How Are Escalating CG/Resort Increases Affecting You?

[FULLTIMEWANABE]

Just reading more and more posts and hearing of substantial increase in CG/Resort Prices. Chula Vista San Diego, Gunnison KOA dropping monthly rates so more than doubled based on daily rates and several others gone up substantially. How is this affecting how you travel?

We appreciate, it's all to do with supply and demand, and for sure can appreciate that some of the costs may have gone up exponentially but just curious how end users/RVers have or are planning on changing how they travel, or where they stay. There is no way our incomes have increased the same percentage that the rates to stay have for sure. For example back in the 90's we loved staying at Provincial Parks and various State and Federal CG's, but with privatization and exorbitant increases to the daily rates for basically "somewhere" just to park overnight (we are totally self sufficient with solar etc, so don't need hookups, for the past several years we are avoiding paying these overnight rates for the most part and finding somewhere nearby to boondock/drycamp. Our local PP hubby fishes for walleye and pike at, we go down to the lake/dam at 7am in the morning, I kayak, prep foods in the car park in the RV, and we leave anywhere after dark and find somewhere within a couple of miles to dry camp overnight. Don't get me wrong if it were less than $12/night to stay then fair comment we'd gladly pay and stay, but $39 for too many restrictions and little other than the lake everyone has access to we can't justify $40/night personally. I recall when we paid an exhorbitant $75/night at Newport Dunes to explore LA area as a one off for the experience, but there is no way on earth I'd pay their current $300/night today.

Don't want this to get in to a "justification" thread as to "why" they charge what they do etc, but just curious who else has started to change the way they travel and stay due to the increased charges for a site etc. Like always, we have the choice to stay or not and vote with our dollars 🙂

[NYCgrrl]

Escalating increases in other areas of my budget exasperate me far more.

The last time I camped out of state it was 35.00 @ day plus an additional...10.00-15.00 daily for electricity. In comparison, had I stayed at home, it would have cost about 186.00 @ day in land costs a. However since I rented my apartment out via an AirBNB type of organisation whilst camping, the time away from home, cost me nothing.

[Dutch_12078]

RoadXYZ wrote:
Someone told us to look for rv parks without swimming pools, playgrounds, saunas, etc. and to look in the Good Sam or equivalent RV/Campground yearly publications for those rv parks/campgrounds kinda a bit farther from cities/tourist areas .. we have done precisely that and have been happy with those with fewer amenities to stay in and enjoy. When going to New Orleans we stayed near Kenner at an rv park with a twice daily shuttle into town and back .. the only places we have had to "bite the bullet" is places like Niagara Falls (both sides) in order to spend a few days at each place.

But for the most part have looked for "minimum amenities" places and have enjoyed our travels. And surprisingly enough some parks also have golf courses (with separate fees) and were very affordable ! And we don't do golf, just enjoyed saving a few bucks. Shalom.

In case you wander back the Niagara Falls way again, we stay at Four Mile Creek State Park on the Lake Ontario shore when we're in that area. It's only about 20 minutes from the Niagara Falls State Park, and your Four Mile Creek car pass also gets you into Niagara Falls with no parking fee.

[Jbrowland]

Depends on where one lives maybe. Here in California, everything is expensive and crowded so there is no way around it. It hasn't changed our plans as a family, it just means making plans much earlier and then sticking to them like it or not. It's a small price to pay to be a days driving distance to more National Parks than any other state in the US. Not to mention the amazing coastal camping here in Cali and the other National Parks super close in our amazing neighboring Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon. It's always expensive to live in popular vacation destination areas.

Now if gas were almost $5 a gallon again, that would make things a little harder from a family vacation perspective but we all know that RV'ing isn't about saving money in most cases for us weekend warriors, but rather about getting closer to the things we love. It's kind of hard to complain about campground prices when driving a $50-$100 thousand dollar RV that gets 8 mpg.

All that said, yeah, it still hurts to pay $80 for a CG site even when it is right on the beach.

[RoadXYZ]

Someone told us to look for rv parks without swimming pools, playgrounds, saunas, etc. and to look in the Good Sam or equivalent RV/Campground yearly publications for those rv parks/campgrounds kinda a bit farther from cities/tourist areas .. we have done precisely that and have been happy with those with fewer amenities to stay in and enjoy. When going to New Orleans we stayed near Kenner at an rv park with a twice daily shuttle into town and back .. the only places we have had to "bite the bullet" is places like Niagara Falls (both sides) in order to spend a few days at each place.

But for the most part have looked for "minimum amenities" places and have enjoyed our travels. And surprisingly enough some parks also have golf courses (with separate fees) and were very affordable ! And we don't do golf, just enjoyed saving a few bucks. Shalom.

[Lantley]

Good point Paw Paw. But the weekend warriors are already invested in the game.
If you think resort CG's are expensive compare them to condos or resort hotels and the CG's are still a bargain

[PawPaw_n_Gram]

The price increases impact some of the many different parts of the RV community.

As many have mentioned - the price increase are not impacting them - unless it is for state parks or federal campgrounds. They simply don't go to resorts, and are likely to stay at a Walmart while traveling.

