Tent Hire vs Tent Purchase
Should I Hire Or Buy A Tent
Over the last few years tent hire has gone from a “bit niche” to proper smart for good reason. Camping in the UK has been booming in popularity in recent years, with visitor spend growing by 38% from 2018 to 2025 to £13.5 billion pounds, and with the cost of living crisis in full swing, buying a good quality new tent upfront has become a luxury many campers new and old can no longer afford. With tent hire you can get hold of decent quality tents for a fraction of the price of buying new. But we’re not here to sell you a dream, so lets talk honestly about when renting works brilliantly and when it doesn’t.
Why Rent a Tent Instead of Buying: The Real Benefits
Save Your Cash (and Your Sanity)
For a proper tent that doesn’t collapse under the slightest breeze, you’re looking at a cost of £100 to £300 for decent 2 to 6 person models, minimum. And if you’re only planning on camping one or two times a year, that cost turns into a lot of pints, or festival tickets, or literally anything else you’d rather spend your cash on. Tent hire at Earthrise Camping starts at £7.50 per day, so even with a full weekend rental and delivery across the UK, you’re spending pocket money for the same quality compared to buying.
But what’s the one thing people overlook when buying a tent? Storage! Once you buy a tent, where exactly are you meant to keep it? Your place is already bursting at the seams and now you’ve got to find space for that 6 man tent that’s packed into two large bags from the group camping trip you went on last week. It’ll then just sit where ever you put it, inevitably in your way and gathering dust until the next time you need it. Renting means you get the equivalent equipment with having to sacrifice your living space. Simple as.
Get Quality Camping Gear Without the Commitment
Ever planned for a festival and just bought the cheapest tent you can find? Yeah, we’ve all been there. You get to site, set up camp and wonder will it keep out the rain? Will it still be standing in two days time? Who knows! When you hire from a proper tent hire company such as us at Earthrise Camping, you only get quality tents. The kind of tents that’ll pitch easily (even after a few beers) and will actually survive a full camping trip. No gambling required.
Plus, your camping needs change. This weekend it’s a festival with your mate, only needs a popup two-person job. six weeks later it’s a family camping trip and suddenly you need something way bigger. Hiring gives you flexibility, so you’re not stuck with one tent trying to make it work for every situation. Match the tent to the adventure, not the other way around.
Skip the Faff, Keep the Fun
Picture Monday morning after a festival. Your tent is caked in mud, probably a bit wet, definitely smells dodgy and you’ve somehow got to squeeze it back into a bag that’s mysteriously shrunk. Then you drag it home, face the joy of hosing it down in your garden (if you even have a garden), wait days for it to dry properly and find somewhere to stash it for the next 50 weeks. Let’s face it, it’s a bit of a nightmare when all you want to do is recover from the weekend.
With tent hire from Earthrise Camping, there’s none of that worry. Pack up, chuck it in the returns bag, and someone else deals with the cleaning. That’s genuinely it. So, instead of spending your precious hours wrestling with a muddy tent, you could be horizontal on the sofa, already planning where you’re going next. Life’s too short for tent maintenance.
Eco-Friendly Tent Hire: Reduce Waste, Not Your Fun
Here’s a stat that’ll make you wince: 250,000 tents get abandoned in the UK every year, with the vast majority of them at festivals. That’s right, a quarter of a million. Most end up in landfill because they’re cheap, single-use rubbish (that are basically as useful as bin bags), that people bought for 60 quid and couldn’t be bothered to take home for one reason or another. It’s a massive, avoidable waste problem that happens every single summer.
When you hire instead of buying cheap and ditching, you’re automatically part of the solution. But Earthrise Camping goes further, we accept donated tents that people no longer need, refurb them and keep them in use. Every tent we save and hire out means roughly 30kg less CO2 than manufacturing a new one. Sustainability doesn’t have to be complicated, if there’s a simple option that’s also better for the planet, why not take it?
Try Before You Buy: Perfect for First-Time Campers
New to camping and not sure if you’ll even like it? Hiring lets you dip your toe in without dropping hundreds of pounds on gear you might use once and never touch again. You’ll figure out pretty quickly what works for you, maybe you need a tent with an extra room for storage, or pop-up tents are your new obsession, or actually you hate camping and would rather go “glamping”. All valuable information before you commit to ownership.
Avoid The Second-Hand Tent Gamble
So you can’t afford a new tent but have seen one that’s caught your eye on Facebook marketplace or Gumtree that’s way cheaper. “Only used twice” and “Been in storage for 2 years” sounds great, but it’s gamble. Sometimes they turn up missing a pole or a rip in the groundsheet. Worst still is when you pay for a courier to collect it as it’s in two bags halfway across the country and then two days later only the tent poles turn up. The tent itself gets lost in transit (we’ve had this exact situation with a tent donation!). Brilliant…, now you’re out of pocket and still need a tent.
With Earthrise Camping, we only hire out used tents from donations and have done the hard part before allowing them into our hire fleet. We assess, clean and refurb them so they’re up to hire standard. You get the second-hand price without the second-hand surprises (as we’ve dealt with them!).
When Buying a Tent Makes More Sense Than Hiring (The Honest Truth)
OK, so we’ve talked about how great tent hire is and why wouldn’t we, being a tent hire company?! But let’s face it, tent hire can be a pain for some people. It’s not perfect for everyone and we’d be doing you a disservice if we ignored it, as there are genuine situations when buying your own tent makes sense. So here’s when renting can be a pain, so you can make your own mind up for your situation.
