now yes, they charge a percentage, just add that on. And that's fine. So front end differentiation is massively important. And then beyond that, actual genuine USPs is things like hot tubs, saunas.
• 25:26
  Calum MacLeod: In our own sites themselves, we have Amazon Alexa and Philips Hue lighting. So you can say Alexa, make the lights go read, and the whole pod turns red. And the amount of reviews that we've had five star reviews of people saying the kids couldn't believe it, they thought they were talking to I don't even know what, and there is a magician changing the lights. And, and people love that sort of stuff.
• 25:46
  Calum MacLeod: And you know, the Amazon Alexa cost like 50 pounds, and they fill up two lights and for the entire unit was like the 400 pounds. And for the benefits that that gives us. And it's just such a negligible cost. For our ownn site, or on our second site, we have a sauna. Again, a little bit of a cost associated, more of a cost, of course, than the the lights and stuff. But, and a lot more people want to come and stay with us. We did think about hot tubs but they're hard work. I'll not go into depth in that too much. But hot tubs are amazing, great USP but they are hard work. And you know log burners, communal areas, we've got a communal area, a big decking with a fire pit and beanbags, and a barbecue, all these sorts of things that you would want when you go away, that you don't necessarily need.
• 26:40
  Calum MacLeod: But, you know, when they're there, they make people's experience a lot better. So anything that just makes you a bit different, a bit quirky, something that people are going to get excited about when they come that they probably don't have in their own home. I think that's a good point, actually things that people probably don't have in their own home.
• 26:57
  Calum MacLeod: Not many people can say Alexa make the lights go red and the house turns red. Probably not many people have got barbecue and a beanbag in their back garden that they can go and have some burgers out in the sun. And so all these sorts of things that just make you different to the competitors will short term, obviously benefit you, and long term really benefit you.
• 27:25
  Nick Purslow: So to pick you up on your point about hot tubs, we won't go into depth about the logistical issues of them, because they can be quite tricky. But if you are prepared to go through the hard work of getting them on your site and maintaining them, I think they can be huge when combined with marketing, because glamping is inherently instagrammable.
• 27:43
  Nick Purslow: Especially when hot tubs are involved. Hot Tubs are huge at the minute and you see them all over Instagram. And I did just want to make the point of how how powerful that can be as a marketing tool in 2021. And actually that is mentioned in the industry forecast that at the time of recording this podcast is going to be released tomorrow, but it will have been out for a week or two by the time this is published.
• 28:06
  Calum MacLeod: Amazing. Actually one thing to mention on the hot tubs and just obviously you said yeah, they can be a bit of a benefit, I would just like to emphasise how much of a benefit that can be. And obviously we do a lot of feasibility studies.
• 28:20
  Calum MacLeod: And therefore we understand how much money a glamping site should make how much you should charge per night, right up and down the country. We've got data and an understanding on all of these. And we have seen the glamping sites can make up to 50 or 60 pounds per night extra for having a hot tub in there, like it is that crazy. There's a lot of sites that will maybe be 100 pounds a night without the hot tub, or 150 with the hot tub, which is just insane. And occupancies go up, you know, you can see a big jump in occupancies with North Coast 500 Pods, we get messages every single day saying or do you guys have a hot tub? And we don't.
• 29:02
  Calum MacLeod: And crucially we've been able to oversubscribe ourselves in loads of other ways and without having the logistical issues of hot tubs. But if you're comfortable with the logistical issues and feel free to reach out to me, I'm happy to chat to you about the logistical issues another time for the people at home. But yeah, if you can get over the logistical issues financially, and for occupancy is a massive, massive benefit.
• 29:35
  Nick Purslow: So Calum, you're currently actually in Dubai.
• 29:38
  Nick Purslow: You've been there since November is it?
• 29:41
  Calum MacLeod: Yeah, yes. It's been just over two months. I think I've been here.
• 29:44
  Nick Purslow: And you're going to be there for longer, are you?
• 29:47
  Calum MacLeod: Yeah, I don't think I'll be coming home anytime soon. I actually came on a holiday and quite quickly realised that I could achieve one of Glampitect's ambitions quite a lot quicker than I initially thought. And that ambition is to take us global.