The snow bird group isn't hit by price increases due to several factorts. The biggest is the changing lifestyle preferences of the newly retired RVers. They don't want to spend the whole winter in a single park, and they look for a more active outdoor opportunity than has been traditional. As also mentioned, the Canadian dollar/US dollar exchange rate has been hard on those parks this year.

The group hit the hardest is the working age 'weekend warrior' who takes one big trip to a destination park each year, usually with the kids.

Those folks don't have the time to travel a less traveled route, look for shoulder seasons deals, etc. They are often constrained to only take big trips during the kids school vacations.

I hope they don't give up due to price, because those are the ones we need to keep this industry healthy. My age group is dying out/ giving up.

[2gypsies1]

If you'd be willing to change your type of camping then there are plenty of ways to do it reasonably.

[RPreeb]

Veebyes wrote:
We play the game. Little bit of this. Little bit of that. We try to average $30 or under. DW goes ballistic if she sees anything over $40. We don't go dumpster diving either. Use Passport if we can. Do lots of SPs, CPs & COEs. Wally is fine for an overnight especially if the pantry needs restocking. Seldom make reservations but keep an eye open for busy weekends & high demand locations. Try to arrive at those on a Thursday if no reservations.

Really get annoyed at the add ons like Colorado's fee for the TV or some states 'reservation fee' when we are drive ups. Some states are getting too greedy, especially when it comes to non residents. Some areas you are better off at a private CG, even if sites are a bit tight.

Since tourism is Colorado's #1 industry, I'm not sure why you would expect anything different. Any place that depends heavily on tourism is going to squeeze every possible dollar out of the customers. If people stop paying, then they'll have to rethink that plan. Until then, I don't expect to see it change.

Unlike many government entities, Colorado is required to operate on a balanced budget. Income from tourism based taxes and fees helps to keep them afloat. Anyone who can afford $100,000+ for an RV or TT/TV should be able to afford a paltry TV camping fee. Question: do they charge coach drivers a toad fee? If not, then I see some inequity in the system.

I'm neither agreeing or disagreeing, just stating how it looks to me. Like most, I'm happiest when I feel I'm getting a good deal, and so far I haven't really been disappointed. However, I mostly use NF campgrounds, so my experiences may not parallel yours.

[Matt_Colie]

We will just keep voting with our wheels. We have been known to avoid places we might have liked to go because the treasure chest is full of mud and the money tree got the blossoms killed by an late frost. It is long past a question of what we want to pay, but option of sitting home and watching TV isn't very interesting either.

Matt

[Cloud_Dancer]

Many of us are prone to become depressed by what's going on. But, we keep telling each other to "remain positive". Well, it's getting more and more difficult, for me.

[John_S_]

Thor just announced terrible earnings and reduced sales so the boom might be over.

[travelnutz]

We are here in Florida and have been since mid January and sure can't agree that the RV campsites are getting busier every year. Checked out 7 CG's so far within 50 miles of where we are to see the options for us should our present and for the last 8 years wintering in this CG should close for some reason or be sold for other land use et. Never know! None are full this year and the weather/temps this year has been great here. The best in our 8 years here.

Each and everyone including the ne we are at said it's been a very slow year so far as there's not nearly as many Canadians coming down due to the very poor exchange rate as the Canadian dollar is worth only approx. $.70 USD. Also they must get U.S. health insurance coverage and it's outrageously expensive as most of them coming down are retired and elderly and have more medical needs.

At first I thought they were pulling my leg until 3 of them showed my wife and I their actual receipts for the coverage. Couple that with their dollar only being worth about 70 cents here and that made it very expensive or prohibitive for so many Canadians to come. We have talked to more than a dozen of them so far this year and all say the same things. The Eastern half of Canada has over 70% of Canada's total population with Ontario having about 40% alone.

In past years (up to about 3 years ago), the Canadians here made up around 30% of the site users and this year it's been less than 10%. Last year it was around 20% according to the CG owner here. The huge drops are so obvious!

[ulvik]

rk911 wrote:

ulvik wrote:
We just do a lot more boondocking. I think it is crazy to pay $65 or more a night for a rv space at a CG when in the same area you can get a nice hotel room for the same price or most of the time even less. So we just find legal boondocking, plus most of the time it is in far more beautiful settings. Usually only hit those CG's when I need to dump my tanks and refill my water tank.

I guess you haven't been to a nice motel in a while. $65 does not get much.

They may not have been 5 star establishments but have stayed in plenty of nice hotels in the past couple of years for under $65 a night. And compared to some of the campgrounds I have stayed in recently for way more than $65 a night the same price motels were much nicer.

[rk911]

ulvik wrote:
We just do a lot more boondocking. I think it is crazy to pay $65 or more a night for a rv space at a CG when in the same area you can get a nice hotel room for the same price or most of the time even less. So we just find legal boondocking, plus most of the time it is in far more beautiful settings. Usually only hit those CG's when I need to dump my tanks and refill my water tank.

I guess you haven't been to a nice motel in a while. $65 does not get much.