June 2008 Newsletter

1. Article: Buying RV Parks in Spite of High Gas Prices
2. Article: How to Turn an RV Park into a Destination
3. RV Parks and Campgrounds For Sale
4. Comments
5. Featured Listings
6. RV Park and Campground Memberships For Sale
7. RV Park Employment
8. Links to some interesting articles we have found this month.
9. Tell us what you think and send us your articles!

Buying RV Parks in Spite of High Gas Prices

By Steve Klontz of Campground Brokers

I am not alone. The big players in the market who buy campgrounds with over $1,000,000 in income are all buying. In fact, we can not find any really large campground that is for sale…ANYWHERE!

The "big boys" know that there are 8,000,000 RV's on the road and people are making payments, paying insurance, etc. They understand that if an RV gets 10 miles to the gallon and fuel goes up a $1 a gallon, then a 1000 mile trip only costs about $100 more.

Millions of RVs will still be visiting campgrounds this summer. They may travel shorter distances and stay longer at base campgrounds, but they will be used.

What is the real effect of higher fuel prices? Almost everything is affected by petroleum prices, from the manufacture of plastics, tires, food, and fertilizer, to the transportation of all goods. Just this week Dow Chemical announced an across the board 20% price increase. Everything will soon cost more.

Look at what has happen to the dollar! It has dropped in value by almost a third against most of the major currencies. If you go to Europe, Japan or even Canada, your American dollar will only buy what $.66 did just two years ago!

There is a shortage of campground spaces in many markets. Study the rates on the East Coast and in California. The rate in many of these markets is around $70. Those rates will move inland; first, to areas like Denver, CO, Salt Lake City, St. George and Cedar City, UT, Durango CO, Bend and Sisters OR, and hundred of other nice areas that are short of campgrounds. There are just not enough sites to go around!

The fact that campgrounds sell close to 10 times their net income, we believe that inflation will make campground values sky rocket over the next few years.

I purchased the Madras/Culver KOA so that I could take advantage of inflation rather them be a victim of it. Besides…I believe in this business!

What are you going to do? Take advantage of inflation or wake up and find that campgrounds have increased in value to the point you are priced out of the market?

I put my money where my mouth is. If you agree with me…Give me a call!

P.S. If you are mobile and would like to exchange some work for on-site training, while getting a first-hand look at this business, I could use you NOW! Call me today!

Call Campground Brokers at 800-648-1624 to discuss any info on this property

With the price of gasoline and diesel fuel approaching $5 per gallon, many RV park owners are getting very concerned about how many guests will pull into their RV park this year. Although RV users are not as susceptible to fuel prices as the average American, due to higher disposable income and more willingness to spend it on their RV trips, it still makes sense to make the guests that come into your RV park stay for more nights. Remember that one RV that stays for four days is the same cash flow as having four different RVs stay overnight. Indeed, one of the best ways to hedge your revenue risk is to have guests stay more nights before moving on. So how do you do it?

The first step is to realistically assess what your area has to offer the average RV customer. If your park is a scenic area near a national park, then the key benefit is nature and nature-based activities. If you are in a big city, it may be museums or shopping. Whatever the benefits are, you need to sit down and make a list of things that people would want to experience in your area. And be brutally honest with yourself. You do not want to over promise customers all kinds of fun stuff, only to have them find it to be a lie and never come back again. Don’t put anything on your list that you would not proudly invite a friend or family member to do with you.

Once you have perfected this, you need to break these activities into bite-sized units of three to four hours duration. For example, if you are in a nature area and the hike around Sampson Springs takes four hours, then that would be one unit. You will want to offer your guests several units of fun things to do, but let them design their own day. Some people will have physical handicaps that will preclude some of the activities, and others just won’t have any interest in all the activities. However, they will greatly appreciate your “menu” of items to choose from, and may stay an extra day or two to sample your ideas. In fact, I have seen cases where, given a list of activities, the overnight guest stays for a couple weeks! A lot of RV park owners do not bother with this ridiculously simple exercise, so customers really appreciate it when they find someone who cares.

Once you have your “menu”, gather all the brochures and information you can on these things. The key concept is to entice the guest to stay longer by showing them photos and maps of all the fun things to do. Most of these brochures are available at no charge from the activity itself. Some RV parks in New Mexico have guests who stay for weeks just to fulfill all of the fun flyers that the RV parks offer. Be sure to have a wide array of activities for people of all ages. Include family activities for kids, as well as some senior oriented fare. The bigger your “menu”, the longer the average guest will stay.

Some RV parks have taken even greater steps to make the guests stay, by creating their own menu of activities. There are RV parks that offer live entertainment on weekends, and some that have miniature golf and other activities year round. Having some on-site activities will help guests remember their stay with you, and make sure that they come back year after year. It is also possible to work with the activity to sponsor some special benefits to guests, such as having a shuttle that comes directly to the RV Park. An example of this would be river float trips that the RV guest simply has to board to shuttle at the park and take off.

Of course, even if you have all of the amenities in the world, you still must offer a decent housing option to your guests. Your RV park must be clean and slightly, and the staff cheerful and helpful. Remember that many guests are paying more this year to stop by, due to fuel prices, so be sure and go the extra mile. The important point here is the “golden rule” – do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Never allow your RV park to offer a product or service that you, yourself, would not want to buy into. If the pool is a little shaggy, clean it up. See that litter? Pick it up. Guests really appreciate the extra effort, and it’s free most of the time for the owner.

So if you want to keep your revenue climbing despite fewer guests, no problem – just extend their stays. And the best news is that guests who enjoy themselves will tell all of their friends and come back year after year. And that’s a pretty big dividend for not that much work or investment. Make yourself a destination, and your park’s value will grow, despite $5 fuel.

I want you to know after listing our park for sale on your site we had our first call within 24 hours, and our second call within 48 hours! We had 6 calls in 6 days, and actually SOLD the park to the second caller.

While the deal is not yet "closed", we are leaving the listing on your site  until it does "close".

We expect to be at the closing table on or before the 23rd of June. I will let you know the minute the deal is closed so we can pull the listing.

Many Regards,

Gena

RV Park for sale - Fountain Green, UT

Burns Bros. Ranch & RV Resort is nestled in a green valley that is surrounded by majestic mountains on all sides.  This park is still quite new this is the start of the 4th season. 60 full hookup pull-though sites with 30/50 amp our own drinking well  great water.  24 tent spots with fire pits, 4 tepees and 2 restored sheep camp wagon cabins.

Southern Mesa RV Park is a 164 space RV park on 9.4 acres nestled in a quiet countryside setting, just 11 miles from downtown Yuma and only 25 miles from the Mexican shopping village of Algondones.

This section of RVParkStore.com is growing quickly.  Memberships are being listed and sold quickly.  With about 200 memberships currently for sale, this continues to be the prime outlet to buy and sell campground memberships. 

Best of all, when you are selling your membership, we do not charge you up front to do so.  You only pay us if you are successful in finding a buyer from RVParkStore.com. 

Please take my add for MB405 coast to coast as it has been SOLD good job my check is in the mail.

RV Park Employment Listings:

Are you searching for good quality employees or looking for a position with an RV Park?  Then be sure to visit our ever growing employment listing sections.

All listings in these sections are FREE!

Check out the Help Wanted Section

Check out the Work Wanted Section

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