Legal & wild camping with Nomady

Lisa Eberhard : It's best to start the story at the very beginning: after Finn, the founder of MyCabin, was caught wild camping five years ago, a small team of camping-mad students in Constance on Lake Constance started MyCabin out of their own problem and made nature-loving places legal and easy to book. Not so far away and almost at the same time in central Switzerland, Oliver, the founder of Nomady, was hooked on the idea of bringing people out into nature in a sustainable way after a wilderness expedition by canoe in Alaska.

MyCabin and Nomady both had the vision of enabling real experiences in and with nature in Europe. Along the way, we have always been in constant contact with initiatives and people who share this vision and our values. That's how we got to know each other. With our strong offerings, MyCabin in Germany and Austria, and Nomady in Switzerland and Italy, together we had the most beautiful nature spots in Europe. It's not often that our vision, mission and values are so similar and that our offerings complement each other so perfectly. What else can we say? We clicked!

It quickly became clear to us that we wanted to join forces and move into the future together. We were looking forward to offering our users an even wider range of near-natural places throughout the Alpine region from the start of 2024, and the merger was announced in January 2024.

The merger resulted in many great opportunities and direct added value.

Alongside the smiles and joy, there was unfortunately also a pang of sorrow: we could only move forward with a common name. The name MyCabin was replaced by Nomady. Phew, not an easy decision! Rest in peace, MyCabin. Let's rock it Nomady. Since the beginning of the year, we've been on the road together as Nomady and available as a website and app.

Lisa Eberhard: Our initial assessment is very positive. We managed to make the offers visible and bookable on one platform in time for the start of the 2024 camping season. We were able to get the best of both worlds. We opted for the strong Nomady brand and took over the existing MyCabin app. Our figures confirm that the merger was the right decision, and we are now also benefiting from the fact that more and more travelers are using Nomady outside of their home country. We have learned that a merger also brings together two different teams and that it is important to take time to strengthen the new, joint team.

After a very satisfactory start to the season in spring, the lack of sunshine in early summer in June made the start of a successful peak season somewhat more difficult. Short-term pitch bookings are extremely dependent on the weather, which is why we ended June with around 30% less turnover than planned. With rising temperatures and more sunshine in July and August, the desire to be outdoors returned and we achieved our record month in Nomady history in July 2024.

Lisa Eberhard: Nomady currently has around 100 near-natural pitches and accommodation in Austria. Compared to Germany (around 700 offers) and Switzerland (around 500 offers), we are still lagging a little behind Austria. However, the demand for nature-oriented offers in Austria is very high. Interested hosts from Austria are welcome to contact us. Here is more information aboutbecoming a Nomady host.

Lisa Eberhard: We want to further expand and strengthen our offer and our brand awareness in Europe, especially in the Alpine region. We are currently in the planning stages for 2025, so it will be interesting to see.