My wife and I aren't new to the RV camping life. We have sun worshiped since 2016 spending time in Texas and Florida, through the pandemic until today. Over that period, campground management have changed philosophies, focusing more on reducing seasonal revenue uncertainty for guaranteed incomes. In lay terms campgrounds are moving away from transient bookings to longer term bookings or annual leases. When we first started traveling south from Canada to the sun destinations booking a month here and a month there was normal. Or even shorter stays of a week at a time along our route to the finally destination was pretty easy to find especially if you booked more than a year out. However, with each year passing minimum stays went from one month, to two months, to minimum three month stays or camp offices wouldn't even give you the time of day. What I am saying isn't all over but it is becoming the norm. We tend to stay in the more popular corporately managed resorts. Each time we book we have asked why the move to longer minimum stays and we get to typical "It's the industry standard" answer. Each time we counter by saying, "Our RV has wheels and we would like to see more of America than one location year after year!" to which we get "Oh well there nothing we can do! We also had the opportunity recently to participate in a corporate focus group to which we expressed our views and we were shocked at the amount of support from the other participants our answers received. We feel if we as RVers don't group together and become vocal, our lifestyle of traveling across the country to see America or Canada will be pigeon holed into us buying Park models and setting up winter homes in what we call popcan communities of retired geriatrics. We are sure we are not alone in our view and would be interested in hearing from you.
I see both sides, as we too have come across a few of the parks we like and would stay a month, are now 3 months stay is the requirements. So we don't return. But as a small business owner your always looking at what costs money and what makes money. The rv parks are thinking it costs less to have one rv rig sit on one site as opposed to having maybe 30 on and off that site in a month. I know the daily rate is higher, but maybe they have too many non rental days a month?
In the last 30 years of our camping life, we really haven't seen much changes. We generally call ahead about noon the day we are traveling to see if our preferred campground has space available. The only time we make reservations well in advance is when we are staying in destination areas like Grand Canyon or Orlando. I was worried with the influx of new RV owners that we would have more problems finding a space with this method, but on a recent 2-week trip from Denver to Florida and back, we never had any problems getting a space.
There is a downside to booking longterm/seasonal/annual is owners eventually have to deal with deteriorated RVs and evictions. We have suggested to corporately owner sites that we would gladly spend 3 months total or longer with their same corporate family campgrounds if it was possible just so we could enjoy multiple locations.
Yes I agree. I don't think anyone that wants to see the country wants to spend months in one location year after year. If they did then I would suspect they would look for a condo or house. We saw in Crystal River the affects of a campground pushing for annual bookings, in just two years the park started to be filled with permanents and the state of the rigs became rundown and the collection of junk around each grew. Friends of ours, vowed to never go back and the parks review rating started to drop. Those that couldn't afford to by homes in the town had bought RVs and paid the park's monthly rate on an annual site which included water and sewer. Way less then the property and services cost of the house they couldn't afford. The campground was no longer filled with campers but longterm low income residents.
i agree , i am from Alberta , and we are trying to see more of america and canada as well and have never stayed in one park more than 3 weeks , and we were getting cabin fever or itchy feet at that length of time , if i wanted to stay all the time at one place , i would rent a house
One of things we like about state and national park campgrounds is the maximum 14 day stay that eliminates concerns about long termers tieing up sites for the entire season.
The problem is, as long as they all follow this "standard" you cannot do anything... I've had days where every campground I'd call would tell me the exact same thing - minimum booking is X months. Usually you are able to find a spot that allows shorter stays, but sometimes you're just out of luck... I see how this is way more stable for the companies, since they don't need to worry about finding new people every month, but at the same time is hella annoying...
I guess this comes to what type of corporate owned park, Yeah I read about this going on in florida and other similar communities but some of the high end corporate parks up here in the northeast that we have been to seem to still focus on touring/vacation type campers. That said I have noticed they have become more restrictive on their reservation policies but I don't see them as going to mostly permanents with park models, at least the ones I am familiar with Mike
The shift towards longer minimum stays can be frustrating, especially for those who love the freedom of RV travel. It's all about enjoying the journey and exploring new places, right? I hope more RVers voice their concerns, so the industry can strike a balance and keep the road open for everyone.
Problem I've had lately is that my favorite campground has started a policy of limiting maximum stays to 3 days, when we'd like to stay longer. If/when things ever get to the point that we can't make a short-term reservation for 1-2 nights wherever we want to go, I'll sell the bus and get out of RVing. Any move toward forcing long-term stays is unacceptable. It's my money, and I'll make the decision how I spend it, not some campground owner.
Is is possible that these corporate campsites are switching their business model to residential vs tourist campers by requiring 3 month minimum stays simply because it generates more money since rents and house prices are so high?
