Short instructional video by Donna Genie (campgroundaccounting.com) filmed at a KOA in Cortez, Colorado. Donna explains that many potential campground guests don’t yet own RVs and recommends practical tactics to attract them: list cabins on OTAs (VRBO, Airbnb, booking.com), offer pre-pitched tent sites for inexperienced city campers, and partner with local RV dealers to place/rent a travel trailer (e.g., bunkhouse) on an RV site. Emphasizes listing these units on booking platforms so non-RV owners can discover and try campground stays.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Donna from campgroundaccounting.com I am in beautiful Cortez, Colorado today at the KOA and I wanted to talk to you about accommodations. Most people know if they have an RV that they can check out a campground and they'll search for one. But what you're missing is that's only a small fraction of the market. What about the people who have an rv? You've got spaces for them to accommodate their needs for lodging, but they don't know you even exist. So let's take a moment to talk about how you can let people know that you have wonderful accommodations for them in beautiful scenic locations like this that they can take advantage of rather than the same old, same old Holiday Inn overnight campground. In this case, I want you to think about how you attract those people. People don't know that you have accommodations. If you have cabins, teepees, tents, sites. If you have all of these other accommodations, you're going to have to look to ways to let people know you exist. And that's not going to be just on your campground website because they don't know to look there. So if you have cabins, make sure you're using a VRBO or Airbnb or booking.com to list your cabins so that people can actually find you. You don't know. You might even be setting up some people to be RV buyers once they see how wonderful the campground life is. So make sure you're using those booking engines to people know you exist. The second site, if you have tent sites, how much does it really cost to go get a tent that you could set up on a site? You know that there are sites for tents where people can come in, drive in their car. The tent is already set up. We need these for the city folks. They don't know how to set up tents. They don't have that kind of equipment. So buy a couple of tents, add those as part of your rental profile to a tent site to let somebody know that they can just come park their car right in front and be ready to have a camping experience for the weekend or the week. And come see these sites, especially if you're in some tourist destinations or you're near some scenic things like the mountains here. Make sure that you have some options available. One more thing I want to add. Let's say that you don't have accommodations, you don't have cabins or tent sites even available. Maybe you're all RVs. Here's one more thing to try. Contact a local RV dealer, see if they'll let you buy an RV that they might be otherwise wholesaling to put on one of your sites. People don't know how to camp if they don't have an rv. So maybe you get a travel trailer, put it on your site. If you can get one with a bunkhouse, I think that would be great. That'll help entice families to come visit you. Add that bunkhouse camper to your RV site and just rent it out as a whole unit again. List it on VRBO or Airbnb and let them know the accommodations you have. You can also even use this if you have family visiting you. You'll have a place for them to stay too if you don't have cabins, so check it out. Work with a local RV dealer in your area and see if you can get one of those travel trailers to put on one of your sites and rent the whole package. Give them the accommodations as well as the RV site. Take care of all their needs even if they don't own an rv. Maybe again, they might be a new camper coming to you next year and for years to come because they learn to love the camp industry so much. Thanks. Have a great day.
