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Visit
RVParkStore.com
This issue of the RVParkStore.com Newsletter
includes:
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15 Ideas to Increase Camping
Web Site Usability
Article By Kim Krause Berg
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Dramatically Increase your RV Park or Campground online bookings
with these simple tips.
Article By Perry Burget
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Monthly Vs. Daily in RV Tenant
Occupancy,
Article By Frank Rolfe
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RV Parks and Campgrounds For Sale
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Comments
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Featured Listing
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RV Park and Campground
Memberships For Sale
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RV Park Employment
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Links to some interesting articles we
have found this month.
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Tell us what you think and send
us your articles!
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15 Ideas to Increase Camping
Web Site Usability
By Kim Krause Berg
It’s that time of year when families
who own recreational vehicles (RV’s) and camping
equipment begin to book their camping trips for the
summer. Holiday camping has to be done well in advance.
Before the snow has melted in most parts of the USA,
families are dreaming of lakes and fishing, hiking,
fairs, camping on the beach and nights by the fire,
staring at the stars in the night time sky.
The Internet has made searching for and contacting
campgrounds easy, with some campgrounds even
experimenting with online booking. The Internet
experience for web site users wanting to book a
campground is similar to booking hotel rooms.
Prospective guests are excited and hoping for a pleasant
stay. Any information a web site offers to help them
make choices and imagine themselves snuggled in sleeping
bags increases the likelihood that they’ll call.
Thoughtful Design Pays Off
Online booking applications should work flawlessly.
Poorly functioning site search or booking systems lead
to web site abandonment. Photos should accurately
portray the size of living space and what comes with it.
In the case of a campground, that includes pull-through
spots, fire pit and picnic table. Guests want to know
what the camp store and swimming pool look like and
whether or not they’re well maintained and staffed.
Many camp grounds are family run and privately owned. A
budget for their web site may not exist. Some campground
web sites are little more than print brochures adapted
to the web with little understanding that a web site
requires a new approach because it’s used differently.
Try to invest in someone with experience in web design
and travel oriented web sites.
The network of KOA (Kampgrounds of America) campgrounds
use the same yellow and black color scheme and share
resources such as maps, directories and booking
applications. The similarity between KOA camping sites
is helpful for KOA members who only book with these
campgrounds because they get a discount.
Sadly, some of the worst web sites in the travel
industry come from campgrounds. This includes state
parks that have camping facilities. However, there are
exceptions. Some campground businesses invest heavily in
photos of their grounds and some offer videos of events
they hold or on-site attractions.
Usability can’t be underestimated for campground web
sites because their demographics are quite wide in
scope. For example, there are retirees who travel from
campground to campground. Some of them have cognitive
(memory) issues with varying degrees of severity.
Complicated navigation is aggravating when the
navigation moves around from page to page or suddenly
disappears altogether. Their hands may not be as steady,
making some drop down navigation menus difficult for
them to use. Eye sight problems for them include
requiring reading glasses. If your web page font sizes
can’t be increased in their browser, they will be
frustrated. If they can increase the font size and your
layout changes as a result, they may not be able to use
the site.
Will these retired folks be using the Internet? You bet!
Many of them stay in touch with their families and grand
kids via email and cell phones and use the latest GPS
gadgets, Google maps and the latest gizmos in their big
rigs such as automatic levelers.
Families who book campgrounds will have interests that
may surprise you. Their kids have iPods and video games.
Some family members will want to bring their laptop.
Most will have cell phones. If you’ve ever looked inside
a family motor home of a tech bunch, it’s a mass of
dangling cell phone chargers and cables. Campgrounds
that offer wireless access, TV cable hookup and electric
may want to promote this information on their homepage
as a value proposition right away rather than tucking it
inside an “Amenities” page.
Campgrounds that put their tent people away from noisier
motor home guests may wish to note this on their web
site.
To make your campground web site user friendly,
try adding the following:
1. Make sure your site shows the area site map, with all
the buildings, roads, camp sites, showers, etc. Offer a
choice in how to access it online by letting visitors
download it as a PDF or printing an image or sketch.
2. For campers who can not see, can’t download PDF’s or
have images turned off because they’re on dialup, an
audio description of the grounds would be helpful.
3. Be consistent with your colors, page layout and
navigation.
4. Put your phone number at the top and bottom of every
page and make it large enough to find quickly.
