The few cameras that I've seen covering common areas may have been placed there due to previous issues. They all had prominent signs saying they were there though, so maybe they were placed to prevent potential issues...
One RV park we visit is off a busy road in the Colorado mountains. The only place he has a camera, and many signs letting you know you are on said camera, is on the dumpster. I guess there must be an issue with illegal dumping .
I do remember one park that had a couple of game cameras aimed at their dumpsters. They were using them to see how effective their latest raccoon proof latch attempt was working...
I've never really noticed them but if you are going to have large volumes of teenagers in places like game rooms or other similar places it may not be a bad idea to have a security camera. Always wondered if the fake cameras would work well as a deterrent if your looking to keep costs down. Mike
With wireless webcams so cheap now, I'm not sure there's much, if any, savings with fake cameras. We did install some fakes in the open years ago in a teen center though. It was fun to watch the kids try to blind us by tossing jackets or towels over the cameras. They never caught on that the real cameras were well hidden even when adult monitors would regularly catch them in the act of some transgression.
I remember at one park I lost out one freezing morning flipping a coin to see who got to use the nice warm in coach facilities. So off I went off to use the park's non heated ones in the lone small cinder block shed a hundred or so yards away. Anyway I was sitting there doing some of my very best morning thinking when I happened to glance up to see a small red flashing light at the side of a 1" smoked glass covered hole in the ceiling. I wondered what that might be and then it hit me. It was just the fire sprinkler detection device doing its thing. Right...............? BankShot............(aka Terry)
Ok I have read so much on wifi for your RV park and I understand about 0% of it all. I am getting nowhere. We live in Nebraska...does anyone have any advice or direction for us. I've noticed a lot of campers say they have their own because they cant rely on the parks to have good wifi. Im wondering why not everyone just doesnt have their own these days and then we could lower our nightly stay fee. From what I hear, providing wifi isn't cheap and of course that cost is always passed on. Thanks
I think this is where you have to differentiate between weekend/vacation RVers (especially those with children) and full-time/long term RVer (most of whom don't have more than one other person on board). I think you'll find that most of the second group carry their own cellular connections and don't expect for an RV park to provide much, if anything, in the way of wifi. My wife and I were on the road for 65 days this summer and I'm not I even tried the park wifi at more than one or two of the places at which we stayed. We like to stream video and we have a combination of Verizon and AT&T service which keeps us covered pretty much wherever we are. OTOH today's younger families with children at home probably show up at an RV park with more than one internet-connected device per person. Even though most of them will have cellular plans that support hotspots, it's quite possible for a family of four to consume >25GB of data in a weekend. These are the people who are probably most concerned that a park have good wifi. If one wants to subdivide the market further, there are also those RVers (who are largely seniors) who subscribe to very low cost cellular services such as StraightTalk which provide little, if any, data to support laptops and similar devices. Although these folks technically belong to the "first group" of RVers they often rely upon park wifi for their websurfing needs. But such folk are, for the most part, low data rate users and mostly want to check their email and read a few headlines, so they won't strain most park wifi systems.
Didn't ,mean to hijack this thread in my above post but I kinda-sorta got caught up in the onsite camera discussion and went down that path. Anyway with regards to wi-fi, I think the old saying about being able to please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of time, but never being able to please all of the people all of the time, holds true when it comes to building an RV park and trying to offer and please all of your guests. I would venture a guess that within the next decade communication is going to change again and wi-fi as we know it today will be obsolete and RV parks will have to outlay more money to switch over to that latest technology or start losing guests by the wayside unless they do make the changes, etc. Technology, especially involving electronics, is moving ahead so quickly now it's almost scary. I think anyone contemplating building an RV park or campground today should take a long hard look at where they might be in the next five years with regards to "wi-fi" and what lies ahead. No one has a crystal ball to do this unfortunately so the next best thing would be to invest and buy into whatever plan will work best and give the best coverage for the size park they are building. I think in all the reviews that made negative comments regarding wi-fi, many of them centered around the fact that wi-fi was strong and acceptable in one area of the park and not in others. Therefore making coverage accessible to all areas would be a smart move IMHO. That's a trad more of my nickel's worth on this subject, I now bow out and leave the real wi-fi gurus on the forum to continue on with their advice and wise input................ BankShot...............(aka Terry)
I guess my original post is more about WHO we get to install it. I see some do it themselves but we do not know enough about it to do it ourselves. Then will come the question for ourselves "how much are we willing/able to spend on wifi". Thankful for all the info from everyone here!!
If cable or fiber passes by your park location, check with them about a multi-point WiFi installation similar to the ones used in hotels, etc. They may not offer commercial installation services themselves, but they'll know the contractors in the area that do.
Had our credit card # stolen last year after giving it verbally to a large motel chain. Prefer to pay with credit card using systems similar reserveamerica. We use our own internet/TV systems, not the campground systems. Most state parks we stay at with a reserved & paid campsite, never need to speak to anyone at the campground before setting up or leaving. They have "reserved" on the site post with our last name and the days we're staying.
I have never seen tie downs in any RV park. Are you planning on having a lot of permanent sites with either park models or mobile homes that never move? Your posts seem to describe your vision as something other than a RV Park. Cashless systems, no office, self check in are all things that really don't exist in the successful RV park ownership world. Tie downs are a mobile home thing, not an RV park thing.
I was just asking because we had a person who is interested in a site asking if we would have tie downs. I too have never heard of this in an RV park so I thought I would ask here. There must have been some miscommunication here earlier in my posts because we will have an office and reservations via phone. The cash versus credit question was just for things purchased in the store. We are hoping to eventually be all seasonal but we realize we will need to at first take nightly reservations until we fill up with seasonal customers. We will have someone out there to help check in, park campers and help with anything else. Hope that clears some things up but thanks for the info. Appreciate it.
