Campground Amenities vs lower prices

Well I think end of the day, by WPRV's account he has run a successful growing small business for many years.

Pretty hard for any of us in the cheap seats to argue, with what appears to be a good business plan on his part.

Guy in the warehouse, always thinks he knows better how to run the company than the CEO in my experience

Lower prices, we have never used a pool, playground , clubhouse, game room or any other amenities, at a CG, other than the FHU, but can get along just fine in COE CG's with just water & electric.

No amenities but have to have large campsites, trees, shade and privacy.

For us they can keep the playground, the bounce house, the minigolf, the pool, etc. What we want is a full hookup with properly working electric, water and sewer - and the site must be level. Clean toilets and showers are a plus. We will pay extra for working wifi and decent cable TV. Prices are getting high - depending on the area for even basic sites - and too often the site is way off level. We don't have any leveling system of any kind and can't install one. We rely now on Andersen Leveling ramps after giving up on Lego blocks, but even with the ramps some sites still are too far off. I wish I could push a button or crank a crank, but I can't and campgrounds don't seem to understand this problem - so for a level site I would also pay more. But that is it. They can keep the rest - and when I look at a website I want to see photos of the actual campsites - not the kid's Halloween parade, or the arts and crafts class, or a kid being pulled around in a wagon.

Even if I had the space to have no hookup sites that I could sell for half the price of the full hookup sites, I wouldn't do it. First, it would probably cost me money. For every person I would get who wouldn't have stayed otherwise, I would probably have two who would have paid the full hookup price opt for the cheap site instead. That means revenues go down not up. There really isn't that many people looking to pay for no hookups. There are too many Walmarts, casinos, city parks, state parks, national parks, boondocking areas etc. where they can stay for free with no amenities, so why would they pay?
Then there is the fact I don't want to be associated with a no hookup park. I don't want to deal with generators. With people wanting to dump, wanting to fill with water. I don't want to police the restrooms, the common areas, the playgrounds, the mini golf courses and the like. I like my parks to be the absolute best they can be and a field for dry camping doesn't fit my image of what I want. I am perfectly fine with someone else offering that service. And if it eventually runs me into bankruptcy, I guess I go bankrupt. But I sure haven't seen an evidence that people really want to park in no hookup fields and only pay my rates because that is all that is available. I see quite the opposite, people praising the facilities and returning time and time again. Maybe the issue isn't that there isn't a market for my kind of park, it is my kind of park doesn't appeal to people who post on RV.net. This year I'll have 40,000 or so camper nights of people who feel what I do does work.

Someone early in this thread reminded me of what is most important besides a clean bath house - a level site. I paid $20 for limestone parking lot campground in SD that exists for an annual bike rally but the site was perfectly level. I just needed a stopover between ND and Rushmore. Would have paid more.

Paid $50+ for a campground in CT with lots of amenities but I didn't have enough blocks to level the popup side to side and front to back due to slope. I had to backup until roots stopped me and power cord was suspended in air to reach box. All the amenities were a waste I was so irritated at the pain of setting up.

We like the amenities, the more the better. We only vacation at parks that have great locations, great sites, and plenty of amenities.

Our seasonal location has lots of amenities as well, otherwise we would not be there.

If there was one message I would send to RV Park owners out there it would be this:

More space per site.

I dont need, nor care about; Pot Lucks, Sing Alongs, Pickle Ball, (god forbid) Shuffleboard, Horseshoes, Bands, organized activities, and all of the rest of the stuff that too often masquerades as "Amenities" and for which the price is higher to reflect all of this.

Give me Full Hookups, NO Cable necessary, more room, some shade trees and a relaxed and friendly environment.

I will take cheaper over "amenities" every time given a reasonable level of cleanliness and nice grounds.

John & Angela,

Would be very difficult to plug into elec when there's isn't an elec receptacle. Same for water and sewer and cable and with no access password code, even great WIFI won't connect. It's not difficult at all and is basically self policing and very low maintenace cost let alone that there's no initial investment to construct what didn't even happen.

westernrvparkowner wrote:

travelnutz wrote:
westernrvparkowner,

You are so right in most of your post but why charge the RV'er for your added amenities when there's no chance they would ever want, use, or need them? I'm glad your parks are doing well but that's not the norm for most. No way will we or perhaps the majority of RV'ers subsidize the cost of an RV park having unwanted amenities as you can clearly see by reading this thread alone and for us being in our 51st year of RV'ing now. It's merely an income and cost shifting scheme (income re-disposition) and the smart RV'ers see right thru that and so many potential high profit RV guests/owners will stay far away from these backdoor tatics.

I sure wish you would give me an example of an unwanted and unused amenity. Every amenity at my park gets used by some of the guests, and I doubt any amenity gets used by them all. And how are you going to charge for things like using the restrooms and showers (not needed by every guest), the sewer connections, the power, the cable TV, the pool, the dog parks, the playgrounds and everything else parks add to attract customers? Amenities are like park rules, there are always one or two people don't feel they need or use, it is just different for each guest. Personally, I don't like the a la carte method of pricing. Apparently that is the system your parks choose, which is fine. But I see enough KOA = Keep on Adding posts to steer clear. And my pricing structure is exactly what you say it is, an income re-distribution scheme. I am attempting to redistribute some of your income and make it into my income. And I see nothing immoral , unethical or criminal about it.

I think you should admit WRVPO that you have a built in bias in this argument. Additionally so many people saying they just want cheaper prices reflects, I believe, the vast majority of those that RV for more than just a few weekends a year or for that once a year vacation. This does not bode well for your industry...unless some parks get ahead of this curve and find out what people really want.