5. Watch your contrasts. Many camping sites have colored
backgrounds with colored text, which make them hard to
read. Text that’s all in boldface is difficult to read
online.
6. Keep your copyright year up to date. Otherwise it may
appear as though you’re no longer in business.
7. Communicate anything and everything that’s customer
service oriented. Sometimes what you offer is the
difference between someone booking your campground or
the one nearby.
8. Make it easy for out of towners to make arrangements
by posting links and/or phone numbers to car rental
offices, vets, pet boarding facilities, beach tourist
information such as beach passes, discount retail shops,
camping supply stores, service stations that can handle
RV’s (must have lifts for them), organic food and health
centers.
9. Put testimonials on your camping site from previous
guests.
10. Describe a typical day at your campground. This
gives site visitors an idea of the environment, which
helps them make educated choices.
11. Place all “call to action” prompts in highly visible
spots like above the page fold and make them stand out.
For example, a button for “Book Here” or “Reserve Now”
and underlined embedded links within text that reads,
“Stop by our calendar of events.” Avoid animation and
blinking text.
12. Promote extra touches like your dog walk area,
handicapped accessible camp store, locally made gifts,
bait and tackle shop and dumping station on the
premises.
13. Offer a way to stay in touch such as an email list
or newsletter for regulars. Include coupons for return
visitors to use, such as one free child admission or
free pile of wood.
14. Place any sales or limited specials on the homepage.
While your rates will likely not change much, there may
be incentives to offer such as lower gas prices in the
area, biodiesel, merchandise specials from the camp
store, and fireworks for sale.
15. Display photos of staff and owners, a welcome
message from the owners and office hours for
reservations. Make sure emergency contact numbers are
easy to find for guests who may run into trouble on
their way there and need to alert you of any delays in
their arrival time.
A user friendly, descriptive, customer experience
oriented, persuasive web site will increase camping
reservations. They’re a tool that many potential guests
rely on, but they may not answer every possible question
someone may have.
Once I booked a trip for my family looking for a
peaceful weekend getaway and I chose a new campground
based on their web site and its ease of use. However, we
later learned that this particular campground has
speakers set up all around the camping area and the
owners made very loud announcements every few hours,
starting at 8am in the morning. One day everyone in the
campground was scolded for not putting their trash out
properly.
There are some things even a web site can’t help us
with.
By Kim Krause Berg
www.UsabilityEffect.com
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Dramatically Increase your RV Park or Campground online bookings
with these simple tips.
By: Perry Burget of RVParkStore.com
There are some simple and easy ways to improve your RV Park of
Campground website, which will in turn improve your booking rate
from your website.
Ease of use is essential.
Your website should have a consistent, easy to read and
understand layout. Avoid animations, flashing text and
hard to read fonts and backgrounds with colored fonts that are
hard to read.
Make your site easy to navigate. Provide links on every
page in the same place with clear meanings. Make sure your
links work and navigate to the proper page.
Provide contact information on every page and ask for a booking
on every page. A simple text link or button on the top and
bottom of every page is best. The easier it is for your
visitors to find the rates and other amenities you have, book
online or contact you to make a reservation, the more they will.
Customer service, Amenities and other added value features.
Give your visitors a reason to book with you! Make sure
your customer service policies and practices are clearly
detailed. Get testimonials from campers to use on the
site. This alone could make the difference between a
visitor booking at your campground or the one down the road.
List all of your amenities. Use pictures to highlight the
campground. Remember that pictures slow down the loading
of your pages so use them sparingly. Provide a map of the
property and make sure it is printer friendly. Make sure
your map shows all your roads, buildings and amenities are
clearly marked on the map.
A list of phone numbers and websites for local attractions and
commonly used services is a must. Provide your visitors with a
one stop informational experience about your area. Give them
links to weather forecasts and local weather information.
Make sure you set your RV Park or Campground apart from the
others in the area. Also, ask for email addresses from
visitors. You can do this with a sign up for our newsletter or
get coupons offer.
Make sure your rates are easy to find and that you ask for a
booking. Provide a link to any specials you run on the home
page. Your office hours, phone numbers and after hours phone
numbers should be easy to find as well. Give visitors
directions to the campground and make sure they are easy to
understand and follow.
Help potential visitors find you.
If you own an RV Park or Campground in Tempe, AZ you want to
make sure as many people as possible searching for that find
your site. Use some of the free keyword tools from Google to
help you find your best keywords. Consider using keywords for
local attractions and neighboring cities and towns as well.
