Third Party Wi-fi Providers

QUOTE
If it was that simple, owners like Parkview could charge the same as the state park. People are willing to spend more at his place because of the extra amenities - and one of those is reliable and fast wifi.

Guess I don't get what you're saying. I have ALL amenities INCLUDING free FAST wifi. If you have the proper antennas spread out at strategic areas of the park, it is as fast as the broadband in the office. Sorry I missed the previous discussions regarding this. Maybe you are not aware of the poor quality and reliability of some of the "pay" wifi services. Tengo has been nothing but problems for most parks. Linkspot has been very iffy. I have found MUCH faster and more reliable service with our own system. I have had this system in place for four years. The only occasional complaint I will get is when the park is 100% full and the signal is having difficulty getting in to their rig. They then simply move the computer a few feet inside or go out on the picnic table.

 

QUOTE
You are either paying for it yourself, charging users for it, or including it in your rates, in which case all campers are paying for it whether they use it or not.


This same statement can be said of any amenity from sewer to water, to TV, paved roads, ETC. WiFi is just a recent amenity and we tend to think of it as something special. It is quickly becoming a necessary part of a campground.

 

True Lindasy, but less than 30% of our customers use the wifi, but all use the paved driveways, water, sewer, and electric. And none of the people from the adjoining 2 camps or the State park use any of those things, but they do use our wifi. My main interest is to make it as good as it can be, and if my customers are happy, I and my staff are happy, and we even attract a few more customers from the State Park and the adjoining camps.

Also, I have never seen an ad proclaiming free paved roads, free sewer or free electric

Doug

 

PARKVIEW, you are wanting to bunch us all into the situation that you have. It's great that it works for you. What works or me is having a "computer geek" who enjoys maintaining our system in his spare time at no charge to us. The entire cost (other than our own DSL service) has been less than $200 and the system has been in place for over 4 years. Our rates have NOT CHANGED. I do not understand why you find this so hard to believe. It works for me. I tried Tengo and Linkspot and the service was terrible, so was the tech support.

 

Sorry Summerland,

I did not mean to offend. My only reason in entering this conversation was to point out the advantages of a third party provider for folks like me who are not computer geeks. When I need concrete work done, I contract with a concrete man; when I need major electrical work done, I call an electrician; when I needed wifi installed, I contracted with a wifi company. And I happen to be very happy with the service I get from my current provider, especially the 24 hour tech support and remote monitoring of our system.

I envy you if you have the knowledge and personnel to build your own system; but I do not. At least not a system of the quality provided by our current provider. As for camping rates, our wifi would have no impact, whether we included it at no charge or not - our rates are based on occupancy demand, competition, and return on investment yield curve. Wifi is just another line item expense.

Good luck to you and your business.

Doug

 

Sorry Summerland,

I did not mean to offend. My only reason in entering this conversation was to point out the advantages of a third party provider for folks like me who are not computer geeks. When I need concrete work done, I contract with a concrete man; when I need major electrical work done, I call an electrician; when I needed wifi installed, I contracted with a wifi company. And I happen to be very happy with the service I get from my current provider, especially the 24 hour tech support and remote monitoring of our system.

I envy you if you have the knowledge and personnel to build your own system; but I do not. At least not a system of the quality provided by our current provider. As for camping rates, our wifi would have no impact, whether we included it at no charge or not - our rates are based on occupancy demand, competition, and return on investment yield curve. Wifi is just another line item expense.

Good luck to you and your business.

Doug

 

We probably average using about 30% of the amenities of a campground when we stay there several days and probably less when just overnighting. So the 30% of WiFi usage would be about average for all amenities for campers like us. We normally don't even hookup sewer or water until necessary (every 4 or 5 days). Rarely use the park’s TV, haven't been to a park pool in years. My shuffle board isn't too good anymore. I haven’t been to an event in the rally building. We usually do laundry at a commercial site as it’s normally cheaper. We do frequently use the book exchanges a lot, but I expect the cost there is minimal. We do enjoy the companionship of a campground. We are paying for all of these amenities even though we don’t use but the 30% of them . I don’t see WiFi as any different other amities except that it can take a lot of technical knowledge getting started. Strannely enough, as far a WiFi is concerned, I would rather stay at a Wal-Mart where I can get a good WiFi signal with my great antenna than a typical overnight campground where we don’t really use anything but the electricity.

 

QUOTE(Lindsay Richards @ Oct 22 2009, 02:19 PM) [snapback]19701[/snapback]

We probably average using about 30% of the amenities of a campground when we stay there several days and probably less when just overnighting. So the 30% of WiFi usage would be about average for all amenities for campers like us. We normally don't even hookup sewer or water until necessary (every 4 or 5 days). Rarely use the park’s TV, haven't been to a park pool in years. My shuffle board isn't too good anymore. I haven’t been to an event in the rally building. We usually do laundry at a commercial site as it’s normally cheaper. We do frequently use the book exchanges a lot, but I expect the cost there is minimal. We do enjoy the companionship of a campground. We are paying for all of these amenities even though we don’t use but the 30% of them . I don’t see WiFi as any different other amities except that it can take a lot of technical knowledge getting started. Strannely enough, as far a WiFi is concerned, I would rather stay at a Wal-Mart where I can get a good WiFi signal with my great antenna than a typical overnight campground where we don’t really use anything but the electricity.


