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The Mobile Sauna Rental Market Has Wheels – and Business is Booming

Could a mobile sauna rental business be available for your next party or special occasion?  Outdoor saunas are now available for rent and can be booked delivered in over 100 locations in North America and Europe, and it’s catching on fast.

If you’re lucky enough to be in a mobile sauna hotspot like Ontario, Minneapolis, Oslo, or Copenhagen – you have several mobile sauna rentals to choose from.

The excitement around mobile sauna rentals and a new model for open sauna sessions has overwhelmed us at Sauna Marketplace.  It’s so incredible to see sauna bring people together, and the entrepreneurial spirit who wants to catch the wave and create a business around sauna, community, and health.

There are entrepreneurs around the world opening their doors to make the experience available to you.

We decided to give a considerable amount of our effort and resources to help sauna owners and entrepreneurs who are opening public saunas, and making their saunas available for private rentals.

mobile sauna auction

Mobile Sauna Auctions are Live

Check out the highest end mobile sauna we’ve ever seen, and other saunas at auction here.

What Is SaunaShare?

Thanks to your feedback, Sauna Marketplace has launched SaunaShare.com to create a global marketplace for sauna rentals, public sauna sessions, and make it easy to start a community sauna business.

Find and Book Your Next Sauna

Most people who own saunas want to spread the word and share the experience with others.  They often invite their neighbors, families, and friends to join or use their saunas on their own time.

There is even a holiday in Helsinki where every private sauna (and there are a lot of them), is open to the public.

But what about the rest of the year?  What about the rest of the world?

Would sauna owners be willing to open their private saunas to strangers?  Before Airbnb, it seemed equally crazy to think that homeowners would rent their homes to strangers.

What if it was as easy as booking an Uber to go to your neighbors backyard and use their sauna for a couple hours?

Sure, there are a few things to work out.

Challenges and Opportunities for Sauna Rentals

Outside of Helsinki Sauna Day, some compensation would be required to maintain the sauna.  There would also need to be a way to screen renters and a way to make sure the transaction is easy and not awkward.

There should be an easy to manage booking calendar that makes it easy to find available bench time.  Ideally the service would include insurance like what’s included for Airbnb hosts.

Most successful peer-to-peer marketplaces are buyers marketplaces like Ebay, Etsy, Stubhub, and Grubhub.  Rental marketplaces like Airbnb, Lending Club, and HomeAway are harder to strike the right balance between supply and demand.  According to TechCrunch, there are two major problems with rental marketplaces:

  • The average order value for most of them is too low
  • Frequency from demand-side renters is too low

Luckily, sauna rentals could avoid both pitfalls and are a promising area for a peer-to-peer rental marketplace.  The average order value is in the $100-550 range, and much higher considering multi-day rentals.  They also are likely to be rented more frequently by repeat customers.

Additionally, while many examples of marketplaces create a conflict between the startup and the incumbent (think hotel owners vs Airbnb), with saunas it provides a new opportunity that grows the entire sauna space and makes it accessible to anyone.

Sauna rentals are not new, but they are definitely gaining steam and for good reason.  After years of dabbling, more and more people can rent a sauna and even have a mobile sauna delivered to their own backyard.

Breakthroughs

There are a few reasons the mobile sauna market seems to be ready to take off.

Mobile Saunas on Trailers

Saunas are now readily available and can be ordered or custom made on wheels.  These are great for those who want to bring their saunas to their cabin or camping, but they also make it possible to have a sauna rental delivery service or a U-Haul business model where renters pick up their mobile saunas from a partnered business.

In addition to custom built mobile sauna trailers, all barrel saunas are easy to put on a snowmobile trailer for a simple, light weight mobile sauna.  Barrel sauna kits can be purchased for as little as $2400 USD.

Marketplace Economy

The marketplace economy has opened the doors to these types of businesses.  We now have “The Airbnb of boats”, “The Airbnb of RVs”, and there is no technical reason we can’t have “The Airbnb of Saunas” to provide some extra income to sauna owners and make authentic saunas more accessible to everyone.

Peer-to-Peer marketplaces benefit on both sides by a robust review network.  While this is obvious for buyers and renters, hosts on platforms such as Airbnb can see potential renters history and reviews and feel confident in who will be staying in their homes.