Make sure you are listed in online RV Park and Campground
directory services. The more content you have about your area
and attractions the more likely it is someone will find you.
Try to update your content often, as search engines like new
content.
MONTHLY VS.
DAILY IN RV TENANT OCCUPANCY
by Frank Rolfe
When first buy an RV park, you
assume that everyone will check in for a night or two, and then be on
their way. However, you soon find out that customers’ needs are anything
but that simple. Many RV owners intend to stay in one spot for an
extended period The reasons include:
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Temporary relocation due to working on a project
(building a Walmart, etc.)
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Staying near a hospital during a surgery and
recovery
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Permanent tenancy in a RV (primary residence)
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Temporary relocation due to winter weather
(“snowbirds” that go south in the winter)
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Folks who are traveling in their RV but like to
stay in one spot during the whole vacation.
Although daily rates of $20 or
more look attractive to you in these instances, they don’t look that
great to the customer. Especially is you are in a market where a monthly
lot rent in a mobile home park goes for $150. As a result, it’s
important to have a special rate package just for this unusual but
common subset of customers.
If you have mobile homes in your
park that are permanent and paying you lot rent, then the fair thing to
do is to offer this same rent to the RVs, provided that they will agree
to stay for at least a month and set up and pay their own utilities –
just like a mobile home customer.
If you do not have any mobile
homes in your park, then you are going to have to do some research to
find out a fair rent. Call all of the mobile home and RV parks in your
market to see what they charge “by the month”. You will have to remain,
to stay competitive, in this price range. However, if you have some real
additional benefit, such as lake frontage, you can probably go higher
according to how desirable your park is. Be sure and ask what utilities
are included in the monthly rent – you need to compare apples to apples.
When suggesting that the RV
customer move into a “by the month” lot, be sure to use the price as the
big driver in your sale. If daily is $20, and monthly is $200, then the
RV customer will save $400 per month (minus electricity) by changing
over to a monthly situation. This is compelling to almost everyone!
Of course, it is important to
leave your most desirable “overnight” lots available, if possible. These
lots are what attract new customers. Tell the monthly RV customer that
those lots are reserved for true overnighters. Don’t tie up these choice
lots on a monthly basis – you will actually lose customers as a result.
What are the benefits of
“monthly” RV customers over “daily” to you as park owner?
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Stability of cash flow. $20 a day is O.K., if it
happens every day. If it only happens for one day every month, then
$150 or so looks even better.
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Reduced damage. The number one cause of problems
in an RV park is what happens when RVs move in or out. That’s when
utilities get run over and ruptured, and ruts put in the ground.
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Barrier to moving, after a while. If you’ve done
a good job, you will just be too “easy” to consider moving to
another RV park, even at a lower price. Sometimes on monthly RV, the
city will require the tenant to “hardwire” the power service to the
home, making it more like a permanent structure than an RV. Plus
many RVs skirt their RV over time to improve pipe freezing problems,
etc.
There is no better feeling than
knowing that you have enough RV park revenues in just the “by the month”
customers to pay your bills and note payment. The daily RV side of the
business can be the gravy.
So be sure to convert your
customer to the appropriate monthly opportunity – before someone else
does! |
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RV Park &
Campground Investment Series
We have completed the series on RV Park
and Campground Investing.
Over 20 hours of audio (on CD) with
Frank Rolfe and I, taking you through the process of:
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Finding RV Parks and Campgrounds To
Buy
-
Evaluating RV Parks and Campgrounds
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Negotiating and Buying RV Parks &
Campgrounds
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RV Park & Campground Due Diligence
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Operating, Turnaround and Selling RV
Parks
Is 2008 the year that you will make that
leap and buy an RV Park? If so, then this series will help assure you
that you don't make common and not-so-common mistakes that can ruin your
life savings. We want you to succeed and by investing in this new
series, you will have the tools to do just that... Succeed and Profit with
your RV Park / Campground Investments!
Included with the audio is a hard cover
copy of Dave's book on How to Buy, Sell, and Operate an RV Park.
Find out More about this Product!
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RV Parks and Campgrounds For Sale
We currently have over 475 RV Parks for sale and
the list is growing daily.
If you are looking to sell your RV Park or
Campground you can do so Risk FREE.
Find out more about
Selling your RV Park.
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3-18-08
Thank
You for your help !!!! R V World Campground is now under
contract.
