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How to Start a Tiny House Hotel Business

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What is a tiny house hotel?

A tiny house hotel can be a great spot for campgrounds, wedding venues, retreat venues, and much more. The possibilities are endless for what a tiny house hotel can provide. Tiny house hotels offer a more intimate experience with their environment than traditional hotels for the same price.

tiny house woodburned siding tiny home arcadia b&b micro manufacturing

Arcadia Tiny House at Woodlife Ranch

Tiny house hotels can usually range from $125-$300 per night. Tiny house hotels contain houses under 400 square feet, are often located in scenic places, and offer guests the chance to explore the outdoors or local attractions. Many tiny house hotels offer the features of a traditional hotel: they can sleep 5+ people, have wifi/cable, have an outdoor deck/grill, and have a full bathroom/kitchen. In addition, they can offer unforgettable experiences for weddings, dining, business retreats, and family reunions.  For some examples of tiny house hotels, check out these tiny house hotels across America.

Tiny house hotels usually have the customers book their stay online and then on the day of their arrival the customer will receive a code in order to get into the tiny house. The days of traditional check in are in the past!

In addition, tiny house hotels can be formed on a smaller level. As long as you have land and one tiny house, then you can set up a cozy bread and breakfast. Read our blog post on how to make money on your personal tiny house for more information. 

Choosing the Right Tiny Houses For Your Hotel

When determining the tiny house you want to use for your hotel, you want to make sure that it is fully accommodating to your customer. Will your customers be able to sleep their entire family? Is there enough built in storage for food and clothes? Does the design allow for your customers to feel connected to the scenic outdoors? Is their something unique and memorable about your hotel?

The Arcadia Tiny House

One of the great things about tiny house hotels is that it’s very easy to expand your capacity. As long as there is land and electricity/water available, tiny house hotels can add more units whenever they wish.

Attracting Tiny House Hotel Customers

The location of your tiny house hotel may be your biggest selling point. Many customers decide to stay in a tiny house because they’re looking to disconnect and spend time outdoors, so by choosing a location that is close to activities like hiking or swimming you ensure that your customers will have a great time while they’re on their vacation. In addition, customers may want to check out some cultural attractions while on their vacation. Locations that allow customers to spend time outdoors and are nearby to cultural attractions are optimal locations.

tiny home investment additional income New England

The Hudson Tiny House

Most tiny house hotels allow customers to book through their website and through websites like AirBnB, Try it Tiny, VRBO, and Homeaway. When creating listings for AirBnB, it’s important to showcase what makes your hotel stand out. If your tiny house has a beautiful deck area with a grill, showcase it! Allow potential customers to envision what their time at your hotel would be like through pictures. In addition, social media is another tool to attract customers. Because lifestyle content is integral to social media, a tiny house hotel can attract a lot of attention on social media platforms. Social media is a great tool to garner interest in your tiny house hotel.

Finding Land

Figuring out where to develop a tiny house hotel can get tricky as you must make sure that local building codes and laws allow tiny houses.

Zoning Laws

After you’ve looked over the zoning and, if applicable, building codes for your specific zone of your town, you may need to ask the town permission to have a tiny house on your property. Most towns don’t already have tiny houses written into their zoning or building codes.  If this is the case, don’t be discouraged: it doesn’t mean you can’t do it, it just means you’ll have to introduce the concept to the zoning board.  In this blogger’s experience, zoning boards are made up of passionate people who want to find housing solutions for their towns.  With tiny house TV shows and news stories all but taking over television networks, no doubt at least a couple of the folks on your town’s zoning board will already have an idea of what tiny houses are.  They’ll let you know whether you need a special permit to have a tiny house on your property, and if so, guide you through the process.

The Hoosic Tiny House

Getting Utilities

For electricity, the cheapest and easiest option is to plug into an existing power source.  Others choose to power their homes with solar power.  Click here to learn more about solar power for tiny houses.

For fresh water and waste water, city water and sewer are one option; pieces of property in less dense locations that don’t have city water and sewer will need to use a well and septic systems.

If the land already has electricity and water hookups, you won’t need to worry about having those put in.  Generally, although not always, it’s less expensive in the end to buy land that already has utilities than buying land without and then paying to have them installed.

