Nokken

• Nokken is building modular cabins for hospitality providers starting at $79,500.
• Nokken has services like property management to help its customers enter the short-term rental market.
• The Europe-based company is now launching manufacturing sites in the US to meet stateside demand.

The short-term rental industry has been booming.An Airbnb rental property.

AlesiaKan/Shutterstock

Source: Insider

And if you’re one of the many people who’ve been watching from afar, debating if you should jump into the business despite having no prior experience, one startup could help you take those first steps.

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“You could call Nokken a hotel in kit form,” the company says on its website.

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Source: Nokken

There are plenty of cabin builders that specialize in tiny homes.

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But Nokken sets itself apart from competitors by building “plug and play” modular cabins built specifically for hospitality operators.

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And for the soon-to-be hospitality providers who don’t know the first thing about starting in the short-term rental market …

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… the company also offers a separate “business platform” with services like marketing, branding, and property and on-site tech management.

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“We knew we wanted to create some kind of cabin [that would] go beyond glamping because it’s been done,” James Van Tromp, the cofounder of Nokken, told Insider. “People were getting sick of paying a lot of money for not getting the quality you want.”

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Van Tromp started the business with Nathan Aylott.

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Before growing the Nokken brand, the duo was working in marketing, advertising, and design strategy for other agencies and hotel brands like Hilton and Marriott.

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But like the rest of the world, this work came to a standstill during COVID-19.

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Nokken was then officially launched to the public in September 2022.

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And within the first three months, Van Tromp said the company fielded “like 2,000 inquiries and has been continuous from there.”

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Because its services go beyond just building tiny homes, Nokken has been seeing a diverse crowd of interested customers from startups in the hospitality industry to private equity firms.

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In the beginning, the cabins were designed and built within 10 to 12 weeks in Europe.

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Now, it’s expanding to the US by working with manufacturers in Arizona and Tennessee.

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Here, the tiny homes — all built to order — start at $79,500.

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This price does not include the additional services, which vary on an individual basis.

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In Europe, Van Tromp says the startup will have between 20 to 30 builds open this year.

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Stateside, he believes the US will be home to 25 Nokken units by the end of 2023.

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The first few cabins will go up in New York’s Catskills, Montana, Colorado, California, and Texas.

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“There’s quite a substantial interest from the US side,” Van Tromp said, noting that most of the orders here have been for multiple units.

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Nokken has several cabin models ranging from a 166-square-foot “capsule” to a 306-square-foot one-bedroom suite.

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The 242-square-foot studio is selling the best in Europe, while Americans seem to be gravitating to the larger one-bedroom units.

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These larger single-bedroom cabins start at $153,600 and include a bedroom, bathroom, and workstation.

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For those who want a larger property, these Nokken cabins can be stacked or attached with modules.

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They can also be ordered with two pre-designed “editions” with opposing color schemes — one bright and airy (shown below), and the other dark and minimalist.

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These days, travelers seem to gravitate towards contemporary minimalist unique stays — think Getaway’s Instagram famous tiny homes and Autocamp’s Airstream trailer hotel rooms.A Getaway cabin.

Courtesy of Getaway

 Source: Insider, Insider

This is the same design approach Nokken has taken with these two cabin editions.

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The exteriors of the two pre-designed editions are sleek, clean, and Instagram-able.

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The cabins are shipped via a flatbed truck in one piece and can tolerate both freezing and hot climates, the startup says.

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Upon delivery, they can be installed in one day.

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Van Tromp says Nokken has also seen plenty of inquiries for people who want these for personal use.

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But for now, the company is focusing on selling its units to hospitality providers and developing its next model, a tiny home on wheels.

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And despite our return to normalcy after the peak of COVID-19, the “Airbnbust,” and the influx of short-term rental options, Van Tromp believes unique stays are here to, well, stay.

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“As we get more digital, the need for [this form of hospitality] is just going to increase,” he said. “We are wanting to have that escape from life and our daily grind.”

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