Sorry if a post like this isn't allowed. But my family owns a campground in the southwest. We have a decent customer base of Van Lifers. And while I do get opportunities to speak to them and ask questions. It's definitely obviously biased by parts of the community we attract. So that being said are there any things you see other places fail at, amenities that are sorely missing, suggestions for how to reach the community, or even critical feedback on the industry? I'd love to know so we can be better to the community. TLR- Feel free to give feedback on how bad the RV park industry sucks or could be better. Thanks to anyone with feedback!
The list of things that other RV parks fail at could take up a book, but here are a couple of suggestions: 1) cleanliness is always important, in the bathrooms, at the sites, and throughout the park. even if your facilities are dated, most campers can tell how you care about your park by how clean you keep it. 2) if you have a list of rules for your guests, be consistent about enforsing the rules for all guests, including quiet hours, leash laws, etc. Finally, use this site and look at the main page to check out negative reviews of other parks. you will quickly see patterns of what bothers people such as changing or canceling reservations, poor electrical service, unlevel sites, etc. also, there is an older thread about "pet peeves when camping" which would be a good read: https://campgrounds.rvlife.com/forum/threads/what-are-your-pet-peeves-rving.3118/
I owned parks for years. There are a couple of hard, fast rules for a successful park. One, bulletproof utilities. The water, power and septic needs to work. Two, cleanliness. Office, restrooms, laundry and any other public area needs to be neat and clean. Third, sites and grounds need to be maintained. The grass needs to be mowed, the sites kept clean and level, all the fences, buildings and the like kept painted and free of junk. That is step one to success. Next you need to evaluate your market. You can’t be an overnight park if you are not close to a major thoroughfare. You can’t become a destination park if there aren’t major attractions in the area. Then you need to determine the customer base you wish to market to. Do you want families and kids or do you want an adult park?. Do you want short term stays or people staying for the season? Then you need to lean into marketing to that demographic. One of My guiding principles was trying to please everyone results in pleasing no one. Your statement about having so called “van lifers” concerns me. Do you mean the park currently has a large number of guests who live full time at the park while working? If so, it is likely that will greatly limit your ability to expand your clientele. Those parks often become nothing more than trailer courts which repel vacationers and travelers. Give us some more info and I will drill down further and I bet some of the other contributors on this site will offer some good tips as well. Good luck
