Monument couple accidentally falls into glamping business
Apr. 16—From his house, Chris Jeub can peer out over his 6.5-acre kingdom that sprawls across unincorporated El Paso County.
He and his wife, Wendy Jeub, are king and queen, ruling over their newfound glamping empire that borders Monument. Monument Glamping I offers eight units for rent: three safari tents on platforms, one tiny house, one container unit and the most rustic option — three bell tents. Monument Glamping II, on the other side of town, will offer 16 similar units, including tree houses, this summer.
Glamping, a blend of the words glamorous and camping, caught fire in the United Kingdom in 2013 and in the U.S. a year later. It's for those who want the camping experience but don't want to buy all the gear, learn how to pitch a tent and start a fire, or groom their bodies to love snoozing on the hard earth.
"We fell in love with outdoor hospitality," Chris said. "Glamping's not a fad. Feasibility studies are showing it's more than a trend."
Inside the $100 to $300 per night glamping units exists a cheerful, cushy, private world. Queen beds are covered in cozy quilts and comforters. A deck area offers lounge chairs and a grill. Mini hot tubs are set up outside. There's electricity for hot beverages, lighting and Wi-Fi. A bath house is nearby. And guests are treated to s'mores packs, propane for the fire pit and the Jeubs' homemade kombucha or wine — Glamper's Cabernet. Go to monumentglamping.com for more information.
"It's not a campground. We don't have pads next to each other. They're distant. They have privacy. That's very important," Chris said. "They don't need to bring any camping gear. A lot of people come and they don't have any camping experience and they just glamp and enjoy the mornings and evenings. A lot of them go hiking. I show them secret trails they can't find online."
The Jeubs accidentally fell into the world of glamorous camping in 2019, when the two former teachers — Monument Academy for him and homeschooling their 16 kids for her — had the summer off and decided to gut their bedroom. Instead of sleeping in the living room, Chris built a platform in their backyard and put his hunting tent on top. It was the start of a beautiful new life.
"We loved it. We moved our master bedroom outdoors and just had a ball," Chris said. "You could hear birds chirping and the train tracks in the distance. Waking up every morning in the outdoors when you're under canvas is magical."
The experience was so delightful the couple wanted to share it with others. So they listed it on Airbnb, booked out the rest of the summer and made $2,400. That was a pretty good return on investment so they built a second platform and added a tent in the summer of 2020. They didn't start the second glamping site until halfway through the summer and still made $20,000.
However, being as that was the first year of COVID-19, they thought maybe their enterprise was a fluke. The next year proved otherwise. In 2021, they added a third tent and a storage container one of their sons converted into a tiny home. The four units raked in $89,000.
"That blew our minds. Then we were really all in," Chris said. "I quit my job, sold my business and totally pivoted in life. We were educators in the past, and now we're glampers."
But the yellow jackets showed up that third year. Not the vitriolic bugs, but government folks from the building, planning and health departments. One of the Jeubs' neighbors took a dislike to the glamping operation and tried to shut it down by complaining to officials and working to turn others against the business.
As it turned out, the Jeubs were indeed doing a lot of things wrong. They were out of code and compliance, even though they weren't in Monument proper. They needed a special-use permit, which required soil testing, a septic upgrade and loads of permits. It took six months to finish, but by that point the neighborhood was in support of the glampers, after Chris made the argument his business helps slow the development sprawl creeping up against all of the properties.
"I'm on the edge of this sprawl," Chris said. "For the sprawl to continue, they would have to go through not just a residence that could sell out, but a residence with a business on it. A glamping business is pretty tame. It's not going to go through me unless I sell out my business, but my business is my livelihood. That convinced them."
They're now in their fifth season, partnering with their sons Micah Jeub and Isaiah Jeub along with Will Kopriva, who's married to their daughter Keilah Jeub.
"It's almost like an adrenaline rush," Chris said. "People propose here. They celebrate their anniversaries here. I would never have guessed I'd be doing something like this and impacting people's lives."
He's open about all the mistakes he's made, some of which were costly. But those errors have earned him wisdom he wants to share with others via glampingguy.com.
"I love it, and I want to teach landowners how they can be doing something with their property," Chris said. "There's a lot of fear in that. And it's intimidating to have yellow jackets show up and write you up with a stop work order."
For the Jeubs, glamping is about making connections with people around the world — two sisters from Mongolia stayed with them in 2020 after getting stuck in the U.S. during the pandemic. It's a way for landowners to open up their properties to people they might never have met.
"We're a very conservative, large Christian family, but we've had people that, if we got in a political discussion, we'd probably hate each other," Chris said, "but we have wine tastings and share each other's lives and get to know each other just enough. Then we go back in our house and they stay in their tent and have a wonderful time."
