How to design a unique and different campsite in 5 key points?
In this post we tell you our secrets to maximize your camping.
In case you still don’t know us, we introduce ourselves: we are ERA architects.
Actually, I’m Esther Rovira, an architect in Barcelona.
We have worked with campsites to give them a differentiated vision and offer a unique experience.
After our collaboration, the 3-Star campsite appeared in the media and its visibility increased.
For this reason, in this post you will find a summary of my personal and professional recommendations to have a unique campsite.
I hope it helps you!
1. Wow Entrance
Most of the campsites have a lot of land and are delimited by a fence.
The entrance is where this fence opens.
We can make a simple hole in this fence or we can offer a moment of excitement after a long car trip.
It is an exciting time for guests who, despite being tired, feel a special emotion to discover that place they have chosen for their vacations.
This moment must be ME-MO-RA-BLE, because the guest will retain it in his retina more than any other moment of his stay.
2. Automate the arrival
It can be very disappointing to queue to check in and receive the keys to your holiday accommodation.
We already know that guests usually arrive on the same days at the same times.
And they are likely to be tired and nervous if they have to wait right now.
Some guests may like to have a glass of cava while they wait.
Personally, I don’t feel like a drink at that moment and I’ll tell you why. I usually arrive just before lunch, there are no seats and I feel like sitting on the terrace of my lodge.
I prefer and appreciate the freedom of online check-in to automate arrival (and future generations will appreciate it even more).
Thus, on the one hand, fewer queues are generated, improving the guest experience during their arrival.
On the other, we improve the quality of the service by dedicating the front desk staff to accompany the guests in their tourist experience.
3. Zone the experience
It is important to diversify the lodging experience with different zones.
Staying on the seafront is not the same as staying a little further back, in the central area of the campsite or near the entrance and services.
The experience is different and this works in our favor because we can create a more diverse and rich experience in its distinctions.
The zoning must understand the characteristic features of the campsite and its territory (and even its intrinsic culture and history!).
I give you an example.
For the 3-star campsite we have developed 5 different accommodation areas:
– First sea line
– first line of fauna
– residential forest margin
– second sea line
– center
We gave each area a different concept and lifestyle and even designed special and unique accommodations to respond to that explicit experience.
4. Landscape that accompanies you
With the new Urban Master Plan for Campsite Activities in Catalonia for 2019, the need for campsites to be open spaces to live life outside is reinforced.
Historically, campsites were located in natural spaces. But over the years they have been artificialized, offering an experience that is sometimes semi-decadent.
Recovering the native landscape is the best we can do to offer a better guest experience.
This does not mean landscaping flat areas that we like, but adding native vegetation biotopes where nature regenerates and adds value to our paths and boundaries.
We can also use vegetation to design intimate spaces and path limits that subtly indicate and accompany you where you should go and where not.
5. Open intimate spaces
Normally the campsites tend to be very close to the accommodations.
It is normal, they need a return and that is why they are close.
Sometimes a good insertion with orientation changes combined with native vegetation elements is enough to make insertions that add value.
That is, it is not necessary to place the housings in a row next to each other; we can greatly enrich the experience with a good insertion.
Thus the guest will have a terrace with more privacy, without having to be exposed and facing the other terraces.
Our professional recommendation:
As Architects in Barcelona, we recommend doing an external analysis of the intrinsic values and opportunities to add value that our campsite has.
It is good that the study is external because sometimes we make assumptions and basic opportunities escape us.
The study will be more complete if the person leading the analysis has notions of current regulations, can develop landscaping studies or urban planning proposals, has a vision of the general sector and has analytical-creative capacity.
Hope this is helpful!
Best of luck on this adventure.
See you on the next post,
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