Next Steps

Lower Prices

Frankly, we think the pricing for rental saunas needs to come way down.  Barrel saunas can be purchased for just a few thousand dollars, and $100/day should be a reasonable base rate.  By comparison, houses and apartments worth over $200,000 often rent for $100/day or less on Airbnb.

Mobile Sauna Builder Buy-In

Mobile sauna builders should work with owner-renters to help promote their products.  A robust mobile sauna marketplace will let people try before they buy, which is critical for perspective sauna buyers.

Additionally, the ecosystem will allow people to buy their products and make an income from it.  It will help buyers who are worried they won’t use their sauna enough or get enough value from it.

Almost all outdoor sauna up to 6×14′ can be safely put on trailers to create a mobile sauna, though some are obviously better than others for cruising down the highway.

To our knowledge, Alpenglow Saunas (see example #4 below) is the only example of a sauna company who is leveraging the rental market to gain exposure and new customers.

Benefits

  • Upgrade Your Vacation Week – Turn any vacation rental into a vacation rental with a sauna by having a mobile sauna delivered to the site.  This is an especially appealing perk for lakeside rentals where you can enjoy the full sauna experience followed by a dip in the lake.
  • Bring a sauna to outdoor events – Having a sauna at the bottom of a ski hill or the end of a bike race is the ultimate way to unwind after a day outdoors, especially in cold weather.

Sauna Rental Companies

1. HotBox Mobile Sauna in Brooklyn

As the first mobile sauna rental in New York City, HotBox Mobile Sauna is a urban sanctuary for sauna lovers.  They have an online calendar of sauna parties and events, or you can rent the sauna. Parties include monthly Sauna Yoga Parties and Come Get Hot parties.

The HotBox sauna is BIG, so private rentals are only offered at their residency locations.  The sauna is currently located under the Williamsburg Bridge at North Brooklyn Farms.  Private sauna rentals range from $150-$600 depending on group size.

They are also open to collaborations of all kinds.  Membership packages include free entry, discounts for private rentals, and more.

2. Sauna Club in Chicago

Chicago has an awesome history of public saunas and bathhouses, which we wrote about here.

Now you can order a modern mobile sauna with a wood burning stove from The Sauna Club. It’s a state of the art mobile sauna that’s already been making waves at festivals, breweries, and weekly polar plunges on Chicago’s North Shore.

So if you’re looking for a special night in the comfort of your own property, don’t wait to book this sauna.

3. BW Sauna Company in Duluth

BW Sauna is building modern mobile saunas on trailers that are meant for the open road. Barrel Saunas are great in the backyard they do not have a long life expectancy as mobile saunas in our experience (Casa De Sauna seems to be an exception).

They have a really nice design with a great use of space, a quick turnaround time on their basic units, and Harvia wood stoves.

3. Spa Fleet Mobile Sauna Rental New York and Beyond

Spa Fleet is a mobile sauna rental serving New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut out of the Mid-Hudson Valley near the Catskill Mountains.

Though it’s currently a fleet of one, they offer a beautiful Finnish-style sauna they call ‘Cloudberry’ with a changing room. It has room for 8 people, has a wood burning stove, clear cedar cladding, a bluetooth stereo, lights, and everything you need to start and maintain a the fire.

They even have a removable shower head that mounts to the side of the sauna that can be fed by hose.

Spa Fleet will deliver and get you all set up.

Check out Spa Fleet Mobile Sauna Rental prices and more info here.

4. Alpenglow Saunas – Vancouver Island Sauna Rental

As far as we know, Alpenglow is the only mobile sauna rental company in Canada that provides different options.

Alpenglow Saunas has a “Loyly” barrel sauna on a trailer that fits four people and a “Julhla” caravan-style sauna trailer that can accommodate 6-8 people.

The Juhla sauna is a massive 24 feet long, so make sure you have the space for it.  The barrel sauna is 6 feet long, heats up fast, and is excellent for tight spaces.

Both have wood burning sauna stoves with some natural light.  The big sauna also has a changing room.

If you’re looking to buy a barrel sauna, Albenglow also builds custom saunas and barrel sauna kits.

You can check out Alpenglow Sauna Rental here.

Mobile Sauna Builders

You can buy a mobile sauna for $8,000 – $90,000. The best place to look for really good high end mobile saunas is on the Sauna Marketplace auction page.

We also work with custom sauna builders around the world. Fill out this form to get connected with builders in your area.