For more information on this topic, read our blog post on the things to know before buying land for your tiny house for more information.

The Silver Lake Tiny House

How do I make it happen?

With determination, anyone can open their tiny house hotel. You have many options for securing funding. Read these 10 ways to get funding for your business and 6 tips for securing investments. As previously mentioned, a great aspect of tiny house hotels is the ability to grow your business whenever you please.

If you have any questions about developing a tiny house hotel, please contact us! We have experience in mass producing tiny houses for hotels.

How to Make Money by Renting Out Your Tiny Home

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With New England’s quintessential towns and breathtaking scenery, it’s no surprise that many of our tiny home owners use the area as a second home for weekend retreats. Because these homes often sit vacant, owners will often rent out their tiny homes in order to share the tiny home lifestyle with newcomers and make additional income. The best part of renting your tiny house to others is that it’s easier than you would think!

How to Earn Extra Income with Your Tiny Home

If you’re thinking about turning your tiny home into an investment, then you’re surely asking yourself a lot of questions. How do I pick the best location? How do I find customers and manage my property? How do I ensure I make a profit? Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered.

Picking the Best Location

When determining where to place your tiny home, think about your future customers and what their needs are. Are the customers you’re trying to reach looking for a place to stay while they hike New England’s serene mountains or are they seeking the comfort of being close to some of New England’s most memorable towns? The best way to figure this out is through research and talking with members of the community that you’re interested in. The local inhabitants will know the most about the types of tourists that their town receives. In addition, growing your network and connections with the local community is a great way to help spread the word about your tiny home.

In order to find land after you already have an area in mind, you can use websites like Zillow or Landwatch to see available listings, but it may be worth it to contact a real estate agent. Like the local inhabitants, real estate agents will be able to give you the inside scoop of particular areas and tell you which areas they think will make the most lucrative investment.

But is it legal?

Unfortunately, there is no clear-cut answer to this question as it depends on the town’s zoning bylaws. The good news is that it is relatively easy to find out if you can have a tiny home in a certain area by checking the town’s online building code or by simply giving the town hall a call. Click here to learn more about finding out where it’s legal to have tiny homes. tiny home kitchen new england

Finding Customers for your Tiny Home

Get Connected and Engage

Just as it is important to get connected with the local community when finding a property, it’s as equally important when attracting customers. Word of mouth is a great way to attract customers. Another great way to become connected is by establishing partnerships with local businesses. For example, you may establish a partnership with a local outdoors shop where you agree to leave coupons for the shop on the bulletin board in your tiny home for guests to see in exchange for a standup ad poster in their store. Also, use social media to develop interest in your tiny homes. Encourage guests to share pictures of their experience in your tiny home. Allow others to see the magnificent time past customers have had in your tiny home!

Use Third Party Platforms

Websites like Airbnb, VRBO, FlipKey, and Homeaway are another great way to find potential customers. Try It Tiny is a tiny house-specific website for renters, landowners, and tiny house owners looking to rent out their houses.  What’s great about these platforms is that you don’t need to do anything besides build your online profile; the customers will come directly to you!

tiny homes bedroom b&b micromanufacturing

Maximizing Your Profit

It’s apparent that the quality and location of your tiny home are some of the driving factors that determine the price you are able to charge customers, but there are even more factors affecting the price and therefore interest of customers in your property. Below are some of the other most important factors.

Amenities and Competition

Amenities such as the size of the kitchen, wifi connectivity, or an outdoor sports court help determine the price that you are able to charge. In addition, it is important to analyze your competition to see what they offer and at what price. It is also just as important to make sure that you offer something that your competition does not–what makes your tiny home extra special? Is it the views from the property, the outdoor grilling area, or the luxurious fixtures?

