A month on the road in a Winnebago and what I've learned so far
From planning to traveling, it's been valuable to reacquaint myself with the customer experience.
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Estimated time to read: 5 minutes
TL;DR:
Booking and planning camping trips: Google Maps is the best tool.
Private equity-owned campgrounds: A challenging business model.
Is camping still affordable? It seems to be getting much more expensive.
Campground staffing: Finding people who care is the key to success.
Road warriors vs. seasonal/annual campers: Major respect to the road warriors who have camping on the road down to a science.
Since getting involved with the operations of four more campgrounds this summer, my family and I have been traveling in a 24-foot Winnebago View to visit those four campgrounds in Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, and Alabama.
We’re one week into our second trip, a three-week, 2,200-mile road trip through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland.
I camped as a kid but haven’t done much camping as an adult, especially on a road trip like this. My adult camping has been limited to the campgrounds I’ve purchased in the Catskills, where I stayed in a seasonal site while managing operations and projects on-site. For this reason, this trip has been highly educational, as I’m getting a taste of what it is like to be a “road warrior” camper vs. a stationary seasonal camper.
Here is what I’ve learned on this RV road trip:
1. Planning the trip and booking campsites:
While many new camping-focused booking engines and OTAs exist, Google Maps is the most powerful tool for planning your trip and finding campgrounds.
While RVLife.com and AllStays.com seem to have the most complete listings of campgrounds nationwide, they’re both onerous to use and take time to learn how to navigate. RVLife.com is more modern with a robust trip-planner tool, but it’s rather complicated to use. AllStays.com is a bit simpler to figure out, but it’s a very old-fashioned website, and you basically have to know what towns you want to go to, as their directory is organized by town.
Here are some other camping directories/OTAs:
Campspot.com: A campground management software provider and booking marketplace. You’ll only find campgrounds that use Campspot software on this site, so it is limited.
Roverpass.com: Similar to above.
Hipcamp.com: More geared towards small, primitive campgrounds.
TheDyrt.com: Similar to above.
The best solution I found was to zoom to the metro area I planned to be in on Google Maps and search “campgrounds” and then “RV parks.” Google Maps proved to be the best option because it allowed me to quickly browse Google reviews and photos on the Google business listing.
I’d then do a general Google search for “best campgrounds near [city name]” to make sure I wasn’t missing any.
2. Private equity-owned campgrounds:
Syndicators and real estate private equity shops have been creating a lot of buzz with acquisitions in the campground space. It’s a tough way to operate campgrounds, though.
These types of operators are typically known for raising prices, cutting costs, and operating from afar. At the same time, camping customers are usually accustomed to hands-on mom-and-pop operators who are always present on-site. This creates a lot of tension with customers who don’t want their favorite campground to change after it sells.
We saw it firsthand on our first stop on this road trip. The staff was very young, and although they were attentive and enthusiastic to customers, the campground was covered in cigarette butts, and the bathrooms were filthy and covered in graffiti. Overall, it was still a decent experience, but you could tell that no one with skin in the game regularly visited the campground.
3. Is camping still affordable?
Prices are rising with the growing presence of investment firms in the campground space. We booked a few campsites for over $100 per night and a few more for over $80 per night. We also spent a little chunk of change on gear to make our lives on the road more convenient. We could have planned the same trip in motels for around the same cost of camping!
4. Campground staffing:
Staffing is one of the most important factors in any hospitality business. I’ve learned this repeatedly in my career, and this trip drives it home again from the customer’s perspective.
As soon as someone who works in a campground (or any hospitality business) says something like, “That’s not my job,” you know right then that they don’t understand what it means to work in hospitality. It’s everyone’s job to give the customer a great experience.
5. Road warriors vs. seasonal/annual campers:
As a kid, I’d go camping with my family for a holiday weekend or group outing here and there. As an adult, I’ve always kept my camper in one seasonal destination. I think that is more my speed.
This trip has given me a newfound respect for digital nomads and road warriors who spend significant time on the road, hopping from one destination to the next. After a couple of weeks in our RV, we’ve gotten pretty good at setting up and breaking down our campsite, but it's still a lot of work. One or two nights at a campground doesn’t leave much time for relaxing/enjoying your campsite!
That’s all for this week. Thank you so much for reading!
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