Mike and Tammy hit it in the head. No way would it be worth it, financially or personally, to be open after the traditional season. On any given day , even a park along a major north/south interstate would likely only see two or three guests. Then those guests would likely have an expectation of significantly reduced prices since the majority of the park’s services are closed. Someone mentioned $30. Even at a consistent three guests per night that is only $2700.00 gross for a month. Take out $5.00 a site for electricity and that gross for the month is down to $2250.00. That’s less than a third of what one of our parks would gross in a day during the season.
And someone has to be there all the time. If not, a guest is sure to yank repeatedly on the water spigot trying to make it magically work. They will park in closed areas. They will dump their tanks into the sewer system causing a huge issue. (Without constant flow a single dump will not flow out of the pipes to the septic tanks or the city lines. Those solids will dry out over the winter and create a dam. In the spring the system will clog and roto rooter will make $500.00 or so thanks to that $30.00 reservation.).
Say it’s an owner who lives on site that takes care of the park all winter. They can’t go out to eat, go to a movie, both go shopping or anything else because the park must be staffed should anyone arrive. Fact is many days no one will show meaning a wasted day for nothing. And all this doesn’t take into consideration the potential need to plow snow, dig a guest out using shovels should it snow or sleet overnight. And when it gets really cold things break and some has to fix them.
Finally, like was previously mentioned, most owners of seasonal parks consider the ability to close and go south, just like those other snowbirds, one of the biggest perks. I suspect the plea for parks to remain open in the winter will go unheeded.