Make Hospitality a Priority

Sites like Airbnb allow customers to give reviews to their hosts. These ratings are out of five stars and visible to all prospective customers. Low ratings will certainly deter prospective clients; likewise, high ratings with personalized experiences allow you to build trust with future customers. High ratings with personalized experiences are made through experiences that humanize the lodging experience. What will your customer remember about their experience? Was it your useful advice of things to do in the area, the complimentary welcome basket with a handwritten note, or your high level of responsiveness to your guests questions? Click here to learn more about how to be the best AirBnB host. 

tiny home investment additional income New England

Becoming an Entrepreneur

Now that you know more about the mechanics behind turning your tiny home into an investment, you’re one step closer to becoming an entrepreneur! Reporting to yourself and being able to make the decisions that impact your investment can be a very exciting opportunity. So, what are you waiting for?

 

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Things to Know Before Buying Land For Your Tiny House (Or, Where Can You Put A Tiny House?)

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So you’re ready to buy some land to put your tiny house on!  What are some financial and legal factors to consider when searching for tiny house property?

You’ve found beautiful land, but can you put a tiny house on it?

Although many people dream of a completely off-grid tiny house in the middle of nowhere, you’ll still need to find a way to get water and power to your house.  The less distance from the road, the less expensive it’ll be to have power and water lines installed.

For electricity, the cheapest and easiest option is to plug into an existing power source.  Others choose to power their homes with solar power.  Click here to learn more about solar power for tiny houses.

For fresh water and waste water, city water and sewer are one option; pieces of property in less dense locations that don’t have city water and sewer will need to use a well and septic systems.

If the land already has electricity and water hookups, you won’t need to worry about having those put in.  Generally, although not always, it’s less expensive in the end to buy land that already has utilities than buying land without and then paying to have them installed.  Be sure to factor in these costs when looking for land.

Become familiar with the town’s laws for the type of tiny house you want.

Every zone of every town has different laws regarding where you can put different types of tiny houses, so unfortunately there aren’t any exhaustive lists of “where to legally put a tiny house”.

The first place you should look for answers is in the town’s zoning bylaws and building codes.  If the town’s website doesn’t have them, you may have some luck with searching for your town on ecode360.com.  Otherwise, call your town hall to ask about your tiny house project.  Note that there may be different rules in different zones of each town, so find out what zone your property is in (there will often be a zoning map alongside the zoning code on your town’s website) before moving forward.

For permanently-affixed houses, meaning houses on foundations, find out if there is a minimum square footage for residences.

Even if there’s not a minimum square footage,  other factors may affect the size of your house, like the road frontage on the property.  In the zoning and building codes, use the search terms “minimum”, “frontage”, and “square feet” or “sq ft”.  Water and electricity would be connected permanently to a tiny house on a foundation, just like a regular-sized house.

Interested in a tiny house on wheels?

Not all tiny houses are certified, but the turnkey tiny houses on wheels B&B builds are certified by the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association, or the RVIA, meaning they are built to high safety standards that the government can understand, they can be financed as RVs, and they can be parked anywhere RVs can go, using RV hookups to get water and electricity to the house and wastewater from the house (Click here to read more about RV hookups on tiny houses).  Use the search terms “RV”, “Recreation Vehicle”, “Recreational Vehicle” in your town’s zoning code to see if RVs are allowed in your property’s zone.  Building codes won’t apply to RVs since they are legally considered vehicles rather than buildings.

Here’s more info on how to find out if your town allows tiny houses.

Arcadia Tiny House at Night with pond

After you’ve looked over the zoning and, if applicable, building codes for your specific zone of your town, you may need to ask the town permission to have a tiny house on your property.

Although people have been traditionally living in very small living spaces since the beginning of humanity, in more recent history, tiny houses are a relatively new phenomenon in our modern western world.  Therefore, most towns don’t already have tiny houses written into their zoning or building codes.  If this is the case, don’t be discouraged: it doesn’t mean you can’t do it, it just means you’ll have to introduce the concept to the zoning board.  In this blogger’s experience, zoning boards are made up of passionate people who want to find housing solutions for their towns.  With tiny house TV shows and news stories all but taking over television networks, no doubt at least a couple of the folks on your town’s zoning board will already have an idea of what tiny houses are.  They’ll let you know whether you need a special permit to have a tiny house on your property, and if so, guide you through the process.

Pictured: The Arcadia Tiny House, photographed in its permanent home at Woodlife Ranch by Kyle Finn Dempsey