FAQ
The General Stuff
1. Is it really cheaper than buying?
Absolutely! Sure, you could buy a cheap £30 – £50, 2 man tent, but what are you going to do with it afterwards? Are you sure its going to keep you dry? Trust me, we’ve all been there.
For a standard 4 day festival our cheapest two man tent will cost you £44.50 to hire with the cheapest delivery option, and that’s as long as you return it in decent nick. And if it isn’t, the most you’ll lose is your £20 security deposit on top of that. Why risk ruining your weekend that you’ve spent hundreds of pounds on, with any old cheap rubbish, when you can remain worry-free with our gear.
2. Why are you so much cheaper than other tent hire companies? It seems to good to be true…
We get this question a lot! We do things differently and it shows in the price.
Most other tent hire companies will buy in everything brand new. As such, they need massive deposits (sometimes £100+), have scary clauses around additional damage fees, cleaning mud and replacement costs to protect their investment. On the other hand, we’ve built our business around rescuing tents that have been rarely used and offering them to you to use at a price that just makes sense.
We get donations from festival-goers who have just had a clean out, general campers who have just upgraded their kits and outdoors companies who look to offload their excess returns stock. This means we can offer the same quality for less. You get decent kit that doesn’t break the bank, we help to prevent less tent waste. Win-Win
3. I’m a newbie when it comes to this camping thing. Will I look like an idiot putting this tent up?
Not a chance! Each of our tents come with easy to follow setup instructions and honestly, you’ll have these up quicker than most tents you buy. If you do have any doubts, get in touch and we’ll be happy to assist you.
Oh, and remember, no one else’s opinion defines you, so ignore the critics and do your thing!
4. How clean are the tents really?
Proper clean. Not just a passing glance “looks alright” clean.
We know the thought of sleeping in someone else’s tent can sound a bit grim, so every tent is fully inspected, cleaned and sanitised after every hire. If you’re still not sure, then check out our cleaning standard. If it’s not up to standard then it doesn’t get rented out.
Whilst we can’t always remove every exterior mark from previous camping trips (or battle scars as we like to call them), these cosmetic stains don’t compromise our cleaning standards or the tent’s performance.
5. What’s included? Is there anything else I need to bring?
Each tent hire includes tent, built in groundsheets, pegs and guide lines. This means your home away from home is sorted for the weekend. You’ll need to take the other bits, sleeping bags, pillows, chairs, beers (If we could, we’d provide the beers for you, damn licensing laws…).
Tent pegs will need malleting in. If you haven’t got one, you can hire one on checkout for a couple of quid or bring your own. Please don’t use a rock, they damage the pegs!
6. What are your family sized options?
We have 4 man tents for 2 big ones, 2 little ones and a dog to squeeze in. As long as you all like each other and can get on over a weekend or a week, then all is good!
7. Can I book for my whole group?
You’ll be an absolute legend for doing this! It makes life so much easier, one booking, one payment, one delivery and one return shipment. You’ll be a hero in your group and everyone splits the cost your end.
8. Weather forecast looking a bit grim for my booking, what are my options?
Our tents are made of stern stuff. Light showers? Pfft… no issues. Rain all weekend? They’ll handle it. Heavy showers? 2000mm PU rated! (Most of us will need to look this up.) As long as your tent is zipped up, wet boots kept outside and you don’t pitch your tent where it can be flooded, your stuff should stay dry.
But seriously, if you have concerns drop us an email (bookings@earthrisecamping.co.uk) and we’ll look into it for you.
In the unlikely event that the forecast is a yellow warning or worse, (think 50mph winds and a months-worth of rain every 5 mins), we’ll get in contact with you and offer a full refund.
Tent Hire Queries
1. Do you deliver directly to campsites?
We know it would be easier if you could collect your tent from the campsite, but we’re just not geared up for this yet. But the good news is we deliver a day or so before your hire starts, so you can grab your tent and go without any worries.
2. Can I collect my tent hire order from you?
Why would you, when we can come to you? If you’re in Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire, make your booking and drop us a message. We’ll see if we can come to you direct at a time convenient for both of us.
3. What if I’m not home when the tent is delivered?
Yep, we know that feeling. Planned to stay in and wait for a delivery, then the dog starts acting strangely (turns out she’d been at the bird seed again). Suddenly you find yourself out the door and worrying if you will miss that delivery.
