Camping is quite the adventure where you, along with your loved ones, can explore the wilderness and have a memorable experience camping under the starlight sky in peace and tranquility. While finding such a spot where you get these facilities is quite rare in modern society, a company is making the difference in bridging the gap between camping sites and camping enthusiasts. The company is none other than VanlifeLocation.
VanlifeLocation is a company that deals greatly with people looking to lease their farmlands or land for campers looking to have a peaceful night camping. It’s more like a gateway for customers to easily notice the different camping sites and choose the one that suits their taste and preferences. While the application is available on iOS and Android, the functionality and reach is only in Europe. While speaking with Nikita Helm, CEO of VanlifeLocation, Venture Mirror learned extensively about the company. If you want to know more about them, then read the entire interview given below.
What is the startup / product / venture about? Give us a brief description of it.
VanlifeLocation is a website and an app offering pitches from private hosts and wildcamping pitches for camping enthusiasts who are aiming for an individual camping experience. The goal is, to make camping accessible to everyone by providing a network of individual pitches all over Europe. Private hosts can rent out their grounds to campers for fair fees, while campers receive a memorable experience away from the hustle and bustle of traditional campgrounds.
How many co-founders are there? Please introduce them and their backgrounds.
Nikita Helm is the only founder of VanlifeLocation.
How did you come up with the idea? What motivated you to do this?
After I started travelling Europe with my own van, I was fascinated by the vanlife spirit and the idea of VanlifeLocation started to grow. I wanted to make this feeling of freedom accessible to everyone and meanwhile support sustainable travel and intercultural exchange. Apart from that, I would like to give private hosts from all over Europe a platform to promote their home region and meet people from all over the world.
Who is your target market? Why do you think your product will appeal to them?
We are addressing campers of all kinds and ages, who want to explore Europe with their vehicle. We are aiming to make individual camping and the beautiful nature of Europe accessible to everyone. The camping industry is growing faster than ever and therefore VanlifeLocation shall create space for individual travel away from the masses.
Who are your competitors? How are you different from them?
We consider ourselves the AirBnB of campgrounds and for sure we are not the only ones with this idea. Vansite and Landvergnügen are competitors, but with VanlifeLocation you don’t need to become a member and everyone can become a host. In addition, our network combines free wild camping pitches with private pitches – this way there is the perfect pitch for everyone and every budget. Homecamper is mainly focused on pitches in France while we are building a network all over Europe. Apart from that, we created an app to make all the pitches and the fully digital booking process as easily accessible on the road as possible.
What are the future plans with the product/startup? Any new features you are planning on?
We just launched the VanlifeLocation marketplace and integrated the private pitches in our app for iOs and Android. Currently, our main goal is to gain more hosts and extend our network. We are excited for the upcoming camping season and hope to excite both – campers and hosts. We do have a lot of things in mind for the future though, such as a community feature where campers can connect with each other and arrange to meet on our pitches. Apart from that, we will integrate more payment options – Stay tuned!