Categories: Guides & hacksHosting

How to On-Board Hosts and Unlock Land for Hipcamp

As a Field Scout, you will take on the critical responsibility of finding, contacting, and adding hosts and private landowners to Hipcamp, so that our campers have more places to camp. (Not a Field Scout? Apply here!)

Since you’re already on the road and a great Hipcamp ambassador, you’re the perfect person to find new hosts and landowners. You will introduce potential hosts to the benefits of Hipcamp and educate them on how they can make money from hosting Hipcampers. Yahoo!

Being successful in this endeavor will make a massive impact on Hipcamp, because the work you do will grow Hipcamp across the United States and—eventually—the world.

For every new Hipcamp host you sign up, you will make $100. Sign up ten total hosts, and we’ll throw in an extra $1,000 (for a total of $2,000!) Scroll down to learn more.

How to approach a Hipcamp Host

You should feel confident driving up to and introducing yourself to different landowners, farms, vineyards, tipis, yurts, treehouses, cabins, and any place you think is a good fit.

Simply pull up to their property, see if anyone is there, introduce yourself and tell them that you work for Hipcamp, and that you think their land is a great fit. (You can follow the Host Elevator Pitch below). This is how we initially launched our platform and it was super fun.

If you’d like to plan out your Land Unlocking excursion, you can call the landowners before you arrive, tell them who you are, and that you’d like to stop by their property. We’ll give you handouts and stickers to present to each of these potential hosts, which will explain how they can sign up and start hosting Hipcampers.

Hipcamp Host Elevator Pitch

Have you ever heard of Hipcamp?

Hipcamp is a community of over 3 million people who are looking for new places to stay and land to camp on. I think your place would be a perfect fit—you could help us make getting outside more accessible while you make easy money.

It takes 5 minutes to get your free listing started, and I can help you. Let’s go to a computer and go to www.hipcamp.com/host. In the referral field, put the Hipcamp Field Scout’s name 🙂

Talking points on the benefits of hosting on Hipcamp:

  • We have over 3 million people using Hipcamp to find a place to stay
  • Help more people get outside and connect to nature
  • You can make passive income from renting out your land or property: Within the first 8 months of partnering with us, several Hipcamp Hosts earned as much as $9,000, $11,000, $18,000 and even $21,000.
  • Creating a listing is free
  • We send a field scout / professional photographer out to you for free once your listing goes live. If your property is ready now, we can take professional photos right now, since a field scout is already on the property!
  • Intuitive online booking software with landowner backend for easy management
  • Direct deposit weekly payments to landowner
  • We only take 10%, you keep 90% of all bookings, so you can set your cost accordingly

Potential Objections and Responses

I already list on Airbnb / VRBO / etc.

That’s exactly why you’re a good fit for Hipcamp, because you’re already used to hosting guests! Your Hipcamp calendar will sync with other calendars, so you don’t have to worry about double bookings. With Hipcamp, you’ll be able to reach more people looking to get outside and fill your booking calendar more quickly. Nothing to lose. And I bet you’ll like our people more.

I need to sync other calendars.

You can sync your Hipcamp calendar with your personal calendar as well as with your calendars from other booking sites like Airbnb and VRBO—you’ll reach more people without having to manage more than one calendar or worry about double booking.

Why would someone even want to stay on my land?

  1. Privacy. People are looking for a quiet place to enjoy nature (and that can be hard to come by at a public campground.)
  2. Your land is a unique place to stay.
  3. Public land is often booked (or first come, first served—people like to be able to book something and know where they’re actually going to be staying.)

Can I screen my guests?

  • (If someone is concerned about how to screen/approve guests—we don’t have a 2-way review system like Airbnb)
  • If you are concerned about who will be booking your property, you can select the “Request to book” option, so you can screen your campers before accepting their reservation.
  • You can view camper profiles and see where they have stayed in the past before you accept their request.
  • We send out field scouts to most places to provide verification as well (in case guests are concerned that we don’t screen hosts)

Download a PDF of the most frequently asked questions here.

Questions About Insurance

We are thrilled to provide hosts with our full support and the peace of mind that they will be taken care of in the rare event of a camper injury or property damage. Hipcamp currently has two ways to protect you: The Hipcamp Insurance Policy and the Property Protection Plan.

In order to have a live listing on Hipcamp and receive bookings, it is required you have the proper insurance in place. There are two ways to be covered under the Hipcamp Insurance Policy:

1. Leverage your own commercial insurance policy—their best bet.

Qualify to be covered under Hipcamp’s own Insurance Policy. If you qualify, you could be protected for up to $1 million for general liability claims per occurrence. This policy would be in excess to your homeowner’s insurance, and in the event you do not have coverage under a homeowner’s insurance, this would act as your primary coverage.

2. In order to qualify to be covered under Hipcamp’s Insurance Policy, you must:

  • Never have been convicted of a felony;
  • Have no homeowner’s or renter’s liability claims against you in the past 3 years;
  • Not be a Commercial Campground

 

Hipcamp is an online marketplace where you can list, discover, and book campsites and accommodations on private and public land. Hipcamp is your go-to guide to getting outside. If you’re a landowner, Hipcamp creates new revenue streams for your business, which can help conserve your land and keep it wild. #FindYourselfOutside #LeaveItBetter

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