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
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.
true that is all included in your cost. so when you have a online booking portal, I'll use BC parks for example, the cost of the site for a primitive campground (they run hundreds of campgrounds through out the province) is 22.00Cdn a night and if you show up on a first come first serve that's what you pay. but a lot of campground are going reservation only because they are so busy so the only way you can get a site is to go on line to their portal and book it. this comes with a 8 buck reservation fee which for 2 nights is eventually making that camping spot 26.00 a night. its just a money grab by the government and I am not saying this is why you are doing it in any ways but that is the effect of a fee for booking setup. no one wins in this scenario except the company that does the booking for you. my favorite way to book a site is to call them. I like it when they have a well though out website that shows nice pictures and has details of the site, like length and width and maybe a picture so I can look at sites that would work for me. Then I can call the campground during regular business hours and book one that is available. I have seen campground do it with computer spread sheets and I have seen them do it with campground maps and pins haha..
my point about the company adsorbing the cost meant that it would be covered by the fees they charge, but a company getting a 2 buck charge is way different that a camper paying 2 bucks more for the site. after the company writes that fee off as the cost of doing business depending on the profit the company made that year it will only be a fraction of that 2 bucks that the company actually pays so that added to the camping fee is less than the 2 bucks that would be added by the value added service which isn't really a value to anyone except the campground owner. if you want to out source your booking that's find but that's your business cost that isn't necessary so try to impact the camper the lease. over the last 10 to 15 years campground prices have exploded and it isn't a cheep way to enjoy your self anymore like it used to be.
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.
