Tentickle Schweiz

Stretch tents from Cape Town, rented from Hünenberg

Tentickle Schweiz AG, at Stadelmatt 1 in 6300 Hünenberg, rents and sells stretch tents made by Tentickle in Cape Town, South Africa. "Seit 2012 sind wir Ihr Ansprechpartner in der Schweiz, wenn es um Stretchzelte geht" (since 2012 we have been your contact in Switzerland for stretch tents), the home page says, adding that what was once a rarely seen tent system is now hard to imagine festival and event culture without, and that the tents are increasingly found in private gardens too. Weddings are named among the occasions it serves, and the page title presents the company as a source of wedding and event tents.

The company describes the tent as a shapely shelter from sun and rain that creates "ein geborgenes Gefühl" (a sheltered, cozy feeling) and can be adapted individually to the site. It offers to be there "von der Planung bis zur Umsetzung und darüber hinaus" (from planning to delivery and beyond).

Sizes, colors and the site

The rental request form shows the whole range. Tents come in ten sizes: 30m², 54m², 75m², 100m², 150m², 200m², 225m², 300m², 500m² and 600m². There are six colors: chino, white, silver, taupe, black and red. The home page invites you to choose your tent from the different sizes and colors, for anything from a relaxed garden party or an elegant wedding to a big company event or an open-air concert.

Stretch tents suit awkward sites, and the company says so directly: if you have uneven ground or want to extend an existing building, whatever the challenge, it will find a good-looking solution with its tents. For a wedding at a farm, a garden sloping toward a lake or a courtyard beside a house, that flexibility is the main reason to consider a stretch tent over a rigid marquee.

Recent installations on the home page give a sense of scale: a 15 x 20 m chino tent at a folk festival, a combination of chino tents at The Valley in Kemptthal (two of 13 m x 17 m and one of 16 m x 17 m), and a 10 x 15 m chino tent at a street food event in Rapperswil.

Renting, buying and custom tents

Tentickle tents can be rented or bought, and the company says custom-made tents and printing are possible. The rental form asks for the event date and duration, the event address, the tent size and color, the ground (meadow, gravel, concrete or asphalt) and whether you will provide your own helpers ("Eigene Helfer"), with a not-yet-known option for each. That last question matters: ask what the price includes if you supply helpers and what changes if you do not.

Services

The service page lists repair, cleaning, storage, setup and dismantling, planning and visualizations. Repairs are offered for Tentickle tents bought from the company, for example when a strap comes loose, and setup and dismantling are available for customers' own tents. For a couple renting, the relevant parts are the planning and the visualizations, which help show how a tent will sit on a particular site.

The Cape Town connection

The about page explains where the tents come from. All the tents are made in Cape Town. Tentickle was founded in South Africa in 2005 and at first only rented out Bedouin tents. It soon became clear that a tent rental business in a highly competitive market could only really succeed by making its own tents, so the production arm, Tentickle CC, was founded in 2006. At the end of that year and early in 2007 the first three-layer, waterproof Bedouin tents were exported to Europe. Tentickle CC now makes and exports about 100,000 m² of tents a year, to about 55 countries. The home page adds that African Bedouin tents were the model for today's stretch tents, and that the Cape Town production has made high-quality tents to European standards since 2005. The Swiss company has represented Tentickle since 2012, and the home page sums up the link under the headings "Schweizer Qualitäts Service" (Swiss quality service) and "Von Cape Town bis Interlaken" (from Cape Town to Interlaken). For a couple, the practical meaning is that the Swiss team rents out tents it can also repair, clean and store itself.

The team

The team page names the people and gives direct numbers:

• Jan Buchmeier, founder and managing director, +41 79 578 53 03, jan@tentickle.ch
• Manuela Buchmeier, founder, finance and personnel, +41 44 520 53 03, manuela@tentickle.ch
• Patrick Bättig, logistics and supervisor
• Faye Duperrex, repairs and supervisor
• Marvin Strub, customer adviser and supervisor
• Nina Gessel, customer adviser
• Shaun, supervisor and technical lead for luxury tents
• Chiara, Tomáš and Martin, tent builders

The main contact is 044 508 53 03 or talkto@tentickle.ch, and the company posts its work on LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram, which is a quick way to see what the colors look like in place.

What the site does not settle

• Prices. None are published for rental or purchase.
• Guest capacity. Tent sizes are given in square meters, not guests. Tell the team your guest count and layout.
• Heating, flooring, lighting and furniture. None is mentioned. Ask what Tentickle supplies and what must come from other suppliers.
• Area served. The site speaks of Switzerland as a whole but names no delivery area or travel charge.
• Language. The site is in German, with an English slogan, and says nothing about English-language service. A notice also says the new website is still being completed.
• Lead time and terms. No booking lead time is given; the terms sit in the AGB linked from the site.

Who this suits

Tentickle suits couples who want a stretch tent's soft, sculptural shape for a garden, farm, lakeside or courtyard wedding, especially on uneven ground or against an existing building. The published sizes and colors make it easy to shortlist before the first contact, and the named team with direct numbers makes that contact simple.

It suits less well a couple who need a supplier that also brings furniture, flooring and heating, or who want prices online. Couples from abroad should fill in the rental form, choosing not yet known where needed, and ask in the message which language the planning can run in.