WALMART RV Parking

Shunpikers wrote:

We have come across a few signs along the way saying "Overnighters Welcome: $10.00 no services. Sani dump $5.00"

How can we get more RV parks to see this logic? They fight the local Walmart but don't do anything pro-active to get that business for themselves - those who only want a safe, legal overnight place to park.

I'm the person behind www.boondockerswelcome.com - a partial solution. Now I'm looking for my next project: getting RV parks to realize the good-will benefits of offering a parking-only option. Not sure how to start an advocacy group. A petition, market survey? Other ideas? Who has suggestions and wants to join in?

Petition, survey or advocate all you want. It will never, ever happen. The economics are way out of whack. The market for that park is less than the number of rigs you see at the Walmart parking lot, because those are the people who stay for free, who do not search out all the $10.00 options available at state parks, national forests, city parks, county parks and the like. Of those Wally Dockers, probably less than half would want to pay $10 for no services, when they get no services for free at Walmart. Start adding things like use of the restrooms and showers, the wifi, the cable TV, maybe a water fill and you no longer are offering no services, and the costs to the park rise. With no services, you will have generators running at an otherwise quiet park. For this business to have access to potential customers, you will have to advertise, you will have to have convenient (that means expensive real estate) access to major highways. You will have to have employees to take the money, you will have to have appropriate parking pads, you will have to collect appropriate taxes. The area will still require maintenance, security and trash removal.
All this for ten lousy bucks. Won't happen ever.