Profit Potential of Farm Stays Worth a Look
March 30, 2022 
Farms by their rural nature are remote. If you’re hosting people for a farm stay in a converted barn, in a yurt in the back woods, or a cabin on the north forty, you may need to do more than other hosts.
Have you been thinking about farm stays as a good alternative income source? @LeahMcGrathRD, a regular that pops up in my Twitter feeds, shared this comment as a big northeaster blanketed the Mid-Atlantic with about a foot of snow in early February: Friend who lives “on top of a mtn” w/AirBnBs nearby. Over the wknd, w/snow in the forecast, rentals were occupied by couples who arrived w/no food. They assumed they could just “order frm Uber Eats”. Why [would you] think people [can] deliver food when you can’t drive off the mtn?” (via Twitter, Feb 1, 2022).
Farms by their rural nature are remote, whether on a mountain top or the middle of the high plains. If you’re hosting people in a converted barn, in a yurt in the back woods, or a cabin on the north forty, you may need to do more than other hosts. Think about providing backup essentials. Some visitors might make some erroneous or incorrect assumptions about amenities. And they may or may not be aware of the differences in accessibility compared to their urban or suburban homes.
At the very least, leave a few coupons to visit the farm store if that’s still open in inclement weather.
Check Out a Great Webinar Series
When I saw the Twitter message, I had just watched a University of Vermont (UVM) webinar titled “Reaching Your Target Market: Booking Sites for Farm Stays and Experiences.” It’s one of UVM’s monthly series of virtual agritourism gatherings hosted by Lisa Chase, Ph.D. and Director of the Vermont Tourism Research Center.
The series has been taking listeners on virtual trips to learn from agritourism operators around the world. You can join the gatherings and find more details about the program and upcoming events at agritourismworkshop.com.
The “Booking Sites for Farm Stays” session included presentations by a knockout team that included:
- Jenn Colby of Howling Wolf Farm, describing her experiences using Airbnb and Tentrr
- Scottie Jones, Founder of Farm Stay USA
- Chiara Sattin of Borgo Buzzaccarini di Castello, an agritourism farm near Venice, Italy
- Angela Tweedy, UVM graduate student. She discussed the work she has been doing for her master’s degree and the recent publication of a fact sheet titled “Comparison of Farm Stay Listing Sites”
Sattin’s descriptions of her farm jogged some fond memories making me realize I had stayed on an Italian farm not too far from hers when taking my daughter to an equestrian competition a dozen or so years ago. In Modena, the center of balsamic vinegar production and not far from Parma (yes, the Parmesan cheese capital), I hadn’t realized at the time the growing significance of the ‘agritourismo’ movement in Italy or I would have done some more investigating.
Farm Stay Vacations Have a Long History
I’ve been thinking of farm stays as a relatively new phenomenon. But a recent foray into our attic jogged some memories.
My family was looking at some old photographic negatives (what photos were developed from before the advent of digital photography, for all our young readers) of my grandmother’s house. My niece asked my mother to reminisce about growing up on the family farm in the 1930s and ’40s.
As part of an internship for her graduate studies in history, my niece interviewed and taped my mother’s recollections about family, farming, and neighbors helping a single widow bound and determined to keep the farm.
As she spoke, I realized my memories of hearing about her family “taking in boarders” wasn’t quite correct. Those repeat visitors were actually vacationers from New York City.
You can read the blog post and view the video at the Folk Life Center at the Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls, NY.
Suddenly, I had a new perspective on the old stories. The haberdasher that would keep my grandmother in high fashion with gifts of fancy hats and the large, suspicious man who always had the shades pulled and sat in the dining room with his back to the wall kept the farm in business.
What’s old is new again!
Resources for Farm Stays
University of Vermont Virtual Agritourism Gatherings
International Workshop on Agritourism, Burlington, Vermont, Aug 30 to Sep 1, 2022, in person and remote.
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