Tiny home cottages that help pay for themselves
By “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a cottage?”, you sometimes think as you scroll through site after site trying to book a family vacation. Rentals are all booked months in advance and buying a cottage is waaay out of your budget.
Tiny Village, a company that owns three scenic campgrounds in Ontario, may have a solution. With locations in Deep River (on the Ottawa River), Bon Echo near Ottawa, and Parry Sound, they definitely have the scenery. Now, they’re bringing in tiny homes to complete the picture.
Over the past two years, they’ve been trying something new with tiny homes as family cottages and they may be on to something!
Photo: AirBnB
Here’s how it works
- You buy a new RV-certified tiny home on wheels (they have a deal worked out with ZeroSquared on their Willow models)
- You park this tiny home on one of their seasonal sites
- You use this tiny home as your family cottage, also taking advantage of all the other well-maintained amenities of the parks, such as the beach, free canoes and kayaks, hiking trails, etc.
- When you’re not at your cottage, you hire the park to rent it out on AirBnB on your behalf, managing all guest communication, cleaning, and maintenance.
Victor Pasaran from Tiny Village shares with us that the several families who are already trying this tiny cottage model are very happy with the early results:
“They love it, they find it’s a great replacement to owning a cottage that’s affordable and with the ability to have a better experience since they have access to more amenities and their kids can play with the other kids within the resort.”
I booked one of these tiny home cottages for a weekend in June to try out with my family. Check out the video report below:
The benefits, as we see them
- Buying a tiny home as a cottage will be cheaper than a conventional cottage, plus the hands-off AirBnB listing will help you pay for it.
- Not having to deal with the maintenance of your AirBnB is a nice touch. This tiny home needs a holding tank of black water emptied weekly… and you ain’t doing that.
- Winter storage is offered at all three parks, with Parry Sound actually open year-round with hydro only (no water). Even if the park is closed in winter, you can still leave your tiny home there to overwinter and have them keep an eye on it.
- Greater future flexibility, as you can take your tiny home to a different location at any time.
- Family gatherings will have lots of options to choose from. For those larger gatherings that don’t fit in the tiny home, choose from amazing glamping experiences in the same park: domes, cabins, and the glass cottage below.
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So, how do the numbers work out?
Victor was kind enough to share what one season of Tiny Cottage (the home we stayed in) looked like.
Total Days Available: 144
Days Occupied: 92
Occupancy: 64%
Average Nightly Rate: $210
Management Fee: 35% of Sales
Photo: AirBnB
Beyond the numbers
Once you’re done with your calculator, let’s turn that left brain back on and picture ourselves waking up in a stunning tiny home among the trees, in a cottage that has everything you need and nothing extra.
Photo: AirBnB
