‘You are approached very personally’
Having a coffee with Jan
from Camping site Stortemelk
Jan, how did you ever come into contact with De Waard tents?
I started working at Stortemelk in 2000, so 23 years ago. Back then, there were already De Waard tents. These were placed through a middleman and rented by us, but I immediately stopped using that middleman and bought tents myself. After all, that was much more interesting financially.
Can you paint a picture of the growth of
rental tents at Stortemelk?
In 2001, we started with the Albatross and Herring Gulls, and so we started renting tents. Gradually, that has grown, and currently, we are at about 100 rental properties, of which about 99% are De Waard tents. In 2005, we started using tunnel tents from De Waard. Traditional campers didn’t really like those, but guests who rented them liked them because they were a lot roomier. Then we’ve had safari tents from De Waard, and now we’ve had four Big Oaks for a few years and, since this year, three Round Holly’s.
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Right, so you’ve been coming to De Waard tents for years. Why?
We have always had very good contacts at De Waard. Always tremendously solution-oriented, and I am very happy with that. To give an example, we had three dome tents standing by another brand, but suddenly, the plastic began to come off, rendering the tents unusable – but the season was already coming. We had another week before the first guests moved in. But within this week, we had three new Round Hollys standing by De Waard. We were able to switch quickly, which is very nice. You are not a number. You are approached very personally.
Would you also recommend De Waard to fellow campers?
Yes, definitely. De Waard just has quality and always plenty of tents in stock. They can move quickly, and I personally find that very important. It really is a company where I would like to work myself.
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