westernrvparkowner wrote:
One thing being overlooked by all the respondents who would gladly travel 8 miles off the interstate for a nice, clean, safe, quiet, pretty, laid back etc. park is how in the heck can the park owner convey that information to a transiting RVer? A small, new park will require years, plural, to build up enough reviews for them to be a factor people use to choose a park. If you go to Campgroundreviews.com you see that medium size parks (75 sites or so) generally have about 100 reviews and that is over the course of the 10 or 15 years that site has been in business. Same for Google.
And what if one of those early reviews for that new park was something along the lines of "not much here, Just a place to park. 6 out 10 rating". It would be truthful, but would sure hurt the business because many people go by the score and nothing in a review like that screams "stay here".
The other ways people find parks are guidebooks, websites, signage and referrals. Guidebooks are expensive to advertise in and people take any ad with a grain of salt. Books are generally replaced on about a 5 year cycle, so after opening your park, placing your ad and having the new book come out it will be years before even half the people who use books have a book with your ad. On top of that, paper books are a seriously declining market. Closely related is people now use their GPS systems to find parks and for a new park to appear in the GPS software requires years and luck. Referrals also take years upon years to spread.
Websites are another possibility, but as with guidebook ads, people are very skeptical of what is being presented. Plus, how many people racing down the highway spend the time to more than glance at a park's website when just overnighting.
Signage is the way many parks get overnighters, but signs at 65 MPH cannot convey information beyond "RV Park ahead, Take this exit".
If this park is built, advertising and patience is how they are going to build the business. It just isn't going to have the ability to be an overnight success that a park in either a high traffic area or a destination area might achieve. In business, time is money, so I hope the builders don't give up their day jobs.
Word of mouth advertising is, has been, and always will be, a very, very good form of advertising and notification. While it may take a while for the OP's newly developed camp ground to take hold, once the word get's out, folks that care about that kind of environment when they're stopping for even one night, will spread the word. It's too bad the $%&*@ Government has to get its hands on everything, even when someone is willing to devote their own property to weary travelers.
Scott