You Don’t Need To Plan Ahead
Let’s say you’ve planned a quiet bank holiday weekend with the family, but the kids have driven you mad by Friday evening. The weathers looking decent, so you decide you need to get out the house for the weekend instead (with or without the kids). Book a last minute campsite, grab a tent first thing Saturday morning and go. With tent hire you can’t exactly do this, you need to book in advance, sort out delivery days and be home when it arrives. If you love a last-minute plan, then tent hire can feel a little restrictive.
Then there’s the return bit. Most companies (us included) make it dead simple, clear instructions, prepaid labels, collection already booked, the works. But you still need to pack it up and get it shipped back on time. So if admin and deadlines aren’t your strong suit, that could add stress you don’t need.
Festival Season Availability: Peak Times Book Out Fast
Festival season is so demanding! With Glastonbury, Download, Green Man, Leeds and countless other festivals happening between April and September every year, everyone and their mates want a tent for these events and the vast majority of tent hire companies book out weeks or months ahead. Leave it too late and you’re stuck.
When you own a tent, this problem doesn’t exist. It’s sat in your cupboard, ready to go, no booking needed. For people hitting multiple festivals throughout the summer, that guaranteed availability is genuinely handy.
Cost Comparison: When Does Buying a Tent Make Financial Sense?
Just a quick cost comparison for you. If you’re camping once or twice a year, cost to hire wins hands down, no question. But if you’re out there every other weekend from spring through autumn, those rental fees stack up fast. Ten weekends at £50 a pop is £500, which a lot more than a decent tent costs.
The break-even point shifts depending on how often you camp and what tent you’d buy. Generally, if you’re camping more than four or five times a year, buying probably makes more financial sense long-term. That said, you’d need to factor in the storage hassle, cleanup time and maintenance like re-proofing and repairs, which isn’t easily measured in quid.
The Earthrise Camping Cost Breakdown
Our Cheapest Hire
£31.00
For 3 Nights
Buy New
£125.00
One-time cost
Break-even point: 4-5 camping trips
If you camp 1-2 times a year, hiring saves you money for at least 2 years. Camp more than 4 times a year? Buying makes more financial sense (if you’ve got the storage space!).
It’s Not “Your” Tent
This might sound a bit weird, but some people genuinely get attached to their gear. Your tent becomes part of your camping story, it’s been to five festivals with you, protected you through biblical rainstorms and carries memories of different adventures. You know exactly how to pitch it and you wouldn’t swap it for the world.
Hiring means using someone else’s kit. It’s functional, it works, but you don’t have that personal connection or history with it. If you’re the type who loves your gear and building up a collection over time, rental might feel a bit impersonal. Like borrowing a car instead of driving your own. It does the job, but it’s not the same.
You’re Trusting Someone Else
When you hire, you’re banking on the company being sound. Will the tent actually turn up on time? Will it be clean and in decent nick? If something goes wrong, will they sort it quickly? Good companies (like us, obviously) have proper systems to make sure everything runs smoothly. But you are depending on someone else’s standards and not all tent companies are as open with this as we are (see our cleaning standards, for example).
If a tent arrives damaged or late, it can properly mess up your plans. When you own your tent, you can check it over weeks before you leave, spotting any issues early, so you’re only relying on yourself. Total control.
Should You Rent or Buy a Tent? Here’s How to Decide
Tent hire isn’t better or worst than buying, unless you’re planning to buy a cheap single use tent and bin it after use (then tent hire is always the better and greener option!). It all depends on your camping habits, your budget and living situation.
Hiring makes sense if you: Camp a few times a year, live somewhere with limited storage, can’t be arsed with the cleanup faff, want to try camping without dropping serious cash or actually care about your carbon footprint. It’s particularly brilliant for festival-goers who want to turn up with minimal hassle and leave without the cleanup nightmare.
Buying makes sense if you: Camp all the time (5+ trips a year), have enough space for storage, prefer owning your own gear, want to build up equipment over time or live somewhere hire services don’t really reach.
The good news is you don’t have to pick one forever. Loads of people hire for their first few trips to suss out if they’re actually into camping, then buy their own gear once they’re committed. Others own a tent for regular trips but still hire when they need different sizes for specific events. There’s no right or wrong answer, just do what suits you.
Tent hire is a proper alternative that makes sense for your wallet, your living space and the environment. For years, buying a tent was just what you did if you wanted to go camping, it was the default option. But for people only camping a few times a year or going to one or two festivals, it never really made sense. You could either drop hundreds on new gear or play second-hand tent roulette, with both options ending up sitting in storage for 50 weeks, taking up space you don’t have and spend time cleaning every time you use it. Tent hire changes the game completely. So, understanding both the upsides and the limitations means you can make a choice that actually works for your next adventure.
That said, unfortunately most tent rental companies are still stuck in with an old-school rental mindset. Massive deposits that don’t cater to those on smaller budgets, surprise cleaning charges, strict damage policies that could see you covering the full cost of a tent in any case, it’s no wonder people still look to buy a tent as the default option!
At Earthrise Camping we’ve moved beyond the traditional rental model, by making tent hire as simple and affordable as it should be. No dodgy deposits, no surprise charges, no corporate nonsense. Just quality tents delivered across the UK, with a genuinely fair system and a circular model that keeps tents out of landfill. Whether you’re testing the camping waters for the first time or you’re a festival veteran who’s sick of storage stress, we’ve got you sorted.
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