I will be managing a new RV Park and the owners want me to get training on the basic stuff such as hooking up the utilities....I have searched and have come up basically blank, so does anyone have any links to training websites that offers such training?..Thanks in advance.
If you have ever been camping in an RV you know how to hook up the utilities. Also, anyone that brings an RV to your park will be hooking up their own. We would never let anyone else hook us up. When we do it ourselves we know it is done properly. Why don't you just go to an RV park and ask someone there to teach you? To be totally honest, I am surprised that the campground owners didn't want a manager with camping experience. I am not saying that to be rude, but I know the people that hired us specified that we must be campers.
QUOTE(dalsgal @ Oct 20 2009, 10:24 PM) [snapback]19635[/snapback] If you have ever been camping in an RV you know how to hook up the utilities. Also, anyone that brings an RV to your park will be hooking up their own. We would never let anyone else hook us up. When we do it ourselves we know it is done properly. Why don't you just go to an RV park and ask someone there to teach you? To be totally honest, I am surprised that the campground owners didn't want a manager with camping experience. I am not saying that to be rude, but I know the people that hired us specified that we must be campers. Thank you for the feedback as I have told upper management that most if not all of the RV'ers will want to hook up their own and not have me or anyone else touch them. Unfortunately I have never camped in an RV because truthfully can't afford to own one and they're fairly expensive to rent, although I do know you can find fairly good used deals out there. As far as me being the manager, well I'm close friends to the owner of this development and he believes in giving the "average" folk a chance so to speak. I definitely have the brains and drive to make this a success and have no worries about that part, though I do admit lack of experience in the RV field, but will learn quickly.
Where do you live? Are there other campgrounds in your area where you could go and talk with their manager and get some advice and possibly watch someone hook up? If you were close to us I would be happy to spend time with you and show you some things that might help you and I'm willing to bet someone in your area would also.
The only time you might have to help with hookups is if the camper is disabled, or on the extremely rare occasion that he truly doesn't know what to do (first timer). Electric - your pedestals will have several types of electric plugs for 20, 30 and 50 amp. They are distinctive and you can not put a 50 amp plug in a 30 amp recepticle, for example. The power pedestal will also have the breakers there and they will need to be flipped to "on" in order for them to work. Many pedestals will also have a cable TV input located on the side. Water - the water stand should be high enough off the ground that one doesn't have to get on hands and knees to connect. It should also not be co-located with the waste dump, but not too far from it for cleanup purposes. On my rig, all my water, electric and waste hookups are located on the driver's side, toward the rear. Waste dump - you (the camper) should have a a rubber ring that helps seal the entry of the hose into the dump itself. This will facilitate the dumping process and also help reduce odors. There is no school that I'm aware of. If you get the opportunity, either go to a park that has these functions and ask if you can watch what someone does (a little awkward) or just keep asking questions. If you know a little about maintenance, that will be a plus. Good luck and don't worry. Just treat your campers like you are glad to see them, help them with their stupid questions and act like they are the only people in the world who matter. Ok, I admit that was for me, but if you treat your customers the way you would like to be treated, you will be fine.l
Here is a good link for explaining electrical hookups: RV Electrical Systems. It would be useful to learn a little troubleshooting for electrical problems. Often something as simple as corroded or dirty electrodes on the campers plug can cause the AC compressor not to come on. Having the proper testing equipment can help get you out of a bind.