Thanks Again
Dale
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Featured Listings
Lava Hot Springs, ID
RV Park for Sale in
Idaho
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Price: |
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$800,000 |
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Location: |
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9589 E. Maughan Rd.
Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246 |
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Status
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Available |
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Type:: |
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RV Campground, Home and
more |
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Spaces: |
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106+ |
Additional Information:
Gorgeous campground,
Family Reunion Park, Fishing Ponds, Store Front and more!
Playground, Amphitheater, Basketball slab, 50 electrical
hook-ups, 56 tent spots with room for more. Home with 3
bedroom 1 bath included on 21+ acres with a creek and 3
fishing ponds. Sale includes water rights. Please call for
more information. Agent related to seller. Currently the NOI
will not support the price. Owners have never marketed the
business or paid for advertising. Business continues to grow and
be in need in the area by word of mouth. Owners are taking a
proactive approach this year to increase NOI, also considering
using part of the acreage for Storage Units and/or RV and Boat
Storage to increase income to an all-year-round income instead
of seasonal. |
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Contact Information:
Rosilee Lawson
Gate City Real Estate
804 E. Center
Pocatello, ID 83201
Phone: 801-510-0992
Fax: 801-782-9002
Central New
England
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Campground/RV Park For Sale
– Central New England
Price: $1,375,000
A
beautiful, family-oriented campground located within minutes
of many famous and popular tourist attractions. Currently
opened for the summer Season, only, it has great Winter Camping
potential for skiers and snow-mobilers. Extensively remodeled
and updated, this campground has been the dominant campground in
its area for 40 years. It offers a mix of sites from
open/grassy-to-remote, wooded tent sites: and all, quite
popular. There is approx. 30 acres of land with both room and
Permits for expansion. The residence has just been updated
and offers a 3-bedroom residence with views and additional lower
level rooms. The Equipment List is extensive. This high-grossing
facility should be of interest for those seeking an attractive,
manageable campground on an upward Growth and Gross track with
opportunities galore for continued successes!
Additional information will
be provided to financially qualified Buyers with verifiable
Confidentiality/Non-Disclosure Agreements on record with this
office or who register on our web sites and acknowledge the
appropriate Confidentiality and real estate forms there; and who
wish to be new campground/RV Park Owners by Spring. Financial
institutions in this region generally require a Down Payment of
25% (300,000 – 325,000) plus Closing Costs and Working Capital.
Don Dunton, Real Estate Broker (ME-NH-VT, NY) Campground
Specialist and Exclusive Agent representing the Seller in this
transaction.
Note: The information contained herein and any
future information regarding the property will have been
supplied by the Seller and, while believed to be correct, no
Broker warranty as to it’s accuracy is made or implied and all
information regarding this property is subject to error,
omission and Buyer verification during Buyer’s Period of Due
Diligence prior to purchase
Contact Information:
don@duntoncommercial.com
www.BuyaCampground.com
Don Dunton,
Real Estate Broker
Dunton Commercial Properties 603-755-3944
Contact: Don Dunton, Campground Broker,
ME-NH-VT-NY. (Over 120 Sold). |
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RV Park
and Campground Memberships For Sale:
This section of RVParkStore.com is growing quickly. Memberships are being listed and sold quickly. With about
175
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.
Find out more about
Selling your Campground or RV Park Membership
|
| 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.
I have filled my vacant park manager position
and would like my listing on rvparkstore.com removed. Thank you
for the great service.
Steve
All listings in these sections are
FREE!
Check out
the Help Wanted Section
Check out
the Work Wanted Section
Post your FREE Listing Here
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Here are some links to articles we have
found this month. Mohave County, AZ
reviewing Health & Sanitation Code for RV Parks and Campgrounds.
(You will find three links to articles on this topic below)
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3
Baby Boomers continue to buy RV's despite fuel
increases
Read more City land to be leased for an
RV park at Camp Catalpa in Richmond, KY
Find out more |
Tell us what you think!
We'd love to hear what you think of this issue!
We need your articles - send your articles to
dave@rvparkstore.com to be included in
upcoming newsletters (this is a great place to promote your company for
FREE!).
Please send your comments, questions, articles, and ideas for
upcoming issues to us at:
dave@rvparkstore.com
Your feedback matters to us!
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| Until Next Time, Dave Reynolds
RVParkStore.com
18923 Highway 65
Cedaredge, CO 81413
PH: 800-950-1364
FX: 970-856-4883
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