OPERATION #KickstartGlampingSanDiego
$27,183 PLEDGED | 108% FUNDED
Welcome to our Kickstarter campaign page for Alter Experiences LLC. Our Kickstarter campaign was successfully funded on March 24, 2019, thanks to the help of our family, friends, backers and company supporters. We couldn't have done it without their support.
Our company was founded in 2016 by husband wife team Rami and Shantel, out of their passion for tourism, hospitality and environmental conservation. They combined these passions into the tourism model we've built today and we look forward to another year of strategic expansion in 2019.
After 2 years successful operation in San Diego's backcountry, we set out to raise $25,000 to expand our glamping venue.
We launched our Kickstarter drive on March 1st and reached our $25,000 pledge goal on March 24, 2019. The money will be used to purchase equipment to outfit our various sites.
Relax, explore and enjoy. We take care of the rest. Our glamping retreats are an outdoor hospitality experience unlike any other.
We'd like to thank everyone that joined our efforts towards expanding the outdoor hospitality scene and setting exciting new trends in San Diego's tourism industry!
SKY ISLAND | A MOUNTAIN JOURNEY
SETTING EXCITING NEW HOSPITALITY TRENDS IN SAN DIEGO
We're currently the first Tentsile Experience Camp in the US and the only glamping outfitter in California's National Forests. We've been in full operation as of 2018 with a pilot project in the Cleveland National Forest, under permission of the US Forestry Service.
We've hosted over 80+ visitors so far from 16 different cities with nothing but raving reviews. Our operation is growing fast as outdoor hospitality trends continue to grow in popularity around the world. We've established a successful, year-round outdoor hospitality business with a proven track record.
At the beginning of 2019, it was time to take our company to the next level. We set out to raise $25,000 to outfit 6-8 additional glamping sites throughout the San Diego backcountry including places such as; Laguna / El Prado Campground, Cleveland National Forest and Burnt Rancheria campground.
We successfully reached our $25,000 pledge goal on March 24, 2019 started our expansion plans shortly afterwards.
CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS
We weren’t exactly sure what to expect when we launched operation #KickstartGlampingSanDiego
We built this company from the ground-up and we invested everything we had into it. It was important for us to see the business grow organically, while we fine tuned our operation and set a standard for outdoor hospitality. It became apparent to us last year that we would need to expand in order to meet our growing demand. We discussed various options of obtaining capital, but in the end we decided to take a chance and try crowd-funding.
Our decision paid off. We raised over $25,000 on March 24, 2019 and our expansion plans where implemented shortly afterwards.
This was all thanks to our backers and company supporters. Check out the backer hall of fame
CAMPAIGN PRE-LAUNCH VIDEO
We launched operation #KickstartGlampingSanDiego towards the end of February with this feature video. We had been preparing for the campaign and sharing little sneak peaks leading up to March 1, 2019, in preparation for the actual launch date.
The video was very well received and set the tone for our campaign launch.
MEET THE COMPANY FOUNDERS
This was our official campaign video outlining our current accomplishments and company expansion plans. It was a lot of information to cover and took us over 1 week to put together.
It's always easier to tell someone else's story than it is your own. We built up from this video to create the the next one, Sky Island | A Mountain Journey, which turned out to be our personal favorite video.
COMPANY HISTORY
Alter Experiences LLC was founded in 2016 by husband wife team Rami and Shantel, out of their passion for tourism, hospitality and environmental conservation. We're an outdoor hospitality company, dedicated to creating meaningful experiences in nature & encouraging sustainable tourism development globally. We founded this venture with the hope of setting some new and exciting tourism trends in our hometown of San Diego, CA.
COMPANY ORIGINS AND VISION
We want to continue helping people get outdoors, while promoting responsible tourism trends and environmental stewardship in San Diego.
Since our founding in 2016, we've hosted dozens of groups from all over the United States during our short time in operation.
We're excited to be offering this one of a kind experience in one of the world's top ten tourism destinations - San Diego. We're also working on expanding into new and exotic destinations all over the world in the near future.
We are dedicated to engendering a culture of responsible tourism in San Diego and abroad, while encouraging people to get outdoors & immerse themselves in nature.
Alter Experiences LLC currently operates under permit on the Cleveland National Forest. We were issued a 1-year permit for a pilot project that was initiated in April of 2018 in the Laguna / El Prado Campground. Our permit has been renewed in 2019 and we've been granted additional sites to expand our operation.
2018 was a very exciting stage of growth for us. It’s been a period of much success and we’ve learned a lot about the emerging outdoor hospitality market in California and abroad.
We’ve hosted 80+ bookings so far with nothing but positive feedback and reviews. You can read some of those reviews here: https://alterexperiences.com/index.php/reviews
We're getting new reservation requests coming in almost daily and the demand is getting harder to keep up with.
We've continue to streamline and improve the operation and have many other ideas towards enhancing the experience into 2020.
We've developed a sustainable, low-impact, profitable outdoor recreation business model that can be easily adopted in any other destination.
We want to continue getting more people outdoors with your help, and so that they can have amazing and memorable experiences in nature.
Help us take this operation to the next level
OUR STORY
Alter Experiences LLC is the result of an ever-evolving dream, very different from the busy modern day world. It’s a vision of a simpler place where life is basic, beautiful & in resonance with nature. It's this dream that's inspired our tourism model and business approach.
My wife Shantel and I have been together since 2006. All these years we shared a dream of creating a model based on principles of sustainability, minimalist living and responsible business.
A lot of the inspiration behind this vision came from our many years working in the ecotourism sector abroad. We had the opportunity to visit some of the most bio-diverse and pristine destinations on the planet, while learning about sustainable tourism models and environmental conservation.
The more we learned, the more we became concerned about the devastating impacts that unsustainable human activity continues to have on the natural world. Everything from shark fining, plastic pollution, de-forestation, water contamination to habitat destruction all over the world.
We started to get involved in environmental activism and supporting different initiatives and campaigns towards environmental conservation. We began to embrace a minimalist lifestyle early on, with the understanding that a lot of what's driving these problems are some of our current consumer trends and culture of materialism.
This amalgamation of our lifestyle, passion for nature and business approach ultimately became Alter Experiences LLC.
Economic growth & sustainable business development can be achieved without plundering our resources, destroying the environment or succumbing to corporate greed.
New economic trends point towards more localized & community centric models, which encourage business comradery & responsible business practices.
It's time for a change in the way we live, in the way we do business & in our priorities as a society.
Rami Abdel
Co-Founder | Alter Experiences LLC
INSPIRED BY NATURE
Alter Experiences is more than just a business. It represents our dreams, hopes and aspirations for a better world and a sustainable future for our planet. In the end, nothing will matter more than what you did to make the world around you a better place. Live a life full of courage and meaning and spend time in nature with those you love.
TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
How do we ensure the preservation of San Diego’s backcountry? How can we as business owners, visitors and citizens get involved and make a difference? These are some of the questions that inspired this episode and the stories of individuals that are working towards those goals. We all have our part to play in the preservation of San Diego's Backcountry.