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Jupe is building a $30,000 off-grid small home hotel room.
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The unit is flat-stacked and can be moved across the country by flat-bed truck.
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There are currently 70 units deployed across the United States, with two major developments slated for next year.
If you’ve been longing for a Cybertruck, why not try something a little different to drown out the itch. It’s about camping off the grid in a tiny house designed by the designer of his Cyber truck at Tesla.
Off-grid glamping—a coined word for “glamorous” and “camping”—startup Jupe began building mobile tech hotel rooms in 2019 that are reminiscent of tiny homes.
And now, that unit is available to book nationwide, giving city-dwellers the chance to unplug in nature.
The tiny house was designed by Jupe’s team, including former SpaceX and Tesla engineers…
… including employees who previously worked for Tesla’s Cybertruck and Cybertruck ATV.
“You can see some similarities,” Jupe CEO, co-founder and chief designer Jeff Wilson told Insider. “It almost looks like a ‘cyber tent’.”
Wilson previously ran a failed modular home startup, lived in a trash can, and was a project manager at IBM.
sauce: skirt, insider
The tiny house is made of laminated wood, an aluminum superstructure and weatherproof canvas.
These materials require the canvas to be replaced more frequently, but the Jupes have a lifespan of 10 years.
Inside, you’ll find a tiny 111-square-foot home with high ceilings, a queen bed, storage, outlets, and other basic amenities.
sauce: insider
Amenities such as lights, air conditioning and heaters can be controlled using an app, Wilson said.
However, one day the company hopes to integrate Starlink into its units to control these functions remotely.
Jupe, which costs up to $30,000, is easy to set up and ship.
The tiny house and all its furniture are stacked onto a flatbed truck via forklift and flat packed…
…and moved from Jupe’s Texas manufacturing site to anywhere in the country.
No additional foundation or platform required. Movable hotel rooms already have one built in.
And this foundation will not leave any lasting serious damage to the land.
Canvas tents aren’t a new innovation in glamping spaces.
But according to Wilson, the tiny house base and flat-pack capabilities set Jupe apart from other competitors.
This foundation also doubles as a storage bin when the unit needs to be packed and moved to a seasonally favorable location.
According to Wilson, each unit takes about four hours and two people to assemble, and the assembly process is like “hard IKEA parts built to work.”
“[A] The reason we have people from Apple, Tesla, WeWork, and others is because they understand the true scalability of what we’re building,” said Wilson.
The team has already built around 175 and is now building two a day.
And in the future, we hope to roll out additional builds such as kitchens, community rooms, and even ‘Zoom rooms’…
… create what Wilson calls “a remote work village in a truck.”
However, Jupe does not have its own glamping sites across the United States.
Instead, it works with landlords and hospitality companies to establish new locations.
Today, the company has about 70 tiny homes scattered across 15 locations from California to West Virginia.
sauce: skirt
Early next year, Wilson said, the company plans to roll out larger Jupe glamping properties in Mexico and Joshua Tree, California.
All sites with additional amenities such as bathrooms can be booked directly through Airbnb or Jupe.
Prices range from $85 per night in Molalla, Oregon.
…up to $1,500 a night at six Jupe residences in Davenport, California, near Redwood National Park.
sauce: skirt
Despite the higher prices, the latter, with added amenities such as a bar, is the most popular location with an occupancy rate of about 50%, Wilson said.
sauce: skirt
These Jupes could fit nicely into the rest of the “unique stays” that have dominated Airbnb, but giving travelers places to stay isn’t the company’s primary mission.
Instead, it has the lofty goal of providing shelter to the homeless around the world.
And now we’re talking to what Wilson calls “one of the largest organizations that provide disaster relief”…
…but it could be years before Jupe starts deploying emergency tiny homes.
So for the time being, we will continue to focus on the popular and increasingly saturated short-term rental industry.
“There’s something magical about being in the deepest part of the earth. [nature] It has all the comforts of being at home or in a luxury hotel,” said Wilson. “That’s Jupé’s vision.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
