In about 3 weeks I'll be closing on 25 acres. The property is heavily wooded, the RV park portion of it will have a lot of the trees cleared, tho I intend on having a section of pads that have trees as a "privacy screen" type of setup. I've been reading these types of forums for around 8 months now, attempting to get a feel for what most people want in an RV park. The following is a list of what I have come to the conclusion are must haves: 1. Wider spaces. I'm thinking 35 feet wide for each space. 2. Lots of pull through spaces. Eats up more land but by far and away more popular. I figure to have around 26 of them, 65 feet long with a couple of them being around 80 feet to be able to have the folks with the truck pulling a 5th wheel pulling another trailer type of setup. Not sure how popular the extra long ones are and not sure what I can expect for demand, so I think I"m going to just have a few of those. 65 to 70 feet seems to be the new normal. 3. Picnic tables, fire rings and a grassy area. 4. Full hook ups. All pull throughs will have full hook ups. Other, back in spaces that are shorter probably only need 30 am hook up for electricity. However, I"ve seen RV park pedestals going for less than $200 a piece, I'm thinking full hook ups at every space. 5. 45 degree angle pull through or back in. I've seen people advocating as much as 30 degree angles, but that seems a bit much when you are anticipating giving ample room per space, you aren't going to be running into your neighbor's rig. I was actually thinking even a 50 degree angle. I am not going to try and buck any trends, but that is ample room to back in a space, especially if the driveways are wide enough you aren't going to run into anything. 6. Doggy park. Nothing huge or fancy. Just a 4 foot, chain link fenced in area big enough for dogs to run free and get the energy out, along with doggy bags and trash can at the entrance. 7. Playground. Maybe. I have room for one but I want to see what the insurance costs are for having one in the park. 8. Around 14 acres of walking trails in the rear of the property and away from the RV's. Heavily wooded but trails will be cleared out with a small bulldozer, I think that should have some appeal to the nature lovers. Eventually will build a 4-5 acre pond back there as well and stock with fish. 9. Starting out with small laundry facility. 2 washers/2 dryers. 10. It seems bath houses are popular. I'm not sure the appeal of them when you have full hookups including waste water at every site. Can someone please explain why you prefer to use a bathhouse over your own bathroom? Just curious about that one. 11. Community fire ring. A small office at the front. Possible limited convenience store. The property is in county land, in a beautiful area surrounded by ranches and woods, very well maintained community. Easily accessible from I-20 and not far from Highway 59, it's in a good location with easy access. Very quiet - there is no Interstate or any other highway noise and there is limited traffic on the road in front of the property. A town a few miles away with everything - several supermarkets, walmart, Lowe's, Tractor Supply, lots of restaurants and service industry establishments. I'm no expert. Just been doing a lot of reading. What am I missing?
It's not my preference, but I know some folks prefer park showers for the larger size and near endless hot water compared to their RV. I do like parks that include at least some private family/handicapped bathrooms. I've traveled with two female relatives over the years as well as currently my wife that have needed my assistance in showering. Obviously that's difficult to do in typical RV bathrooms although we've managed when there's no other option in our current RV.
Larger space and hot water are definitely pluses for the park's showers. I'll add that another reason we use the park showers is water pressure which is usually better than the RV. And one other reason why we usually go to the park showers is because we store a lot of "stuff" in our shower, and it is a pain to take everything out and put it back. Finally, this isn't quite what you ask about , but I'll also add that you must keep the facilities spotless. I will unpack our shower before I will use a dirty one.
Please be sure interior roads are wide enough for big rigs to maneuver & turn into sites. I consider a big rig any alone motorhome over 40ft & any tow combo over that. I've been in too many parks to count where interior roads are way too narrow, especially if vehicles are parked near roadways. You are right to have sites be spacious. If RV'rs want to be crammed in like sardines, they'll go to a KOA. Less in quantity but more in quality will draw us. Since you state you are close to a town (few miles?), I wouldn't bother with a convenience store. That's just eats up more profits that it'd bring in. You'd have to keep track of inventory, pilferers & dealing with returns on stuff people bought & later don't want. Many RV'rs have voiced requests (on other forums) for a few sites that cost less with no hookups where they can just pull in, get a few hours sleep & then leave without having to unhook. If you are close enough to a freeway, I would consider that. 2 or 3 would be sufficient. If you have hiking trails & eventually put in a catch/release pond, I see no need for an official playground. You are correct there is a LOT of liability to have one. Personally, I've never used a bathhouse once I got out of being in a tent. Even if low water pressure (which I could always remedy by filling & using my fresh tank), I much prefer my own bathroom/shower than any facility. And I've looked in on some that were so clean/spotless you could probably eat off the floor. I can see where some, like Texasrvers, would use them though so if you are going to have them, as stated be sure the water is hot, there's plenty of it, you don't run out of toilet paper & they are kept clean/well ventilated. Buy stock in Proctor & Gamble - you'll be using a LOT of bleach! Don't try to be everything to everybody. You won't make everyone happy & you'll stress yourself out trying to be that. Stick to a handful of quality amenities & if you build it, they will come. Best of luck!
