ABOUT BEAUTIFUL BELLS
bell tent hire & glamping

Bell tent hire specialists

Back in 2013 I bought my first bell tent.

I’d spent MONTHS looking at sizes, colours, zipped in ground sheets, sewn in ground sheets, and various weights of canvas.

I was nothing if not thorough. And I was also clueless. 

On the day the my first tent arrived, I was so impatient, I had it delivered to work. I had my car pre loaded with other camping gear, and left work with my 2 friends Jen and Miranda, and drove straight to the New Forest to go camping.

We got wildly drunk on Malibu and Micky Finns chocolate liqueur and (in our minds) did a sterling job in putting up the tent. the pictures say something somewhat different… 



ABOUT BEAUTIFUL BELLS
bell tent hire & glamping

Bell tent hire specialists

Beautiful Bells glamping is a family owned bell tent hire service. Ethically run by Katrina and Steve, Beautiful Bells have been hiring their fabulous bells tents across the southern region since 2014.

As camping enthusiasts all their adult lives, they and their now grown-and-flown family, have camped in trailer tents and enjoyed many camping holidays under canvas. They have also attended countless music festivals in their beloved VW camper.

The first bell tent for hire

Back in 2013 Katrina bought her first bell tent. To cut a long story short, Katrina has magpie tendencies when it comes to atmospheric lighting. So when she found a tea light chandelier on eBay, she needed a tent to hang it in.
Steve saw this as a completely unnecessary purchase. 

But undeterred, and with the excuse of being fed up of banging her head in the camper van (and months of research), she bought her first bell tent and the glamping journey began!

Veteran glampers

In reality Katrina and Steve had been glamping for years without realising it. The term used then was ‘show and shine’ – whenever the camper van got an upgrade. Whether that was a new set of fairy lights or some water pipes to keep her on the road. 

As business start-ups go it wasn’t entirely conventional. In fact, the start of the Beautiful Bells glamping bell tent hire service was almost accidental. One bell tent grew to five, and Katrina started to research the ‘glamping’ phenomenon. Early in 2014 the Beautiful Bells tent hire service was born.

In the summer of 2014, what had been intended as a ‘small hobby business’ hiring five bell tents expanded to a ten-tent hire service. It was a hobby business no more.
In 2015, Katrina left her job in the corporate world to manage Beautiful Bells full-time.

VW camper on vehicle recovery truck
Giddy up go - going nowhere!

200 bell tents for hire

Beautiful Bells now boasts over 200 bell tents for hire and a designated hen camp for hen party glamping, on the outskirts of the New Forest during the summer months.

Despite the growth of Beautiful Bells, Katrina still takes a hands-on approach to their bell tent hire service, and customer enquiries take priority. Since giving up her corporate career, Katrina and Steve are 100% bell tent focused.

They bring their many years’ experience of the outdoors to give you the best possible glamping experience.

About Katrina and Steve from Beautiful Bells camping on the Great Ocean Road, Australia. Find out about how our bell tent hire and glamping business in Hampshire came to be.

camping on the great ocean road!

Beautiful Bells and the environment

Both Katrina and Steve are fierce believers in ‘leave no trace’. When the Bells team leave a site the only remaining evidence should be some flat grass.

All rubbish is removed and recycled where possible. Tent pegs are counted in and out to ensure none are left behind.

And when the stock has reached the end of it’s hire life, it’s put to good use. At the end of the 2016 season, Beautiful Bells donated nearly 50 duvet packs to a local homeless shelter.

In 2020 Katrina joined Offset Earth, who plant trees and invest in climate crisis initiatives. As a business Beautiful Bells are trying to become ‘Carbon Positive’ over the next 2 years. You can read more in our blog about Offset Earth and why glamping shouldn’t cost the Earth.

More about team Bells!

2017 saw a big change to the business when George (Katrina’s sister) joined the team to pick up some of the admin workload so Katrina could continue to work on site.
Head over to the ‘meet the team’ page for some pictures and more about the Bells team you’re likely to meet on site during the season.

Want to know more?

Phone Katrina on:
 07747037656 or email for more information, availability, and bell tent hire bookings in Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex.