Hi Everyone, We want to start a Campsite Business, i want to know from your experience how is this business. Ideas to start, We are ready to buy a land between 100 - 250 Acres. in Ontario, Canada We will appreciate your comments. Thank you
You are in the perfect place and doing exactly the right thing. Asking questions. I have seen many park owners start off with the wrong piece of land or inaccurate site plans because they didn't understand the "strategy" behind building a part, the kind of park you want, and then how to lay it out. You also need a design firm that has knowledge of RV parts. I can't stress this enough. I don't know where you are geographically but the Forida and Alabama Park Owner Conference is coming up May 11-14 and it is a great place to start. You don't even have to be in FL or AL to participate. Build a group of peers around you as resources. You will be much happier and more successful if you do. https://rvparkconference.com/
If you are actually going to use that much acreage, you need to hire a professional consultant. A 100 acre tract of land is approximately a 2000' square. It is mind boggling how much it would cost just to wire a tract that large. It will be in the millions, plural. Add in roads, plumbing, buildings and you are looking at an eight figure project. Only the Jeff Bezos of the world can spend that kind of money without a plan. And even he would hire professionals to make sure what he was doing made sense. Now if your plan is to build 20 sites on three of those 100+ acres you might be able to muddle through just fine. Just be aware that the other 97 Acres really won't matter that much to most of your potential customers unless there is some highly desirable recreational attraction attached. Your first step is to determine if a park is a viable business in the location you have chosen. If you are looking to buy and build in a very desirable location such as next door to Disneyland or on Malibu Beach you probably don't need to do much research. Otherwise, you need to do a thorough investigate as to your market potential. Building the best park in the world won't draw customers to an area that is otherwise undesirable or isolated. Only in the Movies is "Build it and they will come" a viable strategy.
Thank you for your comments, we will not use the 100 + for the campsite, we want to start with something small and attractive, that can be maybe 25 acres, later on we can make it bigger depends how business goes, another 50 acres we are thinking to plant Hay for farmers a business on the side. and make the property profit
You are apparently in the dreaming phase of your park development plan. If you are serious, you need professional guidance. Spreading a park over 25 acres is still a multi million dollar construction project. A couple of cuttings of hay on 75 acres isn't going to cover the costs. How much money do you think you could earn from that hay field? Do you have the equipment plant and cut the hay? If not, you are going to get at most $100 an acre rent if the field is good quality hay ground, meaning free of timber, rocks, ravines and is in an area where hay production is even possible. Then you have the issue of your RV park being in the middle of a hay field. Why would people stay there? As for construction, it easily costs $10,000 or more per site to construct a park. And that does not take into consideration buildings, a waste disposal system if you are not on city sewer services and any costs related to planning, subdivision, permitting etc. The smaller the park, often the higher cost per site since you are not amortizing infrastructure over a large number of sites. Financing the construction of a park is very, very difficult and next to impossible for someone without experience owning and operating a park. Deep pockets is a necessity if you are going to build a park from scratch.