Dear Newbie . . . I was a new at managing a park as well, but did have RV experience as we are full timers. There is more to learn than just the "connections". If the owner would allow it, I suggest you offer 2 or 3 nights free stay to one of the many friendly RVers to show you the connections thoroughly AND to explain to you what RVers expect when they come. For instance, will you be escorting them to their site? If so, don't guide them to the site then leave them! Park the cart out of their way, get off and guide them in getting them as close to the hookups for their rig as possible WITHOUT slides in the way. You could wait for the first available guest and make the offer until you find someone which shouldn't take long, or advertise on Craigslist in your area. Another suggestion . . . get to know each of your sites thoroughly! Are they really level from front to back and side to side? Where are the pedestal and sewer connections? In my case, the pull thru sites had all connections approximately in the middle. Longer Class A's generally had to unhook their toad to bring in front of the RV in order to reach the connections without many feet of cords and hoses. But 5th wheels were okay in those sites without unhooking. Found out a few weeks into my new job that I had a few sites with TWO septics which I thought was just to handle different rigs' locations. Later I learned that some trailers have two separate drain hoses that need the two septic drops or a "Y". Of course I would preferable place them in those sites! Good luck in your new job! RVers are generally a wonderful group . . . patient, honest, friendly, helpful and respectful. Be the same in return and you will get along fine. If you don't know something, just ask and you might learn! By the way, if the owner still prefers tech training . . . pay a local RV Dealer Service Dept. for one on one training on one of each type of RV in their lot.
CSolo42, The very fact that the park owner wants you to learn how to connect an RV shows me that he must be a fairly customer oriented businessman. Realize that the reason for this is not that you will ever be connecting the RV of a customer, but rather that it will help you to understand the issues that your customers will have. You won't be an expert as soon as you learn, but you will have a much better grasp of many things about the RV park. I suggest that if you want to be a successful park manager, you need to learn as much as you possibly can about RVs, the people who travel in them and our lifestyle. It is very difficult to serve a customer base that you have no understanding of. I consider the suggestion of a free night for a volunteer who will teach you to be an excellent one. Let me also suggest that you spend as much time as possible in visiting with and listening to the people who come to that RV park. Most of us are not that difficult to deal with, but we are very service oriented and we are loyal to the parks which give it to us. Most of us are helpful people who enjoy teaching and sharing with those who wish to learn. Should you take over this position, you will only be starting the process of learning about RV folks and it will take years to really become expert. Keep in mind that even though there are a few jerks who travel in RVs, most of us are nice and thoughtful people but somewhat on the frugal side. That is partly because so many of us are either young families with children or seniors who are retired and on fixed incomes. Never allow the few really bad people to make you forget that most of us are truly nice and considerate and willing to pay for what we get, as long as we feel that we got the value for what we are asked to pay. Welcome to the RV world. You may find that it is very easy to become hooked on the lifestyle that we fulltimers choose to live.
Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. The one thing I'm NOT worried about is my ability to provide good customer service and courtesy to the guests, and with my lack of RV knowledge I'll be depending on that a lot..lol. I have confidence in my ability to learn and be a good manager, but I am definitely learning quickly that there is much I have to learn. We will have 78 spots and other than the lawn maintenance crew that will be responsible for the whole development, I will be the only employee of the RV Park which puts more pressure on me to learn as much as possible in a short time frame. I do believe the owners have said we will take a week before the opening to allow RV'ers to stay for free for me to get onsite training so that might be my best bet to learn hookups and just listen to the people who mean the most to a successful RV Park, the RV'ers. I was told by an avid RV friend that no one hooks up their RV but them, and that has been confirmed on here. I will escort each RV to it's site and will remain with them to assist in any way possible. The only thing that I'm worried about is if 10 RV's show up at once because I will want to give each guest my undivided attention, but without having to make the other guests wait to long. That issue will have to be addressed to the owners as one person can only do so much. Thank you all again.
lol...I just noticed a major mistake in above post and that has been corrected...but for those of you who may have read it and not seen the correction it should have read I'm NOT worried about my ability to provide good customer service. I should really proofread better as one word or lack of word can really change the meaning of a sentence...
Good luck, but I fail to see how you can run a 78 site RV park by yourself. We are fairly new to the business, 9 years. We have a 95 site park, and I have 5 full-time year round employees and 14 total during our busy summer season. This includes reservation people, lawn maintenance people, janitorial people to keep the restrooms, showers and laundry clean, security guard and a manager, all in addition to myself, and I actually do some work. Doug :
I'm sorry, but there will be no way your going to run that park by yourself and expect to give top notch service to your customers, is not going to happen. You will either burn yourself out in very short order, or your going to have ticked off people waiting for their turn either in person or on the phone. Just look how long it takes to register a rig, let them know the rules, where the items are in the park, take their money, answer the many questions we all seem to have when checking in and then escort them out to their site, and wait for them to get parked. If you have 2 or 3 rigs in line, it could be at least a 1/2 hour wait for those people, maybe much more. You need help and you need it from the very first day. Otherwise your going to get some very interesting reports on this site about the lack of personnel and how frazzled the person was that was at the front desk. At least that is how I see it. Good luck on your new adventure.