• 30:02
  Calum MacLeod: So currently, when I came on holiday, it was literally just I came for a week. And me being me, I'm nosy about glamping, I like to know what's going on.
• 30:18
  Calum MacLeod: And I did a bit of research, to look to various different glamping sites in and around Dubai. And everything was fully booked, literally for months.
• 30:25
  Calum MacLeod: And I thought to myself, hold on a minute, here's our, here's a bit of an opportunity. And so I decided to stay. And we're in the process of potentially setting up a glamping site for ourselves in Dubai, with the view of doing exactly what we said earlier in the podcast. And that is set up a site for ourselves, get an understanding of how it works, and then replicate that for other people and help them to set up glamping sites. And so that's one of the things that I'm doing just now is working to start a glamping site out here, which is cool. It feels like I'm kind of back at school again. Because everything now, we we've got a really good understanding as a business in the UK, of how to set up glamping sites, we've kind of got it nailed down. But back to here, I feel like you know, I obviously know lots about glamping. But how can I do it in a new country? How did I get land? How do I do that? How do I do this, and it makes me it takes me back to where I used to be, and where our current and potential clients are. Probably a lot of the guys listening here are experiencing the same things as me. And that's cool. And so yeah, we we will likely be setting up glamping site in around Dubai over the next week.
• 31:43
  Calum MacLeod: While I don't know how long we'll be here for, but crucially, something that you mentioned earlier on, and I don't know if it was in the podcast or not, was remote working. And I I was quite against from what working a while ago. I lived you know, with other people and a dog and all that sort of stuff. And it just made it very hard to be able to work from home. But out here, for all, you know, I'm not it's not like I'm working from a hotel room, I've got an office out here just now. And and that really helps. But the whole remote thing, I've just kind of got very used to it quite quickly. You know, once you're forced into something, you actually just need to deal with it and realise that it's not actually that bad. So yeah, remote work has been quite good.
• 32:32
  Calum MacLeod: And, you know, it's exciting times out here, you know, if we can set up a glamping site out here, and which I've got the full confidence that we'll be capable of doing. Start Glampitect UAE, and then start to replicate around the world.
• 32:48
  Calum MacLeod: And you'll bring our offering and our help to people around the world. And that's, you know, you probably realised from what I said earlier, about wanting to be able to help more people at once. And that was why we started the Academy. If we can take it worldwide and help more people worldwide even better.
• 33:08
  Nick Purslow: So we want to make 2021 a huge year for Glampitect.
• 33:12
  Nick Purslow: And so we've got plenty of things lined up for them for the next year. So Calum do you want to run us through some of those, please?
• 33:19
  Calum MacLeod: Yeah, of course.
• 33:19
  Calum MacLeod: So we've got some massive things again, you'll probably realise that we cater to the demand. And so we've been listening to what people have been saying. And we've created a few different things to help them. So obviously, that Academy is one of the soonest things to be coming out. I think applications close tomorrow, which means that by the time people are listening to this, they will have missed this application set. But there'll be more applications for the next one. And that's really exciting. We've also added tomorrow, which again, by the time people are listening will will have already happened.
• 33:53
  Calum MacLeod: We have the glamping industry forecast for 2021.
• 34:00
  Nick Purslow: I wonder who wrote that?
• 34:01
  Calum MacLeod: I wonder who wrote that? Well, it was exactly what I was gonna say it was there's this amazing guy that works for us that's written it, who's also the host of your podcast today, guys. And so Nick wrote that, and it's fantastic.
• 34:14
  Calum MacLeod: I was really impressed. It's it's something I wouldn't even even have been able to do. I don't know if it's because of attention span or not.
• 34:23
  Nick Purslow: A-Level English literature came in handy.
• 34:25
  Calum MacLeod: Exactly. I think I failed higher English. So there's there's a difference. So yeah, Nick smashed it, the forecasts are incredible. The insight in there is second to none. It's something that actually we're offering out for free. I know that there's manufacturers out there that would spend 1000s of pounds buying this. So you're getting an amazing bit of information there for free from us. And so you can jump onto the website.
