I’ve just come back from a 2-weeks road trip across the south of Norway 🇳🇴
This was the first time I rented a caravan and it inspired me to research and discover new business ideas around this way of traveling. Going to share a couple of them in this newsletter.
Why you’re getting this: I'm Peter Fabor and this is my newsletter where I share ideas and my experiments with building products that combine hospitality, real estate, and tech. You can unsubscribe and I won’t be offended.
This was not the first time I traveled with a camper. I owned an old Volkswagen Caravelle 13 years ago and enjoyed many surf trips across Europe with my friends. This Caravelle was VERY old and basic (less than €3k purchase price), not adjusted for sleeping or living in it.
I remember seeing a lot of pensioners with luxury caravans during these surf trips.
Their caravans looked like massive fridges on wheels and with all my surf friends we used to make fun of them. We traveled by van not only because of freedom but also because it was cheap. These “white fridges” were the exact opposite of the vanlife lifestyle we preached.
And here I am, after 13 years, renting such an upscale caravan by myself. Shower, kitchen, a proper bed, fridge, bathroom… Peter, what a hypocrite 🙂
Airbnb for wild parking spots 🅿️
Something I didn't know before this trip was that everyone traveling with a camper in Europe uses an app called park4night. It's built by 3 young French indie developers and used by 6M(!) people.
The app is a kind of Airbnb for parking spots. You can find there places to park for free, as well as commercial campsites. You decide where to park for the night based on the pictures and reviews. All content is user generated and you will notice that the community is very strong.
What I found interesting are parking spots that were not for free but they weren't exactly the campsites. They were simple parking lots but with a good infrastructure for campervans - good toilets, showers (not always), nice location with views.
Priced usually somewhere between €15-30 per night (a campsite was around €35-60).
These parkings didn't have employees (even someone needs to come to clean the toilet at some point) or reception onsite. I believe that they exist and can make money only because of the park4night app, otherwise, nobody would find them.
I had a crazy idea: to buy land in Norway that can be converted into commercial parking for campervans and manage (a cleaning company) remotely from my home in Amsterdam. That would be a fun experiment 😀
Campsite with a twist ✨
A friend of mine, Vita, has a website that curates the best campsites in Europe. I asked him if he knows any campsite with a coworking space.
His answer: “There is not such a campsite in Europe.”
Even on vacation, I had to work 1-2 hours a day. Sometimes more. It's quite tricky to work from a caravan - internet sucks, electricity limitations, not a comfy place to work, crying baby (in my case). I was searching, with no success, for ANY place where I could have a deep work session for at least 4 hours.
For sure, there is not a massive market for campsites with an onsite coworking space but I believe that 1 or 2 in each country would simply crush it! Hey, there are more of us!
The most expensive campsite I found was a farm near Bergen. It cost €55 to park for a night but I was not able to because it was fully booked.
There were plenty of experiences on-site and none of them were charged extra for the sauna, shower, BBQ cabin, kayak, rowboat, visiting farm animals (always an amazing experience for kids), or superb lounge area (on the picture above).
I saw around 50 campervans parked there. Looks like with very few costs for owners to run it is quite a good business. This can work anywhere.
Automate everything 🤖
Norway is a very expensive country and salaries are high. To have a profitable business you need to think about how to eliminate employees from tasks that can be automated.
There were a couple of very instagramable saunas you could book online. You make the payment and then receive instructions about how to get in (a door code, etc.).
Those that I researched were all booked 1 week in advance.
Imagine 8 slots available per day, €30 per slot. Can generate €7200 a month
Follow the high season ☀️
You have to be very careful when you decide to buy or rent a hotel. Seasonality is works against you, most of the revenue is made during the high season.
Imagine a hotel where you could move somewhere else during the cold season. Somewhere with good weather and sun. Well, that’s the story of Anywherecampers, the caravan company from which I rented my vehicle for this Norwegian trip.
Pick up and drop off takes a lot of time. There are many things to check and explain. So I spent about 4-5 hours talking to Anywherecampers' employees…
Trips to Norway are planned during the summer months, the season at the Southern part of Europe is longer. But does it mean that the caravans are parked and not used during the European winter? Not really!
Anywherecampers cash out the summer season in Europe and then they transport their caravans by ferry to the Canary Islands where they rent them during the winter. Seriously, how smart is that?
Well, that's it for today! I have a couple of more ideas that I might share later on Twitter.
I mentioned my surf road trips from 15 years ago at the beginning of this newsletter. They were a hell of fun! We discussed them in my latest podcast interview with Chase Warrington (then we ended up talking more about boring topics like team offsites and Surf Office).