Let me mention a couple things that I left out that takes a wee bit load off of me. At the entrance to where you turn in to go to the C/G is George Jones' Bed & Breakfast and all registration and payments will be made there so at least I don't have to worry about registration. I will escort them to the site and will be responsible for all else after they leave the B&B office. The only thing I know I won't have to do is lawn maintenance as the lawn crew for the entire development will take care of the lawns and landscaping. Also, security will be provided by the owners of the development and a fully staffed sheriffs annex will also be on the upper part of the property in addition to the onsite security. Hope this clears up a couple of things...Oh ya, the amenities building with the bathrooms, showers, laundry room and small store will not initially open with the C/G as construction won't be completed till probably Spring-ish, so at least I have time to adjust to this new challenge before those duties are put on me, but the negative to that is most, if not all, RV'ers require those amenities when staying at a C/G from feedback I've gotten from this site. QUOTE(weighit @ Oct 22 2009, 01:21 AM) [snapback]19686[/snapback] I'm sorry, but there will be no way your going to run that park by yourself and expect to give top notch service to your customers, is not going to happen. You will either burn yourself out in very short order, or your going to have ticked off people waiting for their turn either in person or on the phone. Just look how long it takes to register a rig, let them know the rules, where the items are in the park, take their money, answer the many questions we all seem to have when checking in and then escort them out to their site, and wait for them to get parked. If you have 2 or 3 rigs in line, it could be at least a 1/2 hour wait for those people, maybe much more. You need help and you need it from the very first day. Otherwise your going to get some very interesting reports on this site about the lack of personnel and how frazzled the person was that was at the front desk. At least that is how I see it. Good luck on your new adventure.
With this last post of yours I am totally unclear as to what the owners are planning. Also, since campers come in at all hours, will you be working 24 hrs a day? A campground cannot limit the hours that someone can check in. Many people travel long hours to get to a destination campground like you describe and might not arrive until very late at night. What you have described is not a managers job at all. If you don't do registration, you don't do maintenance it really sounds like you will be the greeter only for now. When the bathrooms open you will then be part of the maintenance crew. I hate to say this but it sounds like your bosses know nothing about running a campground and about what campers want and expect. Their ideas sound totally unrealistic.
QUOTE The only thing that I'm worried about is if 10 RV's show up at once because I will want to give each guest my undivided attention, but without having to make the other guests wait to long. Unless you're running a 400 site + campground, I doubt that will be a problem. What will be a problem is trying to register 1 person in the store, while answering the phone, while trying to explain to another camper how the WiFi works, while cleaning up the "accident" in the bathroom, while finding out why there is no electric in site #252, while responding to a noise complaint on another site, while trying to determine whether or not you can unclog the sewer main on your own. By the way, are you planning any kids activities?? I've camped a places like this - and (nothing personal) they are not camps we've returned to.
If you find a way to run this park , by your self, with no complaints and making a profit....give me a call...have I got a job for you!
I agree that it is going to be hard by yourself... however, the fact that you don't have to worry about answering phones, taking reservations, doing check ins, grounds keeping, etc will be helpful. That being said... it will still be a hard job by yourself once business picks up. If you are going to be living on site make sure to post a sign stating the hours you don't want disturbed. Like " 10pm to 6am Emergency Only". If you don't you will get those campers that want firewood or to ask a question at 3am.
Are you going to have maintenance people available to call? For instance, electricians and septic tank service? With 78 sites, things are going to break down. Have you (or the owners) looked into "Workampers" - RV campers who work at a campground for a free campsite and/or a good discount for their campsite and/or other "perks"? Just seems like a big job to manage a 78 site campground alone.
