Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship: Glamping Hub CEO Ruben Martinez (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What was the spark for the business?

Ruben Martinez: The idea of Glamping Hub came from the simple fact that nobody was representing unique outdoor accommodation online. Everybody has gotten into hotels, apartment rentals, and condo rentals.

If you searched for glamping, there was a lot of information, but it was all scattered. We placed the bet on the fact that we thought that this term, glamping, and unique outdoor experiences would become more popular.

We didn’t really know how we would monetize the idea, but we just basically started with a listing site where we wanted to have a reference place. That’s how it started.

Sramana Mitra: Interesting. I’m a big traveller as well. From a business model point of view, was that going to be an advertising-driven site?

Ruben Martinez: If you would ask us back then, we would have felt confident that we had it figured out. Looking back now, it’s pretty clear we didn’t have it figured out.

We quickly realized that the listing model just wasn’t going to be sustainable. We were asking these small business owners who had these unique outdoor accommodations to write us a check for $250 per year to be on the site.

Getting the first few clients was extremely difficult because you’re basically telling people, “We promise we’re a website. Write us a check for $250. This is going to work out in your favor.”

The first 50 to 100 were difficult to get. We soon realized that not only are they difficult to onboard, but from a business model standpoint, it’s not scalable and sustainable. It’s not sustainable to capture payment once a year from these accommodations.

We invested more in the technology standpoint for us to be a bookable website. Being a bookable website allowed us to grow, specifically, in the United States. When we first started, we looked at some of these African safaris. They’re $30,000 a trip. We thought that if we could just book a few of these, we’re going to be okay.

It turns out that because the majority of our audience was from the United States, nobody was going to pay $30,000 on a booking platform to go to another country.

Then we pivoted towards the idea of Europe and England. Glamping is very popular in the UK. You don’t have to explain what it is. You don’t have to get people familiar with it. It turns out there were a lot of other players there and a lot of other companies. It was hard for us to break in.

We took a step back and looked at the obvious fact that a majority of our audience was coming from the United States. We decided to try and scale in the United States even though the term glamping was still new. It still had a lot of preconceived notions. People had their own idea of what it was.

Sramana Mitra: Pin this down for me timeline-wise. What year is this happening?

Ruben Martinez: We became a transactional site in 2013. We hired a few people. By 2015, we had a decent-sized office in the southern part of Spain. We hadn’t moved to Denver yet at that point. 

This segment is part 2 in the series : Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship: Glamping Hub CEO Ruben Martinez
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