Leaf Peeper said: Don't try to be everything to everybody. You won't make everyone happy & you'll stress yourself out trying to be that. Stick to a handful of quality amenities & if you build it, they will come. This is great information, do what you think will work, makes a return on your investment and if it works for most of your rv visitors, you will prosper. Dog fenced area, good idea, play ground, not so much. Wish you all the best.
Looks like you have done a good amount of reasearch, and have some good plans. Since you say you are near a city, have you considered that you may get some long term residence? Will you have some sites with metered electric? Another thing i didnt see was your plans for wifi. As you can see from reviews and forums, this is becomming more and more important as people cut the satilight and stream everything. As far as a store, make it small, and stock a few rv supplies that are mostly universal. Every once in a while, someone will need a new slinky hose, or 30-50 amp adapter. The large spaces with trees in between sound really nice. Make sure there is enough room to put out the awning as well. I also think you might look into having some no-hookup sites for a quick pull in and sleep option. Good luck, Chris.
That's what I was thinking, with nature trails that may suffice versus putting in a playground. Build a larger doggy park instead. I had also given some thought to a few parking only areas and charge maybe $10-$15 nightly to park and go. Just depends on the setup, I've got a good idea how I want to set up the pads but I'm going to enlist the help of a consultant to ensure that I am not wasting space or doing something that is detrimental to the quality of the park. Everything I've read says around 20-25 feet wide driveways. That's quite a bit of land dedicated for driving rigs but so many people bring that up, even the smaller rigs people complain they don't have enough room. I don't know how small some of the driveways are in some of the parks but they must be the types of places cramming in as many pads as they can. More power to them, that's old style and definitely nothing I want to contemplate. At the same time, 20 feet wide times 3 driveways = 60 times 1,350 feet long driveways equals a lot of material on the ground. But, I figure the expense will be worth it in making people happy.
Yes there will be as high of quality wifi as I can get installed. I have no experience with the logistics of setting that up, but ATT underground lines running right through the front of the property, the option is there. I've also read that people may want cable, I haven't made a decision on that yet. I know they make those tracking satellite setups for RV's and trucks that many people use, I'm not quite sure the demand for cable and running that much line everywhere may not be worth the potential return.
Don't know about long term residents. So many forums have people saying they don't want to go to parks that have people living there. They claim they have attitudes and don't keep their properties neat and tidy. And then, a slew of those that live in them come back and tell these people that they keep their pads spotless and looking good. I know that a good set of rules and enforcing them is key to anyone staying there, whether short or long term. On another note, COVID has forced many people out of their homes and some of them end up in RV's. Just haven't made up my mind on that one.
Lots of pre-planning happening on your part bbark and that's a good thing. And lots of good suggestions from others also. If I may add a couple of suggestions based upon our own "look fors" when we travel, you might consider having a small but efficient barrier of some type between spaces that would give your guests a tad bit of privacy as well as to keep stray dogs and other assorted small pets from getting into the spaces next door. The other suggestion is if you are going to plant trees for shade you might want to leave a few spaces with either smaller and lower growing trees for those, like us, who have satellite antennas mounted up top. We normally don't watch much TV when we travel but we do like to watch the morning and evening news to see what "the other half of the world" is doing and having to park in a space covered over with tall trees makes that a tad difficult, especially when we are in an area where we are able to receive our own local channels, which does happen. We can of course use cable hookup the parks offer but at times the reception is not what it should be, etc. Anyway, good on you for doing your homework and asking questions of those of us who appreciate what you are doing in advance to allow us, your guests, to enjoy your facility once it's open for business............... Regards, BankShot.............(aka Terry)
The trees are already there. They're not exceedingly tall - 15 -30 feet for the most part excepting some old trees on the west bank of the property that are in the 75-100 foot tall range, but those are literally right along the property line so I'm probably going to leave those up. Just going to cut down the rotten ones and those that don't look particularly healthy. My thought was to leave some of the small trees up in between pads thereby creating a natural privacy shade. The rear of the property has around 500 feet of open area where there are very few trees for those that would rather not be parked near them. My readings have found that there are both types of people - want trees/do not want trees and the property naturally affords for both.
The property is in the middle of the pic. A very long driveway on the right side of it. It's satellite view, looks can be deceiving, it's 233 feet wide.
