This Halloween, campers can enjoy an ‘off the grid’ experience involving star-gazing, chasing fireflies, swapping ghost stories, and cooking up some spooky s’mores in the whimsical outdoors of Maine, USA. Its official, the online camp booking platform, Tentrr, has expanded operations to the Pine Tree State.

But Tentrr’s story started three years ago; born out of a few prior disappointments faced by Michael D’Agostino and his wife – as they scouted for camping grounds for the summer break. All available campgrounds were either too crowded or booked-out. Identifying a real need-gap to fill, D’Agostino left his job in the New York Stock Exchange and founded Tentrr in 2015. Today, this New York-based online camp booking service connects landowners with campers seeking to explore the great outdoors and boasts over 500 camping sites on the East Coast.

Luxury Camping Made Dirt Simple

In the currently existing fast-paced urban lifestyle, Tentrr makes its entry in the form of literally ‘a breath of fresh air’. In the brand’s own words, they are the ‘Airbnb or Uber of the outdoors’ who seek to ‘makes it dirt simple to unlock outdoor experiences’.

The streamlined search and booking system enables campers to rent short-term lodging on private campgrounds. At an average $100 per night, campers (and their dogs) get a five-person spacious tent on a platform, water, campfire grill, solar shower, simple & functional bathroom, queen sized bed, lounge chairs and so much more. The best part: campers get almost the entire private property to themselves.

This unique feature links back to a clause on the Tentrr website that is sure to catch everyone’s attention: ‘Run Around Naked’ rule. As Williams simply put it, “When you walk out of your tent, if you’re naked, no one can see you.” Thus, the campground aggregator ensures that all listed properties are at least ten acres in size, to ensure complete privacy.

Turn Land into Riches

On the other hand, Tentrr gives farm and private ground-owners (who have large tracts of land that are almost never used) a second source of income. With minimum effort, the platform enables them to earn over $5000 – enough to pay off the property tax and then some more.

Once registered on the website, Tentrr takes care of everything – from setting up of the tent & online profile of the campsite to helping landowners manage it with 24-hour support and access to all trust tools. In this way, ‘CampKeepers’ get complete booking control and maintenance support, in exchange for a yearly membership fee of $1500. For any extra services, such as hiking, fishing, and horse riding; the CampKeeper and Tentrr share the proceeds.

Another interesting aspect of Tentrr’s business model is that the platform encourages camp owners to buy their camp essentials, such furniture, loo bags, and canvas cleaning kits; from its online portal – Tentrr merchantile. The platform locally sources high-quality camping components and sells them to CampKeepers at competitive rates. This ensures an additional influx of revenue for Tentrr and also a level of standardization of camp quality, across properties listed on the site.

Camping their Way to Glory

Reports suggest that over 39 million North American households go camping at least once a year – making for quite a lucrative market. This figure has gone up by 20 percent over the last four years. Also, there has been a 66% growth in the count of households that camp three times annually, since 2014.

The study also claims that campers of all ages, and backgrounds, are seeking recreational activities on and off the campground.

This shift in lifestyle presents a great promise for the future of Tentrr.

Having raised $13 million in funding, to date, Tentrr is geared towards meeting the growing demand for an innovative camping experience. The online camp booking platform also maintains a sustainable and scalable revenue model, and are expanding to new locations every other day.