I think you're putting your finger on the key points embedded in this entire "free" wifi debate.

Let's stipulate something going in. We all know nothing is "free," in the sense that everything has to be paid for by somebody. Sunshine, and perhaps clean air, may be the only exceptions to this rule. When the word "free" is used, it means "provided at no additional charge," not that there is no cost to anyone. Thus, "free wifi" means wifi provided by the park with no additional charge above the basic rate.

RV parks all provide some things "free." Electricity, water, bathhouses, and sewerage are typical. It would be very unusual for these things to carry an additional fee at least for short stays. But other things do typically carry a fee, and what typically does and typically doesn't seems to be more a question of what everybody is accustomed to than anything else. Consider the swimming pool and the self-service laundry. There is nearly always a charge to use the laundry, but almost never to use the pool, even tho it costs much more to build and maintain a pool than a laundry or a wifi setup and is probably used by a smaller portion of the campers. Why is this? In the end, I don't believe there is a logical, economical, or financial reason--it's just accepted by everybody that that's the way it is, and the parks' daily rates have come to incorporate it.

WiFi used to be a limited thing, but it is becoming the rule, and in a few years it will be thought of as just as vital as electricity and water, at least in parks that cater to those (like me) who use their RV's as an alternate home, not as a means to go out into the woods and "rough it." That being the case, I believe that parks, at least those who cater to folks who are traveling in their alternative home, are increasingly shooting themselves in the foot by charging extra for wifi. I know I tend not to book such parks if I can avoid it. I subjectively just don't like the idea of it, and objectively I am in part using it as an indicator of management's attitudes about generosity toward its guests, which may come out in other ways. I have been known to go elsewhere even if it costs a bit more. Call me nuts, but I don't think I'm alone. If we do wind up in a park that charges and we think it's too much (like over $2 per day), we have been known to just use the iPhones for our internet surfing needs, so they get no fee revenue at all from us.

In short, for me the bottom line is smart park operators will fold the cost of the wifi into the basic rate and let it go at that, as they all do for so many other things that also have identifiable costs for them. If they must charge, keep it reasonable. They'll get more business, life will be simpler for everybody, and the general sense of friendliness will be augmented.

Just my opinion.

 

I think it would have been better to exchange the word INCLUDED for the word FREE. When something cost extra and doesn't work well for me, then I tend to get PO'ed like most other old farts. When it is included and doesn't work well, I tend to sluff it off easier. Once again, a good omnidirectional antenna will be a great addition to a frequent RV'ers kit. This will solve many of the WiFi problems discussed here.

 

As a campground owner, wi-fi has been a real headache over the past 5 years. We have struggled, purchased new equipment, sought different avenues of providing the service...and guess what!

We now know why were having all the problems. Our campers were downloading movies, etc. ( must likely not legally) and pulling our signal strength down due to the "streaming". (We are not savey in the language!)

However, we finally found someone who identified the problem and we lowered the "download rate" to stop the downloading of movies ( although our signal is still plenty strong for surfing and emails) and we have no more problems...when I think of all the time and money we spent trying to find the "right" system when we most likely had the right one to begin with it is upsetting.

If you want to download movies, stay home and do it...oh yeah! It is not legal so I guess thats why you don't want to do it at home!

 

QUOTE
If you want to download movies, stay home and do it...oh yeah! It is not legal so I guess thats why you don't want to do it at home!


Ever figure that many of your campers ARE at home will they are at your campground? Downloading “movie’s” depends on how you define movies I guess. I download many, many videos probably averaging 2 or 3 minutes each during a normal surfing session. I just downloaded a 28 minute video on the upcoming Florida/GA football game. These are available free and legal on many sites. It is just a regular part of using the internet and WiFi. They range from political, news, humor, and the like. This is the way we keep up to date while we are away from home and deliberately slowing down your WiFi speeds seems to be, if you will excuse an old Southern expression, “cutting off your nose to spite your face”. I think the person who informed you about this illegality is way off base (at least in my experience).

 

As a campground owner I take offense when "campers" think they are getting ripped off at every turn. In respects to wi-fi we provide it FREE...we did not increase our rates. We have taken the view cable and wi-fi are both a part of the "hookup" package.

We spent about $3000.00 in equipment and pay $85.00 per month to our local phone company which allows us to redistribute their cable signal. For this small amount why would I increase rates when this ammenity has paid for itself over and over in people coming to the park then extending the stay because we have wi-fi and cable!

Unfortunately, many campground owners, like myself, do not understand the technology of wi-fi and are easily "convinced" that any given system is the best in the industry. I paid for 3 different "systems and services" before I talked with my local telephone company which set me up at a minimum of cost for excellent service and signal!

Now, as for cable....it costs me $1044.00 a MONTH for 70 channels, however, again, I did not increase my rates for the reasons outlined above.


Come on guys, give the campground owners a break.....most of us provide a pleasant, clean , safe environment for your family camping needs. After all, really is $35.00 a night too much for a family of 4 to spent 24 hours enjoying each other while camping?