We work with DX, who are pretty flexible. You can track your delivery using the details we’ve provided and redirect delivery to a safe place or neighbour. So your tent is ready for you on the day, just in case something unexpected happens.
4. What happens if you can’t get the tent I’ve booked to me?
Short answer: you’re getting a tent, no matter what.
We’ve got backup tents for every type we hire, plus we’re constantly monitoring deliveries. If there’s any delay or issue with your specific tent, we’ll send you an equivalent or bigger tent at no extra cost. Same day delivery if needed.
The only thing we need from you? Someone to be there when it arrives (usually the day before your hire starts). We check on all deliveries each morning and stay in contact with couriers, so if anything’s going sideways, we’ll know about it and sort it fast. By every means necessary, your hire happens!
5. What happens if the tent gets damaged accidentally during my hire?
We’ve seen it all at festivals and campsites. Poles snapped because some idiot has fallen over your guy rope, groundsheets torn by mystery sharp objects, A local’s house cat using a flysheet as a scratching post… (this was pretty funny to see at the time!)
It’s not a problem. Drop us an email at bookings@earthrisecamping.co.uk with a brief summary of the issue, how it’s happened and we’ll take a look at it when you return your tent. Anything major may require some or all the money from your security deposit, which is what it’s there for. Minor things, small tears in the fabric, scuff marks, usual wear & tear, we see all the time and we’re pretty chill with it. For more formal details on this check our T&C’s (Point 4, so you can skip the other legal stuff).
Whatever condition your tent is in, we want it back. Even if you think it’s past the point of no return, we’ll ensure it gets recycled properly. We don’t want our gear as another abandoned tent statistic.
6. How should I prep the tent for return?
So you survived the weekend and have made it home. What’s next? Well firstly, get yourself a cup of tea or a coffee and have some down time with those camping memories.
With that now done, unpack your tent, shake it outside and give the outside of the groundsheet quick brush off. Shake any dirt out of the bag and if it’s been raining hang both over the back of a chair to dry overnight. If it hasn’t been raining, simply pack it back up and return back to us.
Those 5 mins of shaking and brushing make you a hero to us, especially when we have up to 20 tents returned at once. So your small effort helps us turn these around in time for the next likeminded camper. And if you can’t get all the mud off, it’s not a problem as long as you’ve had a go, all tents get cleaned throughly ourside.
7. How do I return the hired tent?
Remember that packaging that we told you to keep? Good news, that’s your return sorted! Pop the tent back in, seal it up and apply the returns label that was provided.
If you booked with Evri, find your local Evri parcel shop and drop it off. If you booked with DX give them a ring and they’ll come get it.
Easy-peasy!
8. How much notice do you need to book a tent hire?
One of your mates has a spare ticket to a festival next week? Booking a impromptu family camping week away? If we have the stock available, we have you covered. We need two days before your start date to prep and ship a tent to you. If there is no availability showing, pop us email at enquiries@earthrisecamping.co.uk and we’ll see if we can sort you out.
9. Can I extend the hire period once I’ve received the tent?
Usually, yes! Just drop us a message with your booking reference and we’ll check availability. If it’s all good, we’ll send you an additional payment link for you to pay the additional days. Handy if you want to squeeze in some extra time away.
10. Do you hire out camping gear as well as tents?
We wish! We’re just starting out and focusing on getting the tent side perfect first. So you’ll need to sort your own bedding for now, but follow us on Instagram/Facebook. When we expand, you’ll be the first to know!
11. What if I’m not satisfied with the tent I hired?
We know the deal, our tents are not brand spanking new and some have been on many adventures before your hire. If there is anything that you’re unhappy with or think we can improve on, get in touch with us and we’ll see if we can make it right. If not now then definitely for future hires.
12. What is your cancellation policy?
Life happens! Maybe you’ve accidently double booked yourself that weekend or your mates have bailed at the last minute. This is totally understandable, which is why we have a fair cancellation policy for all.
30+ Days before your hire starts. Booking is fully refunded.
Within 30 days. Refunded minus the security deposit.