• 34:50
  Calum MacLeod: By the time you guys are listening to this. It'll be available to download on the website, and that'll be a fantastic one. Beyond that, we've got a land buying guide.
• 34:59
  Calum MacLeod: And so again, we've had a lot of clients come to us or potential clients, and they still need land for finding their glamping site. And so we created an offering for that, which is the land Buying Guide. And that's, that is chargeable. And so you can purchase that on the website, just jump on the website, or reach out and have, have a call with one of our consultants and get an understanding of what we're doing there. But yeah, the land buying guide is great for people that are looking to set up a glamping site, but don't yet have land. Off the back of that, we're beginning our brokerage, to match up people who are looking to start a glamping site with people who have land, and maybe either already have planning permission for glamping or want to get planning for glamping to massively increase the value of their land, to then sell a rental on to people that are looking to start up a glamping business. So think of the Tinder for glamping. Now that sounds a little bit wrong, the Tinder for glamping sites set up. Tinder for glamping sounds a little bit ropey, not that. Tinder for glamping site setup. So we're matchmaking basically, and, and quite soon, we're going to have some functionality on the website, and ultimately an app to be able to match. People that are looking for land for glamping sites with people that have land, they want to sell or rent it. So loads of stuff coming up is you know, exciting stuff. And guys, as I said loads of times, guys at home, anything that you would like to see from us, shout about it. And if enough of you do, we will create it to help you.
• 36:38
  Nick Purslow: That's a good point. If anyone's got any suggestions for what they want Glampitect to offer because, as Callum says, we do cater for demand, just let us know in the comments or send us an email or whatever, send us a message on social media, doesn't matter.
• 36:47
  Nick Purslow: And we'll we'll get back to you on that. Alright, so I think that's about it. Callum, thanks for coming on. Is there anything you just want to say to the audience at the very end?
• 36:59
  Calum MacLeod: Yeah, of course.
• 36:59
  Calum MacLeod: So no, thank you, Nick, for having me on. Thank you for for running this for Glampitect. I'm really looking forward to some of the stuff you've got lined up. And we've got some great people lined up. And you know, people again, at the forefront of the industry like we are to help the people at home with setting up their glamping sites.
• 37:17
  Calum MacLeod: So yeah, that'd be super exciting to listen to the ones coming up in the future. So yeah, thank you for having me on. Thank you for hosting this.
• 37:23
  Calum MacLeod: And yeah, guys at home. You know, if you want to reach out to me, you can you can get me through calum@glampitect.co.uk, that's Calum with one L. Or you can ring the office phone on 01312483019. And yeah, we can, you know, have a chat about anything. Probably, you know, there's loads of people in the team that can help. We've got several architects, I think we've got six architects at the moment. And client relationship consultants, business relationship consultants. So there's loads of people in the team. So maybe, actually, if you want to get in touch with one of them, instead, get in touch to contact@glampitect.co.uk. And, yeah, we we can help you in any way, you know, get in touch for a chat. And and we can definitely help. So looking forward to seeing how this podcast goes. We're looking forward to hearing from some of you guys that have listened today. And good luck starting your glamping businesses.
• 38:20
  Nick Purslow: Thanks very much.
• 38:20
  Nick Purslow: We'll definitely be having you back on in the future to dig deep into some more specific issues as we look to help anyone who wants to or currently runs a glamping site.
• 38:30
  Calum MacLeod: Yeah, that's right. Thank you guys. Bye.
• 38:41
  Nick Purslow: There it is, the first episode of the Glampitect podcast done and dusted. We hope you enjoyed listening and that you come away with some insight and inspiration for your glamping project. As I mentioned in the intro, this is something that we're looking to improve week on week. So it would be hugely appreciated if you tune in next week for Episode Two with Jason Devenish of enchanted creations. Anything mentioned today will be linked in the description, including all the details for Made Of Bits, today's sponsors. A big thank you to them and please give them a call if you're after glamping pod frames. Don't forget to follow Glampitect on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Visit our website and most importantly, subscribe on whichever platform you're listening on so you don't miss a future episode. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you next week..