With the rise of Airbnb the concept of renting out someone’s spare room is one that’s increasingly familiar to us (even if landlords are hitting back against illegal sub-letting!).

You can also rent everything from office space to conference venues, hospital equipment to audio visual wizardry.  A new startup wants to help those with a bit of under-utilized land cash in.

The site, called Hipcamp, brands itself as an Airbnb for campers (and has many design similarities to its more famous peer).  They also have some similarities in the kind of service they provide.

Just as Airbnb does have some professional sellers, its meat and drink was folks just wanting to make a bit of extra cash out of their spare rooms, the same is true with Hipcamp.  They do list bona fide camp sites, but what sets them apart is the more amateur listings where people have some land that they’re opening up for campers.

Finding unspoilt wilderness

The functionality of the site is very similar to Airbnb with a search function to allow you to find sites, and a range of ratings, photos and so on to help you make your choice.  What makes the site stand out though is their desire to open our eyes to the beauty around us.

“Over 60% of the United States is privately owned,” they say. “It is essential to the future of our planet that much of this land remains undeveloped to maintain wilderness habitats and corridors that allow plants and animals to thrive and migrate naturally. By connecting landowners who want to keep their land undeveloped with responsible, ecologically minded campers, we can use recreation to fund the conservation of this land.”

The site has launched initially in California and has a relatively small number of spots available for campers to choose from.  They hope to expand rapidly however and are offering landowners $500 to sign up.

If you have a plot you feel could be suitable, then Hipcamp help you out with things like insurance and the various other things involved in renting your land out.

Of course, they also have access to the 300,000 or so public campsites in the US, but what will set them apart is how successful they are at opening up the private market.

Check out their promo video below or visit their website here.