Within 10 days: We’ll cancel your booking no problem, but unfortunately cannot offer a refund, as we’ve already committed to delivery schedules to ensure everyone gets their tents on time.
We may even have to cancel your booking for safety reasons, (think weather warnings, flooding, end of the world) and in these cases we will offer a full refund or help you pick a new date.
Tent Donations
1. Why don’t I just sell my tent?
Go for it! But lets be honest, it can be a right faff. Taking pictures, writing descriptions, dealing with timewasters, competing with hundreds of other festival-goers who are doing the same, waiting weeks or months for someone to buy…
This is one of the reasons 250,000 tents get abandoned every year, some people just don’t want to deal with this hassle. We make it simple, we’ll arrange to collect and you get it taken off your hands pretty quickly.
2. Shouldn’t I donate it to homeless charities or other good causes instead?
It’s certainly worth exploring! Some smaller homeless charities do accept tent donations, however most of the larger ones focus more on getting people support and into accommodation, instead of encouraging rough sleeping. Traditional charity shops usually decline tents as they’re bulky, hard to sell and take up too much shopfloor space. If you want to check homeless charities first, then go for it! However, if your tent gets declined or you want a quick collection, then we’re here. Either way, your tent gets used and avoids landfill.
3. Will I get anything for my donation?
We can’t offer payment for any donations, that’s what keeps our hire prices low enough to combat the throwaway tent culture at festivals. However, it does mean you get some storage space back, no more hassle shuffling it out of the way every time you go in the shed or loft. Plus you get the satisfaction knowing that your tent is being put to use, not hanging around unnecessarily for 11 months of the year. That’s got to be worth something, right?
4. We’re a business with returns, ex-display, or non-resaleable camping gear – are you interested?
Absolutely! We’ve worked with retailers before, returns and ex-display items are often perfect for our hire fleet. If they’ve been used but can’t go back on retail shelves, get in touch (donate@earthrisecamping.co.uk) with the tent make and quantities of what you’ve got. We might be able to work out a deal that clears your warehouse space while giving perfectly good gear a second life in our circular system.
5. I bought my tent new and only used it once, seems wasteful to give it away?
You might feel like that, but passing it to us means it’ll get used properly instead of gathering dust or worse, ending up in landfill for the next 20 years. We’ll ensure it has many more adventures ahead. One person’s impulse buy becomes another family’s gateway to the outdoors.
6. My tent is pretty beaten up – will you actually want it?
You’d be surprised what we can bring back to life. Send us a photo of it’s condition and a short explanation on how it got into that condition (we like to be nosey). If we take it and turns out we can’t fix it, we’ll pass it on to other projects that recycle tent materials. Every tent saved from landfill is a win.
7. How do I know you’re not just going to chuck it anyway?
Fair question! We’re pretty transparent about our process and even pay the courier costs to collect from you, so that’s how you know we’re serious. We’d be pretty dumb to lose money by just chucking a tent we’ve agreed and paid to collect for!
8. I feel guilty about potentially abandoning my tent at a festival, can you help?
We understand, that post-festival guilt is real. Here’s the thing: if you’re really not going to use it again, getting it to us is actually the most responsible thing you can do. We’ll either get it back into action or ensure it’s passed to another project to be recycled.
9. I’ve got my tent back from a festival but haven’t cleaned it yet, is that okay?
This is fine as long as it’s not unsanitary, we’re used to dealing with tents used from festivals (it’s part of our core hire business!). Just make sure it’s dry before repacking and drop us a message. We’ll handle the rest.
10. I’ve collected abandoned tents from festivals, are they worth donating?
Firstly, festival-hero’s such as yourself, are doing amazing work. Keep it up! We’ll absolutely take a look at it, if it turns out to be trash then we can certainly pass it onto another project to use. You’re already helping the environment by rescuing them, we can make sure to find a use for them.
11. I’m having a clear out, how quickly can you collect?
We’re pretty flexible and will work with you for what you need. The quickest we can usually collect is a couple of days, but if you need longer (or shorter for that matter) then we’ll see what we can do.
12. I’ve read everything and I’m in – what’s next?
Easy! Email us at donate@earthrisecamping.co.uk with what tent/s you’ve got, rough condition, and your location. We’ll sort out free collection within a few days and your tents will be on their way to new adventures. Simple as that!