Ageing Snowbird Parks, Changing habits, preferences.

In our 15th season as snowbirds/Winter Texans I see more and more snowbirds selling the RV and moving a park model to their favorite park and site or parking the RV permanantly on site. Some parks are now 50% - 90% permanant sites resulting in fewer sites available for newer or younger RVers.
Good/bad? not so sure. Park owners seem to like the security of permanantly occupied sites. What are your thoughts?

Activities/Attractions/Ammenities.
What do you like or want in a Snowbird Park. What is a waste of time or $$$.

don't need much. a rec hall with a pool table, swimming pool is about all we need in the way of entertainment. clean, quiet, pets ok, clear view of the sky for the DISH sat, spacious site. close to shopping but not in the middle of a city.

I think the new snowbirders are more active so activities should be geared for them, also; such as, hiking, biking, pickleball. Play 70's music rather than 50's all the time.

Wifi that actually works.

2oldman wrote:
Wifi that actually works.

From my experience Park WIFI rarely works, especially when park is busy. Best to have some type of cellular WIFI.

As a younger person (fulltime) , we prefer smaller parks with space between the rvs. A few park models are ok, but don't like the parks that have so many of them it looks like a mobile home park. We also don't go to scheduled activities much, but would use facilities where there was a small shop to work on your motorcycle, okay to wash your rig, do an oil change or work on a remodel project you want to do. A woodshop, a doggie wash station with warm water and air conditioning. A nice laundry facility, a place that has the things for everyday life.

I think the long term trend will be fewer full time RVers staying in one spot. Parks that are located near major cities and attractions will become more in favor. Winter destination areas like Southern Florida, Phoenix and Southern California will continue to be attractive. The losers are going to be South Texas and the Arizona Desert where the activities are concentrated within the parks themselves. Unless the parks in those type of areas offer major recreation like a golf course, a true fitness facility, resort style pools and an actual restaurant, they are probably going to struggle. I don't think a putting green, pot luck dinners, bingo, craft room and a pool table are going to be enough to draw the younger, active, mobile, and more affluent, future snowbirds.

westernrvparkowner wrote:
I think the long term trend will be fewer full time RVers staying in one spot. Parks that are located near major cities and attractions will become more in favor. Winter destination areas like Southern Florida, Phoenix and Southern California will continue to be attractive. The losers are going to be South Texas and the Arizona Desert where the activities are concentrated within the parks themselves. Unless the parks in those type of areas offer major recreation like a golf course, a true fitness facility, resort style pools and an actual restaurant, they are probably going to struggle. I don't think a putting green, pot luck dinners, bingo, craft room and a pool table are going to be enough to draw the younger, active, mobile, and more affluent, future snowbirds.

As a potential first time snowbirder this winter (for just a month) I completely agree. I have friends at home. I have activities at home. My snowbirding is visiting a new place where I can see the attractions in the area. I'm not interested in being socially isolated from the rest of the world, with people older than me. Even if I stayed somewhere 4 months, and did somewhat socialize with people there, I'm not interested in the mainly sedentary activities for people old enough to be my parents. It might be nice to have a space where I could, for instance, set up my own sewing machine, or do some wood-working, but I don't need/want that planned for me.


And if I ever get bored enough to play bingo, just shoot me and put me out of my misery.

We do plan to spend a month in Arizona this winter, but have chosen a park that's in the desert and near hiking trails and national parks, not one in the city so we can sit around. Neither one of us has ever been to Arizona, so we plan to do a lot of day trips and maybe some overnights, using the RV park as home base.

We are now into the major flood of babyboomers retiring. I expect for the next 10yrs or so supply will struggle to keep up with demand. That will mean higher prices at well kept parks and marginally run parks turning a nice profit, so they won't have a lot of incentive to put time/money/effort into improvements.

After that with fewer new retirees coming into the system and babyboomers aging out of the more active life, you will likely see a glut as the newly expanded parks struggle to stay full. It will likely be turbulent at first as some parks react quickly and provide better services for less and other get run into the ground.

I think there is a transition to park models but it's not a new trend. New snowbirders tend to drive their RV down and stay for a shorter period to try it out. Once they get used to being away from home, as they age they are less comfortable driving the RV and find a park they like, they tend to stay longer and consider getting a park model which is more spacious and can stay put.