QUOTE(HappiestCamper @ Oct 16 2009, 08:43 AM) [snapback]19568[/snapback]

Then they were overcharging to begin with - they are not going to keep the park open if it is at a loss. If they are paying for it, they are not going to "give" it away.

Unless some wifi provider is giving it to the CG for free - which I doubt.

 

QUOTE
After all, really is $35.00 a night too much for a family of 4 to spent 24 hours enjoying each other while camping?


Many of us (including me) are only spending 8 or 10 hours and using none of the ammenities except electricity. How much for that?

 

Parkview this is not about WIFI, I just wanted to say you have a FANTASTIC WEB SITE. One of the best I have seen. I love the 360 view of the park. I need to find out how to add that.
Lovely park.

 

As times change, I think WiFi technology and others will be vastly improving. I can now tether my new Android phone to my laptop and use it for checking the Internet.

 

I know the original post was last year, but I just left Garner State Park a day early because of the lack of WiFi. For me to obtain wifi in the park I had to go to the office. In addition, because of the poor wifi I was not able to download emails into outlook. Unfortunately, when I travel I have to have access to internet because of my business. My Verizon PC card does not work in the Concan area. It made my trip very frustrating. I am usually able to access some wifi and do my work late in the evening or early in the morning from the comfort of my TT so it does not interrupt my fun. This year I was not able to do that. We like going to Garner State Park as some of our friends still tent camp and we all like to be together and enjoy the trails in the park. But wifi is a big issue for me. I was at a point where I would have paid for WiFi.

 

QUOTE(MelindaK @ Oct 12 2010, 12:10 AM) [snapback]24576[/snapback]

I know the original post was last year, but I just left Garner State Park a day early because of the lack of WiFi. For me to obtain wifi in the park I had to go to the office. In addition, because of the poor wifi I was not able to download emails into outlook. Unfortunately, when I travel I have to have access to internet because of my business. My Verizon PC card does not work in the Concan area. It made my trip very frustrating. I am usually able to access some wifi and do my work late in the evening or early in the morning from the comfort of my TT so it does not interrupt my fun. This year I was not able to do that. We like going to Garner State Park as some of our friends still tent camp and we all like to be together and enjoy the trails in the park. But wifi is a big issue for me. I was at a point where I would have paid for WiFi.


The park may only have a dial up connection available to them. If it is so far out that Verizon doesn't have service, they may not have any broadband available to them. There are many rural areas of the country that you cannot get anything faster than a dialup connection. For DSL lines, there is a maximum distance between central switches beyond which DSL is not available. The only other option would be satellite internet which is crap for multiple users, has severe usage restrictions and is very expensive, especially for a state park system. The third party systems I am aware of require the Park owner to pay for the trunk line access, the third party company provides the repeaters, access points, support and billing services. They wouldn't help in a situation where there is nothing but dialup to start with.

 

QUOTE(MelindaK @ Oct 12 2010, 01:10 AM) [snapback]24576[/snapback]




I know the original post was last year, but I just left Garner State Park a day early because of the lack of WiFi. For me to obtain wifi in the park I had to go to the office. In addition, because of the poor wifi I was not able to download emails into outlook. Unfortunately, when I travel I have to have access to internet because of my business. My Verizon PC card does not work in the Concan area. It made my trip very frustrating. I am usually able to access some wifi and do my work late in the evening or early in the morning from the comfort of my TT so it does not interrupt my fun. This year I was not able to do that. We like going to Garner State Park as some of our friends still tent camp and we all like to be together and enjoy the trails in the park. But wifi is a big issue for me. I was at a point where I would have paid for WiFi.



Melinda, there is Wifi available in some parts of Garner State Park, particularly the "old Garner" section in the vicinity of rock beach. I know because we provide it. We have a special antenna beamed into Garner from our location on a bluff across the river from Garner. Unfortunately, we cannot reach the entire state park from our location. This is all done with the permission and blessing of the Garner Park manager. Our Wifi signal also is provided to each of the privately owned parks on both sides of us. There is a charge for it if you sign up with a credit card on-line, or you can purchase a coupon from us for about half of the on-line price. Our monthly campers get the coupons free. I agree with you that Garner is great State Park, the nicest in Texas.

Doug

 

QUOTE(Parkview @ Oct 13 2010, 04:49 PM) [snapback]24590[/snapback]

Melinda, there is Wifi available in some parts of Garner State Park, particularly the "old Garner" section in the vicinity of rock beach. I know because we provide it. We have a special antenna beamed into Garner from our location on a bluff across the river from Garner. Unfortunately, we cannot reach the entire state park from our location. This is all done with the permission and blessing of the Garner Park manager. Our Wifi signal also is provided to each of the privately owned parks on both sides of us. There is a charge for it if you sign up with a credit card on-line, or you can purchase a coupon from us for about half of the on-line price. Our monthly campers get the coupons free. I agree with you that Garner is great State Park, the nicest in Texas.

Doug



Doug,

The next time I am in the State Park I will come purchase a coupon from you. I would like to check out your campground too for future trips.

Melinda