Short explainer by Donna Bordeaux (campgroundaccounting.com) advising campground owners to avoid 100% occupancy and instead target roughly 75–85% occupancy. She argues that dynamic pricing—raising prices when demand is high and lowering them when demand is low—helps balance supply and demand, protect revenue, and leave room for growth/opportunity.
Questions this video answers
Donna Bordeaux (campgroundaccounting.com)
Approximately 75–85% occupancy.
That price is too low and you have no opportunity left to sell (no room for growth).
Chapters
What's the best occupancy percentage that you should aim for at your park? Well, I'm Donna Bordeaux with campgroundaccounting.com I hear this question a lot, and most people's off the cuff answer is going to be, well, of course, a hundred percent here to tell you that's wrong. 100% occupancy means you have nothing left to sell. You have no opportunity available once you reach 100% occupancy. And I'll tell you what it means in the big picture. Your price is too low. Okay, We've all heard of basic economics, supply and demand. Supply and demand means the more supply there is, the lower the price or the less supply there is, the higher the price should go to balance that demand. So in your park, you truly want to aim for about 75 to 85% occupancy at the most. Once your occupancy goes over that, you need to raise prices. This is where dynamic pricing comes into play. And I know a lot of people in the campground industry resist this. There's no need to resist. Hop on board and do it now. Dynamic pricing means the rules of supply and demand are going to apply. Should a dead weekend in April be the same price for me to come stay at your park on Labor Day weekend? No. Supply and demand dictates that it shouldn't be, and I know that. And as a camper, I'm willing to pay more. On a holiday, I have to be willing to. If I'm not, I should go down the road and go somewhere else who's not so bright to charge me a higher price. I can go shop out the cheap, guys. Okay? But your park is built to be an investment, so take good care of that and look at dynamic pricing. Make sure that your occupancy is not too high. Being too high is almost as bad as being too low. If your pricing is too low, you will find high occupancy rates. If you need to look at April, say, on that slow week, yeah, maybe you do decrease prices there, but you offset it by the increase that happens on those higher occupancy weeks. So take a look at your occupancy expectations. Don't ever want to be at 100%. We want to have room for growth and opportunity. If your park is only at 60% occupancy, that also means you have lower costs. You have lower electrical water costs, lower staffing costs, lower cleanup costs. So it's not necessarily a bad thing not to be at 100%. It's actually a good thing and where you should be striving. So look for 75 to 85% and try your best to get there. Thanks. I'm Donna Bordeaux.