Cheap, no hookup sites for a quick overnight sleep may very well cost you money, rather than be an incremental income stream. First, you would be competing with Walmart, Truck stops and the like that offer no hookup overnights for Free, and you can't beat Free. Second, those no hookup overnighters will use your services, adding to costs. They will dump their trash, they will use the showers and restrooms, their dogs will poop and pee in your pet area. They will take up employee time checking them in and cleaning their sites when they leave. All costs associated with a full paying guest at a fraction of the revenues. Third, some of those cheap overnighters would have paid full price if you didn't have the cheap sites. That is moving a high revenue customer into a low revenue site, bad for business. As for showers and restrooms, the restrooms are likely required by licensing codes unless you intend to only accept fully self contained rigs eliminating a fairly substantial portion of the RVing market. On top of that, a pretty large percentage of people with fully self contained rigs still want to use the park's facilities due to a number of factors. Bigger shower enclosures for large and tall people, multiple facilities for groups traveling with more than one or two people in the rig. Keeping the smells out of the rig is a big one for many. Others use their on board showers as storage closets. Still others don't want to mess with the on board tanks and using the park facilities keep them empty. An important rule to remember is you won't lose any customers by having an amenity they do not use, but will lose that customer if you don't have an amenity they want or need. Choose your battles wisely.
20 feet may work if the shoulders and surrounding areas are level and clear. It is way too narrow if the trees come up to the edge or there are drainage ditches or other encroachments. 30' plus is really needed, especially if you have 45 FT RVs towing enclosed trailers going one way and 40 foot fifth wheels going the other.
Consider this. There have been some places we've stayed that had decent driveways. However, the RV Pad would hold only the RV, so our towed car had to be parked on the driveway (at least partially), and that cuts down on the actual space for driving to and getting into the campsite. Also back-in sites require enough room to swing the front end around, so cars parked on the street across from your site might be in the way. The same is true when trying to leave out of a pull through site. Larger rigs must pull quite a-ways forward so that the back wheels will not go off the pavement when you start the turn. Cars parked on the street might make this turn difficult. Just more info to think about.
I didn't know any RV sites allowed parking on the driveways? A third of the park will be pull throughs, 65 or 70 feet long. The back in sites will be shorter for shorter rigs. I don't know what the average length of a bumper or 5th wheel is with truck and trailer. But I do pay attention to what I'm seeing on the Interstates - I drive a lot. I see short, medium and long 5th wheels, lots of the longer versions tho. Bumper pulls are typically much shorter. It seems that more and more of it out there is longer versus shorter and probably selling myself short with too small length pads. The more I see these discussions the more I think I probably need some expert input from developers to address this scenario. I could just do all pull throughs at 70 feet long and have lesser spaces in the park. With space in the back to put in shorter spaces at maybe 50 feet. I haven't heard anyone say they don't like pull throughs versus the back ins, but they may be out there.
Let me ask this: Is it more prudent to charge by the type of unit it is versus the length of the pad? In other words, you have a class A motor home 45 feet long that has 2 ac units and filled with electronic gadgets versus a bumper pull 22 footer with one AC unit and maybe a refrigerator using far less electricity. I could do all 70 foot long pull throughs but charge accordingly to size/utility usage of unit.
The park might not intend for cars to be parked in the street/driveway, but when there is not enough room for them on the campsite, that may be the only place to park. Or if the site is a pull through, the towed car might stick out in the street. We prefer a pull through. However, we will take a back in if we are staying several nights. If it will just be an overnighter, we always want a pull through.
We prefer a pull-through for brief stops where we won't be unhooking our toad, but for longer stops we really don't care. In some parks, we actually prefer back in sites where the extra foliage gives the site more privacy. As for charging by unit length instead of standardized site rates, I think you would be opening up a real can of worms with that approach. Would you go out and measure the combinations at check in? Take the guest's word for the total length? You know folks are going to claim the lower category if they're at all close on the length. I think using the standard pricing by site type rather than length will be a better fit with guest expectations.
Even 70' is not a catch all that will fit all rig combinations. For example, a 45' Motorhome with a vehicle on or in a trailer will be all of that 70 feet long and when they take the actual car off or out you have another 15 to 20 feet to deal with. A crew cab dually towing a 40 Foot fifth wheel gets a lot longer once the fifth wheel is unhooked and set up since truck bed is no longer under the hitch. Also, people often have guests visit, so you need a place to park their vehicles. Finally, you have to account for the hitches, bumpers, bikes on racks, canoes on the top of the tow car and the fact that people will not park in the exact proper position. We had a number of 90' pull thrus and over time we figured out that for some rigs that wasn't sufficient. It sounds like you are going to be investing a lot of money into this project and your recent comment of perhaps needing a consultant would be a very wise investment.
