NEWS & PRODUCTS
These stories were provided by Woodall’s Campground Magazine,
woodallscm.com
CALIFORNIA FIRM LAUNCHES TREEHOUSE GLAMPING VENTURE This isn’t the tree fort of yesteryear. A newly relocated Petaluma company is betting that professionals yearning for respite in the outdoors but with the comforts of home will be eager to spend big on modern treehouses for themselves or as a rental business for glamorous camping — better known as glamping. O2Treehouse has been on quite the trek since owner and designer Dustin Reiter built his first
geodesic dome in a Wisconsin poplar tree in 2005. He launched the company the following year in Minnesota, custom designing children’s playhouses. That took the business to Los Angeles, where the jobs morphed into more significant structures, and demand for detached offices and bedrooms grew. The company then relocated to Oakland in 2011, and within a few years, it started getting national media attention for its designs. When the San Francisco East Bay design and production center lease expired, Reiter turned his focus to the north. “The North Bay has always been on my radar because it has the giant trees, is a corridor to the north and has a lot of money and interest in these structures,” Reiter said. “Quite a bit of business has been done already in North Bay.” Historically, the company has been making 8 to 10 custom treehouses annually. The average cost is on par with that of a high-end home — $800 to $1,400 a square foot. At the average size of 120 square feet, that works out to be $96,000 to $168,000.
COMPANY OFFERING GLAMPING IN KENTUCKY NATIONAL FOREST Though classic-style camping is still popular throughout Kentucky’s Daniel Boone National Forest, Izaac Rains and his father Kevin are offering an alternative: stays at one of five glamping tents set in the middle of 50 acres of forest, according to the Courier-Journal.
And if [people] wanted to rent in blocks … [they’re] close enough for community… [There’s also] forest in between almost all of them, so you don’t have a view of somebody else’s tent. Each of the five tents — with the exception of The Cardinal Nest — are named after birds that are native to the Bluegrass State. The other four
are The Oriole’s Nest, The Goldfinch’s Nest, The Green Heron’s Nest and The Blue Jay’s Nest. The interior décor of each one differs slightly, but they all offer a similar vibe and the same amenities, including queen beds, sitting areas, a small clothing rack, a water hydrant, an outdoor charcoal grill and a covered porch.
A space to share The Rains owned 50 acres in Daniel Boone National Forest for about 17 years before they figured out a way to give others access to the property. “It was kind of a place that we just went to as a family and with friends and that type of thing,” Izaac told The Courier-Journal. “[But] we decided to open it up and share it with everybody. We didn’t want to hold it for ourselves anymore; it felt kind of wrong to keep it enclosed.” Izaac and his father founded Dappled Light Adventures; and since this past April, they have been renting out 320-square-foot glamping tents. There are five tents total, each one placed about 50 to 100 feet away from the next. “We designed the layout very intentionally,” Izaac said. “There [is] enough room for privacy, but [the tents are] close enough for people to feel safe. g l a m p i n g s h o w. u s | G l a m p i n g B u s i n e s s A m e r i c a s | 1 5
