We are looking to open a small RV park, and are looking at booking management software.
Good Sam naturally recommends their own software, and it is enticing at zero cost to the campsite owner, and minimal cost to campers.
Too good to be true?
Is anyone using the software and can you give us some real life feedback of pros and cons?
Thanks y'all!
Ralan
We use a similar system at ours called Park (https://parkwith.us) that's also free for us, and a small cost for campers if they book on our website. I thought the same but honestly it's worked out perfectly for what we need, and we've never been charged anything to use or set it up
Haven't had any complaints from campers since they can always call me anyways if they don't want to book online
Got me thinking about this; why doesn't Good Sam charge for the booking service? GS and Camping world are the Walmart of the RV industry. What's in it for them aside from the fee they are charging your customers? My first thought is data. If they get your customer's data, they can market them everything in the CW and GS inventory, from toilet paper to RVs to extended warranties. Your customer is your bread and butter and I would be interested in what GS might do with your customer's data. And yours for that matter. We usually cater to state parks and their booking system can be clunky, but I never recall paying a booking fee even at a private campground. It's just another way for GS and CW to get their hands in the pockets of every camper. And potentially turn away or irritate your customers.
well if it is 0.25 fee per booking and there are 500 campgrounds using there service with 40 sites per campground just for 1 weekend that is 5000 bucks of revinew. now over the year that is 520,000.00 and that's just for each site being booked once for 2 nights every weekend. add in all the other 1, 2 and 3 day booking and you could easily double that.
to me it makes more sense as a owner to add 0.25 to the camp site per night fee and profit another 3650.00 a year
I agree with Stircrazy. This is really not much different than most other short term rentals. Cost per day is cost per day. The majority of short-term sites do not have a lot of fees (at least that are visible). There is a daily rate. Sure, long-term sites may factor in water, electric, sewer etc. but that doesn't sound like what we are talking about here. If I google "campground booking software" about a dozen companies come up. But I would say the majority of privately owned campgrounds still use a simple form on a web page. If I were looking to start a small park, I would figure up all my costs - land, infrastructure, utilities, etc, and what would I need to start making a profit in 5 years. Your rates need to be competitive, and your campground needs to be a destination with good reviews. That's the focus. Booking software would be an afterthought. A nice website with a phone number and excel spreadsheet is how a lot of parks start and still operate today. As I said, most have a form on the website that feeds the owner an email, spreadsheet, whatever. Years ago, we had an RV rental business. VERY busy. But all we had was an ad in CG, FB marketplace, a website and a form that shot us an email with a reservation request. Worked for years. For a small campground, booking software seems like a solution in search of a problem and something that could wait. But that's my opinion and worth exactly what you paid for it. :-)
to me that model seams a little backwards. there should be a small cost for the operator and none to the camper as the operator can write it off as a deduction with the business taxes, where as for the camper it just makes your camp site more expensive and to me if I was looking at different campsites that all had the same features , the one not adding extra charges is the one I would book with.
I don't disagree! However if you think about it, the camper pays for every campsite expense one way or another... whether it be power, water or with a computer booking program or paying staff to take bookings over the phone.
If the campsite doesn't produce enough revenue, they go broke and close which isn't good for anyone.
The good sam booking solution seems to be the lowest cost of all of most of the major solutions and still offers a lot of convenience for the camper and campsite.
Sure the customer covers the costs in the end but most people find it annoying when the price that was advertised gets inflated with lots of additional fees.
This forum is for RV owners. In the years I have been on here there have been very few park owners. You might have better luck just calling campgrounds and asking them what software they use.
