Zephyr Cove Charging $75 a night!

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Concessionaires pay for the rights to use the property. Those fees can be in the multiple millions of dollars per year for desirable locations. That $75 a night has to cover that rent, the utilities, the maintenance, the employees and make the concessionaire a profit because if there was no profit, no one would take on the responsibility and work.
Just because the land is publicly owned doesn't automatically mean whatever is operated on that land should be free. Airports are publicly owned and the airlines still charge you to fly on their planes. The hotdog vendor in Central Park shouldn't have to forgo profits just because Central Park is owned by the city. Even the land under the Twin Towers was publicly owned (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey) yet I don't think anyone feels the rents in the new One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower) should be free.

I'm old enough to remember the good 'ol days when no for-profit concessionaire operate public parks but by full time employees and park rangers and they were well-kept and with reasonable fees that makes it accessible to the masses (the aim of public parks).

Now we have two-tiered system where popular public parks are being managed by for profit concessionaire that's now pricey and the less popular ones, or at least, some portions of the parks that set cheaper fees but neglected and with shabby facilities.

Do you really believe that the extra higher fees are going back to USFS?

And for perspective, we were in the same park-resort less than a year ago and paid $35 for a pull-through spot. So that's a 114% jump for those who want to do math or simple price-escalation economics.