Camping used to be defined as either pitching a tent or parking an RV in a campground. But Tentrr, the Airbnb or Uber of the great outdoors, hopes to attract millennials that own neither a tent nor an RV reports The Morning Call. The New York-based company installs standardized campsites — with more than $1,200 of equipment — on remote corners of large, private land, charging private property owners a one-time fee for the equipment and then connecting them with campers who value seclusion, convenience, and something a little different.
The “CampKeepers” get 80 percent of each booking and are responsible for relatively little maintenance between stays. At a typical weekend escape you’ll find a large canvas tent with a queen-sized bunk bed and two Adirondack chairs on a platform. There’s also a wooden picnic table, stone fire pit and metal grill, among other things.
In Tentrr, the modern sharing economy taps into the age-old desire to connect with nature. So what if the experience comes without the trials and tribulations of pitching a tent or the investment in an RV? Tentrr built its business in the Catskill Mountains, expanded into New England and, earlier this year, into Northeast Pennsylvania.
Millennials, Tentrr’s top generational customer, tend to be more open to different accommodations and types of camping. They are part of an even bigger and growing tradition in the U.S., where nearly 39 million households camp at least once a year, up 20 percent over the past four years, according to a 2018 study supported by KOA. And the number of households that camp three times or more each year has increased by nearly two-thirds since 2014.
Airbnb needs to branch out. Let the owner provide whatever equipment they want and post photos and info. If it’s good, it’ll “sell”, if not it won’t. Why does it have to identical?
When I read this subject title in the main news letter and the word millennials was in it, I knew it was going to be more of the trophy generation, narcissistic pablum fed, safe space, techno_weenie..generation.
Didn’t let me down.
Now don’t hold back on what you think of the millennial generation, Billy Bob. I’ll think twice now about using that word in a headline, Oh, and by the way, you surprised me when you wrote that the nitrogen content in the air we breathe is 70% (in another article). (It’s actually 78%. Interesting. Oxygen consists of only about 21%.